"Legends. Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts of a forgotten past.
Man, born from dust, was strong, wise, and resourceful. But he was born into an unforgiving world.
an inevitable darkness, creatures of darkness. The creatures of Grimm set their sights on man and all of his creations
These forces clashed and it seemed the darkness was intent on returning man's brief existence to the void.
However, even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change and in time, man's passion, resourcefulness and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds. This power was appropriately named, "Dust". Nature's wrath at hand, man lit their way through the darkness, and in the shadow's absence, came strength, civilization, and most importantly, life.
But even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die. And when they are gone, darkness will return
So, you may prepare your guardians, build your monuments to a so-called free world, but take heed: there will be no victory in strength."
"But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten. Things that require a smaller, more honest soul."
The door to the room Princess Twilight was staying at the Crystal Empire opened, and the door distributed light on the violet alicorn. But she didn't wake up, which worked great for the unicorn who opened the door who was sneaking into the room. The unicorn, who wore a black robe over herself and a tall pole of some kind tucked in along with her body, walked quickly but quietly to not wake the sleeping princess or her dragon friend. The mare made her way to a desk next to the bed the princess was sleeping on. And on that bed was a crown with a star shaped gem inside. The element of magic. The mare used her horn to lift the crown as emerald green magic surrounded it as it was levitated. As it was lifted, a lamp next to the desk fell off and almost landed onto the dragon! But just before her cover was blown, she grabbed it with magic and stopped it from hitting the floor. After a quick check to make sure neither the sleeping dragon or princess had waken up she placed the lamp back onto the desk. She than levitated the crown close to her face so she could examine it, the green light reflecting onto her muzzle and mask that covered her eyes
"With the help of this crown..." The mare whispered "We'll be able to make everything right and better. I can't wait to see that future"
The unicorn gave a nice smile at the thought of this better future and put the crown in a satchel inside her robe. She was so distracted with the thought that she didn't think about how once she turned, she would hit the princess with her pole
"Ow!" Twilight yelled once the poll did just that
The robed figure was surprised at the sudden yell. She had to run while she could before the princess was completely awake now. Just as she started to sprint, she tripped on the dragon's tail and fell on to the ground, revealing the mare's coat color was that of light orange. Twilight was starting to become more awake now. She turned to the unicorn that was getting up and saw an open satchel with her crown inside
"My crown!" The new princess shouted "She's got my crown!"
The thief booked it out of the door, forcing Twilight and Spike to get out of their bed to head for the mystery mare
"Stop! Thief!" She yelled in a voice loud enough that her friends opened their doors to see what was going on "She's stolen my crown!" She informed her friends as she ran to the robed unicorn"
Twilight was close on the mare's track. Her own horn started to glow purple and the young alicorn teleported in the mare's way
"Stop!"
Before she ran into the princess, the unicorn's horn glowed the same green before and teleported in front of Twilight's eyes, leaving her robe to fly into the princess's face. The mare telepored behind Twilight, showing off her light orange coat, black satchel, red and yellow curly hair, a red and yellow sun cutie mark, and a grey mask covering her eyes. On the opposite side of her satchel was a long wooden pole wrapped around her waist. The pole had a yellow line in the middle, her cutie mark showing on both bunts of it and 2 buttons on the bottom just before the bunts start. With the robe being a distraction, the masked pony continued running.
Thinking she was far enough away from the princess, the unicorn looked back to make sure. Unfortunately for her, not only was the princess still on her trail, but so were the other Elements of Harmony. Now the princess was close enough to get a good bite on the pole. Good enough for the thief to trip at least, and trip she did. She recovered quickly and rubbed her eyes. She felt her eyelids as she did. Her mask fell off from the trip. Looking around with her emerald eyes, she saw the mask was right next to a satchel with the crown out in the open. Thinking fast, she used her magic to levitate both the mask and crown. But this was interrupted when a purple dragon jumped over both, grabbing the closest of the objects to his head
"I got it!" Spike shouted victoriously as he grabbed the crown. Except it wasn't the crown, it was the mask
The dragon looked behind him to see the crown was already in the magical grip of the mystery mare. Before she could grab her mask, she looked back to see Twilight was examining the pole with one hoof holding it. This angered the mare as she grabbed her weapon with both hoofs and hit Twilight in her open gut
"Give us back the crown!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she grabbed the other end of the pole
"Give me back Obsidian's Flare!" The unicorn struggled with the rainbow maned pegasus
Despite only using her hoofs, the unicorn was struggling strong against the pegasus. Strong enough that "Obsidian's Flare" broke into 2 halves. Rainbow was so surprised by this that she accidentally tossed her half in the air, but caught it after it turned the other way and Rainbow saw that there was some hole in the middle of this pole
"Not all that awesome when someone takes your stuff, is it?" Rainbow bragged to the thief
The unicorn looked at her half of the supposedly broken Obsidian's Flare and back at The Element of Loyalty's half. She saw what side was facing Rainbow Dash and grinned. Using her magic, she pushed the button on the other half, and that other half started to change. The side facing the pegasus had gotten some points on it, and the button was exchanged for some kind of trigger and a glass lens midway in the bunt. Whatever this was, it looked like nothing anypony had ever seen before
The Mare pulled the trigger and a blast came right into Rainbow Dash. An Explosion appeared and the pegasus crashed into the ground
"Rainbow Dash!" Everypony and spike shouted as they ran too their friend
Rainbow came to and looked at the mark that was left on her. Her torso was covered in scorch marks. She didn't seem to be beading, but it still hurt to get up. She looked at her tail and freaked out when she saw it had just caught on fire! The pegasus freaked out and tried blowing it out, but was to far away. Thankfully, Applejack was close enough to stomp on the tail and put out the fire
"What in tarnation is that thing?" The Element of Honesty asked as she pointed to Rainbow's half of the pole
The red-yellowed maned pony used her magic to grab the other half of her pole and pushed the button on the other half of Obsidian's Flare. It transformed into an exact copy of the other half
"You should all consider yourselves lucky the dust I brought was weak enough for that to happen!" The not-so-pole wielding pony said
She pointed both ends of the transformed poles at the floor and pulled the triggers. Just like with Rainbow Dash, both ends fired blasts of fire onto the crystal floor, creating smoke, causing the ponies to all close their eyes and cough. Twilight could barely see that the mare was heading for a door at the end of the hallway, readying her magic to teleport into the mare
The mare might not have had her mask, but that didn't matter right now. What mattered is that, despite some hiccups, she was still able to get the crown. Not stopping, she pushed the triggers back into their places, the lenses and spiky parts of Obsidian's Flare were put away. The running unicorn pushed both ends of the wooden pole back together. And they stuck like they it wasn't even broken. Just as she reached the door, a purple alicorn teleported in front of her. The thief mare didn't have time to react, so both she and Twilight crashed into each other into the room the unicorn was heading for. The crown escaped her magical grip and flew all over the room until it went into a mirror like a pebble being thrown into a river
Twilight gasped at what she just witnessed and turned back to the now grinning mare "What did you do with my crown?"
"Sorry it had to be this way..."
Twilight to her side and for a split second, she saw a cutie mark end on the pole heading right for her before it hit her hard, almost out of the room next to her now caught up friends. Twilight got up from the sudden attack and saw that the mystery mare was at the steps of the mirror
"Princess" The unicorn gave a mocking salute and headed straight into the mirror
"Who was that?" Fluttershy asked, only to have silence due to no-pony knowing the answer
