Descendant of the Night: Beginnings

by Lusaminia

Rating: teen
Tags: Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Other, Princess Luna, Original Character, Mystery, King Sombra, Rarity, Adventure
Length: 68090

A thousand years ago, a war brought eternal dusk to all of Equestria. With no alicorn to raise the sun or moon, Equestria was split into three seperate kingdoms. Now a mare venture into the darkness of the world, wrapped in a strange mystery.

A thousand years ago, Luna tried to create a new country where ponies could live under the strength of the moon. Her sister Celestia tried to stop her, saying that it would destroy the Equestria they lived in, but Luna didn't listen. A few years later a war erupted between Equestria and Luna's Moonlight Kingdom. When the dust settled, neither alicorn stood standing, and Equestria became locked in the dusk that the battle was fought in. Since that day, much about the war had been recorded, but there is more to it then originally believed.

Luminous Oracle, the captain of the Canterlot guard and sister of princess Neon Oracle, is about to find herself wrapped in a cruel mystery. Leaving her home in search of answers to the wars beginnings, she has started a dangerous chain of events. Those she knows, those she will meet, and those who wish for her death will soon find themselves involved in something bigger then any of them realized. The key can only be found in dreams, the past, and the unnatural. Equestria's future depends on solving this mystery, but can those who get involved put together the pieces?

For all those looking for the next part of the story: Click here

For those looking for the rework: Click here

Published 2016-11-03 19:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-01-26 18:08:04 UTC

Chapter 1 (Redone)

It was a dream I had gotten use to seeing, a dream about a world like ours. I remember there was a bright ball of light shining in the sky. It made the world shine brighter than I have ever seen, and gave a feeling of happiness to my dream self. I could make out the detail of buildings more clearly than I ever could, which was strange for a dream. In front of the sun stood a pony, an alicorn more specifically, standing on a marble balcony with purple railings. I remembered her from past dreams, I could only guess that she ruled this world.

It wasn’t always the exact same. A few occasions this world appeared in while the world seemed to be darker. This time a white ball glowed in the sky, a glow that seemed to almost draw me towards it. When this dream occurred the pony I saw was different. She was still an alicorn, but her coat was different and the way she spoke sounded like ponies long ago. While the alicorn of the daytime had a white coat with a multicolored mane that flowed effortlessly behind her, the alicorn of the night had a dark blue coat with black fur in certain areas. I could tell they were sisters, it was undeniable. The castle never changed, only the pony and time of day.

I wish that world was mine, but it isn’t. I know what my world is like; We are forever stuck in eternal dusk. There was no alicorns and the sky stayed grey as no bright circles brightened it. This world isn’t mine, and that’s what saddens me the most. I know that I usually cried when I had this dream, as I wished that this could have been the world I lived in. This was the last dream I remember before the events that occurred a few days later. Those were the events that changed my life forever.

The Farplane, a garden for those unforgotten after death. It’s a beauty that would put any garden to shame in Equestria, or at least this Equestria. While dusk stood eternal in the living world, the moon shined brightly in the garden’s sky. It’s brought light to the garden, which was filled with many different flowers and small streams. Butterflies flew around the garden, landing on flowers to drink the nectar they had. Around the garden stood a large forest, one which had never been entered for as long as the spirits of the garden could remember.

In one part of the garden, on a steep cliff with no flowers or butterflies on it, stood a single pony. She was staring at a shiny round stone, which allowed her to view the living world and see the aura of the ponies who lived there. Inside the stone of her stood a stallion with a dark aura about him, one that had seemed to grow as the days passed on in Equestria. The feeling this stallion gave her was uncomfortable, as she had never seen somepony with that much dark power before. The pony shifted the stones focus from the stallion to a pegasus mare who was sleepy in a pile of books. She realized what had to be done, and at the moment she believed this pegasus was the only pony who could help her.

She looked up as a single teal butterfly landed on her ear, and she looked to it as if it was telling her something. “We don’t have a choice,” The pony said, talking to the butterfly. “She’s the only option we have.”

The castle of the sun, the pride of the Equestrian Empire. It rose above the city of Canterlot, which had been it’s home for many years. In the courtyard of the castle ponies observed the small flower bed that lined the wall. Every morning one of the resident gardeners, which in most cases were unicorns, cast spells to keep the flowers alive without the need for sunlight. The royal guards occasionally strolled by on their daily patrol, mostly chatting as nothing really ever happened. They still took a lot of pride in their work, and it had been a while since a member of the guard last complained about conditions.

Inside the castle servants did everything to preserve the castles beauty. They cleaned the white marble floors and walls of the castle, constantly checked to make sure that nothing was broken, and various other chores around the castle. Just like the royal guard, the servants took great pride in their work. Besides from them there was many other ponies who took care of the castle. One of these were the Archiver's, ponies who spent their day collecting and protecting Equestria’s grand archive. This was what the ponies of the Equestrian Empire prided themselves in the most.

The archive was a gigantic library, one which held literary items of great value to the empire’s history. It held everything from scrolls containing magic spells or letters from important ponies in history, to books which contained info on the history of Equestria. Ponies were allowed to check out books as they pleased, but were expected to bring them back on time. The only exception to this is if the pony in question was one of the princesses of the castle. Still, sometimes archivers had to talk to them if they have books that are long overdue.

This was the case that Moondancer currently found herself in. Moondancer was a proud archiver, handpicked by princess Neon Oracle herself due to her interest in history and love for books. Moondancer had become a trusted friend of the princess and her sister over the years, but had noticed that there had been some friction between the two as of recently. She couldn’t honestly think of why, but whatever it is had driven the princess’ sister to check out books. Mainly books concerning the war that almost destroyed Equestria a thousand years ago.

Nopony knew exactly how the war started, but everypony knew about that it was between two alicorn sisters. Something drove them to conflict, a conflict which ended in the deaths of both sisters. These alicorns had ruled Equestria back then, and there death brought Equestria into shambles, breaking it into three kingdoms. This war was the reason for the sun and moon's absence in this Equestria, and why it was stuck in eternal dusk. Nopony really knew what the sun and moon looked like any more, but they have been depicted as tear drops. The sun was represented by a golden tear drop and the moon with dark black tear drop. Nopony really cared for the sun and moon's absence, as they have gotten through the past thousand years without them. This didn’t stop the curiosity of the princess' sister however.

After a long walk Moondancer, who was wearing her sweater as normal today, came up to a beautiful wooden door colored in blue paint. She knocked on the door first to see if the princess's sister, Luminous Oracle, was awake. She wasn’t surprised when she didn’t receive an answer, as Luminous had been staying up later than usual these past few nights reading the book she had taken from the archive. Moondancer never knew how Luminous really got her name, as it wasn’t normal at all. She figured it would have to do with the pegasus’ great curiosity in the alicorn of the night, that died long ago during the war.

Knowing she wouldn’t be getting an answer she entered Luminous room, and was left wide eyed at the rooms state. Pile of books that had lined the bedrooms white walls had fallen to the floor. Looking at the books on the floor she recognized most of them from the archive, something which slightly annoyed Moondancer. Those books really were the main cause of the mess; The amount of books that had been piled onto Luminous desk and floor all seemed to have collapsed. Moondancer knew that Luminous wasn’t a reader, but seeing that almost all of the books on the floor had come from the archive angered her. It was going to take her hours to shelve these, and she knew that Luminous would be back tonight with another list of books.

As Moondancer moved books out of the way so she could step in the actual room, she glanced to see Luminous sleeping on the floor with a book titled The Farplane. Luminous’ was a pegasus whose pitch black fur almost blended into the dark grey carpet in the room. Luminous’ mean was short and yellow, being just long enough on the top to fall in front of her face. Her tail was equally short, being about the length of cat’s tail. Her cutie mark was that of a spear and white shield with black rim, which the pegasus believe meant she was to protect others. Moondancer walked over to the sleeping pegasus and gave her a quick nudge with her hooves, getting a groan as she did it. Luminous opened her eyelids revealing her blue eyes as they looked into Moondancer.

“Wake up your highness,” Moondancer said unhappily as she took the book next to the pegasus. Luminous slowly but willingly got up onto her hooves, staring at the Moondancer with bags under her eyes. “You know we are open everyday of the week right. You don’t have to borrow so many books at a time.”

Luminous looked around seeing the mess that had been made from her constant study of Equestrian history and lore. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes with her hooves, not realizing Moondancer had been talking to her. When her brain finally registered what was going, she looked around her room to see the mess she had made of the archive books. After examining the state of her room she finally saw Moondancer, Luminous’ heart skipping a few beats as she saw this. The archiver was giving her a soul piercing glare that spelled out everything that was going through her head.

“Morning Moondancer,” She said trying to find a way to dodge the piercing glaring the archiver gave her. “Sorry about the mess, guess I got a little carried away with my studying last night and,” She took a risky glance and Moondancer, who was looking at her unimpressed at the princesses attempt. Seeing she wouldn’t be getting out, Luminous gave a sigh before admitting. “Alright, I stayed up reading and wanted to finish that book you are currently holding in your magic. I’ve been doing some studying on princess Luna and that it might have something interesting. Have you read it? It’s very interesting.”

“How could you let this happen?!” Moondancer yelled, realizing her glare wasn’t really working the way she hoped. “Your ruining the condition of all these books without any regard for them! I would expect better of the princess's sister, you better hope to- wait did you say you were studying princess Luna?”

Moondancer's fury was subsided as she realized that Luminous had said the word “study”. As a part-time researcher on Equestrian history, anything containing the word “study” quickly caught her interest. Luminous hid her amusement at the sudden change in Moondancer's attitude, knowing that it would cause the archiver to continue lecturing. Instead she kept to the topic that Moondancer had asked her about.

“Yep,” She said answering Moondancers question. “I mean, beyond the foal stories and the war. I wanted to dig a little deeper and thought that I might as well look up some stuff on this Farplane, whatever it is. Sounds like a beautiful garden to me, but I had no idea that Luna is the one that created it.”

“The Farplane is not just a garden!” Moondancer corrected, having done major research on the Farplane herself. “It’s the afterlife for all great ponies in history. It only looks like garden because it was what Luna thought symbolized peace. You would be surprised at what things Luna had done; She did more than simply raise the moon. She expelled nightmares from the ponies dreams, created the peace treaty between us and the Thestrals, she’s also-”

“Did she invent coffee?”

“- was the first to create a por-” She stopped as her brained registered Luminous’ question. “Of all the things you are wondering about, you want to know if Luna created coffee?”

“Oh come on Moondancer,” Luminous said teasing Moondancer, who was now looking at her dumbfounded. “It would make since if she created coffee, right? How else did she stay up during the nighttime? Obviously she would have had to stay conscious in order to not fall into her own dreams. How else could she do those things you mentioned at night?”

Moondancer’s brain scrambled for information, but didn’t grab anything to refute Luminous’ question. Instead she did what always happened when she didn’t know what to say, she started mumbling nonsense that Luminous didn’t understand. Moondancer made her way out of Luminous’ room, now occupied with a different matter. The pegasus couldn’t help but giggle at this event. Looking around she tried as quickly as she could to sort the enormous amount of books into a pile of “Finish” and “need to read”. About a half an hour later only one book stood apart from the two big piles on her floor. It was an old folktale about the alicorn sisters, one that her mom use to read to her before she died.

“I’ll return them later,” She said to herself as she placed a note reminding her to return the books she finished. “Or Moondancer will if she is able to shake that thought out of her head.”

Content with the condition of her room, Luminous left it and made her way to the dining hall, which was located at the other end of the castle. She simply stared out the window into the grey sky above as she walked, no sun and moon gracing it. The lack of these two objects is what drove her to study the lore of Equestria, and why the war happened in the first place. She knew the aftermath: Luna and Celestia killed each other in the final battle of the war, and Equestria split into three. One kingdom strives to follow the example Celestia had set through her wish for peace and harmony, the Solar empire as they called themselves. A second kingdom followed what Luna had set forth to create, a so called “Lunar Republic” for those who wished to grow strong through the moon’s guidance. The last kingdom was the one Luminous lived in, who followed the way’s Equestria had been before and didn’t take part in the constant feud between the other nations.

“Good morning captain,” A guard greeted her, saluting as she made her way down the hall. “All’s normal so far.”

Luminous looked at the guard in question as he started patrolling again. Normally the throne went to the first born, which was in this case Luminous, but she had given the throne up to her sister Neon. Luminous couldn’t picture herself as the princess of a kingdom, she felt like the role didn’t belong to her, and her cutie mark being earned during her military training only proved that. Instead she took it upon her to join Equestria’s royal guard, as she felt it was where she belonged. Ponies still referred to her as “princess” due to her royal heritage, but the other members of the guard looked up to her as their captain instead. Captain was the title she preferred more, but there was nothing she could do about being called a princess.

She walked into the dining hall to see that yet again today Neon would not join for breakfast. In any other occasion she would have simply seen it as her sister being busy, but she knew exactly why her sister wasn't here. It was her new adviser that kept her from coming, a unicorn by the name of Swift Spell. Due to the age of there old adviser they knew it was only a matter of time before he retired, and when Swift Spell came from the Solar Empire and showed his skill as a politician, he was quickly hired by Neon. To most ponies he acted nicely, including helping some of the servants with their chores. He was also the one who had suggested to Luminous to study on Equestrian history. Overall most ponies didn’t think of him as less than a generous spirit willing to help anyone.

However, Luminous knew that the unicorn wasn't as nice as he really seemed, and that’s what was making her uncomfortable at the moment. He recommended things that Luminous did seen as overly necessary at the moment such as building military and increase production of weapons. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they weren’t in peace with the other two kingdoms, but they were. It soon became obvious something was wrong when she had stumbled upon Swift at multiple times during the night casting a sort of hypnosis spell during the night time. For some reason it never affected Luminous, but every other pony in the castle always seemed to easily fall under it. It was the reason no one believed her when she had brought it up the following morning, and the reason everypony saw him as kind. The most worrying part to Luminous, however, is that it was the reason Neon always agreed with his decision, no matter how outrageous they were. Luminous had been watching him ever since she learned, and he had been playing with her emotions as he gradually took more and more authority of the kingdom.

“Good morning miss Oracle,” Luminous heard a voice say from behind her, realizing the voice was not that of the chef. “Here’s your breakfast, the chef told me what you liked.”

She looked behind herself to see none other than Swift Spell carrying a plate of food. His white fur looked almost like he had bleached it, making him look like the professional he made himself to be. His mane and tail were almost as long as Luminous’ but was an inch or so shorter. The mane and tail were mostly blue with multiple streaks of the same bleach white color of his fur. His cutie mark was exactly what his name might have suggested, an ancient looking scroll with a weird glyph on it. He looked at Luminous with a smug smile, use to the rage that he saw in her face. Content with his entrance, he set down the plate in front of Luminous.

“Bug off Swift,” Luminous commanded, angry just seeing his face. “Don’t you usually have something better to do in the morning than mess with me?”

“Well you are certainly never a bundle of sunshine around me,” Swift took a seat next to her as he spoke, ignore her orders and making Luminous even less happy. “Of course I guess I shouldn't be surprised, you are the only one who knows. That does give me all the right to bug you, especially since your sister doesn’t have anything to do for a few hours,” He levitated some of the food from Luminous’ plate onto a separate one, and took a bit of one of the eggs he had cooked. “I was actually going to ask you on how you're studying is going. I hope you’ve learn about the cause of the war by this point.”

“Not yet,” Luminous responded, her voice static as she continued. “I found a book on the Farplane, but I don’t get what this has to do with anything. What is it that makes you keep asking me that? I don't know, but if fifty or so books don’t have the answer then I don’t think any book will.”

“On the contrary,” Swift replied, disappointed in the information he had gathered. “I think it would be nice for you to learn something about the past. Who knows, maybe you’ll learn something that will affect your future,” He leaned over to Luminous, who shifted away as he did. “If you really want to help change what might be coming then I suggest you find the cause, you want to protect ponies right?”

“So why is the cause the most important thing to you?” Luminous asked, not answering his question. “We know what the outcome was, we know what it did to Equestria. Of all the things I should be learning I think the cause of the war would be the least important thing for our future,”

“Oh really?” Swift Spell responded. “Surely you know that the past will always repeat itself, no matter how much we try to deny it. If the fair princess of Equestria doesn’t know what caused a war in the past, then how could you stop it from happening in the future,” Swift Spell leaned back as he took another bite of his food. Luminous was trying her best not to listen, an action they both knew was impossible. “Trust me your highness, while my methods may not be agreeable among most, the fate of all ponykind falls upon finding the cause of the war.”

“Of all the ponies who have the right to call me ‘your highness’ you have no right to,” Luminous replied, trying to hide the fact that she ultimately agreed with what he had just said. “You’ve hypnotized my sister into become your puppet, and is using her to build up an army. Even if there is a war coming to Equestria, your actions do not show me that you can be trusted. If my sister wasn’t wearing the crown, and if I wasn’t proud of my position as captain of the royal guard, I would have had you killed by now.”

Swift Spell chuckled to himself as he remembered the position he had put Luminous in. “I’m glad you’ve remember to keep your mouth shut,” He said, almost as if he was congratulating her. “I know I may seem evil to you but I commend your skills as a captain and fighter and would hate to skill wasted because of somepony such as me. If I didn’t need your skill I would have been rid of you the moment I found out you were somehow immune to my spell, but as war truly does loom in the horizon I couldn’t kill such a necessary piece on the field.”

Luminous got up, tired of hearing Swift Spell talk. She hid the sorrow she felt, knowing that if she so much as threatened him she was a dead mare. She was just as much a puppet to him as her sister, and that was what made her hate Swift so much. There was nothing she could do that would stop him, and both enraged and upset her. Luminous pushed in the chair and made her way to the dining room doors, but was stop by Swift Spell before she could open them.

“Before you leave your highness,” He said her titled almost as if trying taunting her. “I’ve been thinking of proposing to your sister opening trade with the Lunar Republic or Solar Empire. I was wondering how much you liked the idea, especially since I’m giving you the option of which one.”

Hearing him say the word 'option' stopped her dead in her tracks. She lowered her hoof from the door handle and thought about it. If she could make a decision now she might be able to stop whatever he was planning. Part of her thought he was playing games, making her believe she really had some control of the situation, but that wasn’t going to stop her from taking the opportunity. As she thought of which one to choose, one option seemed to overwhelm her as if she was being controlled. However, she knew Swift Spell and no control over her, which only made her confused as she answered.

“I would prefer trade with the Lunar Republic,” She said without even knowing what she was saying. “I know most ponies see Luna as a traitor, but something about it just seems right.”

“Nice to see that we for once agree on a subject,” He replied. “I hope this can for a much friendlier relationship between the two of-”

She walked out and shut the door behind her before Swift Spell had a chance to finish. She sighed with relief as his voice was no longer hearable. Unable to believe the answer she had given, she slapped herself with her hoof. A servant walking by and turned in the other direction as she saw this, not wishing to be around an angry Luminous. The pegasus didn't have a temper, when something managed to tick her off just enough she tended to hurt anything around her, including herself. After a couple more slaps and punching the doors to the point where they were slightly dented, she stopped. As her breathing slowly returned to normal, Luminous started making her way down the hall, her answer to Swift Spell ringing like a bell in her head.

“Why did I say that?” She asked herself, dumbfounded. “No pony outside of the castle is going to agree with it. It would have made more since going with the Solar Empire,” She stopped for a second in the hallway, staring out the window at the bland sky above. She suddenly ran to the left of the hallway and hit the wall one last time. “What came over me to make such a stupid decision?”

The rest of the day went as normal, or at least as normal as possible. Luminous had new members of the royal guard to train, something that she hadn't done in two years. She also had patrol duty for the coming week, an action that was more tedious than she ever liked. Like usual, she always had at least one member of the guard who always spared with her to prove that they had honed their skills. Luminous always had fun sparing, as it allowed her to both praise and critique her guards on their fighting ability. Today proved as a fun challenge, as the guard had made a huge improvement since the last time she spared them. While he had lost like most did against her, Luminous told him how well he had done and gave him some pointers on where to improve. She watched as he made his way to three other guard that have been watching, all congratulating him on his performance. Luminous couldn't help but smile as he saw them give him hugs and cheers.

She hadn’t forgotten about the events during breakfast earlier that day, and decided to have lunch with the rest of the guards to possibly avoid Swift Spell. She didn’t care for the food in the barracks all the much, as it wasn't the quality her aids would have preferred (some calling it “commoner food)”, but if she had to eat there to avoid Swift Spell she would. As she sat she was joined by two other ponies, one was her second in command, a pegasus named Thunder Shield. Thunder Shield was suited up in her armor, and carried her shield on her wing. Thunders armor matched the same color as her coat, being a rusty yellow color (of course the armor wasn't rusty at all). Her shield, which was about the size of her entire body save her tail and head, was made of platinum and was colored completely blue save for a small ring on the outside which was yellow. Her mane and tail were rather long, which could be seen even with her helmet on, as both came down to the joints on her legs.

The second pony, however, was a recruit she didn’t remember seeing during orientation today. His blue fur was so light it looked almost white to the point where Luminous had to do a double take on the color of his fur. His mane was dark blue and seemed to spike out in a wavy manner. His tail was the same dark blue color but was much longer than most stallions Luminous had seen, being just slightly shorter than the base of his back hooves. The recruit felt his muscles tense as he ate with the two higher-ups, especially as Luminous glanced at him for a few seconds before going back to her food. After a few minutes, the recruit looked back up to see her simply poking at a salad, the plate still completely full.

“Is everything okay ma’am?” He asked, catching the attention of Luminous. He felt his legs lock in place as he stared into the captain's eyes. “Y-you haven’t e-eaten anything s-s-since you sat down.”

“Yes, I’m fine,” She told him, she searched for the name of the recruit standing in front of her. “What’s your name recruit, I don’t remember seeing you during initiation today.”

“S-s-soarin ma’am,” He said uncomfortable “I-i’m not actually a recruit. I-i-i’m from the a-academy. S-simply coming t-t-to see what it’s like here.”

“It’s his first year in the academy,” Thunder Shield explained. “His family paid a fortune to send him, and he’s not exactly use to the environment yet. He’s smart for sure, and a great flier, but isn’t the bravest or most skilled in combat. Not exactly the best at talking as you’ve already seen.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you Soarin,” Luminous greeted the guard. “Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I just made a decision that I’m not to sure about and the worst part is that Swift Spell agreed with me. Nothing you need to really concern yourself with.”

“You still think he’s manipulating the princess?” Thunder Shield asked, even though the answer was clear. Just like anyone else in the castle, Thunder Shield was affected by the hypnosis spell “I don’t think you really have to worry that much, and if he agrees then the decision can’t really be that bad. I know you have heritage to some of the ponies in the Lunar Republic, and that his thoughts kinda differ to what they believe in, but that doesn’t make him a bad pony.”

“It’s not exactly him this time,” Luminous replied “I… I told him that I think it would be best to try and open trade with the Lunar Republic,” Soarin and Thunder Shield both simultaneously let out a gasp. “I don’t know why I said it. The words were spoken before I could even think of what my reply was going to be. I might have just said yes to help a nation that has been in war with the Solar Empire for a thousand years.”

“This isn’t good,” Thunder Shield said, stating the obvious. “I still trust Swift Spell but… opening trade with the Lunar Republic is very risky. Imagine what the general public would say,” She looked to Luminous who was staring at the floor beside her, disappointment in her eyes. “Don’t blame this one on yourself Captain, most ponies from the Republic such as yourself have a strong tie to home. If you want to trade with your old home I won’t be the to stand in your way.”

“Thanks Thunder,” Luminous gave a small smile to her second in command. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind recently, with all the studying I’ve been doing and what-not,” Thunder gave a generous smile. Luminous wasn’t exactly sure what was going on in her mind, but she felt sleepy suddenly. Her vision blurred for a slight second and she almost fell asleep before shaking herself back to reality.

“Is something wrong?” Thunder Shield asked, seeing Luminous was a little uneasy. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah I’m fine,” Luminous answered, a yawn escaping her. “I just didn’t get much sleep last night, and what energy I have has been drained out by training. I’m going to get some shut eye, I’ll probably be up later today.”

“I’ll take care of things for you here then,” Thunder Shield replied. “Sleep well Captain.”

Luminous gave a nod as she made her way out of the barracks, everypony watching her as she did. She felt light headed and uncomfortable with all the eyes staring at her, as if the world had lost the ability to produce sound. As she exited, everypony in the barracks went back to what they were doing. Everyone except for Soarin, who knew that whatever had happened to Luminous was not just some sudden tiredness. She was so full of energy when he saw her sparing, she couldn’t possibly be that tired.

Luminous didn’t remember what exactly happened after leaving the barracks, she assumed that she had gone to her room. That had been her plan anyways, she felt like she need to rest for some reason. So it at first didn’t seem strange when she found herself waking up from a dream she doesn’t even remember having. Her mind wasn’t fully awake yet, and she stared at the grass that was in front of her face without any idea what it was. After a yawn and rubbing her eyes she jumped as she saw blades of grass in front of her. Her eyes widened in shock as she realized that she wasn’t anywhere near where she thought. This wasn’t her room at all!

Looking around she saw herself standing on a small patch of grass in the middle of a field of flowers. The flower types varied greatly, and she wasn’t able to pick out any single flower she recognized. Looking about fifteen feet away she saw a road in front of her leading to what seemed like a fence. She wanted to believe she was dreaming at first, but the wind against her body, as well as the vivid amount of detail, told her that this was not a dream.

“Where…” She was at a loss for words, she didn’t recognize anything about this place. “Where in Luna’s name am I?”

She had no idea why she had just said the alicorn’s name, but her question wasn’t answered. Instead a blue butterfly flew up in front of her and landed on her muzzle. She blinked, and had to cross her eyes in order to see the tiny insect clearly. She wrinkled her nose a bit to try and get it to move, as it was tickling her, but the butterfly stayed where it was. She shock her head back and forth and it gentle floated upwards as she did. When Luminous was done, the butterfly land on her nose again, the pegasus slightly annoyed by the insects action.

“Okay,” She said unsure. “What do you want?”

The butterfly suddenly started to flap its small wings up and down, and it took off into the air. It moved away from Luminous a bit, and she thought that it was done playing with her. However, the butterfly only moved a small ways away from her, turning back and flapping it’s wings in order to stay airborne. It simply floated there in front of her, and something in Luminous’ head told her that this butterfly was waiting for her to follow it. Without thought she made her way to the butterfly, who started flying away from her as she did. Luminous felt silly for thinking that it was actually waiting for her, but followed it out of the flower patch and onto the road.

As she approached the arch gate at the end of it, the butterfly rested on the fence next to it. The butterfly had lead her here for some reason, and Luminous was curious to know exactly what it was. She stepped through the arch gate which lead to a garden with a large fountain in the middle. Butterflies fluttered everywhere, landing on flowers of all different color. Luminous walked around it curiously having never seen anything like this, or even noticing that a yellow ball was held in the sky at the moment.

“What is this place?” She asked herself in amazement.

“This is the Farplane,” A voice spoke up from her left and she turned to see the owner of the voice. What she saw completely shocked her. In front of her stood an alicorn with a dark blue fur coat, but there was many parts of their body also was covered in black fur. Her mane flowed almost as if it was in the wind, which it wasn’t. Luminous looked to see if her suspicions were correct, and spotted a moon shaped cutie mark on the alicorn’s flank. “This is where those who have done great deeds for Equestria reside when they pass away,” the alicorn continued. “It is a representation of the peace in death. Do not fear, you are dead but sleeping in your room in the waking world. It is I who called you here.”

The alicorn walked up to Luminous, towering over her like she had read in the books she had been studying. “My name is Luna,” She said after a brief pause. “And it is great to finally meet you, my descendant,” She bowed as she stood before Luminous, who was lost for words and completely confused. “I have much to discuss with you.”

Author's Note

So I think a lot of you can tell that there was a lot added to this chapter. I won't say exactly what happened, but lets just say that I had a bit of a heated discussion with someone that ended in me realizing this chapter needs work. Hope this fix's some of the problems you had before. So please Like, Comment, and follow. Anything you can do to help this story would be greatly appreciated.

Chapter 2

I remember that when we were only about five or six years old, me and Neon use to rush down every morning to the castles music room in excitement. We would play all the different instruments, and attempted to play the ones that were made specifically for gryphons (Mom always had a fondness for them). I don’t remember us playing very well, but I don’t think we really cared all that much back then. It was always just fun to come down here, especially when mom wasn’t busy doing stupid political things.

Despite every instrument in the room I always found myself unnaturally drawn to the Harpsichord. It was beautiful, even if most ponies would think the sounds as strange for something that looked like a piano. Not that I cared, mommy always loved watching me play it. I remember one day she played me a song on it for me, and I was instantly in a trance by the beautiful sound. I don’t know what drove me after that to ask my question after that, but it’s something I never forgot.

“Mommy, why did you name me Luminous? What does it mean?”

Her response always resonated with me “The word luminous means a light glowing in the darkness, which to my symbolizes hope. That’s just what you are my little Luminous, my light in the darkness, my symbols of hope.”

Oh mom, I miss you so much. I know Neon does even more then me. The worst part is, I never saw you while I was there. I never got to say sorry, after what I did.

The Farplane, Luminous knew that this couldn’t be real, she couldn’t be here. She was alive, and this was suppose to be a realm for the dead (at least for those who haven’t been forgotten). This was all nonsense! The only reason she was dreaming about this is because she read about the Farplane the night before. It did make since, and she knew for sure that it would explain why Luna was there. Luna couldn’t really be in front of her, she had been dead for a millennia.

That, however, was where she realized something that sent a shiver up her spine. Even if the place was a dream, Luna could be in front of her. Maybe it possible for Luna to cross into the dreams of ponies even after death. No, Luna has been dead for more than a thousand years. no way she should be able to affect a living pony such as herself. If this was really Luna, and she was able to cross into dreams still, then surely she would have the power to raise the moon too.

“This is a dream isn’t it?” She ask out loud to herself, “No way any I’m in the actual Farplane. Yes, none of this is-” She was stopped as the butterfly from earlier had again floated onto her nose. She held in the fear that she was feeling as she felt it the butterfly land on her. “This… is real!”

Luna simply watched Luminous who was standing in front of her stunned, knowing that no matter what happened this would have been inevitable. She watched in silence as the confused pegasus looked around taking in the situation she was in. Her thoughts were scrambling for a reason, thinking about what she had read the nights prior before a shiver went up her spine. She looked up to Luna who had seem to read her mind.

“As I mentioned you are not dead,” The lunar princess said calmly. “You are simply asleep in your bed, a sleep that I might have caused. I understand you have a lot of questions, and I as well have a lot to explain to you. Allow me to start however by welcoming you to the Farplane, my residence for the past thousand years, and the afterlife to those who ponies loved dearly. Before we start discussing matters, it might be a good idea to go someplace where spirits won’t hear us.”

“Spirits?” Luminous asked looking around, seeing only the beautiful garden and butterflies flying around it. “I don’t see anything that looks like a spirit.”

“You will learn soon enough,” Luna replied. She turned around, her head turning back to Luminous “Please walk with me.”

Luminous, hoping that Luna would be willing to answer everything, followed the princess into the inner part of the garden. She looked around and stood in awe as she saw what was hanging in the sky, two bright circles hung in the sky in front of her. Her eyes immediately shifted to the one on the left side, it was surrounded by a dark blue sky full of glowing lights. The circle itself was only half visible to her, but she could barely see an outline in the shape of a circle, telling her that there was more to this thing. The side that she could see glowed due to the other circles reflection. Luminous thought about what she had a read the nights before, the words moon and sun forming in her head as she did. That must have been what these were; They had died just like Luna and Celestia all those years ago.

After about fifteen minutes Luna brought Luminous to a small wooden outlook which jutted out over a cliff. A table with a clean glass top and two old-fashion, white lawn chairs were placed on either side of it. Luna gave Luminous a moment to look around, as the pegasus peered over the edge to see what must have been an endless abyss below them. Looking straight out she saw an ever expanding forest in the distance with bright green trees and a single waterfall going over the cliff face. She looked back behind her to see a harpsichord, an old fashioned instrument that made a twang sound that reminded her of one of those griffons guitars she use to hear from the castle balcony. Seeing it reminded her of the times she and her sister use to play a Harpsichord in the castles music room. This one seemed older than the one she had, as it was covered in dust and the wood seemed to start rotting, but was still intact from the looks of it.

“I’ve been watching your family for many years,” Luna said in a relax manner. “I wanted to make you feel comfortable when the time came for you to come here. Your sister, she’s a great ruler, or at least once was.”

“You’ve been watching us?” Luminous asked turning back to Luna. The princess sate in one of the lawn chairs, motioning for Luminous to do the same. Luminous took the princesses offer, taking a seat as she continued “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, you probably are able to watch our world in some way here, but I think it’s time you explained to me something. Why did you call me your descendant when we met?”

“Your family is royalty for a reason,” Luna replied hiding the nervousness she was feeling, “I wasn’t born an alicorn, and the same is with Celestia. Once we were normal ponies just like you and the other citizens of the three kingdoms. One of your ancestors is a cousin of mine, thus you and your sister have a connection to our family. I have been watching your ancestors family since I passed, and knew that when the time came one of them would have to take my power.”

“I don’t understand?” Luminous asked confused, not believing Luna one bit. “Why wait so long to pass on your power? And why specifically me?”

“I know it seems inconvenient,” Luna replied. “If I could give some other pony the ability to the ability to wield the moon I would, but it’s not that simple,” She put a hoof on her chest and looked down at it with a frown, “My soul is connected to the moon, even after death, therefore there is no way to hand that power off to anyone. Even if my soul is destroyed, the moon will disappear with me entirely,” She lowered her hoof from her chest and looked back to Luminous who seemed to understand. “I also don’t have the same power I had when I was alive, and knew that giving it to simply anypony wouldn’t be right. If I give it to a stranger how could I be sure they would use it for good? When I saw your devotion to the moon I knew you were the one, but wanted to wait to see what kind of pony you are, and for the right moment to give it to you,”

“And that time is now?” Luminous tilted her head at the princess.

“In truth I would have wanted to wait a little longer, but the situation has grown too desperate to wait,” Luna explain, looking at the ground in disappointment. “Something threatens Equestria, not just your kingdom but the others as well. I would hate to disappoint you but I have no idea as to the cause of the war so long ago,” This made Luminous even more confused as she tilted her head more. “Celestia attacked me without reason - without warning - and I had to sacrifice my life in order to stop her. I believe she is somewhere in this garden, but I have no clue as to where,” A tear rolled down her face as she looked back to Luminous. “That’s why I wish to ask you a desperate question. I believe the cause of the war lies in someplace other then the archive, and I know just like you do that this Swift Spell pony is up to something. He’s correct however, we need to learn the past to make sure whatever he is planning is stopped,” Luna took a breath as she finished her explanation. “So, will you take my power and use it to uncover why the past is so important?”

Luminous stopped herself almost answering yes before she stopped herself. She wanted to help Luna, but she knew that in doing so she would have to leave her sister, as well as leave her post as the captain of the royal guard. She would be leaving everything in the kingdom in the hooves of a villain. She didn’t feel safe leaving Equestria in the hooves of a pony like Swift Spell. Not only that, but it was a betrayal to her own sister and country. They wouldn’t forgive such an action like that even if she told them why she had done such a thing. However, she also wanted to stop Swift Spell, and staying at the castle wouldn’t do that. She wanted to know what the cause of the war was, and what it had to do with Swift Spell’s plan.

“Could you... give me a minute?” Luminous finally asked in a hesitant manner, getting up. “I need to think about this before I give my answer.”

Luna nodded and watched as Luminous made her was into the garden. The princess felt terrible about forcing the decision onto Luminous, but she knew that one way or another she had to convince the pegasus to help her. She got up and walked over to the edge of the outlook, looking up at the moon and sun above her. This was more to her then just stopping something a pony had planned. It was about learning the truth, the truth she so desperately wanted to know.

Luminous had found a small patch of flowers to sit down in as she thought about what was going on. The princess wouldn’t lie to her, but she wasn’t sure she wanted everything to be true. Yes, she might be helping Luna, but the idea of leaving her kingdom didn’t sit well with her. If she betrayed her sister she would betray the country she had grown up in, the one she had vowed to protect. It was against what she believe her cutie mark to mean, that alone should have been enough to make up her mind. She shouldn’t be able to think against protecting her home

Yet there she was, sitting in a field of flowers wondering if she should help Luna out. The thought scared her, and for a few seconds had believed she got her cutie marks meaning wrong. She had grown up with the idea that she was suppose to protect ponies, to help others when she is needed and to never turn back on someone. The very idea that she had gotten the meaning of her cutie mark wrong was making her shiver even in the unnatural warmth of the sun. She tried to think about why she could be thinking this way, and the possible that came to her mind shocked her.

Perhaps she wasn’t really helping her country by staying with her sister; maybe she was only saving herself. She had never thought about the idea herself, but it could be true. She couldn’t believe she had gotten the meaning of her cutie mark wrong, the thought was to extreme to be true. It hadn’t come to her mind, however, that saving herself was not saving others. If she did nothing, it was possible that things would take a turn for the worse. If she helped Luna, though, then maybe she could help many other ponies who need her aid. She knew it felt like a betrayal to her sister, but she had to remember that it was Swift Spell controlling Neon’s actions, and that his actions could be seen as threatening to the other kingdoms.

She looked up from the flowers around her just in time to see a butterfly land on her. It felt silly thinking the way she was, but Luminous felt like this was the same exact butterfly as before. In fact, she believed the butterfly had been following her around the entire time in the Farplane. She felt a strange connection to the butterfly, one that she couldn’t fully explain, but simply stayed still as it nestled into her mane. She suppressed a giggle at the insect’s strange action, she had never seen a butterfly before, and started wondering if this kind of behavior was normal.

“Funny little thing you are,” She said, expecting the butterfly to fly away at the sound of her voice. Luminous was surprised as it simply rested on her head. “You want me to help Luna to don’t you?” She felt a little funny thinking that the butterfly actually cared, but something made her believe that this was true. “There’s so much I’m unsure about. Where would I go? What would Swift Spell do after I leave? There’s so many things that concern me I don’t know if it’s better to go or stay.”

Luminous looked up at the sky, wondering if the sun and moon had always shared the sky together. Looking at it, she soon came to realized why Luna was asking her this, other then the reason she already knew of course. This was Luna’s own sister who brought the war upon them; The sister who had loved her so much even after she left Equestria. If there was anyone who knew the answers to the questions she had, it would be Luna. With this in mind she stood back up, the butterfly flapping its small wings to keep itself from falling out of Luminous’ mane, and made her way back to the outlook. Her decision was made, even though it was hard to believe.

Luna turned around to see Luminous had returned, a smile forming as she saw the butterfly on the pony's head. “Have you made up your mind my descendant?” She asked Luminous as the two once again took seats at the small glass table.

“Not yet,” Luminous responded. “But I think it would be easier to make up my mind if you answered some questions for me, is that okay?” Princess Luna nodded, understand the pegasus’ uncertainty. “Well, I think the most pressing matter on my mind would be that I don’t know where I would have to go. If the answer isn’t in the archives then I would have no idea where to start looking. Do you have any ideas?”

“Not anyplace I know for certain,” Princess Luna responded, putting a hoof up to her muzzle in thought. “But it’s possible that somepony in the kingdom I made would know. They’ve been keeping records since I created it, so it’s possible some of those record might contain something about the war’s cause. I’m sorry, I don’t remember much about the events a thousand years ago, and some of what I do is blurry.”

Luminous got worried as she heard that last part, making her wonder if even the Princess knew it was possible to find the cause of the war. If Luna didn’t know, how did she expect her people to know what caused the war. Even then, she didn’t say no to Luna as this new information came to light. Knowing where to look might be one thing, but it was possible others might be able to help her find the truth. There might be others who would be able to help her learn the truth, or possibly accompany her in the right circumstance. She didn’t say anything though, believing that Luna wouldn’t know considering her situation.

“I understand your concern,” Luna said in a reassuring manner. “I would be in the same if this role was reversed. Just remember that no matter what happens, you won’t go through this journey alone. Many other ponies may share similar ambitions, and you will make friends that will never turn their backs on you. If you want to learn the truth, it is those ponies you will have to rely on, and not just your own,”

“Who can I trust though?” Luminous asked worryingly. “Everypony I know is under Swift Spells influence, even Thundershield,” Luminous’ ears flattened as she thought about her second in command, who had been one of her oldest friends “He said it himself, and I can’t do anything to face him with the power he has. I don’t know anypony I can trust in the castle, not Thundershield, not Moondancer, not even my own sister. I have no one.”

“This isn’t true,” Luna said in response. “Sure, everypony in the castle may be under the spells influence, but you know somepony outside of the castle. You met them today, don’t you remember?”

Luminous thought about this as the butterfly fluttered off her head and onto Luna’s ear, the princess looking up at it. Luminous couldn’t think of who the princess was talking about at first, everypony she knew well was under Swift Spell’s influence. In fact, the only pony that she could think of at first was Swift Spell himself, but knew that couldn’t be right. Why would he help her defeat himself? Her mind shifted to her time with her troops during lunch that day, and it finally hit her. She realized exactly who Luna was talking about. The stammering stallion from the academy!

“Soarin!” Luminous yelled unexpectedly, causing Luna to look in shock as she did. The butterfly fluttered in the air a bit before landing back on Luna’s ear. “Of course, he may have some enthusiasm problems, considering that he can’t talk without stumbling over his own words. Still he is the only pony I know who isn’t in the castle, which means that the he isn’t affected by the hypnosis spell!” Luminous calmed down as her realization was replaced by a question. “But how do you think he can help me? I don’t think has a connection to you as well.”

“The question isn’t how he can help but who he can become,” Luna said in a philosophical tone. “Even if he doesn’t know anything, I can tell he has the ability to become a great friend and ally. As you mentioned, he needs to work on his self-esteem, but he can do that alone. He isn’t getting help from the academy, as it really isn’t there job to help apparently, but you could help him become somepony great. Having friends is the first step to finding the truth, and you have somepony who you can trust. However,” Luna got up and walked to Luminous’ side. “You’ve already managed to make a friend without knowing it, and she wishes to help you on your quest.”

The butterfly floated from Luna’s ear to Luminous muzzle, landing on it as it had many times before. Only a second later it fluttered off and landed on the floor and faced Luna, causing the princess to smile. She never imagined she would be doing this, as she believed that doing what she was about to was against the rules of reality. She wasn’t going to deny the request of the butterfly however, and figured it was time Luminous learned what happened to souls who past away and came here. Knowing the butterfly was ready, she closed her eyes and focus on the butterfly. As she did, her horn started to glow and created three small orbs of light that circled down to the butterfly and started circling it.

Luminous watched with curiosity, having absolutely no clue as to what was going on as the three identical dark blue orbs suddenly absorbed the butterfly. She felt scared at first, believing that the butterfly had been killed. Then she realized the orbs were combining together and growing bigger. If it was suppose to kill the butterfly, she figured that the orbs would have gotten smaller instead, but this seemed as if it was doing something completely different. As the orb grew to about the base of Luminous’ neck, it suddenly shaping itself into a form of something different then the butterfly.

There was a loud bang as the orbs suddenly exploded in light, causing both Luna and Luminous to cover their eyes due to how bright it was. After a few second the light died down, and Luminous was shocked to see the creature in front of her was not a butterfly at all. Instead she saw the figure of a young dragon in front of her, female from the looks of it. The dragoness stood on two legs, something that the pegasus had never seen before. Just like the figure in had appeared in the orb before it exploded, the dragon came up to Luminous’ neck in height, a pair of small spikes raising her height just above it. She had a much thinner body than most dragons Luminous had seen in books, but then again she had never seen a dragon that stood on two legs. The dragon's scales came in multiple different colors that changed across her body. Most of her was covered with glimmering teal colored scales with a red scales on her stomach and chest area. Her eye’s weren’t as feral as that in foal stories; there was a strange softness to them even with the eyes being reptilian. Her claws weren’t very long, and she didn’t seem to have wings, which either meant it was a DNA thing or that she just hadn’t grown them yet.

The dragoness quickly stretched out a bit before looking to Luminous. She gave the pegasus a gentle smile, or at least as gentle as she could considering how sharp her teeth were. “Hello,” The dragoness said in a gruff voice, which took Luminous off guard considering her age. “Sorry about scaring you. The only pony who can unusually see our true selves is Luna. Everyone else we learned just see’s us as butterflies,” She held out a claw to Luminous, who flinched backwards still unsure about a dragon being in front of her. “Names Topaz, the assistant of Princess Luna before and during the war.”

She felt a little more comfortable now that she knew Topaz was an acquaintance of Princess Luna. With that in mind, she slowly held her hoof out to Topaz’s claw. As the hoof finally placed itself in the dragoness' claw she shook it gentle so her claws didn't hurt Luminous. “I don’t think I need to be introduced to you then, but it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Luminous greeted, getting more comfortable with the dragoness. As Topaz removed her claw from around Luminous’ hoof the pegasus felt confused about. “So, why exactly did you look like a butterfly before? And why can I see you know?”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Luna answered for the Topaz, allowing Luminous some time to glance around Topaz and get a better grip of what she looked like. “Topaz saved my life during the war, sacrificing herself to save me from an attack by Celestia. I don’t know the reason for why the dead show up as butterflies, but I do know that the living soul can’t see spirits. That’s why they appear in a different form, or at least that’s why I believe they do. As for why you can see her now, it’s something that I have granted Topaz under special conditions. She wishes to help you, as well as I, in learning the truth about the war. For that reason, I have broken an ancient law and brought her back to life so she can help you. She knows what my magic can do, and has great insight when it comes to decision making.”

“I basically promised to Luna that I wouldn’t speak about being her assistant, or having any relation to her in order to keep balance of order,” Topaz continued off of what Luna said, rubbing the back of her head with her claw. “Or what balance is left at least. We are already destroying part of the natural order by bringing me back to life and there’s more than one way to attract the attention of our enemies,” She backed off a little bit as Luminous scanned the side of her head, looking at the small horn at the tip of Topaz’s snout. “Um… you're kinda invading my personal space here.”

“Oh! Sorry,” Luminous apologized quickly, her ears folding against the side of her as her cheeks went red in embarrassment. “I’m just not use to seeing a dragon before, or at least one like you. Most dragons I know are the ones in foal tales,” She felt even more embarrassment as she said that, bowing in apology. “Sorry, that was rude of me to say.”

“It's fine, I understand why you would think that,” Topaz replied, completely unoffended by Luminous’ remark. “We tend to get that kind of reputation among ponies. Not as bad a reputation as certain other species but still not very great considering our looks and that fact we’re carnivores.”

Luminous was glad that things hadn’t turned sour considering what she said. That wouldn’t have been the first time saying something like that would have gotten her into a mess. Still, it didn’t help but make her realize the situation Luna had forced her into. Giving Topaz a second chance at life, telling her about Soarin, Luminous realized that she had locked herself into helping Luna. If she said no, what would happen to Topaz? and how would Luna feel knowing that the Princess when through the trouble of bringing her here in the first place? She couldn’t turn away from this now, she felt like she had no choice but to help.

She sighed heavily as she turned to Luna, who was waiting with great patience for her to respond. “Alright Luna, I’ll help you,” Luminous said, her mind heavy with the thought of leaving her sister to Swift Spell. “There are still things I want answered before I leave though. Could you answer them quickly?”

“It’s important you leave at around the time of midnight,” Luna told her. “But I should be able to answer some of your questions before then, we still got an hour or two I’d say.”

“Then why are you so concerned about finding the cause of the war?” Luminous asked, the question had been something she wanted to ask from the beginning. “Topaz, you said that we have enemies who are going to be coming after us, and I don’t see what’s so grave of a cause as to give me the powers once held by an alicorn. If I’m protecting something, I want to know what exactly it is before I’m sent on something that could end up as a wild goose chase.”

Topaz looked to Luna, who was hesitating to answer the question. The princess wasn’t prepared to answer such a question, not when it brought back painful memories. She knew it was important, however, to stay truthful if she want Luminous’ to trust her back. Luna held back the tears that wanted to fall, not wanting to show weakness in front of her chosen descendant. She looked up to the moon and sun, Luminous and Topaz following her gaze up as she explained.

“There are many things about the war I would want to forget,” Luna told Luminous. “But some are harder to forget than others. My sister, by the time we fought against each other, she was like an entirely different pony,” Luna stood up slowly as she continued to speak, making her way to the edge of the outlook “I recognized her face and voice, but her actions and words were not those of the Celestia I remembered. She was saying nonsense, which soon turned to violence against me. I was forced to fight her, and that fight in the end lead to our death,” She looked back down to Luminous, who was listening closely. “Things remained silent for the pass millennium, and I never found my sister. She should have appeared along with me in the Farplane, but she never did. However, I fear that has changed,” She turned back to Luminous as she addressed the pegasus. “Tell me Luminous, what do you know about the Farplane?”

“Not very much,” Luminous replied, rubbing the back of her neck with her hoof. “What I do know is that it was created by you a long time ago. The fact that it looks like a garden, or a field of flowers now that I see it, it because you believe it symbolizes peace. It also goes without saying that this is where ponies go when they die, as evidence by the fact you are here standing in front of me,” She pointed to herself as she finished “I also now know that if a living pony were here like myself they would see the spirits as butterflies for a reason you don’t know. Other then that I don’t know anything.”

Luna nodded, despite Luminous considering she didn’t know much she actually knew quite a back “When it was created, the garden stood in the light of the moon as it was the celestial body I had control of,” She explained, point up to the moon. “However, recently there has been a change, one that worries me,” She pointed a hoof at the sun, Luminous and Topaz followed her gaze up, both putting a hoof - or claw in Topaz’s case - in front to block the sun's bright rays. “The sun was controlled by my sister and sadly my killer, Celestia, who as I mentioned was acting erratic when I last saw her. If the sun is here, then Celestia is, and I fear that she might do harm to the souls of this place. She already is doing harm to the real world, as I feel a strange power emanating from the unicorn named Swift Spell.”

“You mean that Swift Spell is working for Celestia?!” Luminous asked extremely confused. “How? That doesn’t make since.”

“We believe Celestia did a similar thing to Swift Spell that we are going to do with you,” Topaz replied. “He has power that a normal unicorn shouldn’t have; No hypnosis spell can be that powerful unless there is some sort of artifact involved. We know that it’s Celestia’s doing, because of the energy being emitted is the same kind Luna saw around Celestia when they fought.”

Luminous’ thought of what Topaz had said, thinking of the magic she had seen Swift Spell cast, mostly recalling to his hypnosis. As she thought of this, she realized the kind of power she would have been dealing, had she chosen to fight Swift Spell. She wasn’t about to judge the knowledge of a princess, especially when said princess knew more about magic than any pegasus or earth pony could. Swift Spell really did have more power than she did, he could do anything he wanted to make her life miserable. It pained her to realize that, and it only made her want Luna’s power more, even though she knew it was unjust.

“Um, Princess Luna?” Topaz looked to the princess, doing the same. “I wanted to talk to you real quickly in private, if that's fine with you?”

Luna nodded her head, turning to Luminous who was looking at the wooden floor of the outlook. Luminous was feeling the weight of the decision she was making, and how much she had failed her sister. The thought that this entire time somepony had been working for a pony who had killed her own sister, as well as the Princess of the Night. Her heart was racing, the thought soon become clear that Swift Spell was leading Equestria into something that could potentially destroy them. She couldn’t think of why, and Luna believed it was best to let Luminous meditate on this issue as she and Topaz head out into the field.

After Luna and Topaz were a good distance away from the outlook they had left Luminous to think in, the two stopped. They stood at the edge of a small pond with a water fountain flinging water into the air. The water itself was as clear as crystal, shimmering from the sun's reflection onto it. While it seemed beautiful, it still reminded Luna of her sister, they use to love playing in the water together. The princess and young dragoness sat down next at the end of the pond, Topaz’s feet touching the water, which felt cold against her scales. Topaz held a slight frown, one which Luna easily noticed on her assistant’s face.

“So what is it that worries you my assistant,” Luna said, addressing the matter that they had left for. “You seemed perfectly fine with my decision earlier, but I can’t help but feel like there is something that troubles you. What is that?”

Topaz looked at Luna, before looking down at her reflection in the water. “I don’t mean to question your judgement Princess but,” Topaz looked up at Luna again as he addressed his concern. “I can’t help but feel like what you're doing to Luminous is in someway wrong. You lied to her about having your bloodline and I don’t understand why. You're forcing a decision upon her without any real option out,” She looked to her left as she grabbed her left arm with her right claw, “I understand she has heritage to your kingdom, but I feel like it would be better to give her more of an option.”

Luna let out a sigh, she wasn’t proud of what she was forcing upon Luminous at all. “You know if there was time I would have made a better choice,” she replied. “But we know the damage that is being dealt, and that I don’t have the time to choose somepony else before Celestia causes more harm. Besides,” She looked off into the distance at a forest near the edge of the garden, “I have something to check on here, and if I’m correct then we really don’t have a choice. Somethings happening to spirits here, and I need to know what and why it is happening, but at the same time Swift Spell is putting Equestria in danger and I can’t do anything there,” She looked down at the water, and touched the surface with a hoof causing ripples. “A hero isn’t made by facing somepony they claim is evil, without a reason why should they care. Luminous has a reason to fight, she has a sister who is being controlled and she would do anything to stop them. She has more of a reason then anypony in the Lunar Republic.”

“You know that Celestia and Swift Spell isn’t the concern,” Topaz reminded Luna, as the two had talked about the dangers of naming a descendant. “When others learn Luminous has your magic they will come after her, and I’m scared to think what would happen if he came back. Even as a captain of the royal guard I don’t think that Luminous could take down some of the evils we think may come after her.”

“That’s why she needs friends she can trust,” Luna explained as she pointed at Topaz. “You remember how lonely I was, being overshadowed by my sister. I don’t want to know what I would have resorted to if you never came along. You helped me find a place, you were my first ever friend, and I trust you will be just as good of a friend to Luminous,” A tear fell down Topaz’s face as she heard this rushing over to hug Luna. “I’m trusting you to help Luminous make friends, as well as be one yourself. Please tell me you will do that for her?”

“I will Luna,” Topaz said as she looked into Luna’s eyes. “I promise.”

The two separated after a few seconds, reminiscing on old memories. Luna couldn’t imagine life without Topaz at her side, the dragoness really was her first friend. Before they had met, she felt unloved, as if no one cared for her or the night that she had. Topaz changed that, she helped lift Luna up and showed her that there was a place. The dragoness never left her side, even when she vowed to create a new empire against her own sister’s will. Many ponies would look at that as the reason why the war started, but there was fifteen year gap between the creation of the Lunar empire and the start of the war. The empire’s creation couldn’t possibly be the reason for the war. She needed to know what happened to make Celestia do such an action, and Luminous was the pony she hoped would solve that.

As Luna and Topaz returned, they looked to see a reinvigorated Luminous. The pegasus hopped off the chair with confidence as the Luna and Topaz joined her in the outlook. There was a fire burning in Luminous’ blue eyes, one that Luna hadn’t expected. Topaz was also caught off guard by this, but mostly because of how uncertain she was about Luminous being willing to help. Despite this, Luna put a confident smile on her face, knowing that she had won in getting Luminous’ help. She didn’t even have to hear words to know this.

“Midnight must be drawing near in Equestria,” Luna told Luminous, speaking with authority like a princess should. “We may talk again another night, but it’s important that I pass my power on now and bring you back to reality. I allow to tell you that you won’t become an alicorn from this power, but you will gain some physical feature showing your ability to use magic. Nopony in the castle can see you like this, as I fear they may tell Swift Spell and put you in greater danger than you are already in.”

“I understand,” Luminous replied, her voice calm but powerful. “I promise not to disappoint you princess.”

With that Luna nodded her head, grateful that things had gone well even after great uncertainty from the Luminous. Not wasting anymore time, Luna’s horn glowed once again, but instead of the aura staying where it had like earlier, it grew and made it’s way over to Luminous. As the aura touched Luminous’ forehead she got a strange sensation, one that she had never felt before. It felt as if the aura was making it’s way into her own body, which she soon realized it was. Her muscles tensed up a bit at the strange feeling, as a pegasus wasn’t suppose to have unicorn magic, but soon relaxed after a minute or two. As the aura fully seeped its way into Luminous’ body, she couldn’t help but feel amazed at how it felt, or really how she felt now. She felt more powerful than she ever had, even though a quick glance around and a hoof checking her forehead told her that she was still a pegasus.

Luna felt exhausted, huffing and puffing from the amount of energy she had just used, as well as the fact she didn’t have much of it anymore “This power will be a bit… tricky to get use to,” Luna explained through her now exhausted state. “The magic you have is normal unicorn magic, so don’t expect to be able to do anything extremely powerful. Topaz should be able to help you learn once you get out of Canterlot,” Luminous looked to the dragoness, and waved to her as if they had just met. After Topaz was done waving Luminous looked back as Luna continued. “Promise me, Luminous, that you will find the truth. The three kingdoms hang in the balance.”

Luminous nodded in confidence, but her mind thoughts were flowing with fear. The decision had come as a result of what Topaz had told her about Swift Spell. She didn’t know how true it was, as she felt it would have been more obvious if Swift Spell was working for Celestia, but the idea that someone with his power was able to control others scared her. This was her sister Neon he had control over, the sister she had loved since she was little, the sister who had been such a great ruler to Equestria, and the sister who help her when she…. No, she wouldn’t think of that. She shook the thought out of her head as soon as it came, the memory was too painful for her to remember.

“Are you crying Luminous?” Topaz asked, seeing a tear escape Luminous’ right eye.

The pegasus let out a gasp as she saw the tear falling, quickly wiping it away and shaking her head. She turned to the dragoness as her eyes stopped watering. “Sorry,” She apologized. “Just can’t stop thinking about leaving Neon with that stallion. I’ve made up my mind, however, and I don’t plan to go back on a promise,” She looked to Luna, shifting the expression on her face to be one of confidence yet again. “I’ll see you some other night, Princess Luna.”

Luna smiled and nodded as her horn started to glow. Luminous and Topaz felt the vision blur as this happened, unaware that from Luna’s perspective there body was slowly falling away. It was painless of course, as to the two ponies they were only dreaming. It looked like stain glass to her, and she remembered this phenomenon from her final battle with Celestia, as she saw it happen to Celestia as well. She watched it with curiosity until Luminous and Topaz completely disappeared, her mind wondering why it happened. Unable to come to a solid theory or conclusion she left it to the simply result of traveling between the realm of life and death.

“Good luck, Luminous,” Luna calmly cheered, even though the pegasus was no longer in front of her. “And to you, Topaz, I hope you find a place with her as a friend, like you had with me so long ago.”

Author's Note

Please leave a comment, like, and give a follow if you like this and other stories of mine. Also, any feedback would be appreciated, so please let me know if you spot anything that could use fixing in the comment or by PM.

Chapter 3

It was the time of day that ponies in Equestria referred to as midnight, even though there really wasn’t any difference between night and day. The sky was as grey as it always was; not a shade lighter or darker in away way shape or form. In Equestria and the Solar Empire midnight meant nothing, while it marked midday for ponies in the Lunar Republic who had once lived during the moon's hours. Everywhere else, however, this time of day was usually meaningless for the other empires, as all ponies were long asleep by then. The only thing that told ponies the time was the clocks on the wall and the ringing of the bell in the steeple of Canterlot Castle.

This was about the time of day Luminous found herself waking up in. Her vision blurry but focused on a strange teal colored thing in front of her. She figured she was just dreaming, so she closed her eyes as if this was normal for a dream. Not a second later did she her a light smack against her muzzle and she was jolted awake by the sudden action. Looking at what had caused it, she saw Topaz with her arms crossed, long at her with a face that read “seriously?”. Another second later and Luminous felt the her heavy comforter fall on her head obscuring her vision for a second.

“Before you say anything this is not a dream,” Topaz said, knowing what Luminous would say before the Pegasus even thought about it. She helped Luminous get the comforter off of her and her eyes went wide as she the two looked eyes “Well, that’s definitely interesting. It’s a good look for you though.”

Luminous looked at Topaz confused, not knowing what the dragoness was talking about. Taking the fact Topaz had said it was a good look, she got up and walked over to a oval, decorative wall mirror. She didn’t look at first, thinking that she might have been tricked by somepony (the royal guards have done it to her before) but decided after a few more seconds that she had to get it over with. Slowly she shifted her gaze up to the mirror, which is all she needed to see before telling something was off. She looked back down to the carpet as soon as she caught the glimpse of something strange around her eyes. After taking another second to prepare herself she looked fully up and stared in shock at the mirror.

Overall she looked normal, her coat was still the same pitch black color she remembered it and her mane and tail were still the same yellow color as before. What had changed, however, was the strange edition of a dark blue masquerade made of raw magic around her eyes. It danced lively, which told her that this not just a strange conjuration of sometime. She lifted a hoof to it in order to pull it off, but fell backward with a yelped as she touched it. This wasn’t even solid, it was more like weirdly colored fire that had somehow taken shape on her face. Luminous wasn’t started freaking out as she thought about how to get this flaming masquerade of her until she remembered what Luna had told her about the magic she was getting.

“Is this… Luna’s magic?” She asked as she observed it, the one major hint leading to that was it’s dark blue color, which matched Luna’s coat. “Or to be more accurate, is this my magic?”

“Apparently so,” Topaz said as she came up to Luminous, climbing onto the wooden desk under the mirror as she observed it. “This wasn’t what either of us expected, and until we get out of Canterlot it’s not safe to teach you magic in case of backfire,” She climbed down from the desk and put a claw under her snout as she thought. She had to think of some way to hide this weird formation of magic to make sure Luminous didn’t attract attention. “I could use my dragon breath to form a temporary cloak, but I don’t know how strong it is or how long it would last.”

“Wait,” Luminous said as she listen to the dragoness, closing half of her right eye as a show of confusion. “Dragon breath can do more then burn houses or melt gold… or send messages?”

“It’s hard to explain,” Topaz told Luminous, “The amount of time it would take for me to explain draconic magic is more then we have at the moment,” She stepped back, putting her claws up in front of Luminous. “Stay still. This may tickle but it won’t hurt unless you break my focus.”

Luminous couldn’t even open her mouth before Topaz let loose a burst of brown draconic fire from her mouth, engulfing the pegasus. Luminous could feel the immense heat the flames were giving off as she put her front left hoof in front of her closed eyes. She made sure to not touch the masquerade to keep her from burning herself, as she already felt like she was about to die. However, that didn’t happen, and after she opening her eyes she looked in shock to see that she was now wearing a old cloak of some sort. She felt it with her hoof and realized that it was rather warm.

“What the-” She stopped her question as she continued to feel the fabric of the cloak. She looked to Topaz, who was examining her handy work. “Your dragon breath did this?”

“Again, to many statistics to explain,” Topaz reminded Luminous. “However, you are correct. The cloak is only temporary so as soon as we get out of the castle we will need to quickly find this Soarin pony and head to the gate. I don’t the maximum time that it will stay, but at minimal about two hours before it breaks apart.”

“Guess we need to get moving,” Luminous said, knowing that time was of the essence if they wanted to get out while ponies were still asleep.

Topaz nodded her head and walked over to the door with Luminous behind her. She opened the door and stepped outside, and Luminous was in shock at how dark the world was without light. The masquerade around her eyes was the only thing that gave off light of any kind, everything else was almost pitch black. Luminous expected to wake up there, believing that there was an endless void in front of her. After a few seconds, however, she could see the outline of the windows and floor below her. She couldn’t help but wonder how the Lunar Empire could live with darkness like this around them.

“So this is what a world without Celestia and Luna looks like,” Topaz mumbled to herself as she and Luminous slowly made their way down the hall of the castle. “It’s as dark as the depths of a cave out here.”

“When everyone's awake the lights in the castle and town are shining,” Luminous explained to Topaz. “When I was young I believed that there was nothing outside of the city, that we were all there was. Then I heard about learned about the war and the other empires, and my mother told me about our relationship to the Lunar Empire.”

“Must have been quite a shock,” Topaz replied, not even able to imagine what she was saying.

Luminous only nodded her head as she stifled laughter at Topaz’s attempts to see where she was going. From behind, it looked like Topaz was flailing her hands around in front of her like a zombie. From Topaz’s perspective, she really had no idea where the heck she was going, using her clawed hands to feeling in front of her for anything in the darkness. Sadly, even this proved futile as she walked right into a wooden end table on the side of the hall. The scales did little to provide protection as her stomach ran right into the side of the table, an action which her a little wheezy. The dragoness fell backwards, holding her stomach in reaction.

“You know you could always just ride on my back,” Luminous offered as she walked up to Topaz.

Topaz looked at her with “You couldn’t say that before this happened?”

Luminous shrugged her shoulders as she put her head to Topaz’s stomach, using it to lift the dragoness onto her back. With that done they started their way down to the castle entrance. Two gigantic marble staircases made there way down to a giant door that was at least the size of three Luminous’, at least that was the way Topaz saw it. After making her way down the stairs and to the door, Luminous halted as she thought about what would be beyond that door. One more step, and this would be the first time she’s been outside since she… Luminous wiped that thought from her mind as soon as it came, but still stood at the door in fear.

“One more step and this will be the farthest away I’ve been from my sister in eleven years,” Luminous told Topaz. “This is... still really hard to take in. I’m leaving my kingdom, and at the end of this I might never be welcome back.”

“If we succeed you’ll be back in Canterlot before you know it.” Topaz told her reassuringly. Those words put a smile on Luminous’ face, knowing they were true. “Once we’re in the city we have to get a few things however, and I’m not just talking about your acquaintance Mister Stutter Step.”

“His name is Soarin,” Luminous reminded Topaz, “But your right. Will need food, water, and some sort of cloak as well. We don’t know how long we’re going to be out there.”

“No use standing here then, right?” Topaz replied in question form.

Topaz was right, she was only going to waste time if she stood around here. Princess Luna was depending on her, Equestria was depending on her. In truth she really had no idea what she was getting into, or where to even look. The Lunar Empire was many miles away from Equestria, and tended to stay hidden from ponies who have tried to visit it. That didn’t stop her from putting her hoof on the castle’s front door, taking a deep breath to calm her fear of leaving the kingdom, and opening the door for the first time in forever.

Luminous was absolutely shocked at how lively it was in the Canterlot marketplace. She hadn’t realized until stepping outside the castle courtyard (which she had never been outside of as well) that the reason she wasn’t seeing any lights was because it was the residential district of the city. After asking a stallion who seemed rather out of it, they finally were able to find the marketplace. For Luminous, a pony who spent her entire life seeing the same ponies over and over again, with the occasional ‘commoner’ complaining about taxes and whatnot. To summarize what Luminous was currently feeling, it was fear.

The lamp posts and stores lit up lower Canterlot, in a blaze of yellow light which blind Luminous when she had first arrived. Ponies of all walks of life made there way through town happily enjoying conversation and not caring at all about how suspicious the dragon and pegasus that had just entered looked. Stands lined parts of the streets, ponies surrounding them as and payed for things such as food and accessories. Luminous wasn’t sure whether to be happy or scared at this, but in the end fear had won her over. This was way too different from the castle for her, and she suddenly felt concerned about a whole number of things she had never thought about.

“Um, Luminous?”

“WHAT DO I DO?!” Luminous yelled, knocking Topaz off her back without noticing “I don't know anything about the city. How do commoners act? How do they eat. What… what do I do?”

“You okay darling?” Luminous turned to her right at the sound of a calm and elegant voice, almost mistaking it for somepony from the castle. For a second she had thought she had been followed, until she realized she didn't know the pony. “You seem a little young to be out at this time of the night. If you need to get home I'd been glad to help you.”

Luminous was glad the cloak was hiding the masquerade around her eyes, because if there was anything that could make her current circumstances worse right now it was that. The pony who had talked to her was a white unicorn whose fur coat seemed to glisten in light of the street lamps. Her mane was purple and curled in a rather peculiar way, one that she couldn't quite describe. If there was one thing she could till, it was that this pony spent a lot of time on personal image. She seemed rather upper class, so Luminous felt a little more comfortable talking to someone with that status.

“Actually I'm looking for some supplies for the road,” Luminous told the unicorn. “Mostly some food, water, and a cloak as well.”

“Yes that cloak of yours could use a bit of work couldn't it,” The unicorn said as she inspected the cloak, which somewhat shocked Luminous. “You definitely seem like a pony of elegance, and this cloak does not show that. Whoever made this clearly did not care for your image. I have a shop not to far away from here and I could repair that cloak for you if you want. Consider it on me to make up for the damage this must be doing to your status.”

“Actually the cloak isn't real,” Both ponies looked as Topaz got up and dusted herself off. “I made it with magic, and it won't last for long. If you really wouldn't mind miss we could use on as we plan on being on the road for a rather long time. Anything you could do would be much appreciated.”

“I would gladly be willing to help, and as I said this will be for free,” The unicorn said. “The names Rarity, and you darlings would be.”

“This is Topaz,” Luminous introduced the dragoness who simply waved at Rarity. “My names Luminous.”

It wasn’t till after she said her name that she realized exactly what she might have been doing. She was royalty, whether she liked it or not, and there was probably many ponies who would recognize her name. She stayed calm externally while or brain internally screamed at herself about exactly what she had just done. Luminous waited for Rarity to ask what she believed to be the inevitable question. Topaz realized this not much later, and face hoofed at the princess.

“That’s a nice name Darling,” Rarity’s response was in no way what Luminous and Topaz had thought it would be. “This is the first time I’ve met a dragon of any kind, but you don’t seem all that scary. It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” Luminous and Topaz looked at each other, not sure what to say about the way she responded. “If you two would please follow me I show you to my boutique. I hope you don’t mind me asking but where does someone of your status plan on going Luminous?”

“Well… anywhere the wind goes at the moment,” Luminous said as she and Topaz followed Rarity through the busy streets of Canterlot. “Me and Topaz don’t have a particular goal in mind but we hope to improve the live of ponies across the world.”

“That’s a wonderful goal dear,” Rarity said with vigor, something Luminous noticed the unicorn didn’t lack. “I myself might do some traveling in the future, but for the moment I’m trying to keep me boutique running. Business is rather hard to find in the city.”

Luminous was rather confused at this. “What do you mean it’s hard finding business? Surely somepony like you gets a lot of visits from high class ponies.”

“If only that was true,” Rarity replied, her earlier vigor seemed to have been lost as she spoke. “Sadly I’m not the most well known dresser, fashionista, or anything of that sort in the city. I live in with my sister outside the city. Dreadfully dark and dangerous out there, I don’t get to the city very often. To make matters worse I don’t usually have the materials to make the dresses I dream of, and limits my supplies.”

Luminous couldn’t help but feel sorry for Rarity. Given how generous the unicorn was she assumed that Rarity would have had rather good business. It made her sad, an emotion that Luminous dreaded more than most ponies. She would have to find someway to help the unicorn when her current goal has been dealt with. Maybe she could talk to her sister about it, but she didn’t want to use her sister's position as princess like Swift Spell was. She would have to find a personal way to pay back, one that wasn’t around coin or wealth.

It had taken Rarity much convincing once they reach her boutique to measure Luminous with Topaz’s cloak on. Rarity continually insisted that Luminous had to take it off for her to get an exact measurement, but after multiple attempts to take it off she gave up. Luminous let out a sigh of relief at this, stood as still as possible as Rarity ran the measuring tape across her body to get her measurements. This wasn’t the first time Luminous had done this, as her mother had done it to her many times when she was younger. That was something that stopped after she became the captain of the royal guard. It gave her memories of her early life however, and reminded her off just how much she missed seeing Neon.

After Rarity had gone to start stitching Luminous’ cloak, the ex-captain looked around the boutique she had been brought to. It was well managed, and from how vibrant the inside looked she could see that it was well maintained. Everything seemed to have a specific place: Ribbons went in the drawers, gems for the more sophisticated of ponies was kept in a small chest that Rarity wouldn’t let her near and the sowing equipment was kept in the back of the shop out of view. Rarity told Luminous that there was a small boutique in a town called Ponyville she someday wished to own, but until then this would do. Luminous didn’t understand things such as company expansion and economics, those things she would rather let her sister deal with.

Suddenly, the smell of smoke came to Luminous’ nose. She didn’t realize it was smoke at first, since all the cooking had been done for her and there wasn’t many flammable materials in the castle. Still, the smell disgusted her and she looked around the room for exactly what was making it. It wasn’t until she checked behind her that she realized what it was coming from, and her eyes shot wide with paranoia. The cloak that Topaz had made was bursting into the small blue flames it was made from, and she rushed to get it off. Topaz watched from a chair nearby as this happened, giggling a little at Luminous.

“What’s so funny?” The pegasus asked.

“Those flames can’t hurt anypony,” Topaz told Luminous. “Don’t you think it would have burnt you when I first made it if it could hurt somepony?” After a few minutes Topaz stopped giggling and pointed out the downside. “Still, you should probably do something to hide your face until we get that cloak Rarity is making you.”

Luminous rushed to the nearest mirror and sure enough she saw the dark blue masquerade that surrounded her eyes. That temporary cloak was the only thing that hid this thing from Rarity, and without it she would have to face a barrage of questions that the unicorn would definitely have. Luminous looked around the room with urgency, trying to find anything that could hide her face under that wouldn’t look suspicious. Sadly, everything she looked to would either draw more attention, or make her seem absolutely stupid. Maybe Rarity wouldn’t notice if she just didn’t turn her head.

“Well here you are Luminous-” Luminous’ instincts betrayed her and she looked to the unicorn, who in turn stared at her with shock. “Deary?”

Looking for a way to out of this, Luminous said the only thing that could come to her mind. “This isn’t what it looks like, I swear.”

That didn’t stop Rarity from fainting, falling to the floor unprepared for what she had just seen. Luminous didn’t really know what she just did, and walked up to the unicorn to see she was still breathing. Seeing this she poked Rarity to try and wake her up, but only got a twitch out of the fashionista's back right hoof. Luminous looked to Topaz, who got up and walked over to Luminous. She grabbed the cloak from Rarity, glad that she hadn’t overdone it. She handed it to Luminous who threw it around herself to once again hide her magic masquerade.

“Maybe we should just leave the money on the counter.” Topaz suggested.

“Yeah.”

It went a lot better getting the rest of the supplies for the trip, mainly because Luminous didn’t have to worry about her new cloak disappearing on her. It was rather simply, but that helped in making sure she didn’t draw attention or possibly fainting. They grabbed saddlebags, food, water, and some other essentials including a beginners spell book before heading to the Canterlot military academy. It was well past visiting hours, and Luminous knew she would had to enter through whatever window lead to Soarin’s room. This was the first time she had actually flown in a few years, not really needing it to do activities around the castle. Thankfully she hadn’t forgotten and with Topaz on her back they took off into the air.

After spending a good twenty minutes in the air, Luminous finally found the window to Soarin’s room. She checked to make sure no one else was inside before attempting to open the window, which was left unlocked. Slowly Luminous pulled it open before both she and Topaz stepped inside. The ex-captain knew exactly what this meant if things went off perfectly, she would be charged with a crime and she would not be able to return without having to go before a jury. Not only that, but she would be hunted for abandoning the ponies she was suppose to protect. The latter was going to happen no matter what they did, but they were literally taking somepony, most likely against there own will. It felt absolutely wrong to her, this wasn’t something an upstanding citizen would do.

Topaz went to make sure the door was locked, giving Luminous thumbs up as she woke the pegasus. “Soarin,” She called to sleeping pony in front of her. “Soarin wake up.”

Luminous didn’t need to put in much effort to wake up the sleeping pony, as his eyes slowly opened. As his brain woke up, he nearly jumped back at the site of Luminous in front of him. He didn’t really know what to do, believing he had done something wrong that angered her. Yet the look on Luminous’ face wasn’t one of anger, but one of urgency. He couldn’t tell exactly what made him think this, but he could’ve sworn there was something slightly different about how Luminous looked.

“C-c-captain?” Soarin stammered, baffled and confused at what the captain was in the academy doing at this hour. “I-is everything o-o-okay ma’am?”

“Soarin, you're probably not going to believe what I’m going to tell you but I need your help right now,” Luminous told the confused stallion, putting her hooves to the top of her cloak. “Now, promise me you won’t faint when I show you why I’m here.”

“W-why would I f-f-faint?” Soarin said, trying to sound a little more professional than he had been.

Luminous sighed as she prepared herself “This,” She pulled the cloak off her head, showing the masquerade that had been a sign of the magic she obtain from Luna. Soarin’s eyes were so wide Luminous wasn’t sure they could get any wider. She mentally sighed as she saw Soarin didn’t faint at the sight of it “I’ll explain-”

“W-w-w-” Soarin was trying desperately to get the word he was stuck on out. “WHAT IS THAT?”

“Calm down recruit!” Luminous shouted, which seemed to do the trick as Soarin fell silent. “This thing on my face is the exact reason I’m here to see you. I made a promise to somepony and they told me you would could help. Now promise me you won’t yell again as I tell you everything.”

Soarin nodded hastily, moving his front right hoof across his muzzle to show his lips were sealed. With that Luminous did the best she could to explain to the stammering recruit. She told him about how Swift Spell was hypnotizing her sister, the dream meeting with Luna, Topaz and the masquerade. Despite originally doubting much of what she said, she managed to convince him that it was mostly true. He still had one thing he was confused about, which Luminous should have expected.

“If that masquerade thing on your face is a show of Luna’s magic, does that mean you can use magic?”

Luminous wasn’t expecting the question, and she rubbed the back of her head as she answered. “I guess,” She said. “I haven’t actually tried but that’s why me and Topaz bought this spell book here.” She raised up a book titled ‘easy spells for young unicorn foals’ for Soarin to see. “I am a little embarrassed that this is pointed to foals but when you spent your life not using magic what do you expect?”

“I… guess,” Soarin said as he flipped through the book seeing mostly telepathic and aura shaping spells, both he had seen used a lot from unicorn trainees in the academy. “I’m sorry captain, but I don’t think I’m the right choice for this secret mission of yours,” He swallowed as he worried he might have somehow upset Luminous. “N-not that I w-w-wouldn’t want to j-join you but I don't th-th-think I would be the right choice.”

“I know you aren’t brave Soarin, but what I’m asking you doesn’t require bravery,” Luminous held Soarin’s head in her hooves, giving the pegasus a sympathetic smile. “What I’m asking for is someone to stick by my side. I understand that things must be… hard being a pegasus that isn’t royalty. Most ponies look at us like we aren’t needed because the darkness makes weather control useless and flying extremely inefficient, but I don’t need anyone with incredible skills. I’m asking you to be my friend, one who will be by my side at all times.”

Soarin hide the blush that he was currently feeling as Luminous removed her hoof from under Soarin's chin. “Nopony has ever asked me to be their friend before,” He told the ex-captain. “Everypony seems me as a waste of time. Why do you think of me so differently?”

“Even the most timid of ponies can be friends,” Luminous replied “And sometimes those friends are closest ones you will make. I know what I’m asking may seem hard at the moment but please say you’ll come with me?”

Soarin didn’t have to think about what his response. Luminous had managed to move him in a way she didn’t even realize she had. Soarin hadn’t exactly thought about it that way. Perhaps he really could be somepony special, not just by protecting a member of royalty but of being her friend. Everypony had always treated him like he was a mistake, like he was somepony that didn't matter to the world. Yet Luminous in just a few sentences managed to change that. He put a smile on his face, trying to look as courageous as possible.

“Yes,” He said. “I-I-I’ve never left Canterlot before. I-I-I-t’s suppose to be pitch black out there. I wouldn’t s-s-suppose either of you know where to go, would you?”

“I haven’t walked Equestria’s surface in one thousand years,” Topaz said, before a wild idea came to her head. “Maybe there is a way we can get out, one that doesn’t involve Luminous getting spotted.”

After a long walk, in which Soarin explain his rough times at the academy to Luminous, they arrived near the main gate of Canterlot. Topaz smiled as she saw somepony had a wagon waiting nearby. It was covered by a tarp which seemed to hold barrels that the dragoness could only assume held supplies like food and other things. It was waiting right outside the gate, and if the guards talking near the gate were correct it was head out tonight. Topaz looked to Luminous who had the same smile on her face.

“A-a-are you c-c-crazy?” Soarin said, a metaphorical lightbulb turning on as he looked at the wagon. “H-h-how are we s-s-suppose to get in th-there without being c-caught.”

“Calm down and stop stuttering for Luna’s sake,” Topaz whispered. “I don’t know about you but would you rather fly over the wall, the top of which is invisible, into pitch blackness?” Soarin shook his head “ Exactly, not the best idea to go out when we don’t really have a place to go. At least if we take this option we might come across some town out there we can grab some information from.”

“So how do you plan on getting under the tarp without being spotted by the guards?” Luminous asked the dragoness.

“Honestly I was hoping we would have had a little more luck there,” Topaz replied looking at Luminous. “Being the ex-captain of the royal guard you must know something about these two guards that could help us in someway.”

“You want me to tell you what scares these two ponies so we can make them run away like a foal, don’t you?” Luminous asked, getting a nod out of Topaz. The ex-captain sighed. “I really don’t like sneaking into a school, but messing with the my own guards is even worse,” She looked down at the two guards casually talking to each other. She knew the only way they were going to get out of the city was if she got those guards away from the city gate. “Alright, but only this once.”

Topaz nodded “Hopefully this is the only time we will need to.”

“Wow dude, that’s rough,” The guard on the left said to his friend. “So… are things between the two of you okay or is this the end of the relationship for you two?”

“I’m pretty sure some throwing a table half-way across the room is a rather good sign things are at an end,” His friend replied, “And it was over something so simple as a difference in books as well. She was so nice as well! Where did I go wrong?”

“You see things like that are the reason I haven’t fallen in love yet,” The guard told his friend pointing at himself. “If I were you I would wait a bit before actually getting into a relationship again. These mares are leaving you quicker and quicker each time, maybe settling down for a family isn’t the best idea at the moment.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” The other guard pointed out. “You haven’t fallen in love since elementary school. You don’t know what it is like to fall in love with someone.”

“I still think it would be better to wait a bit. I may not have fallen in love but I’ve seen a fair of stallions break down because of love,” The guard on the left replied, not noticing the blue snake that had slithered between them. His friend tried his best to stay calm as he looked down at the serpent. “Not to mention the fact that-”

“SNAAAAAKE!”

His friend ran away screaming as he saw the serpent. The guard looked absolutely baffled before looking down at the ground at the blue serpent. He rolled his eyes, having forgotten that his friend was afraid of the reptiles. As for him, he actually was fascinated by them, and bent down to get a closer look. He picked it up in a hoof and it stood almost perfectly still, and rather warm as well. He couldn’t help but think about how cute it was, chuckling at the fact his friend was afraid of such a creature.

“Oh come on dude?” He spoke in the direction that his friend had run off in, unaware that the snake was bursting into flames. “This thing is completely harmless, how could you-” He looked back to the snake and stopped as he saw the snake bursting into flames in his hoof. “AAAAAAH! GET IT OFF!”

He ran of as well, dropping the flame to the ground as it sizzled to the ground. Not far away, Topaz laughed at her antics, Soarin holding in his laughter. Luminous, on the other hand, was in deep regret at what she had just watched. She knew about her guards, as they were about as much a family to her as she was with Neon. They had been willing to share so much with her, and for her to use those vary things against them was an even bigger act of betrayal then what she was already feeling. Topaz looked to Luminous, seeing the disappointment the ex-captain was feeling.

“I said that I would only do this one time,” Topaz reassured her. “This is the only time I will do that.”

“Promise?”

Topaz motioned his claws across his chest in the shape of a X before responding. “Promise. Now let's get under the tarp before anyone else comes by.”

Soarin and Luminous nodded and the three made their way over to the wagon. Luminous lifted up the tarp with her hooves and waited as Topaz and Soarin got on. After they hoped on Luminous joined them and let go of the tarp as it fell over them, leaving them with no light except for Luminous’ masquerade. Soarin was shaking uncontrollably, and while he didn’t see it Luminous was just as scared about leaving their home. This city and the castle had been her world for so long, and now she was going into a world she didn’t even know.

“We should get some sleep,” Topaz recommended as she laid down on the wooden wagon. “Will need as much rest as possible when we get off tomorrow.”

Soarin checked under him before laying down as well, quickly falling asleep. With that Luminous was left alone, her mind filled with thoughts that kept her from realizing that she was drifting off as well. She had thought about it so many times, the things she was leaving behind her. She was about to enter what felt like an entirely different world. That world seemed like a blank page to her, one that was filled with both danger and wonder. She knew that the danger would outweigh the possible treasures that awaited.

“I’m sorry for doing this, Neon,” Luminous apologized, even though her sister would never hear it. “I promise you that, no matter what happens, I’ll make our kingdom safe again.”

And with that, she drifted off to sleep.

Author's Note

Please like, comment, and follow if you enjoy this or other stories of mine.

Chapter 4

“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.

Chapter 5

Things were suppose to happen differently, I’ve lived long enough to confirm that. Swift Spell holds back a lot about what he has really been through. What I do, was little to grasp at first, and sometimes I still find it hard to believe. A long time ago, artifacts known as the Elements of Harmony were created. How? Swift never told me. All I know is they were suppose to play a monumental role in the future of Equestria. They were weapons, but not meant to kill. No one understood how they worked, but the power they held couldn’t be denied.

The time of those artifact to resurface would have occurred a month from when this all started. The longest day of the thousandth year, if memory serves me right. This was when the first of Swift Spells great evils arrive. The nightmare: an entity that uses the darkest feelings of its host and overwhelms the with it. We don’t know what form it will take or who it’s host will be, but it will surface. Swift, ever since he first mentioned it to me, had been scared to talk about it. He knows things we don’t, and in time I hope he tells me.

Sadly, what I do know isn’t bright. The elements of Harmony, the very artifacts that were to purify the souls, were all destroyed along side the alicorn sisters. We are without the very thing that was to protect Equestria. Our only hope lies in my sister, Luminous. At least, that’s what we believe. Swift and I have no idea what the outcome of this will be, but he is sure that my sister will prevail. To him, the only way to assure her safety from the nightmare was to make her leave, which Swift and his ‘anonymous assistant’ was able to accomplish. To them, Luminous is the only hope for Equestria, the Solar Empire, and the Lunar Republic…

… If only I had that much faith in my own sister, and in me.

After several minutes of having to keep Rarity from giving Luminous a lecture on fashion and the disaster she had made, Sweetie Belle manage to calm her sister down. Topaz had turned the lights back on due to Luminous complaining about the voices she was hearing, something that concerned the young dragoness. Rarity had left the room to get some more tea, giving everypony a chance to calm down. Luminous has had some encounters like with Moondancer given the unicorns love of books, but never before had she had somepony try to scold her over fashion. Then again, there was a lot of things that had started to become normal.

The Lunar String, the aura of princess Luna that she now possessed, was like another hoof. Of course, calling it a ‘hoof’ would be wrong, considering it seemed to be able to take on any form Luminous chose as long as she could concentrate. That being said, keeping focus on the Luna String was hard. With what little practice she had slipped in while Rarity got tea, she realized just how difficult with her eyes open. Even the slightest distraction seemed to mess up her attempts, and considering that the String seemed to sometimes react with her even try made it even more challenging.

“AAAARG!” She roared at was another failed attempt to grab the same exact teacup she had before. “Why is magic so hard? Do unicorns have this kind of trouble when they first learn how to do it?”

“I think you're the first pony I’ve ever seen fail to pick up a cup,” Sweetie commented. “I’m not that good at magic and even I can do simply telekinesis.”

Luminous groaned in frustration, the comment only making her less confident in herself. Luna expected her to master use of the Lunar String and she was doing worse than a younger unicorn! Topaz, on the other hand, was on the ground laughing her tail off at Luminous. The ex-captain glared at the dragoness, although she knew it was impossible to get him to stop. If there was anything she could make clear about Topaz’s character, it was that she was a misfit. As the laughter in the room died down, Topaz laid on the floor, exhausted from laughing and his stomach aching.

“Please tell me how in Equestria you became the assistant of princess Luna?” Soarin asked confused.

“Exactly how you expected,” Topaz said, a smirk on her face. “I was assigned as a personnel aid when Luna’s previous one quit unexpectedly. I had to move to Canterlot when that happened, and if it wasn’t for some unicorn with a cloak on his head I would have died on my way,” She stood up and hopped onto the couch next to Luminous. “Luna was actually quite depressed when I met, telling me how nopony cared about her. I helped her out of that conundrum and we became best friends after time.”

“That's… not what I expected,” An astonished Luminous replied, eyes wide. “Considering how Luna acted back in the Farplane I would have never guessed. She seemed so confident; so… powerful.”

“You could be that powerful as well with practice,” Topaz teased. “First thing you have to do is pick up that cup.”

Luminous looked to the cup that had been her nemesis for the past hour. She stared at it, imagining the Lunar String extending outward slowly. Her brain sent messages to the the force, and it once again extended out. It shivered nervously, Luminous trying her best to remain calm as excitement started to once again take over. The Lunar String shared nervously as it wrapped around the tea cup like a ribbon, finally picking it up. A smile crept onto her face as Luminous now mentally told the ribbon to bring the cup to her. This was the farthest she had gotten, and as it closed half the distance between the table and herself, Luminous was sure she had one.

“I got tea~” Rarity sang as she entered the room, breaking Luminous’ concentration.

Rarity watched with horror as the Lunar String let the tea cup go, falling to the floor. The world seemed to slow down as the small, ceramic cup fell before finally hitting the floor. It broke apart, several large pieces bouncing slightly into the air as the shattered cup made the sound of breaking glass. As the now fracture cup came to a rest, Luminous looked to Rarity. The fiery glare, she had seen only moments before returning to the unicorn. The Pegasus looked to the cup, then back to Rarity, the Lunar String once again taking the form of a bow in her mane.

“Okay, this one is not my fault,” She said before Rarity could open her mouth. “You broke my concentration, the only reason this hundred bit tea cup is broken is because of you.”

“The tea cup only costed ten bits darling,” Rarity corrected as she floated the a tray of tea onto the table. “The entire set was thirty, and because of my family's debt I can’t buy anymore! You just broke one of our last cups in the entire house!”

“I take responsibility for the others,” Sweetie Belle said, her hoof raised and head hung.

“Ten bits?” Luminous asked confused. “This looks like the quality of the tableware at the castle, yet that is so much more expensive,” As Rarity’s words finally finished connecting, she realized exactly why she was angry. “Wait, you own this gigantic mansion and you're telling me that you're broke?!”

“You saw how our entrance is,” Rarity replied, sass contaminating her voice. “I’m sure nopony such as you ever had the castle in this sad state. My boutique isn’t paying well enough and I’m scared for Sweetie to leave in case something worse happens,” She sighed, turning around and looking at the floor. “We only got a few more days here until we are evicted. We were leaving tomorrow, hoping that an old friend of mine is willing to give us room.”

“A friend?”

“Arcane Glyph,” Sweetie Belle answered. “He researches magic in a small hut in the darkness. He can be a bit much to handle at times; he’s so smart he doesn’t have very good social experience. I don’t like him, especially with his way of solving problems.”

Soarin half closed his left eye and tilted his head. “Why is that a reason to not like him? I thought that would make him better at solve problems.”

“Well, let’s just say magic doesn’t fix everything. Sometimes the best assistance is through emotions and love, not tricks and games,” Rarity replied, looking back to Luminous. “I would be more then happy to assist you in your journey, your highness. Always wanted to see the Lunar Republic, but the problem is that nopony can find it. Then again what can you find in the darkness, no maps going to help.”

Luminous looked to Topaz, who was resting against her shoulder. Topaz looked up to the pegasus, both knowing two very clear things. The first thing was that Rarity was going to be no help to learn to control the Lunar String. Then Again, no pony would probably be able to understand the String other than Luna. Luminous would have to teach herself to use it, and considering her trouble lifting up a tea cup, that was not going to be easy. The second thing was that this Arcane pony might actually know something about the war long ago. It was the only lead they had, and they weren’t going to pass it up.

“Rarity,” Luminous addressed. “I would like to meet this friend of yours. Surely somepony with magic of knowledge like he does can help us find the cause of the old war.”

“Of course!” Rarity exclaimed, her eyes beaming. “You have no idea what this means to me your highness. To travel with a princess! Usually only nobles would dream of such a thing, and I doubt I’m of that high class. To travel with you would be an honor your highness! I’ll pack my things and we can be on our merry way!”

“Rarity wait I didn’t-” Luminous stopped talking as Rarity disappeared in a flash of light. After a few seconds, the ex-captain turned to Sweetie Belle. “Is this normal?”

Sweetie let out a sigh before answering “If you're lucky she won’t start bowing to you.”

“So Luminous really is gone,” Thunder repeated to herself as she stood on the opposite end of the dining room, ears folding back in disappointment. Neon and Swift had just explain everything that was going on. She looked to the princess with sorrow “She’s… never coming back here is she.”

“Most likely not, which is why I’m calling you here to ask if you would take over as captain,” Neon answered, sadness filling her voice just as it had Thunder Shield’s. “It would do us a great honor, especially since we know just how much Luminous trusted you. Of course, you do have the ability to turn the promotion down, in which case we’d look for somepony else.”

Thunder Shield was still trying to understand why she would leave, even with Neon and Swift’s answer. The two pegasi had actually known each other for a long time, joining the guard about the same time. Through sparring, tactics, and even just normal conversation the two had become close. In the end it was Luminous who took over as captain when the old one retired, which he knew she well deserved. Even if Thunder was her right hand mare, Luminous saw the pegasus as her closest friend. It didn’t ever occur that something like this would happen, because Luminous was forbidden from leaving the castle grounds.

Yet at the same time Thunder knew sending Luminous on this was a great mistake. Looking at Neon, his heart skipped a beat at the look on her face. She was looking at the ground in regret, ears back to the point where the princesses long, wavy mane seemed to hide them. Neon knew exactly what danger her sister was going into, and caused Thunder to leap to her hooves. The chair fell behind her as her gaze rested on the princess she had served. There was a reason Luminous was never to leave the castle, a reason that had let her live more years than normal. Neon had just intentionally sent her sister away from the castle, and that reason was darker then what Neon was showing.

“Princess, you couldn’t seriously send Luminous out there in the hope she can’t return?” Thunder asked, her heart pounding like a drum. “I request you send a rescue party out there at once to retrieve her before the creatures find her.”

Neon didn’t respond, instead turning to Swift and motioning to the door. The unicorn bowed before making his way out of the room, Thunder watching him with fear of what he knew was coming. As his gaze feel back upon Neon, he could see her smile cheerfully at him. A cold feeling developed Thunder, making him shiver despite the warmth of the candles around them. Neon crossed her front hooves as she leaned on the table, the lighthearted grin feeling twisted like that of a psycho. This was a look that Thunder had never seen on the princess, and worry gripped him like claw.

“I know how close you and Luminous are Thunder,” Neon finally spoke, too cheerful for what was being discussed. “You’ve been together for so long, growing as friends as the years past, but it's time to let it go. I’ve heard ponies in the castle rumor you got a crush on her, and I hate to say it but you won’t get to tell her how you feel. You want to know something good about this?” Neon giggled like a foal playing with a toy. “When this all ends I won’t have to deal with the filth that Luminous rubbed on our family. I’m surprised I didn’t do it sooner.”

“I don’t understand your highness,” Thunder explained, her body as cold as snow by this point. “She’s your sister, you’ve known each other since you were foals. You two use to be so close, even with her many mishaps. Please telling me this is some cruel joke. What could ever make you want to-”

“Thunder Shield, please understand how stupid that sounds,” Neon interrupted, the cheerful manor in which she spoke only making her words sound harsher. “I’ve want that nopony out of my life for a rather long time, and you witnessed it first hand. I know you understand deep down that I’m only cleaning up the injuries she caused the kingdom, and the greatest injury she ever gave me. To think that pony, who isn’t even real, was the favorite of my mother has burned me for years.”

“How could you call her such things?” Thunder asked, dread and betrayal filling her soul. “She is your sister, and I know that she’s done many things wrong but that’s no excuse. You know for fact Luminous is real, and that there is nothing imaginary about-”

“Are you really going to go down this path right now?” Neon asked as she glided over the table, landing right in front of Thunder. “If she didn’t exist, like she was suppose to in the first place, my mother would still be alive. Besides, she couldn’t possible stopped the nightmare from returning. She’s a screw up, and the only reason she looks better is because you were with her. With no elements of harmony, she couldn’t stop the Nightmare especially when it will give power to all that she holds dear.”

Thunder stumbled back, eyes wide as he stared at the twisted grin of Neon. This wasn’t the princess she knew, and she had known Neon for many years. In her head, Thunder decided exactly where her loyalty stood, and it wasn’t difficult. Something was wrong with Neon, and if her words told her the truth the Nightmare was already here. With trembling hooves, Thunder ran out of the dining room as fast as she could. She ran down the hall until she felt safe enough to stop, breathing heavily from fear. Looking behind her, Thunder’s tense muscles relax slightly, but the fear of the situation was unnerving.

“I have to find Luminous,” Thunder told herself. “That being said, finding her in that darkness is going to be hard unless…” Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. “Moondancer!”

“Yes, I have one on the desk right here,” The sleepy unicorn said as she rubbed her eyes. Moondancer looked to the figure that was Thunder Shield, pointing at a large stack of scrolls on a table. “It’s right there, don’t know why you need a pathkeeper.”

Thunder looked at the mountain of scrolls, blinking twice before looking back at Moondancer. The unicorn was already asleep, and even with what little Thunder had gotten she was left confused. The only way he was going to find a pony in the darkness of Equestria’s countryside is if he had a physical trail to guide him. A pathkeeper was meant exactly for that, so travelers and merchants could go through the pitch black of the world without being lost. However, that was all Thunder knew about them, and considering Moondancer was needed for even more he would have to do the one thing Luminous had found out never to do.

“Forgive me,” Thunder apologized to the dreaming unicorn before turning to the shelf of books in her room. “Our highness needs us.”

Randomly selecting a book titled The Paradox Pony, she proceeded to open it to a random page. With a sigh Thunder looked to the page in front of him and took it in his teeth before starting to tear it out. Then, almost as if she was never asleep Moondancer tackled Thunder to the ground with rage in her eyes. Quickly the unicorn teleported the book safety back onto the shelf, and moved in front of said shelf before letting Thunder up. The pegasus rubbed her back for a small amount of time before finally speaking up.

“You know that I wouldn’t have come here if i was just looking for a pathkeeper,” Thunder explained. “Considering the situation, I need somepony who knows magic to deal with whats going on.”

“And what is so important that you had to wake me up in the middle of the-” Moondancer stopped talking and raised her hoof to her muzzle. After a few seconds she continued. “-night or whatever when you could have simply gone into Canterlot and bought a pathkeeper.”

Thunder let out a sigh before answering. “Luminous has left Canterlot.”

The slowly expanding eyes of Moondancer was the exact response Thunder expected. The unicorns ears flattened against her bedhead mane while her mouth opened just wide enough for a fly to buzz in. Moondancers pupils dilated until they seemed like specs, a feeling of true horror coming for the first time in her life. She had been warned about this, and the invisible barrier kept around the castle. While nowhere near as close to Luminous as Thunder was, Moondancer had formed a friendly bond with the former captain.

“Y-your kidding me. This is a joke, right?” Moondancer asked, terror blackening her heart. When Thunder Shield’s answer was simply to look to the ground, Moondancer took a few steps back to contemplate on what it meant. “I… we did this. This is all our fault for not believe her. She was right all along, something really is wrong with Swift-”

“It’s not Swift,” Thunder interrupted her. “I don’t know why… not just why, I don’t know how, or what, or even when it happened but… Neon did this,” Thunder had to stop, unable to believe what she just said. “Neon did this for some reason. She said it to my face yet I don’t understand why. I know why but… it just doesn’t make any sense.”

“It was because of their mom, wasn’t it?” Moondancer replied, a nod coming as her answer. “Well if it was Neon then I guess it makes a little sense, but neither of us were around when it happened. Whenever I try to talk to Neon about it she’s reluctant,” She starts to pace as she thinks about it. “This wouldn’t make sense though, Neon always cared about her sister. Nothing natural would cause her to do something like this. What happened to cause this sudden anger at her sister?”

“I don’t think that’s the biggest problem right now Moondancer,” Thunder stated, stepping in front of the unicorn to stop her from pacing. “The biggest worry is that Luminous is out there, and without her equipment she has nothing to defend herself with. I need the pathkeeper to light a trail to her, and I need you because the hunters are probably already on her. Please say you’ll come with me?”

Moondancer only took a second to decide before looking back to her desk. She floated one of the many rolls of paper on the table with her magic, opening it as it reached her. It contained what she assumed was a map of Equestria before the darkness fell over them. Thunder smiled as she looked at the map before Moondancer motioned for him to step back. Once Thunder was far enough away from her, Moondancer focus her magic on the map. She concentrated on the image of Luminous she made in her mind, and seconds later the map lit up. When Moondancer opened it the light fell away, and revealed only to her a strange blue aura leading out the door. A smile fell on her face for only a second, before looking back with a more grave look upon her.

“Grab everything you can!” Moondancer ordered the pegasus behind her. “We’ll buy a sun lamp and some food in Canterlot, but after that we head straight out.”

“Oh Luna, oh sweet Luna,” Neon cried as she curled up on the floor of the dining room, Swift trying his best to comfort her. “I did it again… I did it and now I’ve put Thunder in risk. I… I never ask for this, why would I?”

“You know it felt good to do it.”

“SHUT UP!” Neon yelled to a voice in her head. “Just go away! I’ve already broken the promise to my mom, what else do you want?”

“Neon listen to me,” Swift Spell’s voice finally pierced her ears, yet the princess didn’t look up. “Will fix this, Luminous will fix this. You're going to be

“Do I look okay to you?” Neon said as she looked at Swift, her right eye a dark blue compared to her left’s green. “You said it yourself. The elements are gone! Who’s going to fix this? How is Luminous going to fix this?”

Rarity packed the back of the wagon, taking one last glimpse back at the mansion that she would most likely never see again. She looked to Sweetie Belle, who was going to pull the wagon thanks to her metallic strength. To say Rarity was uncomfortable bringing her back out into the darkness was an understatement, as she couldn’t describe the fear inside her. Yet Rarity was just as much excited as she was nervous, looking back to the two pegasi and dragon that was traveling with her. This was an adventure on it’s own, and while she was worried about the possible things that could mess up her appearance she was invigorated to set off. Quickly she double checked everything before hopping in with the others. She opened the gate with her magic and without a word Sweetie Belle effortlessly started off into the darkness that consumed Equestria.

“Do you know where we are going Sweetie Belle?” Soarin asked as they left the mansion’s courtyard, gate now behind them. “I thought you’ve never seen this arcane pony.”

“Soarin, have you never used a pathkeeper?” Sweetie responded.

“Sweetie Belle, pegasi… usually can’t use magic,” Rarity reminded her younger sister before turning to Soarin. “A pathkeeper is a special map we unicorns use to navigate the darkness. It shows the caster - or the target of the caster in this case - a trail to that destination. It can be used to find towns, ponies, or really anything in the darkness. You pegasi have something similar, don’t you?”

“Illumination goggles,” Luminous answered. “Never seen one myself, but I’ve heard they dissipate the shadows to show everything as clear as day… Or at least what day should look like.”

Topaz looked to the ex-captain, seeing that she was bobbing her head slightly. “You okay Luminous?”

“Yeah, just a little light-headed,” Luminous replied, shaking her head to clear the feeling away. “Everything's fine.”

Topaz checked over the pegasus to see if anything else was wrong, but was lucky to see Luminous was fine. Looking behind her, Topaz was surprised to see that the mansion had completely vanished from sight. If she could see it, the dragoness would have noticed the strange creature standing on top of the mansion.

In an unknown location in Equestria, a wolf stood covered in a purple light emanating from the amulet on her neck. She stared at the moon as she waited on the edge of a forest, humming quietly to herself. She could hear the voices of things around her, to scared of the light to attack. She knew why they existed, but never thought about it as her mind was always occupied by something else. One of these things was how long ago it had been since she had seen those of her pack, and how long she had been on this job.

She was pulled from her thoughts when another wolf jumped out of the cloak of darkness surrounding the small, illuminated area. She got back on all fours as he walked closer, glad to see he was okay. The two were siblings, both with the same job. The sister sniffed at her brother’s grey coat to make sure he didn’t smell strange. This comforted her brother, who backed up slightly.

“Sis I’m fine, nothing hurt me,” He said, only getting a cold nose to the neck in response. “Silvia please! I can hear them and it’s creeping me out.”

“You’ve been rolling in laughing grass, haven't you Ralf?” She asked her brother as she backed off, putting a paw on her nose. “The stuff smells like burnt meat, and I mean horribly burnt,” She shock her head as the smell lessened slightly, still bothering her. “Hopefully you weren’t too busy rolling around like a mutt to not get an idea on where our target is heading.”

“Which one?” Ralf replied, getting a cold stare from his sister in return. He sighed “You're no fun. One’s in a small town called Ponyville, the other is heading off somewhere else. Judging by the direction, they’ll be heading to Ponyville as well. Now can you get off my back about taking me time.”

“You know what the alpha would tell you,” Silvia reminded his brother before reciting. “ ‘The job of a paradox hunter is to eliminate ponies, griffins, and even our own with incomplete souls. Souls of the old times were fractured and created these ponies that can break the fabric of existence. They are merely echoes of who they should be, and can-’ ”

“I know, I know, you’ve told me hundreds of times by this point.” Ralf interrupted, rolling his eyes at his sister. “I get it, they’re dangerous. Doesn’t mean we can’t have some degree of fun, and exploring ruins is not my idea of fun,” He looked to his sister, who closed her muzzle in response. “What happen to you when you had your Rising Ceremony? You’ve become an entirely different wolf.”

“Some could say the same for you,” She pointed out. “Who was the fat, lazy brother I once knew? That was you, and you are still slightly chubby. Once you get in better shape, I’ll consider letting you off easier.”

Ralf reflect back to the happy times of his puphood, and how his mom would always give him the biggest portions. Silvia had all the reason to call him spoiled, but knew that any insult or comment would just make him retort back. Of course, as soon as he was chosen to be a paradox hunter such as herself the first duty was to beat the laziness out. Quiet literally in fact, as she swat him on the nose anytime he tried to rest during training. Not to say they didn’t love each other, but anyone wouldn’t believe it when first looking.

“So considering that both targets will and shall approach Ponyville it is fair to say we stake out there,” She said in an affirmative manner. “Oh and to finish up my little reenactment from before ‘They are merely echoes of who they should be, and to let them live for long may prove disastrous for our future. I know it’s hard to bring a claw against what could be innocent, but the future must be preserved’.”

“You really do sound like that old wolf sometimes, you know that right?” Ralf responded, only once again getting a stare in response. “Okay, fine. Let’s just start off to Ponyville if you're going to be commander cranky all this time.”

Chapter 6

“There is a hole in time, one cause by a ponies selfish intent. It is because of that hole we believe that some souls are fractured, and appear before us as young foals. While normal at first, they can become… stranger. How to describe it would take days, and we don’t have that time. Yet I do know that the selected path of history can be changed by this, such is the teachings of the alpha. Once, a pony nearly collapsed the boundary between us and the void, the first paradox. It was only thanks to the duty of the first wolves that the world continued. That day, we realized what had to be done to play our part in patching the holes that come.

With one hole in the fabric of time, others will most differently form. A catastrophe lies on our horizon, and even with it’s solid shadow slowly creeping towards us we must fight back. The destruction of these paradoxes as we’ve been told to call them, are vital to the life of our world. We are taught to think of them not as beings, but as monsters. Some crumble under the idea of taking another's life for a reason they don’t understand, such as I. Yet we can’t forget what they almost caused, and what they can still very much cause.

The very hesitation of my claws - of my fangs - might be the difference between survival and the end. Now I hear news somehow worse than any I ever had, of a paradox with immense power. This paradox is my target, and also that of my mutt of a brother. Though I once hesitated to end the life of a paradox, that was years ago. I see this as a chance to redeem myself, and to finally see my father after all these years. I must remember kindness, respect, and dignity while also showing myself as the vicious predators we are.

This is the duty of a paradox hunter such as myself, and the burdens that come with such a title. We are the hope of these three empires survival, even if they are unaware or refuse to believe it. Yet I have always wonder if there was something more than just the want of destruction these paradox wish for. I got my answer, and it was hard to see this creature as a monster with such an innocent face. Imagine what her mother would think…

Silence filled the air around Ponyville, giving the town it’s feeling of abandonment. Those who wished to live away from Canterlot, Lunar Republic, and Solar Empire faced worse hardship than those inside city walls. What colors should have been vibrant and beautiful came off as dull and faded. Not a single pony would dare idol in the town square, nor did anyone truly know the horror of the outside world. If it wasn’t for the lights for a few buildings, you would have called it a ghost town.

Silvia and Ralf was all too familiar with that cruel glimpse of the outside world. Silvia’s saving grace was the amulet around her neck, a gift from her father. Yet her brother had told her of the creatures, how twisted they appeared and the things can cause. Considering most who venture into the darkness of Equestria, her brother seemed the luckiest wolf alive. At the same time, Silvia had seen the aftermath of these creatures work. If luck had it, you only missed a limb. If unlucky... the thoughts were to gruesome for Silvia to imagine.

The closest building to them was a old looking pub of sorts, and they decided to use it to get a quick breath of relaxation. As the wooden door creaked open, the two wolves were met with few, yet astonished eyes. What chatter there had been seized, a young mare averting a foals eyes to keep them from seeing the new arrivals. This wasn’t Silvia’s first time in Ponyville, but she never had a reason unless there was a job. Anypony in town knew that if a wolf came, something bad had brought them. What should have been the welcome of heroes was overshadowed by the predatory nature of the wolves and their kind.

“Bartender, will take the corner booth,” Silvia said, unfazed by the glances she was getting.

The stallion behind the counter motioned a hoof to an empty booth close to them. Silvia nodded in gratitude before she and Ralf took seats on the opposite ends of the table. She eyed each pony in the bar, checking for somepony she’s never seen. Her eyes laid on the white coated mare with funny glasses on the other end of the pub. She was the one who had been averting the eyes of the foal next to her. The mare, who she knew as Vinyl, was looking right back at her with a stern face. Without a word Silvia looked away, eyes falling on a bored Ralf.

“At least try and look professional,” She scolded her brother, who let out a heavy breath in response. “I know these small towns aren’t your thing but you aren’t doing any good looking out the window.”

“Aren’t you the one who always said there’s more to the world than what we see in front of us?” Ralf responded deadpanned. Silvia nodded to answer her brothers question. “Well I want to ask you what I might be seeing if this darkness wasn’t around. What does the world really look like?”

“I… don’t know,” Silvia replied. “I assume we would see a beautiful town but… how am I supposed to know? No one is alive that remembers what the sun and moon looks like, and most likely no one ever will. We just got to do what we can to make things better than it seems to be.”

“So by taking down paradoxes, were simply sugarcoating how bad the situation really is?” Ralf said, getting a look from his sister that told him he had spoken to loudly. “Sis-”

“Earth ponies are a rare sight in this day in age,” Silvia whispered, glancing back at Vinyl. “Heard they disappeared many years ago, but I look in this bar and I see something rather odd.” Ralf followed her glance, looking to the filly sitting behind Vinyl. “We can’t go completely on race, but doesn’t it seem weird that an earth pony now of all times decides to appear.”

Before Ralf could reply, the sound of hoofs drew his attention to Vinyl. The mare whispered something to the filly, keeping an eye on the two wolves as they started making there way out of the pub. Before Vinyl reached the door, Silvia walked in front of her and locked eyes with the pony. Everything was silent, and neither one of them moved. Finally, Silvia spoke up.

“Who's the lucky stallion?” Silvia said deadpanned, knowing exactly what the response would be.

Vinyl circled Silvia, the filly following behind her trying to hide the pain she was feeling. Silvia knew full well though that she was hurting, and moved away watching as the filly miraculously got better. Ralf didn’t need to know any more, he had seen this before. The amulet around his sister's neck was meant to repel paradoxes, and the way the filly got when she was close to Silvia said everything. That filly was a paradox, but the question still remained if she was a threat or not.

“Let's wait a little before following, don’t want to act like stalkers,” Silvia told Ralf as she sat back down. “I know where Vinyl lives anyways, so there really isn’t much hurry. Hey bartender, I’ll have a drink, and Ralf will have a lemonade!”

“Are you sure that you should be going Thunder?” Moondancer said to the fully armored pony next to her as they walked through the streets of Canterlot. “I thought you would be more scared of leaving the city.”

“You can’t really tell but… I’m shivering inside the armor,” Thunder replied as he readjusted some saddlebags on his waste. “What am I going to tell Luminous? It won’t be a problem explain to her something's wrong with Neon but how do I explain her own existence.”

Moondancer couldn’t answer that. She had no idea how she was going to explain it herself, yet she would likely have to when they find her. They knew one thing, Luminous was still alive. That was the only comfort Moondancer had, and something she could only assure Thunder was true. Even with all the preparations they had, the real threat reminded them just how little hope they had of both getting out alive.

“You remember how I reacted when I found out I’m-”

“Thunder stop!” Moondancer commanded, the order coming sharp. “This isn’t the place or time to be reflecting on the past. You want Luminous alive, and there are others who want her dead. We’ll worry about the explanation at the moment it becomes relevant, understand?”

“Right,” Thunder nodded in reply. The two stood quietly in the middle of the busy streets, Thunder quickly making sure they had everything. “Food, water, armor, map…” Than it hit him. “Moondancer, please tell me you remembered to by the spell book.”

Moondancer’s eyes went wide, and in seconds she back the way they had came from. Thunder facehooved, the sound of metal vibrating as everyone turned to him.

“Sweet cheese and crackers.”

Silvia and Ralf walked through the quiet, ghost-like streets of Ponyville to the destination. To Ralf, who has never seen some quiet like this, was disturbed at the lifelessness of the town. He remember stories from the elder of what it should have been, and who it had become something it should never had. He could feel it, and almost smell the fear of everypony through the windows and doors of their houses. The very air seemed like a wandering spirit unable to rest. Nothing was happy, and he finally could see what life for ponies outside of the empires was like.

“We’re here,” Silvia told him as they approached the door to a house.

As the two came within an inch of the door, Silvia hesitated. This always happened, and was the reason she was stuck out here instead of living with her pack. No matter how many times she brought herself to do this, it didn’t make it less obvious what she was about to do. Luckily, she didn’t have to open it as a unusually serious Vinyl Scratch opened it for her. That glare in the usually chill unicorn’s eyes, it was something a paradox hunter was familiar with seeing. Silvia opened her muzzle to speak, only to get the coldest response she had ever her the unicorn say.

“Don’t. Say. A thing,” Vinyl commanded, each word feeling like an arrow in Silvia’s heart. “Melody is not dangerous, and I know that. You have NO reason to be here, paradox hunter.”

“You know it’s a title I bare with a burden greater than any wolf,” Silvia reminded the unicorn. “Part of me was happy to see you at the pub, it reminded me of the time when we use to be friends. Vinyl, I told you how dangerous paradoxes are.”

“You mean a filly,” Vinyl pointed out, outraged. “The nicest, cutest, and most musically talent filly I have ever seen, and you just so happen as to walk into town two days after I find her?” Silvia hid the guilt she felt inside, looking at the gloom present in grass under her. “You betrayed me, just like you did that paradox you told me about long ago. What was the name you gave her? Thunder Shield?”

“I’m sorry Vinyl, that’s all I can say,” Silvia blurted out, not thinking as every word came out. “I want to see my father again, I want to see the pack. I don’t want to kill anypony, but what do I get for acting more like a pony? Exiled. I showed friendship to Thunder Shield and to you and I paid for it. I have a job, and that job has lead me here, so Vinyl could please just step out of the way and-”

“Vinyl?” A small, foal-like voice came from behind the white mare. She looked back to see Melody, the filly Silvia had seen before holding her head. “My head hurts.”

“Melody go upstairs, please,” Vinyl pleaded, crouching down to the fillies height. “I know your head hurts but I have something else I have to deal with, and it involves your safety. Go upstairs, looks the door, and do not come back down until I get you.”

Melody took one glance behind Vinyl, locking eyes with Silvia. It was that moment Silvia saw something she had never seen before from a paradox, fear. She never saw what the older paradox hunters did to Thunder Shield when they took him away, and she had never seen a paradox truly understand what was going on. This was different; Melody triggered a feeling she hadn’t seen in a long time. It was a glance brought back memories of times long since past.

“Thunder!” A young wolf pup called out to the forest air, carrying bread on her back. “Thunder! It’s me, Silvia!”

“Over here,” She heard a voice call from the bushes, watching as a head popped out from them. “You weren’t followed, were you?”

“Don’t worry,” She reassured the young paradox. “My dads out hunting far away right now, and no one from our pack ever comes here. You’ll be perfectly safe.”

“You… you sure?”

“Of course I am!” Silvia shouted raising a paw in the air. “Listen, I’m your friend. I’m not like the other wolves, and I never will be. Just remember, if anything happen I’ll come save you. That’s what friends do.”

Some friend she turned out to be. Here she was, staring at terrified filly who’s half-formed soul she was told would destroy the world. This little filly had made her realize that she had become the exact thing she said she wasn’t, one of the other wolves. A predator searching for their prey with nothing but instinct, claws, fangs, and a love for meat. Maybe if she just turned back now, Vinyl will act like this never happen and the elder would give her something else.

No, of course that wouldn’t happen. This was her chance to be with her father, one of only two wolves she had left which truly loved her. Not only that but Ralf was watching her, and if she went soft on a filly when she had been nagging to him about taking the job more seriously, that would make her a hypocrite. She barely knew this filly and already they have made her judge everything she has done.

“Vinyl, I know what you think of my work,” Silvia began, contemplating the options at hand. “I understand that this filly feels important to you, but this is my last chance to be with my family again. I should be thinking of that, but instead I’m think of how many mistakes I’ve manage to make. I… think I need your side of the argument, the whole thing.”

Vinyl simply smiled upon hearing this.

The two ponies and two wolves sat at a medium size table with both species at each end. It was at that moment Silvia finally took the time to examine the filly Vinyl had introduced as Melody. She was much older than most paradoxes when they form, and given her body she believed the filly was seven years old. She had a dark brown coat and solid black mane and tail which held a degree of natural elegance in them. Silvia didn’t pay attention to the looks of those deemed as paradoxes (she wasn’t suppose to) but she couldn’t help but realize how normal Melody looked compared to others she has seen. If it wasn't for the broken aura, which she felt through her father's amulet, it would have been impossible to tell even with the amulets effect on a paradoxes brain.

Ralf, on the other hand, didn’t understand any of what was going on. Though he had been working with Silvia for some time now, this was the first time he had seen what a paradox truly looked like. The results made him less sure about what he had been brought into. She couldn't sense the aura like his sister could, but everything he saw made him feel like this pony was normal. If it hadn’t been for the fillies reaction around the amulet (which they left in a separate room to keep Melody comfortable), it would have been impossible for him to tell whether Melody was a paradox or not. That was the part that might have disturbed him the most, thinking they would be killing her if whatever his sister had planned didn’t work.

“You absolutely sure no one else is listening?” Vinyl said, making quick glances at the windows. “It’s just the two of you?”

“Ralf was kind enough to leave the pack to help an exile. If anything they would be coming here for us,” Silvia replied, getting a look of discontent from Vinyl. “You’ve changed a lot. You use to be such a lively filly.”

“And you were such a naive, kind pup,” Vinyl retorted back. “I’m not the only one around here who has changed, and you never told me you had a brother.”

“I didn’t really know her that well before exile, but I was willing to a family member,” Ralf said, hoping what he said made any sense. “I’m not sure what to think right now. This is my first time seeing a… paradox.”

“How old are you Ralf?”

“Seventeen, six years younger than Silvia.”

“The more time we waste the latter we get an idea on who Melody is,” Silvia said, trying her best to keep the two from idle chatter. “I really have no idea how to handle this, but I think if we get an overall idea on what Melody once was than we might know if she’s dangerous or not. Doing that by itself is dangerous however.”

“You're talking about a mind search!” Ralf’s eyes widened as he realized what his was going to do. “I thought it was banned from teaching.”

“I was exiled for more than just Thunder Shield,” Silvia told his brother. “It’s an old equine spell, but dangerous at that especially when used through objects. We wolves found out the hard way just how dangerous a mind search could be, but with proper execution I should be fine.”

“I know how smart you are from when I was a foal Silvia but what will this ‘mind search’ do when Melody doesn’t remember anything?” Vinyl asked.

“It’s not so much reading her memories but her dreams,” Silvia explained. “You’ve said she’s been her more than a day, which means that she had to dream. If she dreamt, no doubt she has lived small moments of it in her own dreams,” The two ponies and her brother tilted their head is confusion. “What I’m trying to say is that while most pony dreams are due to a part of their brain, a paradox for some reason can see through the eyes of their past self. It’s not very long, and if Melody explained a dream she remembered I would have no idea what kinda soul it is. However, by me entering a dream I see it through my own eyes, which means I should be able to see exactly who it is Melody once was.”

“Miss… Silvia,” Melody hesitated. As the wolf looked to her, she looked to Vinyl with a strange feeling of comfort. “Who can a wolf do magic when they have… uh-”

“I’m sorry you're afraid of me, Melody. I guess you were told what I am,” She looked to Vinyl holding the filly close to her in protection. “It’s our howl. We can channel our inner magic into a howl, but it’s more restricted than that of a unicorn. Wolves have created spells in the past, but known have ever been marked as highly as those of the unicorns.”

“If you're going to see her dreams, than no doubt you’ll need her asleep,” Vinyl spoke up. “Don’t think that I want to help you, but if it will show you that Melody is harmless than I’ll do it.”

Vinyl was acting almost… motherly. Compared to the wild, high energy filly Silvia had known Vinyl was completely different. She was glad that Vinyl was willing to help Melody, even if she didn’t true the wolf that had been her friend. If things went well, perhaps she could show the elder another way. That was all dreaming though, as she was using a forbidden spell among all races save for the long extinct alicorns. It was the reason she was exiled - having used it on Thunder - and the reason she might stay exiled.

That said, even with the memories of Thunder revived in her head, there was a bigger reason she was doing this. It was Ralf’s words back at the pub; he had asked what Equestria might look like under the darkness. This was her chance to see it, or at least what she thought Equestria should have been. She would be able to see the sun and the life of ponies without the darkness. Perhaps… she would learn of why the paradoxes truly appeared. These weren’t blurry, strange dreams that she was going to see. These were memories created by some sort of phenomenon long ago, where she would truly learn what caused the world she knows to exist.

“You promise this won’t hurt?” Melody asked as she got comfy in Vinyl’s bed.

“I promise,” Silvia said with a smile, though she didn’t really remember Thunder’s reaction when she did it on him. “Once Vinyl casts the sleep spell, I’ll chant the mind search through my howl,” Seeing that the filly was a little less tense she turned her head right to the mentioned unicorn. “Shall we began?”

Vinyl nodded her head before kneeling next to the bed and Melody. Her horn lit up as she channeled the spell, and touched the tip against Melody’s temple. A ripple effect occurred where the horn had made contact, and spread across Melody’s body as she started to fall asleep. As the ripples stopped, Silvia found Melody was asleep soundly with a smile on her face. Taking a deep breath and a quick hum to make sure she was in key, Silvia howled. Though she spoke no words directly, lyrics sounded in the ears of Ralf and Vinyl like telepathy.

My heart asks for dreams, not nightmares once told
A curse upon this, time has grasped ahold
Sadness fills this one's heart, which I wish to end
Brighten this ponies dreams, like the princess before
And all she become, a garden full of rose.

What happened next, was something only Silvia only saw as her soul enter Melody’s dream.

Something was off, Silvia knew that. Before she even opened her eyes it was clear as daylight, which now fell upon her. She didn’t open her eyes as she felt wind in her fur in a way she had never seen. A strange feeling of warmth came to her, one not that of a pony or wolf hugging her. Lastly, she heard the sound of music. Beautiful music from the likes of an instrument she had never heard before.

If it was real that was one thing, but as she opened her eyes to a blinded natural light it was clear this should be wrong. There was a sun, which meant her spell had succeeded, though four of her five sense said otherwise. She shouldn’t be feeling the wind, hearing music, smelling what must have been flowers, and seeing even a memory this sharp. She expected it to look clear, but this was too much detail for even a normal memory.

“How is this possible?” She asked to herself, realizing only after she finished speaking how clear her voice was.

“Your guess is as good as mine, dear hunter,” A voice responded unexpectedly from behind her. She looked to the owner of it and was put in awe at who was the owner. It was Princess Luna, looking straight at her with a look of authority. “What I truly wonder, however, is why this is the length you would go to when so many other like you won’t.”

“I see you sense me disturbing the dreams of another,” Silvia replied, no formality in the wolves voice. “Though perhaps I should be the one disturbed at just how real this is. For once, I know this isn’t the effects of my use of forbidden magic.” She took a step forward, feeling each strand of grass crash under her paw and the rocky soil underneath it. “After all these years, you’ve finally decided to pay another visit. Surely it isn’t just to lecture me on misusing magic.”

“Indeed it is not,” Luna answered turning to the direction the music was coming from. “I have been meaning to reminded you of the penalties for a long time, but for some reason I haven’t been able to connect to you dreams like others when nightmares arise. When you entered this dream, I took the chance to do the same only to realize the exact anomaly you had. Though I can’t be certain what is the cause is, I believe the most plausible answer is the mare’s dream which you entered.”

Following her gaze Silvia looked to a large outdoor stage with at least four dozen or so ponies in front of it. On that stage stood a grey mare with a straight black mane playing a large wooden instrument. It was easily one and half times larger than that of the mare's body, with four strings made of what Silvia believed was called catgut. She looked to Luna, was watching the pony playing on stage. Silvia looked back and forth between the mare and Luna, until finally it clicked inside of her.

“That’s Melody?” She shouted at the top of her lungs. “I don’t understand! She looks so different from the filly I saw. I would have assumed that she was still a filly, she has to be. Melody’s full self was never born due to the actions of the first paradox, like every other paradox. So why does she look like that? And why does it even make sense for it to be her?”

“I believe it’s something you wolves call ‘natural instinct’,” Luna replied. “Hunting, playing, boundary marki-” She stopped when she realized exact how wrong her theory was, giving Silvia a quick laugh as she thought about the last subject. “What I mean is that when you look at this mare, you must have had the same feeling you did when you first saw her. Maybe the smell, of perhaps it’s something else.”

“It’s… her soul,” Silvia said, somehow able to naturally see the half-formed soul of the mare on the stage. “I… I shouldn’t be able to see her soul without my dad's amulet, let alone in a dream. This doesn’t make sense.”

Clapping hooves sounded through the air as Silvia watched Melody bow in respect. She spoke some words to far off in the distance to hear before the crowd dispersed from the seats, save for one. A flash of white fur jumped at the full grown Melody, twirling her round and round till she finally stopped to give Melody a hug. It was than Silvia with wide eyes made out the white pony as Vinyl. If this was a memory liked the hunter believed, than somehow it had managed to make a perfect representation of Vinyl. Yet Silvia knew that wasn’t true, as Vinyl and Melody weren’t alive back before the catastrophe all those years ago. Eager to get a better idea of what this Melody looked like, Silvia walked towards the stage.

“You rocked it Octy! Everypony loved it, I’m sure!” Dream Vinyl said, Silvia stopping in her tracks as she heard what she referred to Melody as. “Still think you need a little more ‘umf’ in your music though. You need a sick beat that will get all those ponies dancing.”

“Not all music is for dancing Vinyl,” Silvia was brought back by the strong accent in Melody - or Octavia as Dream Vinyl referred to her as - voice. She had heard a similar one from Melody in the real world, but not as noticeable as she did here. “Though if you would think of something a little less wild for these sorts of occasions I would love to have you with me.”

“No bass cannon?” Octavia shook her head, causing Vinyl’s ears to droop before springing back to life. “Aw. That sucks, but if you lay the melody I’ll do the best to lay down the beat.”

“I would love that. A waltz, or minuette maybe?” Octavia asked herself, more as an afterthought than as a full on question. “We could decide latter.”

Silvia didn’t hear the end of the conversation, instead working her way back to Luna’s side. Somehow, she was in some sort of weird dream or memory from a time that doesn’t exist. Along with that, Vinyl seemed to have some sort of relationship with Octavia - which Silvia concluded was the full form of Melody’s soul. Even weirder was the fact that she could smell, hear, feel, and even taste the wind. It was as if it wasn’t a dream at all…

… Like this was real.

“That’s impossible,” Silvia stuttered, working on to the of something more sensible. “This can’t be real, Luna being here proves it. Luna can only enter dreams, and it’s impossible to open a portal through… what the heck this would be. This-” She looked out to the distance, spotting a giant crystal tower. “What is this?!”

“Perhaps that is something worth saving her for,” Luna replied, having heard every word out. “Even I am unsure what this truly is. Perhaps an alternate reality, or a vision of what there life she have otherwise been. Or maybe it’s some even stranger than I can describe.”

Silvia looked out a little longer, an anger sleeping inside her. She didn’t know why it had found a place in her, but something about this strange place made her feel… lied to. What had been lied about she truly had no idea, but this world gave her the feeling someone she knew had told her wrong. She wanted to know what this was. Not for knowledge like others would have, but because she felt rage at this not being her world.

“If I go far enough away, to the town in the distance, the dream shouldn’t be fully developed,” She theorized. “If this really is just some strange dream, I want to make absolutely sure.”

“Than I’ll fly you over,” Luna offered, “That way if you fall through the dream like predicted I can catch you. We must also make haste, she might wake soon.”

“Agreed,” Silvia said, jumping onto Luna’s back without warning.

As the alicorn and wolf reached the town, Silvia found herself in utter dismay. What should have been an abyss of nothingness was instead a town full of pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies. It look real, as if the ground was just as solid as the field Octavia had played in. Luna could help but think of this all as solid ground, it being long since she had been able to fully enter a ponies dream. Silvia was more skeptical, and knew there was only one way to find out just how solid the ground felt. They were only inches off the ground, but it wouldn’t matter if it was all just meaningless background.

“If I fall through the earth, catch me,” She told Luna, who didn’t even have time to register what she meant before Silvia jumped off her back.

Silvia closed her eyes, not expecting to feel anything after jumping. Instead, only seconds after she jumped off Luna she felt pebbles between her paw pads, and the shuffling of dirt. As this came to realization she opened her eyes to see she was standing in the middle of a normal street, the shadow of a building keeping the sun's warmth from falling on her. What astonishment there had been in the hunter had left before touching the ground. Instead, she thought about the abnormality of the situation. There was something more to this. There was more to the paradoxes than just being the product of a thousand year old phenomenon.

“What do you think about this all, paradox hunter?” Luna asked as she joined the wolf on the ground.

“This shouldn’t be happening a dream or a memory,” Silvia said as she watched ponies past by them completely unfazed by the figures of a wolf and alicorn. “Memories only show what the creature who lived them saw, so there wouldn’t be this town when that field was to far away for the length of a memory,” She next look to her fur coat, which was blowing in the wind. “A dream shouldn’t have touch, smell, or even taste. Even hearing is abnormal in most forms of dreaming.”

“In other words, what we are seeing is something that should be impossible, yet at the same time must have some connection to this Melody pony,” Luna summed up, walking in front of Silvia with her wings looking ready to fly. “You've used this spell before. How else would you know such things only I, the princess of the night, should know.” She furled her feathers back up and turned to Silvia. “I know this won’t stop you from hunting paradoxes, but that might be best. Some paradoxes are more dangerous than others, and another catastrophe might be prevented due to your efforts.”

“However,” Luna and Silvia’s muzzles touched, a stern glare in the alicorn's eyes. “Though I will allow you to continue using the mind search spell to see the dreams of paradoxes, you are collapsing your grips on your own life. Please take better care in the future with banned spells, especially when one may cost you to howl a song of death instead. Only use it to find a possible truth behind the mystery of these… false realms we shall call them, and to seek out paradoxes with power that might destroy our future.”

“And why should I listen to you when you didn’t live long enough to see the first paradox?” Silvia asked, not hiding the irritation in her voice.

“Because I can feel something coming,” Luna answered. “My power weakens, and even now I hear the sound of souls being disappeared in the farplane by… something. Yet something even worse lies on the horizon, an evil I don’t know the form of. Don’t take this as you helping me, but as a way to stop the next great catastrophe.”

Silvia nodded, and the world around her flickered. It was a sign that Melody was about to wake up. She wished to have time to explore this place, but she didn’t control how long one sleeps. There was a sudden force pushing against Silvia, which told her she was about to exit the dream and return to her body. Her body started to disappear like stain glass, having only time to say on thing to the princess.

“If a hero is what you ask than I’ll be that hero,” Silvia spoke with confidence.

Luna only looked to the wolf as she opened a portal out of the dream. “After everything you’ve done, and all you become?” Luna asked rhetorically as she stepped through the portal, Silvia gone before she could finish. She sighed, the portal slowly closing behind her “The last thing you are, Silvia, is a hero.”

Silvia felt as if a lightning bolt had run through her body as she woke up, falling backwards in shock. Ralf caught her in time, reacting unusually quick all things considered. Vinyl kept her eyes on Melody, watching as the filly woke up with a groan. Thankful that Silvia didn’t do anything while Melody was dreaming, Vinyl almost collapsed on top of the filly and relief. As Silvia regain her train of thought, she got back on all fours. Turning to Vinyl, she put on an honest smile.

“I shouldn’t be doing this, especially since I’m so close,” She started, pausing briefly to rethink how good of an idea this was. She had to do it, especially since she gave Luna her word. “I’ll let Melody live.”

The faces of the mare and filly opposite of her both lit up like the stars that long ago darted the sky. Vinyl let a tear run down her face before grasping Melody in her hooves and swinging her around, both cheering happily. The happiness in their faces, it was something Silvia never saw from the ponies of Equestria. While her kind loved the darkness, the ponies feared it like they did the creatures that called it home. Ralf couldn’t help but smile, knowing whatever went on in the dream changed his sister's mind.

“Thank you,” Vinyl told Silvia, crying as she gave her old friend a hug. “Thank you so much Silvia. You don’t know how much this means to me. It’s great to know you still have a heart.”

“It was the least I could do, especially after seeing what I did,” Silvia explained, giving a much more gentle hug to Vinyl than she was to the wolf.

“What… did you see?” Ralf asked, coming up to his sister's side as she let go of Vinyl. “What is it like to see a paradoxes dream.”

“I… can’t really say,” Silvia told her brother. “But I saw enough to see just how harmless O- Melody is. Trust me, you two will be very happy together,” Vinyl looked to Melody who was brushing her side as she heard everything. “Now, I’m sorry but I have somewhere else I must stop.”

“Will you be in town the next few days?” Vinyl asked Silvia. “It would be nice to get to talk with you after everything that happened.”

“I’m staying with the Dash’s, like usual,” Silvia explained to Vinyl. “There’s another, more dangerous paradox coming. One odder than any I’ve felt before. Besides, the Dashes still need my help getting their daughter back up and going,” Silvia thought over things a little bit before giving her response. “I should have time to talk with you during that time.”

“Than I’ll see you later, Silvia,” It may not have seen like much to Ralf or Melody, but hearing Vinyl call her by her name gave Silvia the biggest smile she has had in years.

“Wake up your highness,” Rarity said, gently shaking a sleeping Luminous, getting a groan in response.

“Five more minutes?” Luminous asked without even opening her eyes, before something hard hit her back. “AH!” She turned around to see Sweetie Belle standing over her, smiling. “Okay, I’m up. What is so important?”

“We’ve arrived at Arcane’s your majesty,” Rarity answered, removing Sweetie from Luminous’ back.

The pegasus sat up as the fashionista and her sister went to wake up the others, narrowing her eyes to trying and make out the figure of the a house. It was than she realized that the only actual light source was the Lunar String and a lantern. She looked around for any sign of civilization with great confusion. Finally she turn to Rarity, taking time to think up a reasonable question before asking.

“WHERE IN LUNA’S NAME ARE WE?!”

Chapter 7

I remember staring at the giant glass windows of Canterlot castle in my dreams, the events of the past told in them like you would a religion in a church. The figures of ponies through history glistened in the beautiful, shimmering stained glass. I could see each piece of glass was expertly cut, in bright shades of blue, yellow, and any other light hearted color. They weren’t the same as the ones in reality, but what are you to expect from dreams. Pictured on some windows was that of six ponies, who together seemed to destroy many strange and powerful looking creatures. I felt something special looking at them, but my eyes in the end always fell on the events I do remember from history.

The banishment of disharmony, Tirek, and Sombra all was recorded in the halls of the castle. Yet a shadow shined onto them that never appeared in my dream, darkening the glass and casting a strange darkness into the halls of Canterlot Castle. To think that even the brightest of historical events couldn’t escape what has become of our world. That said, I didn't ever pay much attention. I know I talk too much about dreams, and the past that I wished to be now, but how can I not?

I once thought that the world was so simple, but that was all before I met him…

“WHERE IN LUNA’S NAME ARE WE?!” Luminous shouted at the top of her lungs. “I knew you said he wasn’t in a town but this is the middle of nowhere!”

“Luminous could you pleeease quite it down?” Topaz asked. “Some of us are still trying to wake up here.”

The dragoness letting lose a yawn as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Soarin awoke a few seconds after, stretching his wings out to try and loosen them up. The two couldn’t make out anything else around them other than the wagon and the faint silhouette of a building not far off. Topaz took a second to realize that they weren’t moving any more, and fell into a silent shock. They were really in the middle of nowhere, and the last blue flame of the lamp starting to die out as they did.

“I-I know what this looks like,” Rarity replied, trying her best to calm the mood. “But there’s a really good reason Arcane lives all the way out here. He has some trouble talking to ponies, and ponies don’t exactly have the best of opinions about him. That said I can promise all of you that he can be just as nice as any other ponies.”

“So your ex is a social reject?” Topaz asked, sighing as she finished her question. “Yep, I can see this is going to work out just fiiiine.”

“Just give him a chance Topaz,” Luminous encouraged as she made her way to the door, the glow illuminating the wooden door as she neared it. “If Rarity is willing to bring us with her to his house he can’t be all that bad.”

She went to knock on the door, only for it to open as her hoof came in contact with it. The others made their way to her side, the inside of what must have been the living room illuminated by the Lunar String. The living room was a relatively small room with almost nothing in it besides from a coffee table with an old candelabra and small couch. Rarity, having grabbed the now extinguished lamp out of the wagon, used her magic to reignite the blue flame and levitating in front of everyone. It help give a better idea of what the room looked like, highlighting the maple wood floor and bland white walls. The fashionista let out a sigh at this development.

“Just the way I left it,” She mumbled. “I wonder how long he’s been down there this time.”

“Whelp, if he isn’t going to greet us,” Topaz simply showed them what she meant by walking in without a care. Looking back she could see everyone looking at her in disappointment. “What? Isn’t this what he gets for leaving the door completely open for any robber to sneak in and steal?”

“You do realize that this is the second time you’ve invited yourself into someone else's house now right?” Luminous replied in deep annoyance, before the Lunar String subconsciously stretched out into the living room, filling it with a soft blue light. She let out a sigh, “Well, I guess it’s probably better waiting inside than out here.”

“He is most definitely home,” Rarity said slightly worried, watching as Luminous walked in. “Arcane isn’t one to wander far from his house unless needed, and I’m certain he is home right now. If anything he’s locked himself in that study he made in the basement.”

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say he does that often,” Soarin guessed, walking in after Rarity and Sweetie Belle. “Am I right?”

“Often would be an understatement,” Rarity answered as she lit the candelabra with a normal red flame. “It might seem crazy, but he’s spent days down there at times. Once he gets on a project he can’t stop. That said we should probably inform him in some way that we’re here.”

Luminous wasn’t paying attention to the discussion behind her as she opened a door on the far right of the living room to see a bedroom with a stairway leading down. There was a single dark grey blanket on top of the mattress on the right of the room and a wooden dresser behind it. There was not a single light source, which unsettled the pegasus considering the creatures Rarity had mentioned before. The Lunar String finally rested once again as a ribbon in her mane as she made her way towards the stairs. The soldier facade she had worn around the others dropped as she started descending them, filling her with a sense of fear.

As she reached the bottom, she was greeted by a small room with a chair and table at the end of it. The walls had shelves which held potion filled veils and strange pink crystals that let off a faint glow to them as she walked passed. As she reached the other side her eyes fell upon the closed book upon the table, a leather covering as it’s cover. If she had taken a better glance around the room, she would have seen the door next to the table she was standing at. Instead Luminous found herself not moving, a strange thought going through her mind.

“This book contains every known spell the Umbrum have ever written, every potion they ever made, and every crystal enchantment ever completed. In other words, every part of their magical history is inside this book, both good and bad.”

She had no idea what was going on, but she felt a strange urge to open the book in front of her. It felt like an precious belonging she lost long ago had just been found, and she needed to carry it from all the time apart from it. Lost in a trance, Luminous reached out slowly and shakingly to grab the book, as if their was some sort of force keeping her from being fully hypnotized. Her pupils dilated to the size of raisins, doing her best to push any resistance to the temptation out of her. She wanted this book… no, she NEEDED it. Her hoof was only an inch away now, the same words as before repeating but even louder and louder.

Than, as her hooves were about to touch it’s cover, another one slammed the cover from the opposite side of her. The sound of the other hoof woke Luminous up from her trance, letting out a loud yelp as she fell backwards in fear. Her mind was racing to remember what just happened, but all the came to mind was coming down the stairs. She couldn’t remember why she was at the other end of the room, but next thing she knew a dark grey hoof flashed into her eyes. Luminous tried her hardest to remember what she was doing, but the sound of heavy breathing above her drew her attention.

Above her stood a large stallion, taller than that of any she had seen in the guard back in Canterlot. His coat was dark grey, matching that of the hoof that had woken her from her trance. His mane and tail were very short and black, the former falling just halfway down his neck while the latter went to the bottom of his flank. His cutie mark was hidden from the Luminous’ view, instead finding herself staring up to the stallion's face. The thing that caught her attention most was that of the strange curved horn which seemed to be made out of a blood red stone. His dark red eyes seemed to pierce her very being, lips pulled back into a grimace as he stared.

“You!” The stallion roared. Ever letter was spoken in a slow and sinister tone, echoing as if each one was a whisper, resonating in Luminous’ head louder and louder.

“Luminous, get up.”

Luminous’ eyes shot open at the sound of a familiar voice, looking to see Luna standing in front of her in worry. Getting up, Luminous realized she was in the Farplane for the first time since meeting the long dead princess. She looked up to see the moon in the sky this time instead of the sun, it’s glow illuminated the dream garden. She looked around to see herself in a flower patch like the first time, but was in awe at the sight of dozens upon dozens of blue flowers glowing in the light of the moon. The petals looked like stained glass as they danced from side to side in the fields of Luna’s realm.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” Luna asked as she walked up to her guest and sat in the grass. “They’re called Lumaglow Tulips. When I made the Farplane I want a flower that was not only beautiful in the sun, but at night as well,” She picked one nearby her and brought it close for Luminous to see “The castle in the Lunar Republic, who my predecessors call the Garden of Shadows, is suppose to hold all of them that still exist in the living world.”

“I’ve heard of the Garden of Shadows from my mom,” Luminous told the princess. “The place is suppose to look like a beautiful garden from the outside, located inside a deep dark cavern along with the rest of the Lunar Republic. That was all however.”

Not another word was exchanged for some time as the two stared out into the countless fields all lighting up with the same calming blue flowers. Luminous couldn't understand what had brought her here exactly, last remembering that scary looking pony standing over her. She must have fainted or something like that, but it was most definitely not a dream. It felt too real, and the ringing of him saying ‘you’ was still in her ears. They twitched uncomfortably as if they had bounced off of the far off mountains, one of which had a strange sliver of red or orange in it.

“Did you bring me here Luna?” Luminous asked, Luna shaking her head. “So… how did I get here?”

“I’m not really sure, though I do have news to share with you,” Luna told her company, taking a deep breath after finishing that sentence. Luminous waited for her to respond, but Luna didn’t.

“And that is?”

“Earlier today I had an encounter with an old… friend,” Luna explained. “Well, friend is probably not the right word to use in this situation but I can’t find a substitute and enemy is to cruel of one,” Finally a word came to her. “Let’s just say she’s an acquaintance, who I manage to have an interesting little adventure with in the mind of a little filly. Since the last time we had met she had learned a lot more about dreams than I had thought and we manage to see some odd contrasts in the filly’s dream to that of a normal ponies.”

“You make it sound like this is bad news,” Luminous joked, stopping when she saw Luna staring at her sternly. “Wait… it is? How is this supposedly bad news?”

“In truth the end result of this turned out fine but…” She hesitated, trying to come up with the exact number. “This must have been the first time we’ve talked in twenty years, and considering that I only managed to contact her because of a colt last time,” She shook her head rapidly. “I guess I’m over thinking it but there is something that had been blocking me from talking, and with the screams I’m hearing-”

“Your hearing screams?!” Luminous blurted out in worry. “You should’ve told me about it. Is there something I can do to stop it?”

“I knew you would say that, but until I know what it is I don’t to put you in harm's way,” Luna responded in a calm manner. “Also, I think you know there is a more important matter to discuss,” She turned toward the moon, the light reflecting off her eyes making them sorry. “Luminous, I know you may be scared at first, but with what little time we have left before you wake I must tell you something. No matter how he seems, or what he use to be, trust him with your life.”

Luminous awoke to the feeling of hard wood on the floor, and the sight of a flat ceiling above her. She was still in the basement of Arcane’s house, but to her left she could see Topaz now next to her. The dragoness was staring down at the end of the room, and sitting up Luminous felt shocked to see Rarity talking to the stallion that she had seen before fainting. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, as they whispered to each other. Looking back to Topaz, Luminous could see a hatred in her eyes, lips pulled back in a snarl showing her jagged teeth.

“Something wrong?” Luminous asked, only getting a side glance from the dragoness.

“She’s been acting that way ever since she saw Arcane,” Soarin whispered into Luminous’ ears, catching off the ex-captain as she turned to the shivering pegasus. “That’s the pony Rarity’s talking to, or at least I think it is. Something about him just… scares me. I think it’s that look in his eyes.”

Their attention snapped back to Rarity as hoofsteps sounded through the room. The stallion followed behind her, and they sat down next to each other a foot from everyone else. Luminous looked to the stallion, who was looking back at her with fury on his face. She couldn’t get what he had said to her earlier out of her head, not recognizing him at all. Looking at him, she could tell what Soarin was saying about the stallion. Rarity let out a forced cough to grab everyone's attention, letting out a sigh.

“Everypony, I would like you to meet Arcane,” She said as she pointed to the stallion. “Arcane ‘Sombra’ Glyph for those of you wanting his full name.”

Luminous couldn’t count how many heart beats she just skipped, but it was enough to dizzy her for a few seconds. Topaz was now breathing heavily next to her, sounding less smooth and more feral. Arcane, on the other hoof, was sitting tall and proud as he heard Rarity call that title he had been given. It sent a shiver through Luminous, and then another as the name finally rang a bell. Both she and Topaz knew that name was no coincidence.

“Sombra,” Topaz snarled, catching Arcane’s attention. She wanted to sink her claws into him right now “What in Luna’s name are you doing here? And why do you have your full body?”

“What do you think I’m doing here?” Arcane asked rhetorically, his voice full of pride. “Did you forget that curse would hold me forever? Ha, would your princesses love it if that was the case. To bad they have a sweet spot for mercy, or else they might not have let so many die.”

“Take. That. Back,” Topaz commanded, her resistance almost falling away. “Like enslaving the lives of everypony in an empire is any better.”

“Well,” He chuckled, voice dropping to a more sinister tone. “I may have enslaved an empire, but you have a higher death count than any of us. Why did that happen again?” He lifted his front right hoof to his muzzle. “Oh, right. You started a war.”

“That’s it! Luminous with m-” Topaz stopped, the anger suddenly replaced by worry as she saw the look on Luminous’ face. “Luminous, are you okay?”

The ex-captain didn’t respond, the soldier inside of her having been washed away upon hearing the name ‘Sombra’. Topaz hadn’t seen this side of her, believing Luminous to have been a soldier through and through. Now she saw what one could only describe as a filly waking up from a night terror. Her eyes spelled out all the fear inside her, one that seemed to come from more than just history.

“Luminous?”

“Huh?” Almost as if she was in a dream, Luminous suddenly jolted forward. The fear dissipating from her face, now completely confused. “Topaz, is something wrong?”

The dragonesses jaw dropped. “Um… did Sombra do something to you when you came down here earlier?”

Luminous looked around the room at everyone, seeing they were all staring at her. Looking to Arcane, she saw a wide smile on the stallion's face. She looked back and forth between him and Topaz, trying to piece together what the dragoness was hinting at. Finally, she came to a solid conclusion, or more accurately a response to Topaz’s question.

“Who’s Sombra?” Luminous asked Topaz.

“Him!” Topaz shouted as she waved a clawed finger at the sinister figure in the room. “How do you not recognize him? Sombra, the last of the Umbrum, the most cruel group of ponies in ancient Equestria! He enslaved the entire Crystal empire, and put a curse on it that made it disappear for more than a thousand years! He was of Luna and Celestia’s enemies all those years ago.”

Luminous thought about it before looking at Rarity. “So your coltfriend is a tyrant?”

“Th-that’s not how it worked out!” Rarity responded in a rush to defend herself. “His name isn’t actually Sombra, but Arcane Glyph like I told you. That was a title he took from Celestia and Luna a thousand years ago,” The fashionista looked to Arcane. “The two of us managed to dispel the curse on his body, and I’ve helped him become a slightly better pony. It’s to complicated to really explain everything that happened.”

“Thanks Rarity, but I have some questions of my own for somepony here,” Arcane looked to Luminous as he spoke, Topaz just sitting there in complete shock next to the pegasus. “You do know what this book is exactly, right?” Luminous nodded. Arcane took note of this and decided to not directly respond. “I must say that I’m quite shock at the position you uphold, or that you're even a princess at all.”

Luminous gulped. “Um, why is that?”

“Because I would expect anypony, much less a princess to respond in fear at the very sight of me,” Arcane replied shaking his head in disappointment. “I’m surprised that you have no idea who I am, considering the mark I’ve left on history. Unless you're just playing dumb, because knowing those two monarchs they would put the events of my rule in school plans, history books, and on a nice stain glass window in Canterlot Castle,” He let out a deep laugh as he mocked the ex-captain. “You break down a pony and this is what you're left with.”

“I... didn’t think it was all that important,” Luminous explained. “I do remember the windows in the throne room, but I always thought those creatures and ponies were defeated for good.”

“Of course you did,” Arcane nodded. “However, I’m more interested in you now than I had been before.”

His horn ignited in red aura before his body seemed to vanish into a cloud of dark grey mist. Before Luminous could act the cloud flew right up next to her and shifted back into a natural form. He put his front legs behind Luminous to stop her from instantly backing away, only lifting his front right hoof to touch the Lunar String. As he did, the area of the String he touched turned black as the darkness outside. It sent a slight pain through her body, and at this point Topaz finally snapped out of her shock. As Arcane saw this his horn once again lit up and a barrier formed around him and Luminous.

“How interesting,” He muttered to himself, looking to Luminous and the pain the Lunar String was giving her. “Solid aura? No, this is something I haven’t seen in a long time, and connect to the nerve system somehow, or maybe,” A sinister smile formed, his lips pulled back to show his jagged teeth. “The pain is that of my emotions entering your body.”

“P-please... stop,” Luminous pleaded, her breath growing heavy. “It hurts, a lot.”

“My apologies,” Arcane responded as he lifted his hoof off of the Lunar String, Luminous coughing as it did. He stood there in thought for a few seconds, looking to see Topaz trying to break down the barrier as predicted. “Naive little princess, you and me are going to have some fun.”

With Rarity’s aid (mainly to keep Topaz from trying to rip him to shreds) Arcane escorted Luminous through the door next to the book she tried to grab earlier. Her body felt heavy after Arcane touched the Lunar String, muscles seeming to lose all strength. As the two entered the room Rarity looked it with a magic seal. Topaz was absolutely furious as everything played out in front of her.

“Honestly Topaz, this is just Arcane’s way of greeting ponies,” Rarity told the dragoness. “He’s obsessed with magic, and would rather spend his entire life just doing that.”

“Oh yeah!” Topaz said as she grabbed Rarity’s mane, much to Soarin and Sweetie Belle’s shock. “Say that when he brainwashes her, or uses mind control, or-”

“Topaz!” Rarity screeched, shaking the dragonesses claws out of her mane. “Do you know what Arcane did before he became that tyrant?” Rarity checked her mane to make sure no hairs were messed up as Topaz shook her head, arms crossed. “He worked as the personal assistant of a certain princess you know very well.”

Topaz stood their in thought for a moment before the realization hit her. “He… work for princess Luna?” Rarity nodded. “Those records of dark magic being used in the castle suddenly make a lot more sense. Still, that doesn’t give him a good excuse to ENSLAVE AN ENTIRE CITY!”

“You really have no idea what happened do you?” Sweetie Belle asked, Topaz having forgotten the mechanical filly was still here. “Arcane never really told us why he did it, but after being lonely for a thousand years he changed a little. He wasn’t exactly a nice pony, and he still isn’t, but one thing that's for sure is that he wouldn’t do something like that again,” The unicorn pawed the ground with one of her hooves. “Besides, I owe him my life.”

“Your life?” Topaz asked, trying to think of anything that she had heard Sweetie Belle mention. It didn’t her long to figure it out. “Sweetie Belle… what actually happened to your real body?”

“Your focus is horrible,” Arcane told Luminous as he sat her down against the wall. “And that isn’t just because you’re a pegasus. If I had kept contact with it longer I would’ve overwhelmed your normal emotions, and replace them with much darker ones.”

“How do you know this?” Luminous asked the former tyrant as he walked over to a closet and opened it. Inside was a countless amount of strange objects that she had never seen before in her life. “I figured not even Luna knows what the Lunar String is or how it works.”

“Call it the Lunar String if you want, but I know exactly what it is,” Arcane said as his magic picked up a bottle filled with strange a black dust of sorts. “Luna’s aura, much like her sisters, is different. What made the princess of the night different from her sister is how she used it, turning part of her aura into a living source known as the Tantibus,” He put the bottle on the floor in front of them. “That right there is a remnant of Luna’s aura, which she intrusted me with after it almost overwhelmed her. The Tantibus is a living nightmare, and when Luna died that nightmare was believed to have vanished.”

“So you saying that this is thing Luna gave me is basically a nightmare?!” Luminous exclaimed, quickly being silenced by Arcane’s hoof.

“Not exactly a nightmare,” He reassured her. “The Tantibus is said to hide inside everything, and is the very darkness that has shrouded the world. Whether this is true or not is something even I would rather not find out,” He placed the Tantibus back on the shelf before looking back to Luminous. “Rarity has informed me of your destination, and though I was cursed when it was formed I know the way to the Lunar Republic. I would like to offer my assistance as a guide, and promise to not cause harm to any of your friends, including Topaz. Besides, I would like to keep an eye on your so called Lunar String, see how it acts and what it can do.”

Luminous thought about this for a second, trying to think of a reasonable response. Logic told her that he would cause more trouble in the future than help. However, her mind wandered back to the words Luna had said before waking up. She had said to not see him for what they once were, and to trust them. Luminous knew that Luna was talking about Arcane, it was too much of a coincidence to not be. In the end Luna’s words won, and she let sigh.

“Alright, but you better hold on your promise if that’s the case,” Luminous explained as she got up, the heaviness finally lifted from her body.

Arcane held a smug smile as he heard this, “Of course, we shall leave once everyone is ready.”

“Princess please come out,” Swift Spell pleaded as he continued to hit the door to Neons room with his hoof. “Look, I understand you're scared, but you're going to make more ponies worried if you just lock yourself away.”

Not a word came from the other side of the door, but Swift could hear the weeping princess inside. Swift Spell, looking at the lock, considered opening the door forcefully with his magic, but shook it out of his head. He was afraid to do such a thing, and instead took out a small crystal that he had in a saddlebag. Putting it to up to the door the magic started to gather around the crystal, before being absorbed. He was the one who had put the lock on the door earlier at the princess's request, but as a realization hit him he had regretted that very action.

“I’m coming in princess,” He warned as he opened the door slightly, only for a sudden force on the opposite side to keep him from getting through. Looking through the crack in the door he saw Neon, her pink coat seeming to have faded slightly. “Neon, let me in! You’re not doing yourself any good locking yourself away. That’s what she did when this almost happened to her all-”

“I told you to leave me be, Swift,” Neon responded in anger. “I don’t want to hurt you, or Luminous, or anypony else, so just leave me be!”

“That’s not going to do anything and you know it!” Swift Spell replied, pushing even harder on the door. “I know you can hear it, and I’m the only pony who has any idea how to combat it without the elements. Neon, I would ask again, let me in?!”

A silence followed before Neon responded in a low and defiant voice. “Al… alright.”

Slowly Neon backed away from the door, letting Twister open it as she turned away. Neon walked to the window, hiding her face by throwing the tips of her wings over her eyes. Twister walked up next to her, preparing to speak before realizing he had thought of nothing. His fear had come in such a rush that he didn’t know think of how to approach the princess. Knowing he couldn’t stay quiet after everything he had just said, he opened his mouth and spoke the first words that came to mind.

“How did it come to you?” Twister asked. “It had a reason for choosing you, and if I had seen this sooner perhaps I could have dispelled it before things got to this point.”

Twister did the best he could to see why Neon was covering her face currently, but she turned away as he looked at her. It didn’t stop him from seeing the paleness in her pink coat. He could tell this had been going on for a long time, but seeing Neon’s current state unsettled him. The feathers on her wings were more jagged than he remembered them being, and as he look for anything else he suddenly felt a different fear.

“Neon, how long has it been inside you?” He asked, she only turned away more. “Princess, I know you're scared but you have to tell me. I can’t do anything to help if you don’t tell me,” He tried to put a hoof on her shoulder to obtain her attention, but Neon flicked it away without even seeing it.

“You don’t want to know,” Neon said in tone that didn’t sound sad at all. “Honestly Swift, I’m not scared anymore. I probably should, but I don’t care at all.”

“That’s not you, it’s the nightmare,” Swift tried to explain to Neon, moving forward to try to once again see her face. “It’s manipulating your emotions, making you think in ways that aren’t… right. Neon, can you tell me what caused you to act like this?”

“You already know,” Neon replied, her voice sounding more aggressive than it had been. “It’s the entire reason I gave you the job, the entire reason I came up with the plan I did. It’s the reason Thunder Shield and Moondancer are now outside the castle walls.”

Swift knew immediately what she was talking about, but it didn’t fully make sense to him until he remembered the very first conversation he had with Neon. At this realization, fear gripped his heart like a monstrous claw, and he stepped back from Neon. To him, this was the worst possible answer he could have hoped for. He thought that the nightmare had only been inside Neon for a day, maybe two, but that was not the case. Swift glanced back to the door, glad to see it was still open, and then to the crystal that hung in his saddlebags. He swallowed, knowing that he would have to leave the room if things went too far.

“It’s been in you since before we met,” Swift said, barely louder than a whisper at the very shock of the statement. “You, made me cause Luminous to leave because… you wouldn’t.”

“That mare took the one thing I love most away from me, you know it Swift,” Neon told her advisor as she finally turned around, letting her wings rest by her side. He could now see that both eyes had changed to a dark blue, the right now with a slitted pupil. “She takes it away, places me in charge of a country instead of doing it herself, and isn’t even willing to come clean and tell me her mistake. The only reason Luminous is captain of the royal guards is because she’s my sister. Royalty gets whatever they want and if she had stayed around she might have done more harm than good,” She turns around, looking back to the window. “Don’t get me wrong, I want those other evils gone. They’re just as much villains as Luminous is.”

Swift didn’t respond for a short period of time, but when he did he tried his best to hide his fear. “If that's how you feel, then I’ll take my leave.”

“Close the door on the way out!” Neon ordered, glancing back at Swift. “I wish to be alone.”

Topaz looked to Sweetie Belle, then back to the closet in front of her. Rarity was looking in the opposite direction, back to the door that Arcane and Luminous had entered. Soarin was by her side, staring at the floor in contemplation. The sound of the closet closing brought their attention back to the of Topaz, whose arms still clutched the handles on the closet. Her head rested on the wooden doors, trying to come up with words for what she had just seen. Not a single word came out of her mouth, nor did the others need to in order to tell what her reaction was.

Arcane and Luminous finally opened the door, drawing Rarity’s attention to them. She walked up to them, seeing the look of fear on Luminous’ face. Even though there was no words, she could tell that it wasn’t because of Arcane but rather on something else. Luminous looked to Topaz, who was now looking back at Sweetie Belle again as she backed away from the closet. Rarity forced a cough in order to get the ex-captain’s attention, immediately shifting Luminous’ eyes to her.

“I’m coming with you,” Arcane explained to Rarity. “There are some… things I need to know, and they won’t be found here. It would be better if we left immediately,” His eyes looked to Topaz, who looked at him with less rage and more astonishment. “Besides, I don’t think it would be wise for you all to stay here long.”

“I’m thinking the same,” Rarity replied as she turned to Luminous. “Is that okay your highness?”

“Yeah,” Luminous said, smiling. “I’m ready to get back on the road.”

Chapter 8

Few families were as openly accepting as the Dash’s, and I owe much to them for everything they’ve done. Those first few months of exile were the most terrifying in my life, being alone in what seemed like endless darkness. Even if I would have found anypony, they would’ve run at first sight of me like they do every wolf. Than I meet them, Mr. and Ms. Dash and their daughter… their poor daughter. All three of them accepted me into their home, saying I could stay for as long as I wish. It was a generous offer, and one that I took so I wouldn’t ever have to worry about my dad’s amulet breaking on me.

Of course, every beautiful garden has one wilting flower, or a sadness in other terms. The Dash’s, no matter how much they smiled or told me everything is fine, was troubled. Denial, it was what most who lived inside the three great cities of Equestria practice. Denial of hardship, the tragedy outside the city walls, and the horrors of the darkness. To deny something so heartbreaking outside of there seemed almost impossible for me to believe, but I guess even these poor ponies have some regrets. All I could think when I learned what happened to Rainbow Dash, was why we wolves hadn’t done anything to destroy the creatures of the darkness.

It was cemented on that day, the day I met Luminous, that I learned who the real evil of this dark world really was.

--------

“Thank you so much for letting me stay here without notice,” Silvia asked the two pegasi in front of her, bowing in respect. “I would have sent word but everything has happened so quickly I forgot.”

“You have no need to send such things dear, you always welcome in our house,” Miss Dash said as she kissed the wolf affectionately on the cheek, giving Silvia a small smile. She then turned to Ralf, who immediately looked away upon eye contact “Now, the fact that your brother was coming along, I would have prepared the second bed upstairs if I had.”

This was the first time Ralf had seen a real smile on his sister’s face since he first met her. She always seemed angry, upset, or even scared whenever he managed to catch any facial expression on her. However, for a wolf who barely showed any save for certain exceptions, this was the first time he had seen a smile. It was happy to see for once, and to see it lasting for such a long time made him even happier. That only continued as Mr Dash, who was standing beside his wife, gave the wolf a warm hug.

As soon as they arrived Silvia had removed the necklace around her neck, Miss Dash opened up happy to see the wolf before hugging her, and than rushing upstairs to put it in her room. The Dash’s weren’t very fond of her being a paradox hunter, and though her father's amulet never was a symbol of that Silvia felt better without it around them. She did her best to avoid any possible conversations that could involve her job or pack, though didn’t hide anything about her father. This place in absolutely every way was her second home, the Dash’s her second family. Silvia like that, though a troubled heart always kept her slightly distant.

“Don’t worry about preparing another bed. I prefer the wooden floor believe it or not,” Ralf said as he turned back to Miss Dash, wave a paw frantically in front of him. “Still, it’s nice to see that the ponies who have been keeping my sister safe all these years.”

“Ah, I understand,” Mr Dash then spoke as everyone took a seat at a wooden table in the dining room. “Just wondering, how did you two happen to meet up. Your sister has been in exile for more than ten years now, and you said the two of you have never met?”

“I ran away from the pack,” Ralf explained as he rested his head on the table, “Didn’t need those kind of wolves around me. Other than my father there was no one there that really seemed to care about… anything,” He looked to Silvia as he said this next part. “Truthfully I met her running through the darkness. It’s rather hard to explain, but eventually we found out that our mother and father were the same and… yeah.”

Silvia rolled her eyes, the smile only seeming to grow on her face as her brother tried to explain their meeting. She couldn’t have explained it better herself, but there had to be something she could’ve done to make it easier. As a cup of cocoa was placed in front of her by Miss Dash, she felt a tear suddenly go down her face. No one saw it, but Silvia definitely felt it as it went down her cheek. This was always how she felt when she was around this place, which she had come to call her second home. She did her best to avoid showing how watery her eyes had become, and started drinking the cocoa in front of her.

“Rainbow will be happy to learn you are home too,” Mr Dash said, almost immediately causing Silvia to put down her cup. She opened her muzzle to speak but Mr Dash responded first. “Don’t worry, she’s fine. Rainbow seems to always be happier when you come over, or when anyone comes over honestly.”

Silvia calmed down upon hearing this, breathing a sigh of relief. She continued to have the cocoa set in front of her before something knocked hard on the front door. She truly had no idea what time it was at the current moment, but it felt too late for any normal traveler. The next time a knock came, it sounded considerably softer than the first time, a sigh escaping Silvia’s lips as she got up. She knew that whoever this was wasn’t about to go away.

“I’ll get the door,” She told the others around as she got up.

Luminous, Rarity, and the rest of their company had arrived in Ponyville just a few minutes beforehand. Topaz had remained quiet, or stunned as Sweetie Belle knew it, about what she had shown the dragoness. Her mouth hung slightly open trying to find any possible explanation for what she might have possibly been the most terrifying thing in her life. Beyond that, she also missed Princess Luna, who had been by her side ever since the two met all those years ago.

While Rarity, Sweetie, and Arcane search for a place that would house at the very least the princess (Arcane having said he and Rarity, even though she hated it, would sleep on the carriage) for a single night. In that time, Luminous had decided to grab something at a local pub to eat, Soarin and Topaz following suit. Though she felt it unnecessary, the former captain had agreed to wear the cloak Rarity had made her, which gave her some rather curious glances as they walked in. As the the three eat, Luminous felt uncomfortable at how silent everything had been between both of her “
allies.

“Soarin, Topaz?” She called out, finding out that they weren’t currently next to her.

Looking around, she facehoofed as she found the two placing a wooden bucket that she could only assume was filled with water. When Topaz had gotten out of her dumbstruck state she didn’t know, but it was clear she was back to her normal self. The dragoness had told her about many of the pranks they had planned on the Celestia and the royal guard, most being rather childish. Seeing the former assistant of Luna stoop this low with her jokes really made Luminous wonder if the princess just wanted him gone.

“Oh sweet moon why,” Luminous swore under her breath. Reluctantly Luminous got up from her seat and walked over to the pranker and recruit. “What in Luna’s name are you doing?”

Topaz looked to Luminous before looking back to the bucket of water that they were trying to keep balanced on the door. “Um… pranking the next person who comes through that door.” The dragoness explained, pointing at said bucket.

“Just let her do it,” Luminous was caught slightly off guard as she heard Soarin whispering in her ear. Turning to face her fellow pegasus, she tilted her head in intrigue. “I’m doing this to help her feel better after seeing the state of Sweetie Belle’s real body.”

“What do you mean ‘real body’?” Luminous whispered back, knowing full well she would regret asking. “I thought they never found her body.”

“Do you really want to know?” Was the response she got from the recruit. “I don’t know but seeing the state it was in I don’t want to know what these creatures did to her.”

Luminous looked up to the dragoness, than to the bucket she was trying to make stand on the door and it’s frame. She didn’t like the idea of someone getting soaked just for the amusement of another, but she felt this was slightly different. It was rather obvious something had been bothering Topaz a lot since they had left Arcane. She didn’t particularly enjoy the idea of this raising her spirit, but if it made the dragoness happy then what else could they do. Besides, she had a better idea.

“Bet ya ten bits you soak Rarity,” She said as she helped Topaz finally balance the bucket on both door and doorframe. “And another five if she has another freak out.”

Soarin and Topaz smiled as the latter fell to the floor. “You're on!” The dragoness exclaimed.

Rarity and Arcane weren’t having the best of luck finding a temporary housing for Luminous. Most of the ponies they came across were too afraid to of outsiders to even talk with them, and it didn’t help that Arcane had an everlasting grimace. After twenty minutes they came to a small house near the ‘center’ of town. The former tyrant was more than fed up with the way these ponies were treating them. He continued to voice his complaints to Rarity over and over to the point where even she was on the brink of annoyance, though for different reasons.

“Arcane darling, I know interacted with ‘lower society’ isn’t your thing but I’m simply trying to do you some good,” She told him, her company only half listening to her. “Were already here, so why don’t we ask them.”

Arcane gritted his teeth for reasons that Rarity could only assume was him being ordered around. Though she had succeed in making him less dangerous to talk to, his tone towards things hadn’t changed one bit. He could care less about what happens to others, and despite his promise of protection the same went for Luminous. Nonetheless he listened to Rarity and, seeming like he wanted to break the door and, banged his hoof against it hard. Almost immediately Rarity flipped out.

“What are you doing?!” She screamed into his ear, causing him to growl in annoyance.

“For goodness sake, I don’t see what I did wrong!” He yelled back at Rarity. “Didn’t I do exactly as you asked?”

“I said knock on the door, not try to break it in half!” She pushed him to the side as she talked. “This is how you knock on someone's door the proper way.”

Rarity proceeded to gently tap her hoof against the door three times, standing in front of the door waiting for someone to respond. Arcane stood unconvinced that she had knocked on the door to softly for anyone to here before the door opened. What they had expected to be a pony instead turned out to be a creature they had both never seen before. It was covered in a thick layer of grey fur, with small paws that Arcane was convince looked too small to carry such a tall creature. It was almost twice as tall as Rarity and at least an inch taller than Arcane, staring at both of them with blue eyes. The two ponies took a step back, feeling as if they had made a grand mistake in the long run.

“Good evening, can I help you two,” The creature said, catching the two of guard at how relaxed and feminine she looked compared to her appearance. When neither responded, the creature let out a sigh. “Look, I’m having dinner with the owner's right now so if you could please stop staring at me I would like to know why you knocked.”

“O-oh, sorry,” Rarity said, immediately realizing how unlady like she was being. “We just arrived in town today and have somepony of high status traveling with us. We were wondering if the owners had some room for her to stay. We’ve tried some other ponies in town but-”

“They were too scared to let anyone in for one reason or another,” She said, turning to Arcane as she spoke. “Well in that case I’m not the one you should be speaking to. Mister and Misses Dash are the two you should ask, so why don’t you come inside.”

“Of course, and sorry for the sudden intrusion,” Rarity said with a bow as she went inside.

Though he knew he was suppose to follow her, his eyes locked on the creature before him. Both of them looked at each other in bitter hate, Arcane doing so not because the creature looked intimidating but rather due to the aura. Being an umbrum he could sense the aura of every living thing around him, and this creature’s aura was beyond tainted with dark magic. He had only ever seen this amount resonate off his own body, and to see the same thing on another creature that seemed at all sane scared him. It was a threat to his own power, one that if Rarity wasn’t around he would have immediately tried to destroy.

“Sombra, correct?” the creature asked, though they knew they were correct before even having to ask. Her lips slid back to reveal the sharp teeth that adorned her muzzle. “I will warn you right now, you hurt any of these ponies and I, Silvia, will end you.”

“You really think you could take me on? That’s cute,” He teased, a cruel smile shaping on his face. “You may be as powerful as I am but I didn’t earn the title of emperor for no reason. However, I have promised to stay on my best behavior for her highness so you should have no reason to worry about me.”

Silvia looked at Arcane unsure of whether he was playing with her or not. In the end she motioned for him to head inside, keeping a strong eye on him as she entered after him. Looking to the dining room the wolf found Rarity was already talking with the Dashes. Though she knew it would do her no good, Silvia couldn’t help but wonder who this ‘pony of high status’ was that they had mentioned. Seeing as they had just arrived in town, she didn’t want to come off suspicious that one of the ponies with them was a paradox.

There was a real possibility this might be the case, seeing as she new of only two paradoxes outside of city boundaries at the current moment. She had a feeling in her gut that she was right about this, but immediately realized that she could be wrong. Her use of dark magic had made it all but impossible to see aura without her father's amulet, and as she was currently in the Dashes house she knew better than to grab it. In the end she would have to wait and see, but there was something about thinking about this pony as a paradox that hurt her.

“Thank you so much!” Silvia’s thoughts were cut off as she looked to see Rarity having finished talking to Mister and Misses Dash. “Sorry we had to interrupt your dinner time for this but I see it as unfit for Princess Luminous to have to sleep outside when she has another option.”

“Princess Luminous?” Silvia asked, getting everyone's attention.

“Oh Silvia, I thought they had told you,” Misses Dash said as she rushed to the wolf. “They were asking if a member of the Canterlot royal family could stay here. Of course are answer was yes, don’t want to upset her highness,” Silvia’s curiosity only grew bigger and bigger as she was told about what was going on. “They are heading to the Lunar Republic, though I wasn’t told for what reason. Anyways I was hoping if you could head with them to greet her on behalf of our family. I’m sure the princess will be very interested in meeting someone such as yourself.”

Silvia’s tail started to wag in excitement, though she did her best keep as composed as possible. She had never seen royalty before as wolves like herself weren't allowed in the three great cities. Wolves were told that cities would bring doom, as they housed paradoxes where they couldn't be dealt with, but Silvia had little care about that. This might be her one opportunity to meet royalty of any kind, a privilege that anyone in the countryside might only see once in a lifetime.

“Of course I will,” Silvia responded, looking to Rarity. “Let's go right now, to make sure her highness is happy.”

“I can't believe they are still out looking,” Topaz said, growling in annoyance as she continued to look at the bucket of water standing over the doorway. “You think that ponies out here would want to take have the company of royalty. Why would they be scared?”

“You don't have the same experience as many ponies do Topaz,” Soarin replied, getting a hard glare from Topaz. He gulped, waving his front hooves in front of him as he backpedaled. “I-I didn't mean it in that way. I mean that you lived in a time where you didn’t have to worry every moment of your life whether a monster would come through your window and carry you away. Not only that but ponies out here have so little to began with out here, do you think any of them could support an extra mouth?”

“You act as if famine wasn’t a problem when the sun was around,” Topaz argued, slamming a fist into the table. “Do any of you know how Equestria was formed? Because pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns were starving because of the windigos,” Topaz leaned over the table, her snout touching Soarin’s muzzle as she looked with rage into his eyes. “The first twenty years of the country's existence was us trying to revive three broken societies and turn them into one. You want to know what it’s like working with Luna when as a ruler when all three side not only hated each other, but were starving and too stubborn to accept anything that wasn’t from there own race.”

Luminous had stopped listening, too tired of waiting to listen to the fifth argument between the recruit and dragon. She wondered if her sister missed her, remembering how she had left without even seeing Neon that entire day. She would be worried sick, or perhaps she wouldn’t. How much control Swift Spell had on Neon she didn’t know, but she felt there was two possible things. Either Swift Spell told Neon that she had disappeared without any idea of were it she had gone, which Luminous regretfully knew was her actual course of action, or that she… Luminous didn’t want to think Swift Spell was that cruel but he couldn’t stop thinking of the possibility. Neon could possibly believe she was dead right now, without any idea of knowing what really happened.

However, the increase of noise between the two companions next to her kept her from staying on thought. They continued to get louder and louder, yelling about how the other was wrong and they were right. Trying to mute the sound, the lunar string blocked her ears, but it didn’t change anything. Even with her ears plugged Luminous could hear the two louder and clear, and it was driving her up the walls. She’s argued with her sister before, but this was more than she had ever had to deal with. It only took a matter of minutes before she finally snapped.

“Shut up!” She yelled at both of them, the lunar string covering the mouths of Soarin and Topaz without her even thinking. “I don’t care which one of you are right or wrong but please stop yelling. Ponies are trying to eat,” The lunar string slowly started to retract, seeming to prepare itself in case the two started back up again. “Topaz, as much as I understand everything wasn’t rainbows and sunshine in your time either, you don’t know anything about what we have to deal with here.”

“You have no right to talk about how dangerous the world is,” Topaz spat back, catching Luminous off guard as the dragoness started to berate the ex-captain. “I’ve manage to stay calm and give you a chance for the past few days to prove to me that you were fit to be her chosen descendant. That’s right, chosen! You don’t really have her blood in you, that was just something she made up to get you to go on this stupid journey,” Topaz didn’t bother to pay attention to Luminous’ facial expression, as it turned from surprise to teary-eye. The rulers face was started to overflow with tears as she heard how angry Topaz was at her. “I don’t care what Luna thinks of you, or if you are some royal highness. I’ve seen things you’ve never seen, stuck in a castle all your life. You may be the face of Canterlot, but you're nothing more than that. You may be smart, you may be courageous, you may by the leader of the military, but you are not-”

“I’m not smart.”

Topaz was left silent as those words came out of Luminous’ muzzle. The dragoness had been expecting her to yell back, but instead her ally was crying. Both couldn’t believe the site before them, especially to Soarin as trainee. However, despite the tears, Luminous’ lips weren’t quivering. It was as if none of this had come as a shook to her, and instead of leaning over the table she looked Topaz straight in the eyes. Her eyes were watering, but they were stern and serious. In her shock Topaz wasn’t prepared as the lunar string slapped her hard on the left side of the face.

“I’m not smart, but I’m not an idiot,” Luminous retorted, her voice steady despite the tears. “I knew Luna was lying, not because of a book but because of how you. You pulled her to the side in the Farplane after she told me I was her descendent. Did you not think someone would grow suspicious of that action.”

“Than why did you go along? I leader would have said-”

“I’m not a leader,” There was something about Luminous’ voice that seemed different when she was sad, almost childlike. “I came along because I wanted to do something right, because I wanted to be a hero. I was the first child, but I wasn’t the smart one. I was no straight A student or whatever. That was my sister, the one in charge of everything. She was smart, she is a better leader than I could be, and I gave her the role because of that reason. I joined the military because I wanted to protect her, because of my status as royalty I was put in charge! The only reason that Canterlot’s military is strong is because of Thunder Shield, and if I had a choice than I would put her in charge. I couldn’t even save my own mother, when she fell off the southern tower and died!”

The pub fell silent, the bartender looking at the three as Luminous’ argument came to a close. Topaz was silent, the last sentence striking her in a way that she never had imagined. The dragoness was unable to believe what she had heard, and looking into the tear-covered face of Luminous she knew what she did was wrong. Not that she cared, it only meant that Luminous was less fit for this journey.

“We’re back!” Rarity’s voice immediately the three’s attention, watching as the door slowly started to push open. “Sorry it took so long. It took us forever to find someone that was willing to let you sleep at their house. Anyways I would like to-”

A loud splash sounded from behind Rarity, drawing Topaz’s attention away from Luminous. Both of them watched as Silvia stood there, soaked to the bone with a bucket on her head. Topaz snickered at the sight, not paying attention as Luminous willingly let the Lunar String take the dragoness’ ear and slam her into her seat. Silvia on the other hand fumbled to shake the bucket off her head, and as it finally fell to the floor everyone could see how sour she was about it. Shaking off she looked to Luminous, and her heart skipped a beat as her eyes laid on the Lunar String.

“Luminous darling, is everything alright?” Rarity asked, watching with discomfort as Luminous continued to let the Lunar String tug on Topaz’s ear. It was only when she looked to see everyone in the pub staring at her that she stopped.

“It’s nothing, I just wanna get outta here,” She said. Stepping over Soarin, Luminous only looked back briefly to give a stern glare to the now wincing dragon. “You can say everything you want about me not being fit for this. You can say all you want about how I shouldn’t have left the castle, but don’t ever call me perfect, smart, or anything close to that again. I’m not princess Luna, and I will never be her.”

Rarity didn’t hear the extent of what Luminous had said, but Silvia had heard everything and was caught off guard. It was obvious who the princess Rarity had mentioned was, but hearing said princess talk about Luna like she knew them was strange. The Lunar String only made her more curious, having never seen anything like it and having the feeling it was it’s only entity. Her fear that this princess might be some paradox came back into her head, but she never wanted to believe that was the case. She couldn’t even tell without her amulet, so she pushed it past her as Luminous came up to her.

“Um… what are you?” The ex-captain asked, tilting her head as she looked over the still wet canine.

“Oh, right. City pony,” Silvia mumbled to herself before introducing herself. “My name is Silvia Holfheart, a… traveler who protects ponies from the horrors of the darkness and other monsters. A pleasure to meet your acquaintance my lady.”

Silvia knew she had to be cautious about what she said, knowing that Luminous had no idea what wolves were. Even if she didn’t know about her kind, she could still know about the paradoxes. If Silvia was to reveal such a thing it would put her in terms she didn’t want. She wanted the Canterlot royalty on her side, not against her. Hoping that she hadn’t made a mistake already, Silvia read the expression on Luminous face, finding one of wonder and amazement.

“That’s awesome!” Luminous shouted, not watching as the bartender sighed and shook his head. “Could you tell me about it on the way to your place? I’d rather get out of here as soon as possible.”

Though her glance at Topaz after finishing was a subconscious action, Silvia was paying full attention to how her body was acting. It was clear to her that, compared to how everypony outside the cities had trained themselves to hide their emotions and lay lies on their expressions, Luminous was not trained to hide her words meanings. Silvia couldn’t think of what would drive a princess to come out here with someone she hated. She decided to leave it for now, but would ask later once the Dash’s had gone to bed.

“Well allow me to show to my home than,” Silvia replied with a bow. As they made their way, Silvia could hear a harsh remark from the dragoness that Luminous had been holding down.

“You’ve made a mistake,” Topaz said. “You’ve made a terrible mistake, and now we’re trust an idiot of a power she can’t even control.”

Ralf had excused himself from dinner not long after Rarity and Luminous had left the Dash’s. Without her it had become disturbingly quiet, and he had decided to head to the room that he and his sister were sharing. As he made his way onto the bed he spotted a bag lying on a nightstand, looking as if it was about to burst. Without even think he opened it dumping the contents out onto the bed. At first nothing came out, but after a few minutes Ralf yelped in surprise as a large book landed on the covers, followed by the amulet that his father had supposedly given to Silvia.

“You don’t want to look at that.”

Ralf looked up to see a mare he hadn’t seen earlier in front of him. Her coat was a cyan or light blue, Ralf was unable to tell due to the low lighting. Her mane and tail was the colors of the rainbow, incredibly messy from a lack of brushing. Overall she looked rather normal, but Ralf could spot the strange lack of a horn or wings. She was an earth pony, but she couldn’t be a paradox due to there being no glow coming from the amulet. This was the first natural earth pony Ralf had ever seen, but he knew that something about this wasn’t right.

“Who… who are you?” Ralf asked, hoping the answer would give him an answer.

“... Rainbow,” The mare said, looking away from the wolf in shame. The turning of her head revealed a lack of hair on her upper back, which gave Ralf more of an answer than her words did. “As I said you shouldn’t be touching that book. It doesn’t belong to you.” She looked back seeing that Ralf had come up to her side and was inspecting the small square areas that had no hair on them. Rainbow proceeded to freak out at this shoving the wolf away. “D-don’t touch it!”

Ralf only stumbled for a few seconds before finding his balance. “The wound seems old by the smell yet it’s still fresh at the touch,” He said aloud, his words disturbing Rainbow slightly. “You're Mister and Misses Dash’s daughter right?”

“Yeah, why do you care?”

He didn’t even hesitate to respond. “What happened to your wings?”

Author's Note

This was one heck of a chapter, not because of what happened in it because of how damn long it took me to get it out. That said, I'm happy to finally have something out after not uploading the entire summer. Sorry for that by the way.

Anyways, if you enjoy please leave a like and comment, and follow if you want to as well.

Chapter 9

Everyone dreams, whether it be through sleep or for a future that we hope for. We reach for that dream, believing that nothing can stop us on our way to the ‘perfect life’. For some, that dream is simple to achieve, for others a long and hard road with many bumps in it. We come to think that nothing can stop us, no matter how hard that dream may be. We work until it seems just in reach, telling ourselves that we are invincible: that nothing can stop us here. Then, when it is just within our grasp, as we are about to obtain that perfect life... the world turns against you and denies you everything.

I wanted to fly with the greatest, most powerful pegasi in modern Equestria and it was taken from me. I didn’t do anything wrong: I didn’t want those things to literally rip my wings off my body. The Solar Empire, my old home, had the ability to recreate them, but my parents took me away for a reason I don’t understand. This wasn’t what I wanted, but I don’t think they ever really understood or believed me. Silvia is the only one who really seems to understand what I went through during my trial, and that’s why I fear for her…

… I fear that she has not truly found the lie everyone has told her, even if she tells me otherwise.

Ralf had lost track of how long she and Rainbow had been staring at each other, neither willing to speak up. It didn’t register in Ralf’s head that he had just asked a very sensitive question to a mare that seemed scared by the events behind it. Yet her silence spoke volumes to him, and it was that lack of words that told him everything he needed to know. The fact that the wings were gone from her back seemed to fit what Silvia had told him about the Rainbow’s parents. The worst part is, most ponies don’t survive encounters with the monsters of the darkness, who Ralf knew all too much about.

“You already know, don’t you?” Rainbow asked, Ralf realizing how the somber tone in her voice seemed strangely… incorrect. “Why bother asking the question when you already know the answer?”

“Just because I know what the end result is doesn’t mean I know what took place,” Ralf explained, motioning for Rainbow to come into the room. It took several minutes for the mare to decide before accepting his invitation and sitting in a corner on the floor. “You do know the bed’s free, right?”

“I’d rather not, and I don’t feel comfortable telling you without Silvia around.” Every time he heard Rainbow speak, Ralf felt more and more uncomfortable. His sister had told him a little about the Dashs’ daughter, but he had a feeling this wasn’t how she was supposed to be. “How do I know you won’t spill everything to them? My parents made sure my dream was crushed, and who knows what they will do if they find out what I’m planning?”

“I’m Silvia’s brother; if she found out I told them anything, I’m pretty sure my head would be severed,” Ralf explained, hoping that it would reassure Rainbow enough to the point where she could believe him. “Please Rainbow, if you trust my sister, then I promise that you can trust me too. If I don’t know, then how can I possibly understand why you don’t trust your parents with this.”

Rainbow sat there, silent for what felt like hours as she contemplated what Ralf had said. He had no idea why the mare seemed to distrust her parents so much, and why she seemed so speculative of him. Of course he knew how sensitive she must feel about the subject, considering that a pegasi losing its wings was about as bad as a unicorn losing its horn. When he heard Rainbow sigh, he knew he had managed to persuade her, a talent that he had picked up from his time with Silvia.

“Fine, I’ll tell you,” Rainbow said, looking extremely uncomfortably at the floor. “I’m sure you already know why, given what you and your sister do, but it was the wendigos. Those are the things that took away me wings.”

“Wendigos?” Luminous asked Silvia as the two traveled through the eerie quiet of Ponyville. “What are these wendigos that you keep mentioning, and why are they much more dangerous than any of the other creatures out here?”

Not long after the two had left the small pub, Luminous started asking Silvia many questions on the things she had seen. In all honesty, she only knew about these creatures because of her brother, who had more than a few run ins with them in the past. Her father gave her that amulet to keep her safe as well as be able to see paradoxes without her dark magic interfering. Despite how little Ralf cared about being a Paradox Hunter and how he never wanted to do anything when asked, he had been lucky to escape without harm. She had no idea how he did it, but his details about them made her glad to have the amulet.

“The wendigos were once ponies whose souls never past on, either because they were forgotten or was killed by one of them,” Silvia explained, doing her best to remember everything her brother had told her. “Most of the stuff around them are rumors and as I’ve been lucky to not ever see them than I don’t know much beyond that. That said, they are believed to be the cause of many disappearances and deaths for travelers, and the best you can hope for in most encounters seems to be losing a limb.”

“So they’re ghosts?” Luminous asked, her thoughts going back to Sweetie Belle and the fact that she no longer had her body.

“No, at least not when they become wendigos. It’s believed to take a few days, and there have been cases of a soul being found and put to rest before this, which is something my brother has done before.”

Both Silvia and Luminous had found interesting topics of conversation over the walk, and as short as it was, the ex-captain couldn’t help but feel like Silvia was stalling. The wolf was walking at a much slower pace than her own, which caused Luminous herself to slow down. Luminous originally thought that Silvia wasn’t happy to bring her along, but the idle banter between them made her rethink that immediately. This wasn’t the first time Luminous had seen this, as well; many times back in Canterlot she would purposely slow her walk in an attempt to avoid something. She had even done this to her own sister when they got into an argument, though usually it was Neon who tried to keep the distance more than her.

“Is something else on your mind, Silvia?” Luminous didn’t even think as she asked the question, her mind too stuck on the subject to even think about how personal it might be.

“Well…” Silvia managed to hide the surprise on her face at the sudden question. She thought it over, only to realize that Luminous would probably not let go of it until she got a satisfying answer. “If you really want to know, the family I’m staying with isn’t exactly on the best terms with their daughter. She had a dream that was taken away from her, and then was brought out here to the countryside for some reason.”

“Brought to the countryside? As in, they lived in a city beforehand?” Luminous asked, rather confused given the state of the world around her.

She didn’t hear anything else before feeling a scene start to play out in her mind. Luminous watched as three pegasi soared through the sky, being cheered on by a crowd in the stands she was sitting in. The moment that seemed to get her attention the most, and one that seemed to repeat multiple times in her memory, was when one broke formation. They flew high into the sky, Luminous’ vision being blocked by a light before the pegasus came back down. She could almost feel the crowd around her and hear them cheering as the pegasus flew down, a cone shaping around her body before—

“Luminous?” Silvia’s face was inches away from hers, giving the pony a shock as she awoke from her daydreaming. “Is something wrong? You were staring off into space.”

“Oh, sorry,” Luminous apologized, realizing how sudden her mind seem to move away from that moment. “I got caught in my imagination. We can talk a bit about this pony you're so worried about when we get to the house I’ll be staying at.”

Silvia nodded and the two started walking again, though the wolf was unaware of how confused Luminous was. Whatever that scene was that played in her mind was giving her the same feeling that she had after the memory gap that occurred when she met Arcane. The problem wasn’t that her mind was wandering, as it did all the time, but rather just how familiar the scene she had just had felt. She knew it was just her imagination, yet it was almost as if it was a memory from a time she didn’t remember. That couldn’t be true, though, as she recognized the thing blocking her vision from her visits to the Farplane, and it hadn’t existed in Equestria for over a thousand years.

That thing that had blocked her vision was most definitely the sun.

“So your family is originally from the Solar Empire?” Ralf asked, receiving a nod from Rainbow in response. “I’ve heard things about that place, more bad than good. Supposedly it’s beautiful, shining like a beacon among the darkness, but I’ve also heard that the ‘emperor’ as he calls himself is still rather fresh.”

“Fresh would definitely be the word to describe the pony, but it is still better than a place like this,” the mare said, spreading her hooves around the bedroom that the two had being talking in. “I was going to part of the Shadow Runners, the most daring group of pegasi in the entirety of Equestria, and that was taken away from me from those wendigo creatures. I was lucky to be alive and found by others during my flying test, but I still wanted to be a part of them in some way.”

Despite how little the wolves knew about the three cities and what was inside them, the Shadow Runners was one thing that they knew all too well. Paradox hunters were especially familiar with them, due to the Solar Empire’s tendency to help paradoxes, even with all the danger that came with that. The alphas and elders have had their own run-ins with these pegasi as well, but instead of hatred they saw them as courageous. While they despised the Solar Empire for housing ‘terrifying and strange monsters’, they knew that they were strong.

“Anypony who had the daring spirit to head into complete darkness without any magic should be praised,” Ralf thought as he recalled one of the many long, drawn out speeches made by the elders. “Though their cause is the opposite of ours, they are not to be smited down because of such things. These are no unicorns who cheat logic with magic, nor are they paradoxes who can bend and destroy reality, they are pegasi. It is through the Shadow Runners we learn why Equestrians who have no magic can still survive. Praise them…” And though he knew the alpha meant no malice towards him, Ralf ended these recalled speeches the way he always did, “... stupid, flea-pelted, dry-nosed, omega.”

No matter how bad he felt about it, he couldn’t say something like that to Silvia because of two reasons. The first was the derogatory language he just said would have only made her angrier than she already was when talking to him. Omega was the lowest class in the pack, and to say such a thing to anyone above that rank was worse than any insult. The second was less direct, as he knew the words would make her sister cry when she remembered what they truly meant. He was only around six or seven when he heard his father told that message to Silvia, though the target was very direct.

“You hate me, don’t you?” Rainbow asked, seeing how Ralf’s muzzle had pulled back into a snarl as the thought of his pack entered his mind. “You hate me because of what I wanted to be, I know you do. I know how you wolves see paradoxes and-”

“That’s not why I’m angry,” Ralf told her, realizing that this wasn’t the time to think about his father. “Silvia doesn’t know the real reason I’m out here, and until it’s really necessary, I’d rather it stay that way. I’m not here because she’s training me to become a paradox hunter. That’s only something I told her because I know what happened during her exile. I’m here to keep an eye on her because they knew what she was doing, and I know what will happen if they find her.”

He looked to the book that was still laying out on the bed. Despite what he wanted to think, Ralf knew what was contained within that book. That, most likely, was the spellbook his father had given to her before she was exiled, a forbidden spell book at that. If he combined that from the strange energy given off by the amulet, it became more than obvious what that was really for. Those things weren’t meant for hunting paradoxes, it was meant to use dark magic.

“And these wendigos are the things that attacked Sweetie Belle?” Soarin asked Arcane, both of whom had stepped outside after Topaz and Rarity started yelling at each other. “I guess that explains the… bad state of her actual body, but how did you manage to save her soul if she was already dead?”

Despite knowing well what Arcane really was, it was the only company that he still had, or at least the only one that wasn’t currently yelling at him. He was surprised at how much the former tyrant seemed to enjoy conversation, though it all seemed to fall along the same lines. It quickly became clear to Soarin that Arcane was obsessed with these ‘conduction crystals’. That was Arcane Glyph’s area of expertise, and the reason that he had forcibly taken control of the Crystal Empire: to satisfy his obsession and research their power.

“The wendigos are an anomaly that I have still yet completely been able to understand, but it seems they have the power to ground a soul in the living world,” Arcane replied, looking off in the distance as if Soarin was just a voice in his head. “What I have learned is that conduction crystals can not only be used as a means to enchant metals it’s infused with, but also has the ability to enchant a completely exposed soul as well. In other words, her body isn’t a machine or even metal, but rather the product of many conduction crystals shaped into a body. After that, all I needed to do was infuse that body with her soul, and it changed itself to replicate a metal form of her own body.”

“That’s possible?”

“Possibility is only logical in math and science. You can’t relate it to the study of magical properties,” Arcane continued to explain, not giving Soarin the time to completely comprehend what he was thinking about. “If unicorns were to ground themselves in the realm of logic and impossibilities, then how could we create anything? To believe the impossible, despite all the odds, is the first thing any unicorn learns, because otherwise we would be lower than the long-forgotten earth ponies. I saved Rarity’s sister, but I couldn’t do it if I saw every magic spell in a sense of possibility. Now that I have answered your questions, it’s time for me to ask you one of my own.”

The sudden change caught Soarin off guard, as he was certain they had been on this same topic for hours. For the first time since the beginning of their conversation, Arcane looked at Soarin, who gulped at the look in his eyes. The look he gave was not one of somepony who was satisfied with simple idle banter, but rather the look of a pony who held a vendetta. If it wasn’t for his strange horn and status as an umbrum, Soarin was sure he would have felt a lot more comfortable. Now, he didn’t know what to think, for it seemed as if Arcane was ready to turn him into dust.

“What is your reason for traveling with Luminous?” he asked, the words coming out more as a growl than a comprehensible sentence. “You have done nothing but sit around, and from what Luminous told me, you are merely here because she had nopony else to trust.”

“Isn’t that all anypony needs in order to travel with another?” Soarin asked, hoping that it would be enough to satisfy Arcane. However, the umbrum’s gaze only become more soul-piercing from the response.

“Trust does start a bond, but it doesn’t cause something on the level you're trying to tell me you have,” Arcane shot back at the recruit who knew all too well how right he was. “I could tell from first glance how scared and cowardly you are. You may not completely understand why you came here yourself, but you will figure out soon enough. However, until that point I suggest you learn to actually be useful.” As he finished speaking, he started walking away from Soarin, only looking back to throw one last insult at the pegasus. “A princess has no need for a cheerleader such as you.”

As Arcane made his way through the quiet streets of Ponyville, he found himself lost thought as for what to do with Luminous. He had told her about the Tantabus — or ‘Lunar String’ as she continued to refer to it — but not what it really was meant for. He could tell that he knew more about Luminous than she knew about herself, and more about the danger that thing could cause. Arcane Glyph knew that Luna was aware of that danger, and yet she had given it to a pony who was far from capable from understanding how to use it.

“She must be in a worse situation than I originally thought if she would make a mistake like that,” Arcane said to himself taking a minute to look up at the bland, absent sky above him. “Not the first time she has done something like this out of desperation. Heh, guess nothing really has changed since that should-be-corpse came into her life. How desperate could one mare really get?” His muzzle formed a grimace as he thought back on that. “That dragon should’ve stayed as dead as she originally was.”

Of course, he also had to wonder how the Lunar String was even able to attach itself to Luminous. The only possible explanation he could think of was a family member already having part of the Tantabus inside of themselves. Despite how Luminous saw the thing as inanimate, Arcane remembered from time with Luna that the Tantabus was just as alive as the soul it protected. He couldn’t be sure of this, but unless it somehow felt comfortable in the princess’ body, the only way it would separate itself was if somepony else near her also had a part of it.

“If it really did choose Luminous out of comfortability, than she is even more curious than before,” Arcane whispered to himself as looked around, finding Luminous and Silvia talking to each other. “They’re still out and about. I figured they would have already been at that house by this point.”

The constant shivers that went up Moondancer’s spine didn’t help the calm demeanor that Thunder Shield tried to keep up. Neither had had a chance to sleep since they made their way out of the city, and given how late Thunder had woken the archivist up, she was even worse. Even beyond the shivering her movement was frantic, eyes glancing left and right as if expecting the absolute worst. Thunder could hear her breathing, and despite how unstable it was, she was doing better than he expected.

Moondancer had never set a hoof near the city’s entrance, as did most ponies who weren’t traveling merchants. There was a barrier placed over the city at some point which protected ponies inside the walls from the horrors of the wilds and, in the present day to protect Neon and Luminous. The reason why that last part was so specifically made wasn’t known to the public, but Thunder Shield and Moondancer knew too well why. Thunder had faced the same danger himself by being taken in by the sisters’ late mother, who saved her life when she was much younger.

“We’re getting close to wherever Her Highness currently is,” Moondancer informed Thunder Shield, as she was the only one able to see the trail that the pathkeeper spell made. That spell was another reason for her delirium, as she had to recast it every two hours. “At this rate, we should get there before both the pathkeeper and cloaking spell wear off.”

“Good, that means she’s still alive,” Thunder whispered loud enough for Moondancer to hear. “Hopefully we can make it in time before they find her, because if not, then—”

Moondancer wasn’t paying attention to the pony in front of her as she collided into Thunder Shield. Before the archivist could even ask what was going on, Thunder forced her body flat on the ground. Despite that blue essence the pathkeeper spell made, she couldn’t see anything else in the darkness around her. There wasn’t even a breeze around them; the only thing Moondancer could hear was the sound of their own breathing. Not even giving an explanation as to why she did, Thunder Shield quickly jumped back onto his hooves and helped Moondancer do the same.

“What was that for?!” The archivist yelled at her companion. “Didn’t you just say we need to get to her as soon as possible?”

“You may not be able to hear it, but I most certainly did,” Thunder explained, “I heard them; they’re coming for her. We gotta get to wherever Luminous is before they do and hope we can somehow make it out alive.”

“What do you mean? What’s coming for her?” Moondancer questioned.

Moondancer knew Thunder Shield too well for her to not know what this sort of attitude meant. The pegasus was usually one of the calmest ponies in the castle, and the most focused at that. That said, any danger towards Luminous in any form - even if it was something like the point of a fork being too sharp - sent him into a frenzy. The lieutenant had some of the best hearing in Canterlot, and if she had heard something she didn’t that made her this concerned it was definitely a problem.

Thunder’s response to the question was pretty simply because of that. “Paradox Hunters.”

“Here we are,” Silvia said, opening the door expecting for Mister and Missus Dash to be at the front door. She was surprised to see how quiet it had already gotten. “I guess everyone has already gone to sleep.”

“Silvia!” Looking up at the top of the staircase in front of her, she found Rainbow Dash and Ralf standing next to each other, both with smiles on their faces. “You took longer than I expected to get a single pony here. Did something happen?”

“No, everything is fine,” Silvia told Rainbow as the mare started trotting downstairs. “Just wasting some time so that I could introduce you to Luminous.” The wolf moved to the side, letting the wingless pegasi and ex-captain meet each other's eyes for the first time. “Your highness, this is Rainbow Dash. She is the pony I mentioned to you on the way here.”

Luminous held out her hoof, an action that caught Rainbow off guard considering the kind of evening she had been having. Quickly catching herself before she showed a sign of surprise, Rainbow Dash accepted the invitation and shook with Luminous. She was surprised at the big smile that adorn the princess’ face, but none of them were aware of Ralf’s nervousness as he felt something was… off. He could tell that Luminous was a generally nice pony as she and Rainbow made their way past him and upstairs, but watching them walk up gave him even more concern. It wasn’t because the new acquaintance was acting weird, but because he noticed the light blue glow emanating from he and his sister’s bedroom.

As Ralf had run away from the pack before any proper training (something that he did admit to Silvia upon the two meeting each other), he couldn’t sense when a paradox was about. The thing was, a quick glance at Silvia told him something else was wrong. It took a few seconds to fit it all together, but a quick look back upstairs helped him figure it out. The light in their bedroom was off, which means that it couldn’t have been switched back on; the only other thing he could think of that could have glowed in there was the amulet. The problem was that there were only two ways for that glow to activate, and since Silvia was right next to him, that ruled out one of them.

Of course, the reason Silvia was nervous was an entirely different story. Though her dark magic caused many of the things she was trained to do the impossible, like sensing paradoxes, she had learned to sense other things. She had told him that the souls of ponies and wolves had one distinct difference: the former was blue and the latter was purple. Though she didn’t understand why, that did cause her to make many detours during their travels. Ralf knew exactly why, and he knew that Melody wasn’t the only pony in danger right now.

“Ralf,” Silvia said as she looked to her brother, only to find him already looking back. She had realized the exact same thing he had. “Head to Vinyl’s and tell her and Melody to follow you. After that head to the pub, grab the three sitting in the same corner booth we were, and tell them to come as well. Run out of town and take them to someplace, anyplace, that will keep them safe.” The mixture of worry and courage that filled Silvia’s voice as she spoke told him just how urgent this was. “I’ve got something else to do, and don’t worry, Luminous will be safe.”

“What do you mean run away? You know just as much as I do what these wolves want,” Ralf barked at his sister. “We have more than Melody’s life on the line and—”

“You want to do this now?” Silvia asked her brother. “I don’t care if Luminous is a paradox or not, because I am not killing royalty.”

Realizing that her sister had already made up her mind, Ralf nodded and headed through the door. Once he was gone Silvia ran upstairs, first rushing to her room and grabbing her amulet. As she placed it over her neck the light started to fade away as she could manually control it’s magic. She next looked to the book that laid on the bed and put it back in the bag, deciding it best to not ask why it was even out. As she finished Silvia turned to make her way to Rainbow’s room, only for her and Luminous to be looking right at her.

“Silvia… that headache Luminous had as she turned the corner,” Rainbow said, reminding the wolf of how completely wrong she had been back at the pub. “Please don’t tell me that means…”

“Now isn’t the time to talk about that,” Silvia said as she walked up to them. “We have bigger problems, and I need her to come with me… now.”

Author's Note

I really want to thank Okemos Brony for what has been done for this story recently. He helped out a lot with editing and his review on Reviewers Café really helped me realize how much I had to fix and what I was doing wrong. This chapter is easily the best looking chapter in the story and it has a lot to do with his help.

Chapter 10

I remember the day queen Nova found Luminous as it was probably one of the happiest days of my life. She was sitting in the garden with me, having a picnic with a still infant Neon Oracle and looking among the rows of flowers. That must have been when I was five, or at least Nova believed that was my age. The problem with paradoxes is that you can really never tell what our ages are, so most tend to believe it is around four to six. That said, at some point during that picnic Neon wondered off somewhere else, supposedly seeing a light as she told me later. It took a while for me and Nova to realize she was missing, and the queen when into a mad dash look for her.

It didn’t take us long to find Neon as she hadn’t gone that far, but we were surprised to see she wasn’t alone. Next to her was a small filly, maybe a year younger than me, staring off into the sky above us. Her coat was as black as the sky she stared at, and a mane so bright it almost shined. Me and Nova did all we could to try and ask her where she came from and how she got here, but we had no answer. She didn’t say a single word, not until a few days later when she finally started calling Nova ‘mother’. That’s how I learned she was a paradox, as supposedly the same happened to me. Your mind is so clear, so vacant of anything other thing breathing and moving, that you seem like an empty shell.

The day she called Nova mother was the day she was taken into the royal family, and I was told by her majesty to protect the filly at all cost. Mother was the only word she knew for days, but through me and various other tutors she started to become her own pony. I don’t know where she gained her stubbornness from, or lack of interest in anything that didn’t involve exploring, but that was the pony she became. However, no matter how many times I see her angry I have never seen her cry in front of anypony. Despite all the things she does wrong, and despite being put in a position that she wasn’t even ready for, she always smiled and tried to stay positive. Of course, when Nova died saving Luminous after she fell off one of the towers, I learned how much she could cry.

“Everything is my fault!” I remember hearing her say, weeping over her mother's body. “This was all my fault! I didn’t want this to happen. What am I going to tell Neon? How… why did this happen?!”

I don’t think Luminous ever told Neon, being too scared of what would happen if her sister found out. That was the first time I think I truly understood what my position as Luminous’ unknown protector meant. Yet, instead of turning away and being afraid of that duty I instead made a silent vow to the deceased queen. I promised to her that Luminous would not only live, but never have to see anypony close to her die again. That’s why, hearing she had left the castle grounds, I was sent into a frenzy. Neon was blinded by the fact her mother died, and believes that Luminous loved a paradox more than her. This nightmare Swift Spell spoke of was with us for years and haven’t noticed…

And in trying to keeping Luminous, had inadvertently put her in more danger than necessary.

As Silvia practically dragged a very scary Luminous with her back outside, the ex-captain was left with more than a few questions. As soon as she had made her way up the stairs with Rainbow Dash, her head started getting heavy. The voices she heard back at Rarity’s house had come back, though they were loud enough to be overwhelming for her. When she saw Silvia dim the light on the amulet that now hung around her neck, she only grew more uncomfortable. She had no idea what was wrong with herself, and the voices in her head would not leave. All she wanted to do was curl up on the floor, but Silvia forced her to keep moving even with how light her legs felt.

“Help us. Please help us,” The voices cried out, the words more than just unintelligible nonsense by this point. At this point, Luminous collapsed on the ground inches away from the house not able to feel her own body. “Wolf is good, but other ones will kill you. Innocent, young foals like us they kill, and mark us as monsters! Please, stop them. Help us. Restart everything!”

“Luminous, speak to me,” Upon seeing the pegasus collapse, face looking into the ground in complete horror, Silvia stopped herself and rushed back. She has never seen a paradox of such a mature age, and the reaction the amulet caused must have been worse because of that. “Luminous, is something wrong? Can you here? Get up!”

Luminous couldn’t hear anything else but the pleaded voices that rang through her mind. Everything felt numb, her mind so disconnected from the events happening around her that the only motion she made was shivering. No matter how much she wanted them to, the voices she heard wouldn’t leave. As she tried to suppress them, they only got louder and louder, deafening. She wanted to get up, move, or do anything, but they wouldn’t allow her any rest or peace.

“Help us! Answer us!” The voices only got angrier as time went on, but Luminous somehow knew it wasn’t directed at her. “They will kill you! They will rip you limb from limb because they see you as a monster! Avenge us! Help us! Restart everything! You are powerful! You did this before! Remember who you are, or die! Remember, and restart-”

“Silence!”

Silvia looked around, thankful to see that nopony was watching. She had to do something, but she wasn’t sure what to do. The only thing she could think of was getting close enough to wake up Luminous from whatever trance she had been put it. However, as soon as she took a step the Lunar String made a shield around the pegasus, an action that took the wolf by surprise. She had been told by Luminous how it responded to her command, but judging by her current state that wouldn’t have been very likely. After it had completely covered the pegasus, keeping Silvia from coming in direct contact, the Lunar String stretched one part of the itself into a long protrusion. With that it slowly made it way up to wolf’s face, placing itself on her forehead.

“Don’t worry, she’ll be fine,” The voice that spoke in Silvia’s mind wasn’t like the ones that spoke to Luminous, being both calmer and singular. “I’ve sent her to sleep, and will guard her until she is ready to wake back up. Just stay alive, okay?”

With that the protrusion retracted, molding back into the dark blue casing that covered Luminous. Silvia didn’t question what she had just heard, as thing like this have become par for the course during her travels. Instead, her attention drew to the sound of paws hitting the grass not far down the road. Not much longer after she heard it did two wolves, both looking at her with venom in their eyes, appear from the darkness. Having chosen her side since she first felt their presence, Silvia stepped in front of the Lunar String. The wolves in front of her stopped as she planted herself there, and the venom she felt from them only rose.

“Silvia, right?” One of them asked, his voice low and gravely. When she didn’t say anything, he seemed to get even more annoyed. “What are you looking all high and mighty for? The paradox is behind you and you haven’t killed it already?”

“A paradox hunter’s job is to not just hunt them down but evaluate if they are a threat,” Silvia reminded him, keeping a stoic expression on her face. “I can tell you one thing, and that is that her highness is no threat. I suggest that you leave her be, because any attempts on her life will end with the loss of yours.”

“Her highness?” The other wolf asked, before breaking into a high-pitched laugh. “Now I see why the elder and alpha decided to exile you. If you really are stupid enough to believe something like that you really don’t deserve a place in the pack,” As he saw the stone faced expression on Silvia’s face, he realized she wasn’t joking. “Heh, so that thing is royalty? Doesn’t matter, I’ll still kill it. I’ll kill it in the same way I have every other one of those horrible monsters.”

“Than I’ll deal with the other paradox,” His companion, getting ready to head off before another figure came out through the darkness. “Well, I guess that third paradox must have been closer than we originally thought.”

Silvia’s attention was changed from the wolf in front of her to the one that had been heading away. Hearing that made Silvia curious, knowing that almost every paradox she has met has run at the very sight of her. However, all three of them were proven wrong as a low, sinister, and strained laugh came from the figure. It was a voice that Silvia recognized from earlier that day, and as the black furred hooves was clear enough to make it she smiled. Silvia simply watched as Arcane, laughing hysterically at the wolf who had just talked, showed himself in front of them.

“If you really think I am a paradox, than you are as low as the mud you roll in,” The tyrant mocked, letting out another fit of laughter. “You think your so intimidating don’t you? You wolves think you own the world because you are predators, but what you haven’t realized is pitiful,” He dropped the mock, instead focusing on a soul piercing glare at the gravely sounding wolf in front of him. “Silvia may be an exile, but she will more than outlive both of you by the end of this.”

“Oh really, and how are you suppose to be? Some big-mouth noble?” The gravely wolf asked. The smirk that appeared on Arcane’s face as he said this cultivated in a low chuckle.

“It would be a waste of time telling you my real name, so I’ll leave you with what history books have referred to me as.”

Arcane’s eyes started to glow, the red in their irises becoming even more blood red. His fur was on end, but it was due to the dark magic which started to course through him instead of fear. His mane and tail seemed to become smoke, and a similar thing came from the green in his eyes. He took a single step forward, his voice started to sound even more strained as he laugh maniacally at the wolf in front of him. His body, while still pony shaped, looked less solid and more like smoke by this point, horn invisibly to the eye.

“I am Sombra,” Arcane said, his voice echoing throughout the town. “Long ago I ruled the crystal empire, only to have it taken away from me by an alicorn not once, but three times. I could care less about the filly you call a paradox, as she has already been escorted out of town. However,” His form now blurred to the point where it was near impossible to tell a pony had once stood there. “If you try and kill Luminous, ruining my chances at not only reclaiming my kingdom, but also the old world, I will make your life a living hell.”

Luminous’ eyes shot open, sitting forward as what felt like a nightmare ended. She no longer heard the voices, but she knew that she was no longer awake. Looking up, she saw the sun shining in the sky, which originally told her that she was in the Farplane. However, after taking a look around herself, she realized how wrong she was as the sight of building surrounded her on the left and right. It reminded her of Ponyville, only less broken down and more cheery. Ponies walked through the streets, and through her as she soon found out. It was definitely a dream, but different from the ones she usually had. On the one hand she was in completely control of herself like in the Farplane, but on the other she was reminded of the figures of the two alicorn sisters who she always use to see in her dreams.

“Where... am I?”

Her front hooves shot to her muzzle as she heard her voice, or rather the voice that had spoken for her. It took her a second to realize that she could actually feeling her hooves on her muzzle, but even that was overwhelmed by her voice. Though it had come out of her muzzle the voice was slightly higher pitched than her, and more cheery sounding as well. It was than that she suddenly felt something wrong about her hooves, and looked to them in fear. She barely managed to hold in a scream as she realized that her voice wasn’t the only thing wrong with her body.

Compared to the black hooves that she was so use to, these ones were a violet color. Looking over her body she realized that it wasn’t just her hooves, but her entire body that was different. Her once pitch black coat was now a vibrant purple, and she could swear that she was both taller and heavier than before. Her wing span was also longer than it was before, and she could feel something protruding from her head. Her mane and tail was completely different from what it was when she was awake, going from a golden yellow to an even darker shade of purple. It was also longer, straighter, and far more cared for than she had ever bothered to.

“Okay Luminous, calm down. This isn’t the time to panic,” She sat back down, putting her front hooves on her head. It was than she realized what the protrusion she felt on her was. “Do… do I have a horn? Wait, no no no, this is all just a dream. Of course whenever somepony says they are in a dream it is usually something more than that but how else could my entire body be different?”

Those weren’t the only reasons something about this dream felt off to Luminous. There was a wind that passed through her fur, and if that wasn’t enough she could feel her hooves when they had touched her muzzle. It was the same kinda realization she had when the butterfly had landed on her muzzle back in the Farplane. She wanted to think that this was in some way part of the Farplane, but why Luna wasn’t already with her by this point didn’t make her feel right. This feeling was like an inch that, no matter how much she scratched at it, wouldn’t go away.

“Excuse me,” She tried to call out to a pony as they walked by, but as she expected when an earlier one had walked through her, they couldn’t hear her either. “So this isn’t the Farplane then, because I know those butterflies could actually understand what I’m saying. However, I have too much control of myself for this to be a dream, and the feeling of the world is all too real. If that is the case… where am I?”

“So you don’t recognize this?” Turning around looking to see a pony staring at her. However, the pony wasn’t like any she had seen before, their body seeming to be formed from a dark blue energy. The pony-like being took a bow to Luminous. “Of course you wouldn’t see Luna here, because this dream isn’t from your imagination or her own. Think of this town like a memory long forget, or broken if you want to be exact.”

It didn’t take long for Luminous to recognize the dark blue energy that made up the pony in front of her. “Are you… the Tantabus?”

“Indeed I am,” The being answered, getting up from her bow. “I am a part of Luna’s aura, though different from that of a normal pony as you already know. I use to help Luna aid in keeping dreamers peaceful, though I fell dormant when she died. Whether or not the princess of the night knows I am with you is uncertain, but I would prefer if you didn’t mention what I am about to show you to her.”

“So you know what this is?” The Tantabus nodded in answer to Luminous’ question. “So is this your dream or mine? Why am I in a different body? Is this the Farplane or something else?”

“I have fully prepared myself for all those questions, and they can all be answered in a single sentence,” The Tantabus said, and her eyes started to glow a bright blue, or as Luminous observed merely opened. The being was keeping her eyes closed the entire time. “This is your dream, or memory, and the only thing I did was put you in control of your true self.”

Luminous wasn’t sure how to respond to that, not completely understanding what the Tantabus had meant. This was the second time the being had referred to this dream as a memory, but Luminous couldn’t recall at any point something like this happening. Yet, looking into those glowing eyes she could see the look of a creature who had seen more than anypony else. Luminous looked up to the sun, shielding it’s with her violet hoof. Even though she couldn’t recall a memory like this, she felt an overwhelming amount of dejá vu from both the town and this body.

“If this is a memory, and the only thing you did was put me in control of myself, than why don’t I have my normal body?” She expected the Tantabus to hesitate at this question, but the response that came immediately after worried her.

“It’s hard to explain, especially since you were never told, but both the body you have in reality and the one you currently have are the same body,” The Tantabus explained to the pony, knowing that she should have been a little more clear earlier. “Most ponies dreams are created from their mind, which is why they can’t fully make out things that they see. However, if the details in this town from the cracks in the road to the fact that the windows show dirt, scratches, and the fog left by a ponies breath, than you should know this isn’t normal,” The Tantabus drew Luminous attention to the window she was looking at, and indeed the pony could see just how absurdly detailed it is. “Normal ponies wouldn’t be able to create details like that, but you would be able to because this is not a figment of your imagination. You’ve seen this all before, and it’s all buried so deep into your brain that it’s impossible to recall it when awake. I have pulled strings in your mind allowing you to see this in a semi-conscious state, so you will remember once you wake up.”

“But what is so important about this that I have to remember?” Luminous asked.

The Tantabus seemed to halt any movement, looking into the window as if it was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen. Seconds passed, then minutes, and the sudden sigh that came from the beings mouth seemed to catch Luminous by surprise. She was sure the Tantabus had been prepared for that question, but it almost looked like she was stalling as she turned slowly to the confused pony. Luminous could tell that she didn’t want to say the truth, and it made the ex-captain worry. Whatever it was the Tantabus knew, it wasn’t something she should take lightly.

“Princess Luminous Oracle of Canterlot,” The Tantabus addressed. “The body you are currently in is from a present long ago destroyed. This body is yours from the true Equestria, and the same goes for your changed voice. The reason you don’t have it is because the conditions for you to exist was altered, though I don’t know how,” The being took another deep breath as she prepared to say what that all meant. “Luminous, you are a paradox. You are the figment of another pony whose birth was suppose to happen, but never did. You… were never meant to exist, as does the Equestria, family, and ponies that you’ve known forever.”

Silvia jumped to the side as the cackling wolf who had revealed his name as Athris swatted at her. He would snap his teeth in direction of her neck and she would do the same, the amulet glowing as a sudden force of wind pushed him away. He got back up, like he had done for more than half an hour, and the same dance would play. They wanted her dead, something she had prepared for as soon as she made the decision to save Luminous. She hadn’t thrown a single blow at Athris, as he was so intent on killing her that she knew he would tire himself out eventually. In fact, Silvia could already see the wolf before her getting tired, but it only seemed to make him angrier.

Arcane Glyph was focusing on the other wolf, who revealed himself as Griz, and was having a more thrilling time than Silvia was. Compared to the inexperience that both of them saw in Athris, he was smarter and more patient. Every time Arcane through a spell Griz found some way out of it, even using howls to break enchantments cast on him. On the other hand the paradox hunter had shown Arcane magic of his own. He was quick, and had come close to hitting the tyrant more than a few times. His claws had gained a reddish glow, not from blood but from an enchantment of his own. It didn’t take long for Arcane to learn that, though his body was like smoke, those red claws could still pierce him. Since they started the battle slowly became less of an all-out attack and more of a waiting game, but neither of them had any interest in killing the other anymore.

The shadowy form of Arcane and the predator stance of Griz continued to circle one another, both having long forgotten why each other was fighting. One had gained the respect for another, and the two were now simply trying to see how long it took till the other could land a scratch. For Griz, a hunter who had gained the respect of the alpha due to the unparalleled skill, this was the first time a battle had truly excited him. To Arcane, this was the first time he had ever felt truly challenged, his only defeat coming from the two alicorn sisters which he more than knew was cheap. Both were impressed, as their original thoughts of each other had changed significantly since things started.

“I wouldn’t have expected a mere lap dog such as yourself to be a worthy opponent, but you much more than some old mutt,” Arcane Glyph complemented, changing directions as the wolf in front of him did. “I was lead to believe that you wolves were just killing machine, but you're smarter than any machine I remember.”

“You ain’t to bad yourself, being a dethroned tyrant,” Griz replied, which got a good chuckle from Arcane. “I knew that ponies had some decent warriors, but I always saw your leaders as cowards and crybabies. I can now see why you managed to take over an entire empire by yourself, and it’s a shame to kill something that powerful.”

“Touché to the leader remark,” The smile that doned Arcane’s face as the two talked wasn’t one of sinister intent, but rather of relief that he had managed to find something other than an alicorn that was so powerful. “I’ll say that, with all the ponies I’ve killed and executed for trying to go against me, you might be the first creature I feel bad for trying to. In that case, mind if I offered an alternative to the slaughter we have both been attempting.”

This caught the paradox hunter’s attention, quickly reminding himself that they were still in battle as he almost lessened his hunting stance. Griz already knew what his opponent was getting at, and the smile on his muzzle only grew. Neither of them had a single hit on each other, and Griz wasn’t interested in killing somepony as skilled as himself. He didn’t find it fun being the best hunter in the entire pack, especially when it meant every target he killed ended up being more and more underwhelming. Having someone to actually match up to would be more than exciting, it would feel refreshing.

“Let me guess, first one to land a hit?” Griz asked Arcane, both of them having stopped circling.

“In my entire life I’ve never felt a challenge, and I hardly call going up against two alicorns a fair fight,” Arcane explained. “It would be a waste to put down the first true opponent I’ve ever seen, and since none of us has obtained a bruise let’s see who can land the first hit. No killing blows, both magic and otherwise, and nothing that can seriously injure. All either of us has to do is scratch or bruise the other, nothing worse.”

“Not the offer I expect from a tyrant,” The wolf joked, readying himself.

“That’s what they all say, but what do you expect when all anypony knows about you is that you enslaved an entire empire?” Arcane asked rhetorically, starting to channel magic through his horn. “On three, we start… one.”

Griz lowered his body to the ground, his stomach feeling the grass under him as he prepared. Arcane took a step back, getting in a ready position as his horn started to glow red.

“Two…”

Their eyes locked as he counted, Griz pulling his lips back in a snarl and his front claws once again growing red. His hindlegs skidding along the ground slightly as his he dropped lower to the ground. Arcane placed one of his front hooves in front of him, and the opposite hind leg a bit farther back than the other. He didn’t continue counting, the two staring into each other with intense focus. Both wanted to strike first, and Arcane hoped that by waiting he would be able to catch Griz off guard. Yet, even though he didn’t say anything, the two suddenly flung themselves at the other, paws and hooves leaving the ground.

The Tantabus was looking at a very different Luminous than the one she had seen up to this point. Her eyes had dilated, a look of absolute horror on the pony’s face as she continued to think over the words that had been spoken. Luminous wanted to believe that it was to farfetched to believe she was a paradox, that she was the result of a change in time, but she couldn’t. She collapsed onto the ground, no longer feeling the want to support her body, or rather the one she should have had. It had seemed so impossible for any of what the Tantabus had told her to be true, but it was.

She looked at her hoof, seeing the purple fur that belonged to the pony she was suppose to be. Her voice that she had known forever suddenly felt wrong as the new voice this ‘memory’ gave seemed to feel more correct. Luminous wanted to believe she was what she had always been, but her mind was torn in two different directions. One told her that she was Luminous, the sister of Neon Oracle and a member of the Canterlot royal family, but the other told her she was nothing. The other part of her mind believed that she was a mistake that shouldn’t have ever come to be, and that left her in a state of terror.

“Luminous, I know what you are thinking,” The Tantabus said, leaning down to look directly into the pony’s shaking eyes. “I’m sorry that you had to learn this, but it was either this or let those voices consume you. Besides, it’s important you learn all of this sooner rather than at a critical moment of time.”

“I’m… not suppose to exist?” Luminous asked, and though it was a question is felt like it just further cemented the fact it was true. “So you mean… everything I’ve done isn’t real? Everypony I became friends with was not suppose to meet me?” She looked to her body, feeling completely insecure about being in it. “So I’m nothing more an accident? Is any part of what I know even real.”

“Calm down if you can, I have yet to completely explain everything,” The Tantabus put her hooves on Luminous, starting to believe she was wrong to reveal this information to somepony already dealing with other issues. “While you aren’t suppose to exist in this form, that doesn’t mean you aren’t suppose to exist all together. Your soul is fractured, and what is left in that both in terms of personality and appearance created a new body to keep you from fading all together. That is the body you know; the one that you have worn for the entirety of your life. The body you are currently in is that of the full soul, before the change in timelines stopped your birth.”

“And who is that?” Luminous shot up, touching muzzles with the Tantabus as she question the being in desperation. She felt a hoof on top of her head, and it seemed to calm her down greatly. “I… I don’t know what to think. It just feels so wrong to think that what you're saying is the truth, but at the same time I know your correct.”

She looked to the ground, tears starting to fall from her face. Her thoughts went to Thunder Shield and Moondancer, Rarity and Sweetie Belle, and of course her own sister. Luminous suddenly felt like she had been lied to her entire life, but it was a lie she wish she could keep believing. It was impossible for her to imagine that the mother she knew, the one had saved her from death, would have saved her if she really was any normal paradox. That was why she need to know who she once was, even if it only made her feel worse.

“Please Tantabus,” She pleaded, shaking the being that had told her everything. “If you can dive into my memories from that other timeline than you must know who I was. You’ve already told me so much, and at this point I need to know,” She held her front hooves in front of herself. “Tantabus, tell me who this hoof belongs to, even if it’s going to kill me.”

The Tantabus wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to tell Luminous, even though it was what the ex-captain wanted. She knew the name of that pony, but the only reason was because of the amount of time she had spent in those memories. It was impossible for something like her to know how this would impact a paradox. It was clear that they weren’t suppose to have control of the events in their memory, and the impact it could have on the paradox to remember even something so simple as a name could damage them. However, she quickly realized that this was an issue she was going to have to deal with sooner or later. The princess had been given complete control due to her meddling, and the effects would have to wait.

“Alright, but I want you to remember that though she is you, that doesn’t make her all you are,” The Tantabus warned Luminous. The latter nodded as they had prepared mentally for whatever might happen. “Princess Luminous Oracle, you are the paradox of a special pony. Though you two are different, as your intellect is rather… standard compared to her, you had a special place in the world,” She let out a sigh, knowing that she was only stalling for time with those words. “That pony… is a unicorn, or as you can see now an alicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle.”

The name struck Luminos like a dagger, and she lost all sense of sound as it went through her brain. Twilight Sparkle, just saying it in her head felt like she was seeing through entirely different eyes, which she kinda was. Everything seemed to make sense, and she reached up to touch the horn on the body she was in. That was the pony she was suppose to be, or perhaps the one she already was. She still felt uncomfortable about the entire situation, but it was reassuring to learn the truth.

“So… I guess that puts you in a difficult spot, and a question you need to answer now,” Luminous looked back to the Tantabus seeing that the being was rubbing her front left hoof. “You now know two entirely different ponies, one of which was once you and the other is the one you have know for your entire life. Before I wake you up, you must decide: Are you Luminous Oracle or Twilight Sparkle?”

Author's Note

To make up for a lack of uploads throughout October, here is a double chapter for November. Okay, so maybe not a double chapter as I don't remember and haven't checked when chapter 9 was uploaded but you know what I mean.

Anyways, please leave a like and comment if you like the story! I know it seems like something overly cliche to say but it really does help, trust me.

Chapter 11

One hundred paradoxes, that was the price to end my exile. It was far beyond impossible, but I’ve always given myself hope that I could accomplish that feat. No wolf, dead or alive, has ever been able to come close to that number before they died. I didn’t understand that when I was younger, as I did many other things, but it was the day of my exile I learned the only real truth there was. We are all blinded by our perspective of what the world is, and to be told our perspective is wrong can be a greater wound than any claw can deal.

The very first paradox I found made me realize something, and it was how wrong they were. The moment I looked into the young fillies eyes, I saw how afraid she was. She and Melody were the only two who had ever shown me fear, though they were also the only two to ever have some emotional identity at the time. That, however, was when I learned how wrong they all were, and how wrong my perspective had been. That first encounter was the greatest wound I have ever received, and I realized why my father gave me this pendant.

“Since the loss of the sun and moon, ponies have been unable to rest their weary souls,” I remember him saying to me as he placed it around my neck the day I had left the pack. “Let those whose souls are broken or restless find an ally and protector in you, my daughter.”

I would never kill Melody, or at least not because I saw her as a threat. It’s true, I had to kill them in order to even touch a paradox’s souls, but I would have placed that soul in the pendant. That’s what I did for that first paradox, and it is what I have done for every paradox since. Luna doesn’t know that; she sees me as another monster, like so many other ponies do. That is where she is wrong, and where I separate myself from all the others.

I know I’m a wolf: a predator known to kill, but unlike most predators I have an intelligence. I have common sense, mind and instinct, and most important of all a sense of right and wrong. I have a perspective of the world, one that has changed dramatically since I was born. Yes I use dark magic, and hurt my body to even use it, but I do it to protect anything that has wrongfully been ended. Call me all you want, but know one thing…

… I am not the animal that you think I am.

Silvia stood there, watching her opponent as he breathed heavily. She had lost track of time, but it didn’t matter at all. She knew this was the perfect place to strike down her attacker, but Silvia had things she need to know. They had come to kill her, but she had to many ideas on why to know which was correct. Looking to Arthis, who was wheezing due to a lack of breath caused by his relentless attacking, she finally took a few steps towards him. It was the first offensive move she had made the entire time, and he seemed almost startled to see such an action. He was going to try and run, an action that Silvia had predicted.

“If you are going to retreat-” She started to say, before lunging herself at the wolf. She tilted her head to the side, hitting him with her right shoulder and causing him to tumble to the ground. As soon as he hit the ground Silvia placed a paw on his neck, ready to kill if necessary. “- make sure you don’t keep yourself open.”

“I’m... warning you…” Arthis snarled back, still breathing heavily from fatigue. “That claw… won’t save you.”

“You really think you're in any position to be making threats to me right now?” Silvia applied a small amount of pressure to Arthis’ neck, the action enough to cause his breath to grew slightly heavier. “Yeah, that’s what I though. So tell me, why are you here? You seem way more intent on killing me than you do about kill Luminous.”

“Heh… you got that right,” Arthis’ mouth curled into a cruel smile, showing off his blood soaked teeth. “I ain’t… tell you anything… else. So... why don’t you kill me… already, exile.”

“I don’t think that’s how this works,” Silvia glared at him, but she knew something about the hunter was off, and a laugh only further solidified that. “Guessing you got something to say?”

“You know nothing… about what has happened… these past many years, Silvia… or should I say... Delilah.”

The mention of her name unnerved her, knowing full well that no one should even know of her existence. When a wolf was exiled, their name was taken away, and she was no exception. Silvia was a name she gave herself when she left, a name belonging to the greatest paradox hunter in the packs history. It was her way of making her feel like she was something more than an exile, as well as a giving ponies they could call her. For a member of the pack to know her name, both past and current, was something she couldn’t believe. Yet Delilah Holheart was no longer the name she went by, and she had grown to accept herself as Silvia Holheart instead.

“Where did you learn that name?” She asked, but her only response was a growing laugh from the wolf under her. “Tell me… now! Tell me or I’ll ki-”

“Alferiea was right, you are sad looking when you are angry,” Arthis suddenly spat out, and Silvia seized all thoughts as the name flooded her mind. “I know why you were dodging all that time, why you didn’t kill me like somewolf more sensible would. He told me how soft-hearted you were, and how even with the greatest threats you couldn’t ever follow up on them. He told me about the pendant, those books he kept for you, but most important of all he told me how to kill you. You can thank me for fulfilling his request.”

Silvia was too stunned to notice the blue glow of his claw, and by the time she did it had already swiped at her. The moment it touched her, she went flying back, hitting the ground after traveling thirty feet. It hadn’t cut her, but it did bring her back to reality. She watched as Arthis lunged at her, jaw open and aiming for her neck. Not having time to get back on her feet, she used her paws to hold his neck back, keeping the wolf from snapping her spine. Even then she couldn’t hold back his paws, which swiped furiously at her, managing to scratch her shoulders and the sides of her muzzle.

“You can only hold me back for so long!” Arthis spat at her, teeth snapping at Silvia. “What are you going to do huh? You can’t hold me back forever!”

“I… refuse to think... my father... would send you… to kill me,” Silvia told him. “Who really sent you? Was it the alpha? The Elders?”

“You don’t need to know,” Arthis said, Silvia’s paws quickly growing weak from the weight. “I hope your ready to die, prey lover!”

As soon as her attack finished he was sent flying, a ball of energy hit him in the side. Silvia quickly backed away, stumbling as her front legs tried not to collapsed. She didn’t manage to get far before they gave out on her, causing her to collapse on the ground from the pain in her legs. A few feet away Arthis staggered back to his feet, his attention drawn away from Silvia as he searched for the one who had hit him. When couldn’t find anyone, he growled in annoyance.

“Show yourself coward!” He shouted out. “No one, wolf or pony, attacks a paradox hunter. You hear me!”

“Well to bad, cause I just did.”

Another ball of energy flew at Arthis, but this time he dodged it as he and Silvia looked in the direction it had been sent from. There stood a pale unicorn wearing a sweater, her red and purple mane held up in a ponytail at the top of her head. She had a grimoire levitating in front, looking with fury at the wolf she was targeting. Silvia was distraught at what she was seeing, question how much courage this pony had to attack a paradox hunter, or a wolf nonetheless.

“The names Moondancer, her majesty's archivist and friend of princess Luminous Oracle,” She introduced herself, adjusting her glasses as they started falling of her muzzle. “And if I’m correct, you seem to not only be after her highness, but an old friend of my comrade as well.”

“Stupid pony,” Arthis said, not even registering the last part of Moondancers greeting. “You’ll pay for that!”

What little forward movement was quickly stopped as a figure flew in front of him, sliding through his legs and knocking him to the ground. The figure circled back to stand by Moondancer’s side, and the yellow coat immediately caught Silvia’s attention. The mare was a pegasus, carrying a spear that Moondancer had earlier forged with her own magic. Her wild blue mane and tail gave off a feeling of rage, and her eyes glared at Arthis with an even stronger show of that. Those eyes soon looked to Silvia, and a pleasant smile appears on the mare's face.

“Thunder?”

“Why are you asking who I think I am?” Luminous tilted her head in confusion, looking at the Tantabus. “I’m Luminous Oracle, always have been and always will be. I don’t see the need to ask who I want to be.”

“That might be true from where you stand, but don’t you think that choosing not to be the true you is turning away from who you are?” The Tantabus replied, having chosen to play devil's advocate. She knew she had asked the pony in front of her whether they still believed they were Luminous or not, but she had her own feelings about who they really are. “You’ve always been Twilight Sparkle, even fractured like you are now. Do you want to keep playing Luminous Oracle or not?”

“I’m not playing anyone!” Luminous shot back, stomping her hoof on the ground in affirmative. “Twilight Sparkle isn’t who I am! So what if I’m a paradox, I can accept that, but if you're going to tell me that the only pony I can be is this Twilight I am in another timeline, I can’t do that.”

“Why would you want to carry yourself as a false-”

“Luminous is not false!” She shouted back at the Tantabus, having felt like she was screaming the same thing for hours. “You said yourself that the memories I have currently are real. Are you suddenly going back on that and saying that every friend, relationship, and moment of my life was a lie!”

“No I-”

“Than shut up and listen to me!” Luminous screamed, and as she requested the Tantabus fell silent. “You gave me a choice, so I’m giving you my answer. Yes, I’m glad I know that I’m a paradox and that this Twilight Sparkle was once me, but she isn't anymore. She may exist to you, but she isn’t the pony standing in front of you no matter how similar she looks,” She took a quick glance down at the velvet hoof. “I have a sister and others who I consider close to me, and if I play this other me I’d be acting like I never knew them. I’m not playing Luminous Oracle, but I’m pretty sure I know who I would be playing if I agreed with you.”

As Luminous finished the empty street fell silent, and thought the Tantabus wanted to retort she knew it wasn’t worth the effort. As she looked to the paradox, she watched as, without her intervention, the shape of Twilight Sparkle disappeared in front of her. The Tantabus wasn’t ready for this, or even aware that it could happen in the first place, believing it all to simply be Luminous’ memory. Nonetheless, the form of Twilight Sparkle disappeared in the shape stained glass, and Luminous’ body took its place. That was when the Tantabus realized what was happening, remembering what paradoxes where to begin with.

“She’s creating her own history?” She mumbled, before noticing when distinct change in Luminous’ appearance: her irises had the look of shattered glass in them. “No, not just her own history, but something bigger.”

Luminous hadn’t felt or even recognize the fact her very words had changed the memory they were inside, and she didn’t even seemed shocked at how her body turned back to normal. However, she did feel a strange warmth inside her, one that gave her a unusually strong confidence in herself. She walked forward, stopping less than an inch in front of the Tantabus’ muzzle. Feeling the strong will the resonated from the pegasus, the Tantabus cracked a smile and closed her eyes.

“The perception of one can change the world in their favor, not even a paradox is needed for that,” The Tantabus whispered to herself before opening her eyes. “You can feel it to, right? There’s a battle occurring right now, one that won’t end well without you.”

“Yes, I don’t know why I can feel it but I can,” Luminous answered. “You remember what I said to Topaz, about how I’m not smart or strong, well there's one exception to the latter. When I have something to protect, someone I can count on to be next to me till the end, I will lay down my life for them. The only thing I need is a weapon to protect them with.”

“I can understand that desire, as it is something Luna taught me about,” The Tantabus nodded as she spoke. “In that case, as I have been your garment, I will also be your weapon. Pave the way to your own future, Princess Luminous.”

Thunder jumped back as Arthis swung at her, his claw glowing blue with energy. As the wolf landed he immediately jumped again, only to get slammed from the side by Silvia mid-leap. Moondancer kept a safe distance, constantly hurling magic at Arthis while doing her best to not hit any buildings in the area. The fact that he was still standing strong, even with Thunder and Moondancer’s actually attempting to hurt the wolf, was worrisome. Compared to before, when he had seemed to run out of breath easily, Silvia noticed how instantaneous his energy seemed to return.

Even after Thunder and Moondancer appeared he had continued to laugh, and he did even as he took hit after hit. It sent a chill through Silvia’s spine, seeing the feral smile that adorned her opponent after ever slice, kick, and claw that managed to hit him. She knew that he wasn’t laughing at her or even Thunder, who she had long thought to have died. The cause of his laughter was the pain. He laughed as if to mock their efforts to down him and continued to take blow after blow, hit after hit. This wasn’t natural, not for those of the pack she use to belong to, or the dark magic she had learned, which she still held back from using in fear of what might happen.

“Oh you should see the look on your face,” Arthis said, stumbling to his paws and looking at Silvia. “Alferiea would be disappointed to know that you don’t know why we are so successful. You could have gotten this if you had stayed for your own rising ceremony, but to bad.”

“Any idea what he’s talking about?” Thunder asked, looking to her old friend with a worried expression.

“If I knew I would have said something by now, but somethings happen to the pack since I left,” She responded, before taking a few steps back. “None of the hunters had anything like this when I was around.”

As she finished Arthis leaped at them, both jumping to the side in anticipation of the move. However, Silvia watched as he suddenly changed the direction of the leap, aiming away from them and at Moondancer. Using her horn the unicorn formed a magic shield in front of her to block his advance, but it was futile as he burst through it without any problem whatsoever. Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of the wolfs open jaw, unaware as the a form burst forth from behind her.

Silvia was the next one to stare wide eyed as Luminous suddenly charged Arthis, the Lunar String take the shape of a long, curved sword. The blades tip barely missed Moondancer as Luminous’ head made contact with Arthis’ stomach, her eyes filled with anger. The force sent the wolf, launching him away from the group. Thunder and Moondancer watched in awe at what had happened, the former especially unable to believe the sight before her.

“What… is that?” Thunder Shield asked as he pointed to the Lunar String new form. Luminous was holding it in her mouth, the hilt extending into her neck, completely attached.

“Hey Thunder!” Luminous called out, waving to her friend. “You aren’t brainwashed anymore, right?”

Silvia tilted her head in confusion as the paradox next to her nodded. “Brainwashed?”

“I’ll explain to you later.” Thunder told her, sighing as he was reminded of Luminous’ stance on Swift Spell. “It’s better for Luminous to not here.”

Arthis got to his paws quickly his eyes meeting instantly with Luminous, giving a death glare to her opponent. He couldn’t help but chuckle, but that was all he could muscle, despite how he had laughed at every other bruise or cut he had received. Silvia noticed this, seeming how he seemed stand in a more clumsy manner than before. Looking to the ex-captain, she saw something else rather strange about the mare. Her eyes, while still the same color they had alway been, had a strange glassy texture to them. She had never seen it before, but at the same time no wolf had ever seen an adult paradox.

“You… you’ve wounded me!” Arthis yelled in rage, though Silvia was able to make out a bit of fear as well. It wasn’t a bloody wound, but there was a bruise on his stomach from the impact.

“Why are you so surprised?” Luminous asked in confusion, completely oblivious to what the last two hours had been like for those around her. “A soldier, both hired or not, should know what happens in the field of war, right? I don’t see any reason you shouldn’t be hurt…” Finally something clicked in her when she saw the fair state of his body. “Wait a sec, why are there no wounds on you?!”

Moondancer facehooved, having known not to expect too much when it came to Luminous. “Luminous… really?”

“What it’s a legit question!” The pegasus replied as she turned to the archivist, throwing her hooves in front of her. Her friend simply sighed in disappointment as Luminous turned back to Arthis, who looked like he was going insane. “So… are you going to answer or not?”

“Paradoxes are horrors, beasts,” Arthis replied, staring at the ground with shock. “Horrors should not exist, and you shouldn’t exist… so why do you exist!” His body suddenly lunged forward, though it stopped before anyone could comprehend what he was saying. His pupils twitch harshly as stared into Luminous “Psyche… she freed me from this reality, showed me the truth. Psyche will show the world everything, and she will show you the reason you shouldn't exist. She showed me, and gave me a way to live and hunt without worry… but you-”

He didn’t finish the sentence. Instead his head shot up violently, arching back more and more until it couldn’t go farther. His mouth fell open, his eyes lifeless, tail sagging as those in front of him watched with fear. His eyes suddenly started to glow a strange white, and his head shot forward again, though something was wrong. Thunder felt a shiver go up his spine, and Luminous could hear the voices in her head calling, but this time it was just her. As Arthis, or whatever it was that spoke through him talked, everyone heard the words that were said.

“You deny us, refuse us, stop us and turn our offer away,” It said to them, though it was directly specifically at the glass-eyed paradox. “We give gifts, and you turn away from the true reality for this fake one. Know this: when the great evils revive, and the tome is found, you will all die.”

“Who are you?” Thunder Shield asked as he, Silvia, and Moondancer stood by Luminous at the ready. “What do you mean by “true reality”?”

“Thunder, I already know,” Luminous told her oldest friend, putting a hoof on her friends shoulder. “And something tells me you do too.”

“You… know about the paradoxes?” She received a nod in response, feeling a bit of guilt as he heard that. “I see… but I still don’t know who this wolf is.”

“The wolf who use to own this body is sleeping now,” The possessed Arthis told her, seeming infuriated. “He lost the right of what I gave him, and I will give you a similar warning. If we ever meet, you will all die at my very command.”

With that Arthis’ eyes stopped glowing, his body relaxing as it leaned slightly forward. His eyes were rolled back, and in a sense of finality his mouth suddenly hacked up some blood. With that, he dropped to the ground, dead where he had last stood. While it repulsed Moondancer and Silvia, Luminous and Thunder simply stood, having seen a death much worse in their lifetime. Luminous didn’t show her disgusts, at least, as she had hated the idea of death most of her life, even if she was captain of the royal guard.

“I figured a wolf like you wouldn’t be revolted by death.” Moondancer said, looking to Silvia, who was looking at the ground, shaking ferociously.

“Paradoxes don’t have blood, and even than I’ve never seen a paradox die… normally,” Silvia explained, looking to her pendant. “Hopefully I never will.”

“I assume everything has been taken-” Everyone looked back to see Arcane, a clump of fur around his left cheek missing, walking back to them. After taking a sec to examine the two new ponies, he looked off to the dead body of Arthis, blood pooling around his mouth. “I see I missed a party. You should have invited me back.”

“Who’s this creep?” Moondancer asked, looking to Luminous for an answer.

“Arcane, or Sombra as-” Arcane swatted her over the head as she said the second name, Moondancer taking a step back and Thunder taking a fighting stance.

“Don’t worry, I promised her highness to stay on my best behavior while I’m present,” He said with a smile, taking a bow as he examined Thunder with interest before mumbling. “I see, Spitfire found herself in a position of the military yet again.”

“Don’t worry Thunder Shield, everything's fine, really,” She than turned to Silvia. “So, where is Rarity and all the others?”

“If you mean your companions, I told my brother to get them out of town, as well as a friend who is protecting a paradox,” Silvia told the pegasus. “They should be fine. My brother knows more about the wilds than I do. However, I think that might be for the best, as we seem to have made an enemy.”

“You mean the pack of the wolf you just killed?” Arcane asked, attempting to hide the small scratch he had obtained. “They are more worthy opponents than any I had faced during my time ruling, that’s for sure. If they are our enemy, the let's take them.”

“That’s not who she’s talking about,” Luminous told him, “You missed it, but something was possessing that wolf. It called itself… Psyche, right?”

“And it seems to know something of my father, and more worryingly he seems to want me dead,” Silvia explained to the tyrant, who was more curious in the dead body, and noticing the slight glow of his claws. “My father saved my life when I was younger… why would he suddenly want me dead?”

“Why don’t you ask the dying wolf right there,” Arcane suggested as he wolf over. “He’s barely alive, but if the unnatural aura of that pendant leads me to believe anything, you can save his soul.”

“Like anyone would take the words of a tyrant to heart.” Moondancer called out, through her voice was more statistical than angry.

“Tyrant or not, he is correct,” Silvia said stepping forward. “I’ve been doing this since I was exiled; the souls of the paradoxes I meet are stored inside this pendant. I talk to them when I have no one else around, and before my brother joined me they were the only company I had. This isn’t anything unnatural to me and besides, with no physical body, Arthis can’t harm them.”

Silvia looked to the limp body of Arthis, examining it like a doctor would a patient. Though his eyes were rolled back and blood continued to leak from his mouth, she could see his stomach rising and falling. With a deep breath, she lifted a paw up in the air, the claws turning the same shade of blue that she had seen him use earlier. Arcane instantly recognized the magic, but the others stood agasp as her paw sunk through Arthis’ skin without need for an incision. Not to much later, it rose out, carrying a strange blue orb - his soul - on the paw’s pads and resting it on the pendant. Not much later, the blue orb disappeared into the pendant, and Silvia’s head dropped in exhaustion.

“I’ll… talk to him later,” She told everyone. “Dark magic takes a lot out of you… even when it’s mastered. For now, we need to get out of Ponyville before anymore wolves find us.”

After running for an hour, Ralf stopped, the ponies and dragon behind him collapsing in exhaustion. He looked back to Rarity, glad to see that the blue flame was still lit. They had never been in any immediate danger, but he wanted to get as far away from Ponyville as possible. He hadn’t gotten the training to see paradoxes, at least not to the distance that paradox hunters normally could. He couldn’t sense Luminous from the distance they had gained, but he could very well feel Melody’s soul behind him. He smiled softly as he looked to the earth pony and the unicorn who had taken care of her.

“Okay, you refused to explain exactly what is going on earlier, but I think we deserve answers,” Topaz exclaimed as she stood back up. “Where’s Luminous? Why did you make us run? And what in Luna’s name do you plan to do to us?”

“Please Topaz, calm down,” Rarity told the dragoness as she sat down. “I can assure that this here… creature would not hurt us. His sister is the one who promised to take in her highness.”

“I’m sorry if the entire predator thing might have freaked you out, or that I just came in and told you all to follow me,” Ralf apologized, his ears flattening as he laid down a safe distance away. “Her highness is with my sister, and when Silvia makes a promise she keeps it… at least nineteen out of twenty times. I don’t know why Silvia asked you all to run too, but it was probably so that you didn’t get injured during the fight...” He contemplated on whether he should tell them about Luminous being a paradox, but decided it wouldn’t be the best way to get them to trust him. “... Melody was the one who was really in danger, being a paradox, but because none of you really seemed fit for combat she seemed told me to grab you as well. If you’ve never seen wolves fight… actually, I’d prefer not to really say.”

“Well this is just perfect!” Topaz growled as she spoke, flinging her arms in the air in a show of her frustration. “Not only did we leave her with a carnivore, but she’s with Sombra. Great job you idiot, you might have just killed her for all-”

“Topaz, shut up!” Soarin’s sudden order took the dragoness by surprise, though that surprise quickly took to anger.

“Like a stuttering recruit has any right to order me, the personal assistant of Princess Luna, around,” She shouted back, not noticing the stone faced expression on the pegasus. “As far as I’m concerned you have been nothing but dead weight the entire time. You have done nothing but sit on your flank acting as if you have a speech impediment, and it would have been better to just leave you at the city. I don’t care what Luminous says, bringing you along was a bad idea.”

“I would rather not argue about this, but I don’t think I’m the only one here who would rather not have you around either!” Soarin retorted, the fury in his voice seeming almost out of place. “I might not have done much, but all you’ve done is sit around asserting yourself as some alpha without any reason as to why. You yell at us, make fun of us, and don’t act like you actually care about Luminous’ well being.”

“Why you-”

“Topaz… he’s right,” The dragoness looked to Rarity seeing that she was just as steam as Soarin was. “You may claim to be important, but I don’t remember learning about you anywhere in school, and I don’t think Luminous and Soarin do either. As far as I’m concerned, that makes your behavior not just egotistical, but absolutely impractical,” That was the first insult that truly hurt Topaz, taking a few steps back. “Obviously you're not all that important if schools don’t keep track of your parts of the story. So, though it is incredibly rude to say, I wouldn’t mind if you just walked away from us.”

“Well… if that is how you think…”

Topaz didn’t finish turning away from the wolf and ponies and walking off into the darkness. The last thing any of them saw was an incredibly derogatory gesture from the dragoness before she disappeared. Ralf didn’t know what to think, having thought for a second about chasing down Topaz before decided that it’s not worth both the trouble and possible burnt coat. He watched as Luminous’ former companions apologized to Vinyl for doing that in front of a Melody. As he watched, Ralf suddenly realized that he was the only one who knew anything about the monsters, and the only one really fit to fight them. His fur stood on end as he realized that he had willingly accepted the one position he never wanted to be in: a leader.

Sweetie Belle sat there, wishing she could cry as she stood alone in the streets Ponyville. She had fallen asleep during the events that had transpired, and after a hopeful search across the empty streets, she saw no one. Her sister, Luminous, Soarin, everyone had left her as if she wasn’t even there. No tears fell, but her brain told her that they were, and she was starting to feel like hyperventilating. Not that her metallic body would allow her the wish or pleasure.

“Are you okay Sweetie Belle?”

An unfamiliar voice called out to her, yet part of her wish to connect it to someone or something. She turned around, seeing the figure of a lone earth pony staring at her, which she did for several minutes before walking towards the filly. Her coat was a brilliant gold color, iris’ a hollow green that somehow still felt comforting despite their lifelessness. Her mane and tail was a light teal, the former almost touch the floor while the other was the length of her chest and stomach. Sweetie Belle, having spent most of the best few years inside the mansion so no one saw her, had no idea who this was or how they knew her.

“Ssssh, don’t be afraid, I’m an old friend,” The earth pony said as they sat down next to Sweetie Belle. “Of course you probably don’t remember me, considering how long ago it all was.”

“W-who are you?” Sweetie asked, the earth pony smiling before replying.

“I’m sad to say that, for the sake of your sanity, I can’t give you my real name,” She told the filly, who was greatly confused by what she meant. “However, if you want something to call me, than call me what everyone else calls me. Psyche.”

Author's Note

Oh boy, this is where things are going to get interesting. I didn't plan to introduce Psyche this early, heck I didn't plan to have her in the story at all, but here she is. As more mysteries are solved others begin, and that is exactly what her introduction is going to make clear.

Please leave a like and a comment if you are enjoying the story, and follow if you want to keep up with me and streams that I will be doing in the future (yes I am streaming now).

Chapter 12

Perspective. It is through perspective that we create everything we believe, and we found the world that we believe exists. Everything we feel, everything we see, hear, perceive, is due to that power; a power believed to be more powerful than any friendship or magic spell. Imagine if you could see or hear the perspective of everyone around you, there inner thoughts, wants and beliefs. If you could see that, than it is entirely possible to change it to your bidding, as to see a ponies perspective is to be able to see there very mind.

The moment I saw those glass eyes Luminous held, I knew that her eyes had been opened like I was. We paradoxes aren’t what those wolves believe us to be, as we are the future of Equestria, not the end of it. Not that they will understand, and that’s what makes them so easy to control. An entire pack willing to do my bidding, and all to get rid of paradoxes… heh, it’s too easy. Of course, change of leadership means change in how things work, and I see the true future lies with them. That’s what I was given upon learning the truth, the power to show what the world really is.

So tell me Luminous, why do you reject what is truly there? This world of darkness is nothing than an illusion, one that we can break and restart. We can correct everything that has been done to Equestria, bring back the friends who were destroyed, and remind those who are still alive what really happened. We could’ve brought back the true Equestria, but instead you keep believe what we see is that true world. I thought, when I saw your eyes, that Twilight was there, but I was wrong.

Who is this Luminous that harbors my friends my friends soul? Perhaps in time I will find the answer to that question. She must see me as a monster of sorts, a deranged psychopath, or a villain wanting to take everything she has known. That isn’t true, as I have made friends here myself, ones very dear to me. All I want is to save the memories of those who are still here and save Equestria from what the elements had defeated.

However, most of all, I want to save you Twilight. If I can do that with Luminous still being alive, than I will.

“P-psyche?” Sweetie Belle asked the strange mare who had promised to take her somewhere safe. “Where are we going?”

Psyche didn’t answer her, too busy thinking to notice the filly’s question. Sweetie Belle watched her eyes, how they seem to shine despite the darkness of the world around them. She didn’t know how Psyche was able to tell where she was going, or if she knew where she was heading herself. Every question Sweetie Belle asked came with a silent answer, and it only left her feeling uncomfortable about the pony guiding her. Part of her wanted to turn away and run, but a single look behind her brought back horrible memories of the last time she was alone; of the time that she had lost her real body.

“Ever heard of paradoxes Sweetie Belle?” Psyche asked the unicorn filly next to her, eyes still glued to the emptiness that surrounded her.

“Um… it doesn’t sound familiar, but than again I haven’t left the mansion much sense that thing attacked me.” As Sweetie Belle mentioned it she felt something breath on her neck, causing her to stop moving.

“I’m sorry you had to be alone for so long, but I can kinda understand that feeling of isolation,” Psyche told Sweetie, having stopped herself. “I… shouldn’t have brought it up. It isn’t right to think that our versions of isolation are similar, especially when it’s not,” Finally Psyche turned to Sweetie Belle, the glow in her eyes dimmed as she looked to the ground scared. “Sometimes, when I say stuff like that, I feel like I’m the villain of some children’s novel. It makes me scared that ponies view me as… do you think I’m a monster?”

“Wh-what? Why would I think that?” Sweetie replied in shock. “I may not know much about you, but you don’t seem like a bad pony be any means.”

Psyche wanted to smile, but as she looked into Sweetie’s eyes she saw everything that the filly really saw. Her eyes, even before the realization of what Equestria really was, she could see the emotions of others by looking into their own. Psyche could see how scared the filly was, and she felt like an idiot. Despite knowing the filly more than she ever should, to Sweetie she was in the company of a complete stranger.

“Griz, you aren’t making this any better,” Psyche said, having known that the older wolf was following them for some time. “Your only making this worse for the poor thing here.”

“My apologies alpha,” Sweetie looked behind her seeing the towering figure of an older, bulky furred creature she had not seen before suddenly walk out. “I was staying back for protection, but clearly the filly was not feeling protected herself,” Griz looked to Sweetie Belle, who stood there stunned at the strange yet beautiful new creature who had appeared. “I see you had the luxury of not meeting a paradox hunter before, and I am sorry to have startled you if I had.”

“Wh-what are you?” Sweetie stammered, her mind in awe at the majesty of the paradox hunter. “Are you one of the creatures of darkness?”

“No Sweetie he is not,” Psyche answered with a smile, seeing the wonder in the unicorn’s heart. “This is Griz, a wolf, paradox hunter, and close friend of mine. Speaking of which, didn’t I tell you that you didn’t have to call me your alpha?” She asked the wolf. “I’m no wolf, and though I’m your leader I don’t want to be related to those that I… beat.”

“Is something wrong?” Sweetie Belle noticed the shudder and short lived frown that adorned Psyche’s face. “Did something bad happen to the other alph- I mean leader?”

“I’d rather not remember it, and I don’t think Psyche wants to either,” Griz told Sweetie Belle before turning to Psyche. She made a light chuckled and muttered something under her breath, something that he knew was an attempt to make her feel better about herself. “Let me guess: Arthis tried to either kill Silvia or Luminous.”

“Both,” Psyche answered, Griz responding with a sigh. “The idiot had already been warned, but I’m going to have to ask Alferiea why he was ordered to kill them. I specifically said I want Luminous unharmed, and to come at her own free will. Sadly, none of those things happened, and I got a little too upset,” She laughed weakly, only loud enough for Griz to hear it. “I hate just how normal things like this have become.”

“You want the fold?” Griz said, pulling out a piece of fabric that had been torn from a pack he was carrying.

Psyche nodded, letting her companion tie it around her eyes. Sweetie watched in confusion, wondering what the reason was that Psyche was now blindfolded. She felt compelled to ask, but Griz motioned for to not say anything, knowing just how much the reason upset his friend. Sweetie was positive that Psyche wouldn’t be able to see through the blind, but the sudden sound of voices in her mind stopped her train of thought. The blindfolded mare looked back to Sweetie, motioning for the filly to follow her.

“I promise you, I’ll find Rarity,” She said with courage. “After the mistake that I made earlier, I need to make a good first impression on at least one old friend.”

“So this Tantabus thing, pony, whatever, showed you a world that use to be our owns?” Thunder asked as she looked to Luminous, who currently had the Tantabus in the form of a masquerade identical to that of the first night she had it. “I’m sorry, it’s just really hard to believe, even with that Tantabus creature currently on your face… which is weird in and of itself”

“How did you think I dealt with it?” Luminous asked her closest friend, “Learning I’m some pony from another timeline, someone important as a matter of fact! The amount of pressure that puts on me is why I decided to stay Luminous. At first I thought the world had gone mad, but after meeting a thousand year dead princess and a tyrant that has no interest in killing me, I guess I’ll kinda believe anything.”

Thunder Shield’s worries had long since washed away, being replaced by a feeling of dread that persisted throughout the long talk. She couldn’t speak about Neon, knowing that it would endanger her even greater than she already was. Another thing kept her from talking about returning to Canterlot, and that was the wolf who traveled with them. The two’s reunion wasn’t as fulfilling as Thunder had hoped for, Arthis continuing to try and kill them, until that… creature possessed him. That didn’t stop the two from acting like foals as soon as it was over of course, chasing each other around like siblings.

The two had notice changes of course, the main one for Silvia being just how much Thunder had gained in terms of personality. She barely ever saw paradoxes with complex personalities, and she was certain Melody was only using Vinyl as a reference for her own emotions. The Thunder she remembered was timid, but that was all that her friend had during that stage. Now, to see the loyalty towards Luminous, the endless courage and valor, and at the same time a full grown mare who acted like a spoiled child out of combat was a surprise. It was something that put a smile on her muzzle, and judging by Moondancer’s reaction something she didn’t often see.

“Killing you is a waste, and not just in the oath I swore,” Arcane spoke up. “The way you looked at that book of spells back at my place, and the naivety that followed when you finally woke from your trance. The only pony who could have been so entranced was the very pony that almost gave me Equestria.”

“You… remember the other Equestria?” Luminous asked. This wasn’t the first time Arcane had brought up her other self, but it was the first time she had obtained the curiosity to question him. “Why is it that you do and nopony else did, not even us paradoxes?”

“Those are things that prove how different you and Twilight are,” Arcane told her. When ever he looked at Luminous he could help but laugh on the inside of drastically different she was from his old enemy. “Though, if I had to explain, I would go back to an old saying before the three tribes came together long ago. If I remember it correctly, the earth pony saying was ‘No matter the good deeds, the apologies, or changes, an evil heart remembers everything’ and a very similar unicorn saying that went ‘evil never leaves, never forgets, and will cause a cruel repetition’. Most of those old sayings were lost or forgotten when Equestria came together under Celestia and Luna. Take a guess at which of the two destroyed it, like she did everything that defied her perspective.”

“Celestia.”

Everyone stopped to look at Luminous, the princess gritting her teeth as she spoke the name. She didn’t know what made her say that, but something inside her immediately jumped to that name. Moondancer was the most shocked, seeing a feeling of anger that she never knew Luminous had within herself. The archivist looked to Arcane, who stood there smiling at what Luminous had just said. She couldn’t help but feel like something about Luminous saying that was… off.

“You know, this is the first time I’ve looked at your eyes since that entire wolf fiasco,” Arcane said, drawing everyone's attention to Luminous’ eyes. “I’m sure you haven’t noticed, but it seems that whatever the Tantabus did woke something. Last I checked, normal ponies don’t have eyes resembling that of a stain glass window.”

“Did that thing that possessed the wolf, Psyche I believe it called itself, say something similar?” Moondancer asked. “Does this creature calling itself Psyche know what happened?”

“I doubt it would tell us even if we found it,” Silvia explained as she heard something not far away from them. “The way it spoke seemed to suggest it wanted Luminous dead. Also, I think it’s unfair to call Psyche a monster or creature of the darkness, as I’ve never heard of any creature able to possess a body, or one living anyway. It knew about the other world, so I think it’s fair to say this is a paradox… though how no paradox hunter knew of it is beyond me.”

“It knew me,” Luminous responded, looking up to the sky as if she wasn’t even paying attention. “Psyche knew me, or rather it knew Twilight in some way. They wanted me to become my past, and abandon who I currently am,” She looked to Arcane. “Twilight almost gave Equestria to you, and you remember because of the evil that you can’t get rid of. Yet, you haven’t questioned or berated me for my decision to stay Luminous.”

“That’s because this world has no place for a ‘Twilight Sparkle’ or alicorn princess,” Arcane told the princess. “As much as you share a soul you are two ponies with two different lives. I could never imagined that stupid excuse for a princess take up a sword or kill someone that harmed their citizens, or even hurt them. She would preach the teachings of Princess Celestia to any who opposed, and if that didn’t work imprison them with the elements. That ‘princess’ may have thought she had free will of her life, but she was a puppet constantly played by Celestia. Anything the princess didn’t like, she would have Twilight get rid of. Forced happiness is not true happiness, even she won’t admit it.”

“You must really hate the princesses,” Moondancer stated, something which everyone could tell was pretty obvious at this point. “I never knew them, and Canterlots neutral stance on which ruler was the true ruler means that we never got involved with the fighting between the Lunar Republic and Solar Empire.”

“A wise decision, but you are half wrong about one thing,” Arcane told the archivist. “Before I became known as Sombra I was a lot closer to the crown, or to Luna more specifically. Where Celestia forced joy and friendship onto those who even slightly insult the other, Luna knew where her position was suppose to be. She knew the crown should stay out of things they should control, and that those who hate or don’t like each other is natural. Celestia would constantly say how happy everything is, but every night Luna dealt with the nightmares of every citizen in Equestria. The nightmares almost consumed her to the point of them corrupting her, only for that self-centered dragoness did one of the only few things she has ever done right.”

“You mean Topaz?” Luminous asked. She didn’t want to believe how right she was, remembering how the former assistant of princess Luna had acted.

“Yes, it was indeed her, but before we get to that,” Arcane’s horn lit up, and without even looking threw something right in front of them. “I think it’s important that a certain wingless pegasus heard everything I’m about to say.”

Silvia sighed as she looked to what, or more accurately who, Arcane had thrown with his telekinesis. She saw Rainbow Dash, head buried in dirt from the throw, lying on the ground in front of her. It didn’t surprise her that Rainbow had followed her here, having known well that the wingless pegasus was planning to run away. As Rainbow lifted her head, she turned to Arcane who was smiling creepily at her.

“You could have just said my name you know.” Rainbow told him, though he didn’t care about what she was saying.

“Starswirl had repeatedly told Luna to take a break from her, heh, ‘dream jobs’, but she wasn’t going to hear him out,” Arcane said, completely ignoring the pony who had just yelled at him. “Than Topaz came, and much to Celestia’s pleads for Luna to turn her away, she accepted the dragonesses offer to work at her side. We didn’t really get along that well, but she kept Luna from going over the edge, forcing the nightmare’s that had started to consume her to subside. I knew the two had planned to separate from Celestia’s Equestria, and a vast amount of ponies including residents of other species had her back, but I never saw it through.

“Luna sent me to the frozen north after news spread of anarchy in the crystal empire. Apparently the royal family there had been assassinated for one reason or another, and as I learned before my banishment it was Celestia who had done it. I was to act as a stand in until Luna separated and brought the empire under her banner and I planned to use it as a way to research the strange crystals that were unique to the area. However, when I arrived the empire was in chains, being controlled by someone working under Celestia. I killed him, and through my best attempts tried to get the empire back on its hooves. The plan was half a success, having restored some balance, but the Celestia showed up.”

“Are you saying that Celestia banished you for… interfering in her complete rule?” Moondancer asked, but with everything that had just been revealed, Arcane didn’t respond. “Do… do you not know?”

“Everything after that is a mystery, as I wasn’t around during both histories,” He admitted to the dismay of everyone except for Rainbow Dash, who had no idea what was going on. “In one I failed and Luna was overtaken by the nightmare, and in this one Topaz was the only thing keeping Celestia from absolute rule. It’s upsetting that Luna died, but good riddance she took Celestia with her. I awoke early from my imprisonment due to Celestia’s death weakening the curse, but since I’m the one of caused the empire to vanish, we still have a good two years before it shows back up.”

With that Arcane finished his talking and started walking again, not caring for more questions or comments. Nopony knew whether to believe him or not, but Luminous felt the truth in his words. A part of her agreed with what he said, and she could hear something else as well. A voice was calling out to her, but unlike the ones the overwhelmed or the weird trances that had occured, she was well aware of everypony around her. As her companions started after Arcane, she looked back up to the sky, and she managed to make out the words the voice was saying to her.

“Help me. Can you hear me… Luminous?” It said, Luminous instantly recognizing the voice from her talk with the Tantabus.

“Twilight,” The name reached her thoughts easily. She looked to the sky as she started walking, looking at the starless, pitch black void that surrounded her. “Is that really you?”

“You gave me your word Swift. You told me that Luminous would be in the wilds by this point, and yet you completely leave out the fact that her two closest friends left as well.” Swift did his best to keep his eyes on Neon as she spoke, her figure unrecognizable from the nightmare’s corruption. “I told you I wanted her dead, and you let them leave after her? I swear, after you’ve so eagerly followed my command, why do you know try to defy me now.”

“I didn’t, in fact I didn’t even know they left until you informed-”

“I saw those drawings, idiot, and I know what you tried to do,” The tone that Neon spoke with was more maniacal than Swift Spell had imagined. “This was Twilight’s backup plan… your mother’s backup plan. I would imprison you if I could, but you destroyed the elements long ago.”

“Neon, that’s not you speaking… isn’t it?” Swift asked, standing tall as he prepared for what was to come. He got no response, but that was enough to tell him what was going on. “You lost, I’m sure you know that by now. Without the elements to tamper with anyone's beliefs, without your power or body to wipe me out of existence, you have no authority over me. No longer do you control the world as if it is a game of chess weighed heavily in your favor. So if your going to kill me, torture me, or turn my body to stone, I have one last thing to say to you: to the empress who forced everyone to follow her vision and crushed all who gave the peasants and poor ponies of Equestria hope, you have no pieces left to defend yourself. I have won without a single piece lost, save for my queen and knight, so consider it checkmate.”

“You’re very fun, Swift, but you haven’t answer my question,” Neon, or the pony who had possessed her, turned as she spoke. “Why isn’t Luminous dead?!”

“Twilight, I don’t know why this is all happening, and I don’t truly understand myself, but for some reason you and me are the same pony. Two with entirely different lives, but the same nonetheless. Was everything that Arcane said really true? Was I just a puppet controlled by Princess Celestia? I want to believe him, but my mind is torn in half. One side tells me she’s good, but the other tells me I’m wrong.

“I guess how I acted earlier with the Tantabus may have been me saying I reject you, but that isn’t true. Yes, you were once me, and at the same time I’m your fractured soul, but we aren’t the same. Our lives, though somewhat similar, were very different. You never led your mother to her death, or became the captain of the royal guard, something that I only obtained because of my status as royalty! I never had to earn anything, and you had to obtain everything from your place in history to your friendship. I didn’t need to fail, or rather they never told me I failed, and that’s why we are not the same.

“So Twilight, please tell me… what is this world that I live in?”

…

“Luminous, I can’t tell you much, but I understand what your trying to say. Never for a moment did I feel you reject my existence, but instead of becoming who I was you followed who you are. Yes, Celestia used me but she was in many cases right! I know how your sister and family follow Luna more, but just because our perspectives are different doesn’t mean you’re wrong. If I could do one thing in my life again, it would be to reject Celestia’s offer of ascension.

“I can’t tell you what to believe, you’ll just have to see where you find your truth, because I’ve learned something. In my time, I have never seen truth, but at the same time I’ve never seen lies. One ponies truth is another ponies lie, one correct mark on history could be seen as propaganda, and one ponies emotions can turn them into someone entirely different from who you really are. It’s up to you to believe whether or not Arcane is true and the ponies around you and what your perspective is. The only truth that I can tell you, if you want to believe it, is this.

“The beginning of your story is over, and you are about to see what my life was truly like, and please stop blaming yourself. Your mother’s death was not your fault.”

Author's Note

And so ends the first part of Descendant of the Night. It was quiet a journey and at many times one that I that I took a little too personal. I've said some harsh things to some people who probably don't deserve it, and if you are one of those people then I am truly sorry. I can be an emotional wreck at times, and I'm even more of naive kid then I like to admit. So, even if you aren't really reading this, just now that I'm sorry and I shouldn't have said some of the things I did.

Still, I started this story and I have a duty to finish it, but due to the above mentioned issues I've caused due to this story I'm going to take a break. I need to reevaluate a few things, so I hope you understand.

And to Raw Cringe, with some of the things I've said and how bad I was acting, I don't expect you to forgive me, but I understand some of the stuff you said now. You didn't deserve the amount of harsh words that I threw at you no matter what happened. So, if it means anything to you by this point, I'm truly sorry for everything I said and did.

See you in part two, if you so wish, and live a good life. Same goes to the rest of you, and don't let other peoples perspectives make you think lowly of them. Be open, and know that no matter what someone says, don't base them just on that.

-Vaatidj