The Dream Keeper was mortally wounded, and could not move. He managed to get away from the timber wolves with some sort of miracle, but before he could have gotten to sanctuary. He had taken a claw to the back of the neck and was slowly bleeding out. The Keeper, nearly unconscious, sent his mind to the most likely candidate for the mind insertion. After the strenuous task of forcing his mind to share with another entity, he finally lied down, closing his eyes for good in the moonlit cave. No timber wolves came for his cooling body, even though he was sweating profusely before is inevitable demise. He never knew what it felt like to be known by many, or to have friends, very few even knew about him, and those that knew of his duties could be counted with an empty fist.
Twilight Sparkle was reading a book with bloodshot eyes, almost ready to fall asleep. Finally, with sight blurring, she laid her head down to rest on the book, making a mental checklist of things to do the next day with her friends. But before she could get even part way through, her mind experienced a jolt which immediately woke her up, feeling shaky and sweating as she thought something went wrong with her body. She had no idea what had just happened until a voice spoke in her head.
“I see the transfer of my consciousness to your mind has worked successfully, do not be alarmed, I am the Dream Keeper.”
“What are you? How are you in my mind?”
“What I am is not important right now, all you need to know is that I am not a pony, nor anything else in this world, not even a human. I am in your simply as temporary lodging, since my physical form is slowly rotting away in a cave inside this Everfree Forest of yours that many fear walking into.” A sense of dread washed over Twilight, most likely from the Dream Keeper. “A group of timber wolves attacked me, and one of them scratched my neck, causing my physical form to bleed out and die.” Twilight was hesitant at what this Dream Keeper person was saying, but asked a question anyway.
“Why did you pick me for temporary lodging, I was just about to go to sleep!”
“You were about to sleep, and before you could fall into sleep, I entered your mind, this caused you to wake up with a physical state similar to the one my last body had, except you were not bleeding out on the floor of a dirty cave at the base of a mountain surrounded by timber wolves.”
“Well, could you tell me why you entered my mind and not somepony else's mind?”
“The transfer of my mind to a body only works if the container is about to fall asleep, but before they start dreaming, I had a lucky shot with you, since you were up at the hour when I died, you dream fast.”
“Well, could you at least let me know a little more about yourself?”
“There is little about me now that I have lost my physical body, I am a wandering spirit, a refugee from the time before the creation of this world, long before the time of the creators, and before them still. All that is left is the spirit talking to you right now.” Twilight felt humbled by the spirit's time on this world. “I will share with you some of the dreams I have collected over the many trillions of years of my existence.”
Twilight felt a sense of timelessness in the voice in her head, like an echo that came from long before her time, and long before anything.
“Do you wish for me to recount my stories of the first dragons to appear, the turmoil before the founding of Equestria, and the chaos before all of it.”
"Sure, if it meant I got to see something that I didn't know before."
The Dream Keeper laid Twilight to rest, and before she found herself in the comfortable lands of Twilight's dreams, a room opened up, not unlike that of an old, Gothic library. The room spanned nigh on infinitely, and crowding the walls were books upon books upon books, as far as the eye could see. “There is one dream in particular that I want to show you, it is of the creators of this kingdom you live in.” Before Twilight's very eyes materialized a shadow, licking with flames and two black eyes, seemingly glowing red. Twilight was slightly unnerved at this form the Keeper took on, but followed him anyway.
“How long will we have to walk, this place is very big...”
“We will not have to walk far if we do not want to, I choose this place simply because I liked the looks of it,” The Keeper finally pulled a book out, it was very thin and blank, but glowed with a gray light. The Keeper let the book go, and it levitated over towards her. “This is a conversation I had with both Celestia and Luna when they were only young fillies, nearly one thousand and five hundred years ago. I want you to to read it, and take insight from it, learn more about your rulers of night and day. They may have forgotten this, but I never forget anything. Twilight Sparkle, Protégé of Princess Celestia and Element of Magic, I need you to make a promise, a promise to never let anyone know my name, my name that I have kept secret for many trillions of years. My name is Balder, plain and simple. Do you understand the terms of agreement?”
“I do understand, crystal clear.” Twilight looked at the book in front of her. “Can I read this book now?”
“You may, I will not guide you through it, as this is my past self, I laugh at him sometimes, poor me.” Balder chuckled to himself, and Twilight set the book on the ground and opened it. She didn't see any words on it, but instead she was slowly sucked into the book itself. Her vision expanded and with a bright, blinding flash in her eyes, she was at the entrance of a small room that looked largely similar to both Celestia's and Luna's bedrooms. She saw that both of them were laying divided room, Luna to the right and Celestia to the left. Both of them were still awake, staring at each other.
With a soft click, a shadow appeared on the wall, similar in shape to the Balder that Twilight had met earlier. This Balder was unaware of Twilight's presence in the room, and walked over to both Celestia's and Luna's bedsides, looking each of them in the eyes. When Balder looked at the two alicorn fillies, their eyes both looked up into Balder's, and Balder looked back into them, his eyes glowing an amber color, different from his new appearance. Finally, after many minutes of silence, Balder spoke out.
“I have been watching you both, and I have some news, you will both find greatness for yourselves, but I must give you a warning.” Balder looked sternly at the princesses to be. “The Elements of Harmony are what you will both need to defeat the chaos that is Discord, and six ponies, two Earth ponies, two Pegasuses, and two Unicorns will represent those six elements. Those ponies' names are Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity... “ Balder looked behind him, almost staring into Twilight's eyes. “and Twilight Sparkle, they will take the elements in one thousand and five hundred years time.”
Celestia looked at Balder and only just started processing the information that was given to her. Luna was looking at Balder as if he was a man with water in a desert with none.
“When the elements of harmony are transferred to the six ponies, the being Discord will break free of the stone prison you will set him in, and they will become corrupted. Keep that from happening at all *costs*.” Balder vanished in a puff of smoke, while both Luna and Celestia jumped from the sudden disappearance. Twilight slowly felt her hooves slip off the ground, and her vision slowly became stretched and twisted. Finally, she was lifted out of the scene and placed next to Balder's new form.
“I am the one who gave them the knowledge about you and your friends.”
“Alright, can I please leave now?”
“Yes, but I will stay in your mind here for a little while longer, but don't expect to see me after the next dawn.”
Twilight woke up, and it was dawn outside the window. She went about her normal day, trying to think about how the Balder would know about the Elements of Harmony, nearly a millennium and a half before them. She could find no books on Balder, nor any history before the two princesses created Equestria. Spike noticed her absentmindedness, and asked
“Twilight, what's wrong?”
“Nothing Spike, just tired.” Twilight's eyes were slightly bloodshot from the lack of sleep, and she seemed to not be paying much attention to anything.
“You should go to bed and not read books all night, it's bad for your eyes.”
“Oh alright, if you insist Spike.”
“I heard you mumbling in your sleep, what was that?”
“Must've been dream-talking.” In truth, Twilight did not normally talk in her dreams, though it had happened some times.
Twilight continued on with her normal day, and adventured, learned about the power of friendship, and stuff like that, but when she sat down to write her report to Celestia, she wrote not about the lesson she learned, but about Balder, and what he had shown her, never once revealing Balder's name to Celestia. Twilight sent the letter to the princess, and sat down to think. She got a response in only thirty minutes, many of the words in the letter seemed to hold an inkling of worry to Twilight's eyes, but she didn't worry about it and go to bed.
Balder took a physical shadow resembling his form in the library and stood before the sleeping form of Twilight. He slowly leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek before turning away. She slightly blushed at the action, and no doubt her dreams would reflect his kiss. He looked into her face and how worried she was when he had entered into her mind. Balder liked the unicorn, and couldn't think of anyone hurting her. But he had important business to get to with a certain two princesses. He took the shadowy form of a raven and flew away from the ledge of an open window.
Rumors spread abound about that night, about a raven with black flames leaving the Library, many of the ponies feared the raven. But he feared only one person in the world.
Later in the night...
Balder enjoyed the feeling of wind beneath his wings, and he took off towards the pony capitol of Canterlot. It took him nearly six hours to reach the entrance, and when he go to it,, he morphed back into a humanoid form, still black as a shadow. None of the guards noticed his arrival, and he just simply walked all the way up to the castle, dawn ready to take a hold over the land. He needed to act quickly to get to Celestia in time, or else he would dissolve into a shadow, forced to travel with they nearest shadow until nightfall came.
Luckily, he had gotten to the castle before the sun's rays could catch him. Balder morphed back into a raven and stood in the shadow of the throne, flames licking off of his back with a red glow. Celestia had seen him only as a fading memory, but when she saw the raven standing in the shadow, she remembered him, still only a fleeting ghost, but more solidly than before.
Balder was staring at the princess as she laid on the throne, taking care of her royal duties. At the end of the day, when both of the princesses were in the same room as Balder, he finally spoke to them.
“I sincerely hope you remember me, you all certainly seemed to have grown too fast for my own liking.”
Luna glared at Balder with a stone cold expression on her face. “What do you want with us, creature of shadows.”
“I was really hoping you would remember me, still had me in your mind in the thousand years you were on the moon? Or did you forget me as soon as you left?”
“Knock it off Keeper, Twilight sent a report back to me on you, and I don't know you, yet you managed to predict the rise of Discord and the Elements of Harmony coming together.” Celestia's glare was hard as stone, but softer by a smidgen. Luna was looking a slight bit angrier at Balder, but her sister quieted her before she could do anything stupid
“I would reveal my name, but that would put me in too much danger,” Balder turned humanoid again, this time choosing to take on his old appearance, though he still glowed faintly red, “I sincerely hoped I could at least find the people I talked to that fateful night in the old kingdom, but alas, I seem to be mistaken!” Balder vanished in a puff of smoke, but he could still be heard.
“I didn't predict the rise of Discord or the Elements of Harmony coming together, I knew about it from the start, long before any of you. I just told you about it, since I didn't want to see a place like this fall from grace into a hellish landscape of chaos. What I really want,” Balder appeared in front of both of the alicorns at the same time, wearing a mischeivous grin. “What I really want is to leave this world.”
Balder disappeared with a loud bang and a blinding flash, filling the room with smoke. He was never to be seen again in Equestria for a long time.
“I should have left while I still could, too bad the princesses are too stubborn for their's or anyone else's' good. Oh well, I'll have to find a better time, preferably after a seed of chaos has sprouted.”
