A Journey Of Time & How Things Came To Be.by PonyPokeyChaptersPrologue: StarswirlAct 1| Chapter 1 : The Shadow WarAct 1| Chapter 2 : CelestiaAct 1 | Chapter 3: The letterAct 1| Chapter 4: The Time spellPrologue: Starswirl3000 Years ago. Starswirl stood silently at his long; drawn out desk. The small window of to the side of his shack, proped open by a rather green and rusted iron bar, allowed for slight streaks of wind to breeze in and cause the numerous sheets of parchment adorning his desk to swathe to and fro, like sets of waves. Subsequently this also caused his well kempt beard to drift to his left, creating a slight tug on the underside of his chin. However, what annoyed the stallion was the accumulation of strong scents from his various potions and newly tested brews that where scattered in , what appered to be, a rather chaotic manner around the one roomed building. Each of them were being swept up into the melody of the wind and released upon the nostrils of the stallion, not that he had the time to pay attention to such things, but the numerous tests and experiments occuring simultaionously all around the room were a great clockwork of which could not be matched by even the greatest of craftsmen, or perhaps a meal being prepared by the greatest chef of the country. Each and every ingredient synergised perfectly together to form what Starswirl had theorised as being the first magical storage cell in pony history. Suddenly, a sharp knock came to the door and a powerful sound resonated throughout the room; piercing the finely calibrated and harmonious unicorns concentration, like a heated blade through flesh. He would have continued as elegantly as possible, but, as his eye flickered towards the door out of instinct, a thunderbolt struck down mere metres from his ressidence causing the doorway to flash with pure-white light; revealing the dark outline of a figure that appered to ressemble that of a unicorn mare, now etched into the yellow rippled glass of his doorway. As if on queue, the heavy, low-pitched noise blasted through the house causing starswirl to react in such a manner of which caused him to magically explode two of the test tubes filled with highly valuable magical chemicals and essences. Then there was silence. Only to be filled by the long release of air. Further mixed with annoyance towards the one who had intruded him at this time of night. Reluctantly, Starswirl walked slowly across the cobbled floor, causing a quiet clopping noise to echo and fill the void of sound in the room. His eyes shimmered in the moonlight as he did so. Matching that colour, his grey pigmented magic grew in intensity, as it gripped the door knob and twisted it to the left. Cracking noises filled the now still air, followed by a slight creek as the door opened dramatically. As it opened, the change in air pressure caused the atmousphere of the room to rush out and subsequently Starswirls great beard and cape dashed to the side, also causing him to squint slightly as the sudden dryness of his eyes became apparent. For a moment they both remained distracted, almost waiting for the tunes created by the air weaving between the glass bottles and trinkets laid throughout his establishment to die down. He now lay his eyes upon that of a purple coated, slightly taller then average unicorn mare, with her purple and pink hair highlights, contrasting that of the dark blue that adorned the rest of her mane. What he noticed next was a rather bright and obnoxious brown cloak that covered her body and flank completely, indicating to him that she was not one for appearances and instead opted for practicality; thus leading him to reach the question of what practical use was it serving at this point in time? The temperature was of no concern at this time of year. For a second though, he noticed a slight twitch or sparkle in her eye, as if conveying to him through a micro-expression that she was joyed to meet him. However, it disappeared as fast as it came, thus leaving him uncertain as to weather his deduction was correct or not. "Starswirl the bearded?" The mare said with a slightly humorous tone. Their pupils locked, her bright-lavender eyes suddenly appearing full of compassion and yet indifference. "That is my name." Starswirl said rather bluntly with a gruff and whorn voice, and his eyes narrowed once again in a mixture of curiosity and, perhaps, a slight bit of worry, but, ragardless, his inquisitive nature ruled out. The mare then parsed her lips, as if getting ready to speak again, and the slowness of which seemed to convey that this was of a matter of importance, however he could not understand why. "My name. Is Twilight sparkle." Author's Note I've never even attempted to write a story before. Ive had this idea for a grand history of the past set in an alternate timeline but it seemed a little much given my inexperience. I decided to go for it anyway regardless and will release this chapter to hopefully get some opionions I can build off of to improve how I write. Anywayyyy, hope you enjoyed this prologue to the story and I look forward to reading your comments. Act 1| Chapter 1 : The Shadow War"CELESTIA!" Twilight screeched, panic overwhelming her being, as she saw a concentrated ray of pure dark magic piercing the air; bounding it's way like a bullet towards the princess. Twilight cast a powerful beam of her own, in an attempt to negate the attack, only for it to be too late. The dark beam contacted the princess; twilight's own ray cutting it short, mid way through the attack. Though the damage was apparent. A sickening cry echoed out across the great plains; both shadow pony and that of the light momentaranly stopping battle, all equally shocked by the sight. The sun visibly quivered and appeared to be darkening, as Celestia fell to the ground. Motionless. Twilight remained in the sky. No words could be uttered or even thought. Shock. Just pure shock. The mare gazed around at the sight before her. Hundreds of that of the shadow and that of the light fighting to the death, with nothing but pain and sorrow to show for it. Just as Twilight began to comprehend the situation, far off in the distance the sun drifted downwards slowly; giving way to a twilight that consumed the land. Covering it like a blanket of lavender and blue. Suddenly, Twilight felt a surge of power well up within her, as her fear and sorrow broke and corrupted into anger and pain that consumed her very being, was converted into pure magical energy. Her horn a-lit and the blinding purple light began to send shockwaves throughout the atmousphere, reverberating on a low-pitched monotone that shook the ear-drums of anypony on the battle field. Twilights eyes glew with white light, as the energy consumed her, with her mane and tail taking on a slight ethereal composition. Then it was released. The immense, concentrated death-ray immediately caused the air to become plasma all around it, as waves after waves of immensely compressed air where sent outwards, akin to that of sonic rainbooms. All the ponys on the ground looked on in dispair, as fear shook their souls. twilight, coming to her senses; still grasping this power, had charged up a large scale teleportation and, in the instant of which her beam connected with the ground, each pony appeared once again at canterlot. The shadow did not recieve the same treatment. The explosion discharged upon the ground, eviscerating everything in its path. It was an unrelenting demon that swept through the shadows with ease; removing everything from existence. In the distance, the ponys looked on in horror at the event. Their eye contact only being broken as the shockwave reached them, from miles away, like a sythe on a path to kill. But it finally relented. Silence falling upon the army. Within their minds. Within their souls. And on the battlefield. The shadow war began, 3 years ago to this very day... "Hmmmmmm." Twilight mused to herself, very clearly perplexed in thought. She had been researching types of magic and how power is coalesced for months on end and this was very apparent, with dozens of books scattered across the smooth crystaline flooring, in a manner of which appered to be rather chaotic, but upon closer inspection, it was rather obvious that each volume of work was in fact turned to specific pages that all somehow lay connected by some great puzzle. It was at this time Twilight started to think about the villans of her past and the strange connection each of them had to each other. Princess Luna taken by the darkness after being overwhelmed by envy, King Sombra physically becoming one with the shadow or smoke due to his greed and wrath, "Perhaps the strongest incarnation of this magical essence." Twilight thought, and then there was Stigian who was overwhelmed by sorrow and perhaps envy of the ones he bought together. As twilight pondered this, she decided to hone in on the seemingly erie connections between these ponies. The synonyms of darkness and shadow all relating to the same thing and the obvious presence of dark or deadly emotion is what drove these ponies to change. "Its almost like the mirror image of our magic of friendship." she thought outloud, with a slight grimace adorning her face. "And yet there is something more..." She quickly levitated a knew notebook towards her desk, quick to remove all current books in a hurry (But still into a neat pile of course) and began to jot down her notes: It appears that with me and the other element bearers that when we use our magic of harmony it is done through our own will and friendship to power the magic. It was obvious this was its own form of magic, different from the usual mana that all ponies use and possess and this was obvious, as we were able to defeat Tirek with it. I called this emotional mana, as it appears to work in a similar way to usual mana but can only be accessed by strong positive emotion in the presence of others doing the exact same. It never occured to me that there could perhaps be an equal and opposite force (Although this does make sense) that thrives off of negative emotion and, quite obviously, appears when that one is feeling that emotion alone and in solitude. However, when I use emotional mana it is someting that I can wield consciously, but, when it comes to Stigian and the others it takes them over completely, regardless of weather they will it or not. Perhaps, this is just a result of the magic being so powerful, but we can-not dismiss the possibility that this magic, in of itself, has a certain degree of sentience to it. After all, in the case of Stigian this "shadow" had grown to such a strength that it appered to be seperate to Stigian, almost as though it where becoming detatched from his being. What disturbs me is that it could have potentially left him completely as its own being. Furthermore, whenever we have purged these ponies of their shadow, there is no indication as to where it has gone, after all immense magical energy will leave traces behind. If this is the case then either the entity did become seperate in that moment and escaped, or it was being stored somewh... In that moment, the large double doors swung open at great speed and, as Twilights head whipped around in fright, a young purple scaled and green spined dragon sprant in. Fear was written into his eyes as he looked at Twilight, panic clearly grasping him to the point of suffocation. "Twilight! Its the elements... There. There cracking and theres something in them." spike said, panting as he did so. Something had clearly disturbed the dragon. Perhaps a creature or feeling or... Both. As Twilight suddenly realised the link in her notes to that of the prospect posed by the young dragon, a panic began to well up wthin her, but before she could even have a chance to think, the ground began to shake and crack prefusely. Twilight sprant out into the hallway to see a darkness spreading across the ground. It was like an unyielding infection causing the crystal to decay and it was spreading and spreading fast. Without the time to dwell on the elements she grasped spike in her magical aura, as well as, as many notebooks as possible that could perhaps help her. She then swiftly teleported them all to outside of the castles boundaries. She now stood with an assortment of items and a fainted dragon now laying on a dirt ground. Ponies had clearly sensed the disruption and came out to view what had occured. All where equally entransed by the looming castle. As Twilight looked up, her eyes widened in horror at the sight. It was difficult to tell, but it appeared that it was a tenticled creature made up of pure black; this was the only way to describe it. It did not appear to have a physical form; it looked as if wherever it was there was a void, a nothingness. The only way you could tell it was there was becuase of the lack of anything there. Even light. Coming to her senses, she used all of the power within her to create a magical barrier that began to spread its way around the castle; encircling this darkness and hoping to contain it. As the spell touched down on the ground and completed, it shimmered and reflected off of the sunlight. As it did so, Twilight noticed an earthpony mare stood within the confines of the spell; having very clearly gone to far. Before Twilight could react to this, the mare was touched by the shadow. As quickly as it happened it was over. The shadow spread all around her body; encompasing it in its entirety. Twilight could see as it seeped into her mouth and into her eyes as if it were a tangible liquid, as the pupil colour shifted from yellow to black. Before Twilight could do anything, the entire inside of the force field had been encompased by the shadow, leaving a pure void like blackness as a stain on the side of ponyville. It was quickly discovered that the shadow had achieved its full size and was in fact not growing, but de-compressing. This was made clear when Twilights spell broke 4 days later. The ony way this entity could gain power was by consuming ponies and converting their dark emotions into its power.It didn't take long to amass an army and after the first battle at las-pagasis it was also discovered that the shadow operated as a hive mind. A controller of sorts. Author's Note This certainly was a fun chapter to make. I needed to come up with a premice to the story that made sense and didn't seem forced or inplausible and this was when the idea of having the villans be connected some how and after I started writing the flashback, the ideas just flowed. Anyways, hoped you enjoyed this chapter. Next one will be back to the present and entirely focused on Celestia I think. I'm not sure if I can make it a long chapter and so I may be able to complete it tommorow. Thanks for reading. Act 1| Chapter 2 : CelestiaTwilight now stood outside of Celestias bed chambers. Anxiety was gripping her heart as she stared, unblinking, at the large, looming wooden door that had symbols and patterns adorning its surface; clearly conveying the importance of the room within, or rather the pony within. Luckily, Celestia had survived the assaualt from the dark magic, but it was unknown as to how long she would live. At this thought, a tear ran down Twilights face, wettening the soft, lavender fur beneath it, and causing it to change to a darker shade of purple before falling to the pristinely clean flooring and dispersing across the ground. At this queue, Twilight decided to push the door open slowly. It was lighter then it appered and, as it opened, her face was met by a cool breeze; causing her to shut her eyes in suprise. When she opened them once more, they now lay upon a modestly sized and slightly dingy room. It was one she had never seen before and was filled with only the necessities. On the left, was a large table accompanined by an equally large mirror which had photos of Luna and Twilight stuck onto its surface. On the right, to what brought Twilight the first smile since the battle, was a bookshelf that took up the entirety of the wall-surface and, obviously, was adorned by countless books of which Twilight didn't need to look at in order to know that they where arranged elegantly and optimaly. Finally, her eyes came to the largest piece of furniture in the room, a wooden bed, simple in design and yet seemed rather becoming of the princess. However, her eyes honed in on the pony that lay comfortably within those sheets. Twilight managed to work up the courage, to walk slowly towards the bedside and, as she did so, heard a faint, "Hello." muttered from the princess. "Hello." Twilight said in kind, as she sat down at the bedside, with sadness threatening to consume her. "Its me... Twilight" "Ahhhh, yes, I'd recognise that voice anywhere." Celestia said, in a rough tone of which caused Twilight to flinch slightly. "You have always been the best student I could have ever asked for. I must admit to you, that I saw you as the daughter I could never have." Celestia sighed. "And, I love you for always treating me like a pony, rather then just the princess for all these years." A smile was now gracing Celestias face. "I will always be here for you." Twilight said. Sorrow apparent in her voice. "Though. There is something I must tell you." Celestia now said, with a certain conviction. "What is it?" Replied Twilight "I was so selfish Twilight. The original reason I wanted you to become an allercorn, along side me, was not only because of your ability to lead, but because I could not bare to watch you grow old, and because I didnt want to be alone." Celestias regal mask now breaking, as if hoping for forgivness. "I don't care about all that Celestia. You are just as much as anypony else, just a pony. Besides. You have Luna." "Oh Twilight. So understanding... But I would never have had a daughter." "But wait. Original reason?" Twilight said quizzically. Celestia then let out a long, exasperated sigh. Twilight felt unnerved, not sure what to make of this. "As with with any gradual change it went un-noticed. It was after the attack on canterlot by Chrysalis, and after I lost, that the realisation suddenly started to hit me. I knew that I should have been able to defeat her. Or, at least, a couple centuries ago I could have" She grimmaced slightly. "I realised Twilight, that my magic was degrading and the only way this was possible is if I was aging." There was a pause... After no reply Celestia continued. "This told me, that allercorns are not immortal, and my strength would leave me completely. Eventually." "How can this be..." Twilight said quietly, looking down as she did so. As if to hide her emotion. What the princess had just said seemed more lifefull. But, also, practiced in some manner. "Now this didn't scare me, I have lived for thousands of years. But it was in that moment that I decided you, Twilight, would become my successor and I could not be more proud of you." Celestia then coughed, with a slight wheeze following suit. "I... I don't know what to say." Twilight said with a certain emptyness to her voice. "I can't rule a kingdom or inspire ponies! Only you can do that." Twilight added, now with tears streamng down her face. "Twilight, you may not have noticed, but you have been doing it this entire time, througout this war; commanding and leading ponies onwards, with inspiration. There is nopony more suited then you, Twilight." "I. I... I will try princess." A slight anxiety now flooding her mind. "There is something else. Something I've had in my possession for about 3000 years and I have never told anypony of its existence." Celestia said, now adopting a new tone. Twilights head perked up suddenly, with some inquisitive nature poking through. It was at this point Celestias flickering aura carried an envelope over to Twilight and, after dropping it into her hoofs, it clearly read on the back: For Twilight Sparkle. To be delivered on Celestias death bed. Before any questions could be asked or even comprehended the first thing Twilight said was, "Death... Bed...", "No, it can't be, no..." "Heh." Celestia responded, almost as a laugh. " It appears that, somehow, this event was preordained" "There is one. Final thing I must ask of you Twilight. Would you cast a sleep spell on me? So that I may pass peacefully." Nothing could be said. The situation was to impossible to comprehend, but she knew deep down it was the write thing to do. Regardless of how much Twilight wanted to deny it to herself. "I will always love you Celestia, like a mother. Forever and always." Twilight cried. A smile crept up onto Celestias face, one that was happy and purely peaceful. Silent tears began to flush down Twilights face, as she forced herself to charge the sleep spell. And then it was done. Celestias eye-lids shut slowly and, as she slumped down into the bed, her breathing became a slow and consistent soothing motion. Twilight looked up, deciding to stay with the princess. For as long as it took. Author's Note Geeeezzz I have never attempted to write a conversation before so, more then likely, it will have some issues with it that I cannot see. So any criticisms will be helpful so that I may improve this chapter and my writting in the future. Thanks for reading. Act 1 | Chapter 3: The letterTwilight awoke with a start, surrounded by darkness. As she raised her head off of the surface of which it was placed, a sudden pain became apparent that jolted from her neck and down her back. She had clearly been sleeping in an uncomfortable position. As her senses returned and mind became clear, the events of the previous day hit her, like a tonne of bricks. Twilight let out a slight whimper and sagged her head, as sadness began to grip her in its entirety. Before she could be swept up into the deep abyss however, an object fell from her head; onto her lap, causing Twilight's eyes to promptly open. As her eyes adjusted, and pupils dilated, it became apparent that this was the letter that Celestia had given her the night before. Twilight's intrigue, and inquisitive nature where certainly caught and this eased the pain of thinking for a prolonged amount of time about her memories with the princess. She grabbed the envelope in her magic rather delicately, and the faint purple glow illuminated the room to a degree of which Twilight was able to spot the door, the same door she spent so long staring at the previous day, out of fear. "If only I had gone in sooner..." Twilight sighed. It was at that point Twilight rose, from her awkward positioning on the ground and began to wonder towards the door, being careful not to trip and fall on the bed-side as she did so. This time she opted to instead magically push the door, only with enough force to get her in and out as quickly as possible. The sudden intense light forced Twilight to close her eyes, a slight burning sensation emerging from behind her eyelids. When her eyes adjusted, the distorted world cleared and Twilight looked around. Celestia's room was on the third floor of the building, and each floor was connected by a large circular open space that ran from the ground floor all the way up to the sky-light window, allowing for streaks of pure-golden sunlight to cascade around the entire building with gentle dust dancing and drifting downwards in a forever spiraling motion. It was an unfortold beauty that could not be explained. Twilight smirked and her spirits raised a little as she thought about Celestia and how the essence of her sun has lived on and will continue to do so forever. "Luna must have raised the sun." Twilight said to herself, under her breath. "she must be hurting even more then me, and yet she still fulfills her responsibilities. It's time for me to be strong." It was at this point Twilight noticed a quiet and graceful sound of hoof-steps traveling towards her, from her right; matched only by the pony behind those steps. Twilight looked to her right and there was Luna. A fear began to creep through her, this was not a conversation she wanted to have. "it'll only get worse if I leave it" Twilight thought. "Twilight..." Luna said, sorrow clearly woven like a knot through her voice. With her regal mask broken, Twilight couldn't help but notice the stark contrast between the pony before her, and Luna just moments ago. "Do not fret Twilight. I already know." Luna said, in a blunt manner, that was very clearly put on. But not for Twilight's sake. "She loved you Luna, more then any-pony else." Twilight said softly, In a gentle manner. It was at this point Luna stared into Twilight's lavender eyes. They shone with compassion and meaning. It felt like acceptance. She felt as if she were staring into the eyes of her sister one last time. "You really are my sisters protégé." Now with a slight smile adorning her face, Luna spoke. "I thank you Twilight for all you have done, for the land and for my sister. You need not say any words. They are not required. I will be departing for the day, so I bid you a loving farewell." And just like that she was gone, in a flicker of dark-blue shine. "Goodbye." Twilight ended, to nothing in particular. She then turned around and decided to just walk for a bit, to linger towards the old library she once called a home, and to open this curious letter. The heavy door to Twilight's old library flung open, with the push of a magical release. A thick cloud of dust rushed out from within the building, creating a large fog that spread outside like a thick miasma before dissipating slowly. This caused Twilight to cough profusely, as her mouth was filled with the unpleasant taste and dryness of the old dust, and the smell of the withering books caused her nostrils to scrunch in an annoyed and pained expression. After the dust cleared, an exasperated sigh was the only audible sound to be heard. Twilight wandered into the building, looking briefly around as she did so. The familiarity of the home bringing a smile to her face. The place was small but compact. In-front of her, by about two meters, was a half-spiral staircase which only did a 180 degree spiral up to the second floor,of which, acted as a balcony overlooking the area Twilight was currently stood in, and also additionally acted as an overhang of which acted as a roof, supported by small but strong pillars engraved with many magical sigils, for Twilight's bedroom and bathroom. This room was large, and did not have a door-way, in fact the entire building had no other door-ways other than the front door. It was still the organized area it had always been, with some of Twilight's old books and research notes on magical-dimensional theory neatly placed upon the bright-brown table on the left. The bed lay in the center and was rather simplistic in design, but, most importantly, had an other-worldly thick-red blanket across the entirety of the beds surface. Finally, in the room, where two additional book shelves on the right-wall which were primarily used to act as additional storage space, books currently being used, and books that needed re-sorting. Twilight now began to trot up the staircase, but not before gazing upon the great telescope that sat on the bottom floor, to the right of the staircase. Its height allowing the scope to view the entire upstairs area. Painful memories began to flood back of Twilight calibrating and cleaning and re-calibrating and re-cleaning all of the fine-minuscule components, mirrors and prisms within the complex device that she used to create a map of the night sky; was currently residing on the wall behind her above the front door. Giving another smile, Twilight now stood at the main, and most favorite, area of the house. The library. Each parallel wall off to the left and right, where covered in their entirety by large bookshelves filled to the breaking point with hundreds of informative books and the occasional fictional story. Similarly a great window (Directly in-front of her), that spanned the entire surface of what would have been a wall, allowed Twilight to gaze upon the entirety of canterlot, and the equally beautiful sky. The stark contrast between the complex architectural design of each house, and the simplistic; yet beautiful pattern of the stars, is what made the location so perfect to view from, for hours on end; though there were many more houses now, since the war began. This squandered some of the naturalistic beauty that the site originally provided. She now looked at a thick book that lay open, on an otherwise empty brown table. It was the book a Twilight had been reading before she left to Ponyville, the one that had informed her of the return of Nightmare moon. "If it were not for her, I would have never met my friends." Twilight thought out-loud, with a slight laugh, as a small tear streaked down her face at the thought of how simple things used to be. She hadn't seen them in a while. They where all resided in Las-Pegasus; rebuilding it after the very first battle 3 years ago. They could no longer use the elements of harmony since their destruction and release of the shadow; so they instead helped in other pursuits such as aid and, currently, rebuilding. The only one who actually fought, besides Twilight herself, was rainbow-dash. Unfortunately her wing had to be removed by some pony on the battle-field, after she became infected. Thankfully she was alright, and due to Twilight's and other scientists help, they were able to make a break through in the rebuilding of limbs. However, would take a long time to create an entire limb like a wing and so she was put out of commission. Twilight gently removed the large book from the surface of the table, leaving it empty. She then a-lit her horn; faint glows spiraled their way up her horn, before meeting at the tip and sending out a slight burst of magical energy and the previous purple glow now emanated a golden one. The magic coalesced on the table, in swirls of energy that began to condense at a single point. The magic suddenly released and showered down around the table, leaving behind the old envelope that Celestia had given her. It was too delicate to carry all the way to the library; so Twilight had made good use of her dimensional magic, she had learnt in this same building. Twilight smiled proudly at the efficiency of which she had performed the spell, before turning her attention to that of the envelope once again. Delicately, Twilight lifted the envelope in her magic. A faint but audible sound could be heard, as the centuries old glue like substance began to separate from the equally aged paper. She removed the thin paper from within the envelope with finesse as intrigue and curiosity took over. "The paper is incredibly aged." Twilight thought to herself in confusion. "How is this possible?" She opened the parchment. Hello Twilight. If you are reading this then Celestia has tragically passed away, and the war has come to a standstill, due to your magical outburst. I'm sure your wondering who or what I am but I assure you that my identity is of no relevance to what I am about to tell you. Firstly, I'm going to explain the shadow and how it operates. This will not take long, as you figured out most of it during your thoughts on the connection of the villains you have faced. However, I shall tell you that the shadow is both a physical manifestation that can move freely amongst the world, and an emotion of power that grows and cultivates in ponies. This explains how many more ponies are not converted, because for the ponies to "lose" themselves they must first be consumed by the emotional magic and attacked by the physical creature simultaneously. An alicorn, which possess all types and variants of magical essence has their ........................................ when in the presence of .................................. embody. For instance Celestia .............................., when in the presence of the sun. For she is the embodiment of the sun, as a being and you Twilight, ........................................................................ Twilight hour of the day. Which explains how you were capable of creating such a blast against the shadow, and were able to stand against Tirek (Even with all the princesses magic). However this is not all. Furthermore... *The letter reads blank and the ink too aged to discern any language* "What does this mean?", "If only it weren't so aged..." Twilight said in a tired manner. You must use the ............. hour, to perform a Time spell. It is the only way. You must return 3000 years ago, and adopt the name Clover, and you must find Starswirl. Once this has been accomplished do whatever you can to create a magical storage cell, one more powerful then any in creation. One that has the ability to absorb positive emotional magic and use it to absorb the fire of friendship. This is what will start the world. You must do this Twilight. Do it to save Equestria. Without any words to speak Twilight turned the page around to see the image of a complex magical sigil. A time sigil Twilight had never seen before. Author's Note Well this is the longest chapter I have written so far. I seem to be getting better at making them longer, as I go on. Which is great but I can see how the amount of time it takes to make a chapter increases exponentaly. With all the checking and re-checking. But, regardless, I'm enjoying it and thats all that matters really. Once again, Thanks for reading. Act 1| Chapter 4: The Time spellSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Prologue: Starswirl3000 Years ago. Starswirl stood silently at his long; drawn out desk. The small window of to the side of his shack, proped open by a rather green and rusted iron bar, allowed for slight streaks of wind to breeze in and cause the numerous sheets of parchment adorning his desk to swathe to and fro, like sets of waves. Subsequently this also caused his well kempt beard to drift to his left, creating a slight tug on the underside of his chin. However, what annoyed the stallion was the accumulation of strong scents from his various potions and newly tested brews that where scattered in , what appered to be, a rather chaotic manner around the one roomed building. Each of them were being swept up into the melody of the wind and released upon the nostrils of the stallion, not that he had the time to pay attention to such things, but the numerous tests and experiments occuring simultaionously all around the room were a great clockwork of which could not be matched by even the greatest of craftsmen, or perhaps a meal being prepared by the greatest chef of the country. Each and every ingredient synergised perfectly together to form what Starswirl had theorised as being the first magical storage cell in pony history. Suddenly, a sharp knock came to the door and a powerful sound resonated throughout the room; piercing the finely calibrated and harmonious unicorns concentration, like a heated blade through flesh. He would have continued as elegantly as possible, but, as his eye flickered towards the door out of instinct, a thunderbolt struck down mere metres from his ressidence causing the doorway to flash with pure-white light; revealing the dark outline of a figure that appered to ressemble that of a unicorn mare, now etched into the yellow rippled glass of his doorway. As if on queue, the heavy, low-pitched noise blasted through the house causing starswirl to react in such a manner of which caused him to magically explode two of the test tubes filled with highly valuable magical chemicals and essences. Then there was silence. Only to be filled by the long release of air. Further mixed with annoyance towards the one who had intruded him at this time of night. Reluctantly, Starswirl walked slowly across the cobbled floor, causing a quiet clopping noise to echo and fill the void of sound in the room. His eyes shimmered in the moonlight as he did so. Matching that colour, his grey pigmented magic grew in intensity, as it gripped the door knob and twisted it to the left. Cracking noises filled the now still air, followed by a slight creek as the door opened dramatically. As it opened, the change in air pressure caused the atmousphere of the room to rush out and subsequently Starswirls great beard and cape dashed to the side, also causing him to squint slightly as the sudden dryness of his eyes became apparent. For a moment they both remained distracted, almost waiting for the tunes created by the air weaving between the glass bottles and trinkets laid throughout his establishment to die down. He now lay his eyes upon that of a purple coated, slightly taller then average unicorn mare, with her purple and pink hair highlights, contrasting that of the dark blue that adorned the rest of her mane. What he noticed next was a rather bright and obnoxious brown cloak that covered her body and flank completely, indicating to him that she was not one for appearances and instead opted for practicality; thus leading him to reach the question of what practical use was it serving at this point in time? The temperature was of no concern at this time of year. For a second though, he noticed a slight twitch or sparkle in her eye, as if conveying to him through a micro-expression that she was joyed to meet him. However, it disappeared as fast as it came, thus leaving him uncertain as to weather his deduction was correct or not. "Starswirl the bearded?" The mare said with a slightly humorous tone. Their pupils locked, her bright-lavender eyes suddenly appearing full of compassion and yet indifference. "That is my name." Starswirl said rather bluntly with a gruff and whorn voice, and his eyes narrowed once again in a mixture of curiosity and, perhaps, a slight bit of worry, but, ragardless, his inquisitive nature ruled out. The mare then parsed her lips, as if getting ready to speak again, and the slowness of which seemed to convey that this was of a matter of importance, however he could not understand why. "My name. Is Twilight sparkle." Author's Note I've never even attempted to write a story before. Ive had this idea for a grand history of the past set in an alternate timeline but it seemed a little much given my inexperience. I decided to go for it anyway regardless and will release this chapter to hopefully get some opionions I can build off of to improve how I write. Anywayyyy, hope you enjoyed this prologue to the story and I look forward to reading your comments.
Act 1| Chapter 1 : The Shadow War"CELESTIA!" Twilight screeched, panic overwhelming her being, as she saw a concentrated ray of pure dark magic piercing the air; bounding it's way like a bullet towards the princess. Twilight cast a powerful beam of her own, in an attempt to negate the attack, only for it to be too late. The dark beam contacted the princess; twilight's own ray cutting it short, mid way through the attack. Though the damage was apparent. A sickening cry echoed out across the great plains; both shadow pony and that of the light momentaranly stopping battle, all equally shocked by the sight. The sun visibly quivered and appeared to be darkening, as Celestia fell to the ground. Motionless. Twilight remained in the sky. No words could be uttered or even thought. Shock. Just pure shock. The mare gazed around at the sight before her. Hundreds of that of the shadow and that of the light fighting to the death, with nothing but pain and sorrow to show for it. Just as Twilight began to comprehend the situation, far off in the distance the sun drifted downwards slowly; giving way to a twilight that consumed the land. Covering it like a blanket of lavender and blue. Suddenly, Twilight felt a surge of power well up within her, as her fear and sorrow broke and corrupted into anger and pain that consumed her very being, was converted into pure magical energy. Her horn a-lit and the blinding purple light began to send shockwaves throughout the atmousphere, reverberating on a low-pitched monotone that shook the ear-drums of anypony on the battle field. Twilights eyes glew with white light, as the energy consumed her, with her mane and tail taking on a slight ethereal composition. Then it was released. The immense, concentrated death-ray immediately caused the air to become plasma all around it, as waves after waves of immensely compressed air where sent outwards, akin to that of sonic rainbooms. All the ponys on the ground looked on in dispair, as fear shook their souls. twilight, coming to her senses; still grasping this power, had charged up a large scale teleportation and, in the instant of which her beam connected with the ground, each pony appeared once again at canterlot. The shadow did not recieve the same treatment. The explosion discharged upon the ground, eviscerating everything in its path. It was an unrelenting demon that swept through the shadows with ease; removing everything from existence. In the distance, the ponys looked on in horror at the event. Their eye contact only being broken as the shockwave reached them, from miles away, like a sythe on a path to kill. But it finally relented. Silence falling upon the army. Within their minds. Within their souls. And on the battlefield. The shadow war began, 3 years ago to this very day... "Hmmmmmm." Twilight mused to herself, very clearly perplexed in thought. She had been researching types of magic and how power is coalesced for months on end and this was very apparent, with dozens of books scattered across the smooth crystaline flooring, in a manner of which appered to be rather chaotic, but upon closer inspection, it was rather obvious that each volume of work was in fact turned to specific pages that all somehow lay connected by some great puzzle. It was at this time Twilight started to think about the villans of her past and the strange connection each of them had to each other. Princess Luna taken by the darkness after being overwhelmed by envy, King Sombra physically becoming one with the shadow or smoke due to his greed and wrath, "Perhaps the strongest incarnation of this magical essence." Twilight thought, and then there was Stigian who was overwhelmed by sorrow and perhaps envy of the ones he bought together. As twilight pondered this, she decided to hone in on the seemingly erie connections between these ponies. The synonyms of darkness and shadow all relating to the same thing and the obvious presence of dark or deadly emotion is what drove these ponies to change. "Its almost like the mirror image of our magic of friendship." she thought outloud, with a slight grimace adorning her face. "And yet there is something more..." She quickly levitated a knew notebook towards her desk, quick to remove all current books in a hurry (But still into a neat pile of course) and began to jot down her notes: It appears that with me and the other element bearers that when we use our magic of harmony it is done through our own will and friendship to power the magic. It was obvious this was its own form of magic, different from the usual mana that all ponies use and possess and this was obvious, as we were able to defeat Tirek with it. I called this emotional mana, as it appears to work in a similar way to usual mana but can only be accessed by strong positive emotion in the presence of others doing the exact same. It never occured to me that there could perhaps be an equal and opposite force (Although this does make sense) that thrives off of negative emotion and, quite obviously, appears when that one is feeling that emotion alone and in solitude. However, when I use emotional mana it is someting that I can wield consciously, but, when it comes to Stigian and the others it takes them over completely, regardless of weather they will it or not. Perhaps, this is just a result of the magic being so powerful, but we can-not dismiss the possibility that this magic, in of itself, has a certain degree of sentience to it. After all, in the case of Stigian this "shadow" had grown to such a strength that it appered to be seperate to Stigian, almost as though it where becoming detatched from his being. What disturbs me is that it could have potentially left him completely as its own being. Furthermore, whenever we have purged these ponies of their shadow, there is no indication as to where it has gone, after all immense magical energy will leave traces behind. If this is the case then either the entity did become seperate in that moment and escaped, or it was being stored somewh... In that moment, the large double doors swung open at great speed and, as Twilights head whipped around in fright, a young purple scaled and green spined dragon sprant in. Fear was written into his eyes as he looked at Twilight, panic clearly grasping him to the point of suffocation. "Twilight! Its the elements... There. There cracking and theres something in them." spike said, panting as he did so. Something had clearly disturbed the dragon. Perhaps a creature or feeling or... Both. As Twilight suddenly realised the link in her notes to that of the prospect posed by the young dragon, a panic began to well up wthin her, but before she could even have a chance to think, the ground began to shake and crack prefusely. Twilight sprant out into the hallway to see a darkness spreading across the ground. It was like an unyielding infection causing the crystal to decay and it was spreading and spreading fast. Without the time to dwell on the elements she grasped spike in her magical aura, as well as, as many notebooks as possible that could perhaps help her. She then swiftly teleported them all to outside of the castles boundaries. She now stood with an assortment of items and a fainted dragon now laying on a dirt ground. Ponies had clearly sensed the disruption and came out to view what had occured. All where equally entransed by the looming castle. As Twilight looked up, her eyes widened in horror at the sight. It was difficult to tell, but it appeared that it was a tenticled creature made up of pure black; this was the only way to describe it. It did not appear to have a physical form; it looked as if wherever it was there was a void, a nothingness. The only way you could tell it was there was becuase of the lack of anything there. Even light. Coming to her senses, she used all of the power within her to create a magical barrier that began to spread its way around the castle; encircling this darkness and hoping to contain it. As the spell touched down on the ground and completed, it shimmered and reflected off of the sunlight. As it did so, Twilight noticed an earthpony mare stood within the confines of the spell; having very clearly gone to far. Before Twilight could react to this, the mare was touched by the shadow. As quickly as it happened it was over. The shadow spread all around her body; encompasing it in its entirety. Twilight could see as it seeped into her mouth and into her eyes as if it were a tangible liquid, as the pupil colour shifted from yellow to black. Before Twilight could do anything, the entire inside of the force field had been encompased by the shadow, leaving a pure void like blackness as a stain on the side of ponyville. It was quickly discovered that the shadow had achieved its full size and was in fact not growing, but de-compressing. This was made clear when Twilights spell broke 4 days later. The ony way this entity could gain power was by consuming ponies and converting their dark emotions into its power.It didn't take long to amass an army and after the first battle at las-pagasis it was also discovered that the shadow operated as a hive mind. A controller of sorts. Author's Note This certainly was a fun chapter to make. I needed to come up with a premice to the story that made sense and didn't seem forced or inplausible and this was when the idea of having the villans be connected some how and after I started writing the flashback, the ideas just flowed. Anyways, hoped you enjoyed this chapter. Next one will be back to the present and entirely focused on Celestia I think. I'm not sure if I can make it a long chapter and so I may be able to complete it tommorow. Thanks for reading.
Act 1| Chapter 2 : CelestiaTwilight now stood outside of Celestias bed chambers. Anxiety was gripping her heart as she stared, unblinking, at the large, looming wooden door that had symbols and patterns adorning its surface; clearly conveying the importance of the room within, or rather the pony within. Luckily, Celestia had survived the assaualt from the dark magic, but it was unknown as to how long she would live. At this thought, a tear ran down Twilights face, wettening the soft, lavender fur beneath it, and causing it to change to a darker shade of purple before falling to the pristinely clean flooring and dispersing across the ground. At this queue, Twilight decided to push the door open slowly. It was lighter then it appered and, as it opened, her face was met by a cool breeze; causing her to shut her eyes in suprise. When she opened them once more, they now lay upon a modestly sized and slightly dingy room. It was one she had never seen before and was filled with only the necessities. On the left, was a large table accompanined by an equally large mirror which had photos of Luna and Twilight stuck onto its surface. On the right, to what brought Twilight the first smile since the battle, was a bookshelf that took up the entirety of the wall-surface and, obviously, was adorned by countless books of which Twilight didn't need to look at in order to know that they where arranged elegantly and optimaly. Finally, her eyes came to the largest piece of furniture in the room, a wooden bed, simple in design and yet seemed rather becoming of the princess. However, her eyes honed in on the pony that lay comfortably within those sheets. Twilight managed to work up the courage, to walk slowly towards the bedside and, as she did so, heard a faint, "Hello." muttered from the princess. "Hello." Twilight said in kind, as she sat down at the bedside, with sadness threatening to consume her. "Its me... Twilight" "Ahhhh, yes, I'd recognise that voice anywhere." Celestia said, in a rough tone of which caused Twilight to flinch slightly. "You have always been the best student I could have ever asked for. I must admit to you, that I saw you as the daughter I could never have." Celestia sighed. "And, I love you for always treating me like a pony, rather then just the princess for all these years." A smile was now gracing Celestias face. "I will always be here for you." Twilight said. Sorrow apparent in her voice. "Though. There is something I must tell you." Celestia now said, with a certain conviction. "What is it?" Replied Twilight "I was so selfish Twilight. The original reason I wanted you to become an allercorn, along side me, was not only because of your ability to lead, but because I could not bare to watch you grow old, and because I didnt want to be alone." Celestias regal mask now breaking, as if hoping for forgivness. "I don't care about all that Celestia. You are just as much as anypony else, just a pony. Besides. You have Luna." "Oh Twilight. So understanding... But I would never have had a daughter." "But wait. Original reason?" Twilight said quizzically. Celestia then let out a long, exasperated sigh. Twilight felt unnerved, not sure what to make of this. "As with with any gradual change it went un-noticed. It was after the attack on canterlot by Chrysalis, and after I lost, that the realisation suddenly started to hit me. I knew that I should have been able to defeat her. Or, at least, a couple centuries ago I could have" She grimmaced slightly. "I realised Twilight, that my magic was degrading and the only way this was possible is if I was aging." There was a pause... After no reply Celestia continued. "This told me, that allercorns are not immortal, and my strength would leave me completely. Eventually." "How can this be..." Twilight said quietly, looking down as she did so. As if to hide her emotion. What the princess had just said seemed more lifefull. But, also, practiced in some manner. "Now this didn't scare me, I have lived for thousands of years. But it was in that moment that I decided you, Twilight, would become my successor and I could not be more proud of you." Celestia then coughed, with a slight wheeze following suit. "I... I don't know what to say." Twilight said with a certain emptyness to her voice. "I can't rule a kingdom or inspire ponies! Only you can do that." Twilight added, now with tears streamng down her face. "Twilight, you may not have noticed, but you have been doing it this entire time, througout this war; commanding and leading ponies onwards, with inspiration. There is nopony more suited then you, Twilight." "I. I... I will try princess." A slight anxiety now flooding her mind. "There is something else. Something I've had in my possession for about 3000 years and I have never told anypony of its existence." Celestia said, now adopting a new tone. Twilights head perked up suddenly, with some inquisitive nature poking through. It was at this point Celestias flickering aura carried an envelope over to Twilight and, after dropping it into her hoofs, it clearly read on the back: For Twilight Sparkle. To be delivered on Celestias death bed. Before any questions could be asked or even comprehended the first thing Twilight said was, "Death... Bed...", "No, it can't be, no..." "Heh." Celestia responded, almost as a laugh. " It appears that, somehow, this event was preordained" "There is one. Final thing I must ask of you Twilight. Would you cast a sleep spell on me? So that I may pass peacefully." Nothing could be said. The situation was to impossible to comprehend, but she knew deep down it was the write thing to do. Regardless of how much Twilight wanted to deny it to herself. "I will always love you Celestia, like a mother. Forever and always." Twilight cried. A smile crept up onto Celestias face, one that was happy and purely peaceful. Silent tears began to flush down Twilights face, as she forced herself to charge the sleep spell. And then it was done. Celestias eye-lids shut slowly and, as she slumped down into the bed, her breathing became a slow and consistent soothing motion. Twilight looked up, deciding to stay with the princess. For as long as it took. Author's Note Geeeezzz I have never attempted to write a conversation before so, more then likely, it will have some issues with it that I cannot see. So any criticisms will be helpful so that I may improve this chapter and my writting in the future. Thanks for reading.
Act 1 | Chapter 3: The letterTwilight awoke with a start, surrounded by darkness. As she raised her head off of the surface of which it was placed, a sudden pain became apparent that jolted from her neck and down her back. She had clearly been sleeping in an uncomfortable position. As her senses returned and mind became clear, the events of the previous day hit her, like a tonne of bricks. Twilight let out a slight whimper and sagged her head, as sadness began to grip her in its entirety. Before she could be swept up into the deep abyss however, an object fell from her head; onto her lap, causing Twilight's eyes to promptly open. As her eyes adjusted, and pupils dilated, it became apparent that this was the letter that Celestia had given her the night before. Twilight's intrigue, and inquisitive nature where certainly caught and this eased the pain of thinking for a prolonged amount of time about her memories with the princess. She grabbed the envelope in her magic rather delicately, and the faint purple glow illuminated the room to a degree of which Twilight was able to spot the door, the same door she spent so long staring at the previous day, out of fear. "If only I had gone in sooner..." Twilight sighed. It was at that point Twilight rose, from her awkward positioning on the ground and began to wonder towards the door, being careful not to trip and fall on the bed-side as she did so. This time she opted to instead magically push the door, only with enough force to get her in and out as quickly as possible. The sudden intense light forced Twilight to close her eyes, a slight burning sensation emerging from behind her eyelids. When her eyes adjusted, the distorted world cleared and Twilight looked around. Celestia's room was on the third floor of the building, and each floor was connected by a large circular open space that ran from the ground floor all the way up to the sky-light window, allowing for streaks of pure-golden sunlight to cascade around the entire building with gentle dust dancing and drifting downwards in a forever spiraling motion. It was an unfortold beauty that could not be explained. Twilight smirked and her spirits raised a little as she thought about Celestia and how the essence of her sun has lived on and will continue to do so forever. "Luna must have raised the sun." Twilight said to herself, under her breath. "she must be hurting even more then me, and yet she still fulfills her responsibilities. It's time for me to be strong." It was at this point Twilight noticed a quiet and graceful sound of hoof-steps traveling towards her, from her right; matched only by the pony behind those steps. Twilight looked to her right and there was Luna. A fear began to creep through her, this was not a conversation she wanted to have. "it'll only get worse if I leave it" Twilight thought. "Twilight..." Luna said, sorrow clearly woven like a knot through her voice. With her regal mask broken, Twilight couldn't help but notice the stark contrast between the pony before her, and Luna just moments ago. "Do not fret Twilight. I already know." Luna said, in a blunt manner, that was very clearly put on. But not for Twilight's sake. "She loved you Luna, more then any-pony else." Twilight said softly, In a gentle manner. It was at this point Luna stared into Twilight's lavender eyes. They shone with compassion and meaning. It felt like acceptance. She felt as if she were staring into the eyes of her sister one last time. "You really are my sisters protégé." Now with a slight smile adorning her face, Luna spoke. "I thank you Twilight for all you have done, for the land and for my sister. You need not say any words. They are not required. I will be departing for the day, so I bid you a loving farewell." And just like that she was gone, in a flicker of dark-blue shine. "Goodbye." Twilight ended, to nothing in particular. She then turned around and decided to just walk for a bit, to linger towards the old library she once called a home, and to open this curious letter. The heavy door to Twilight's old library flung open, with the push of a magical release. A thick cloud of dust rushed out from within the building, creating a large fog that spread outside like a thick miasma before dissipating slowly. This caused Twilight to cough profusely, as her mouth was filled with the unpleasant taste and dryness of the old dust, and the smell of the withering books caused her nostrils to scrunch in an annoyed and pained expression. After the dust cleared, an exasperated sigh was the only audible sound to be heard. Twilight wandered into the building, looking briefly around as she did so. The familiarity of the home bringing a smile to her face. The place was small but compact. In-front of her, by about two meters, was a half-spiral staircase which only did a 180 degree spiral up to the second floor,of which, acted as a balcony overlooking the area Twilight was currently stood in, and also additionally acted as an overhang of which acted as a roof, supported by small but strong pillars engraved with many magical sigils, for Twilight's bedroom and bathroom. This room was large, and did not have a door-way, in fact the entire building had no other door-ways other than the front door. It was still the organized area it had always been, with some of Twilight's old books and research notes on magical-dimensional theory neatly placed upon the bright-brown table on the left. The bed lay in the center and was rather simplistic in design, but, most importantly, had an other-worldly thick-red blanket across the entirety of the beds surface. Finally, in the room, where two additional book shelves on the right-wall which were primarily used to act as additional storage space, books currently being used, and books that needed re-sorting. Twilight now began to trot up the staircase, but not before gazing upon the great telescope that sat on the bottom floor, to the right of the staircase. Its height allowing the scope to view the entire upstairs area. Painful memories began to flood back of Twilight calibrating and cleaning and re-calibrating and re-cleaning all of the fine-minuscule components, mirrors and prisms within the complex device that she used to create a map of the night sky; was currently residing on the wall behind her above the front door. Giving another smile, Twilight now stood at the main, and most favorite, area of the house. The library. Each parallel wall off to the left and right, where covered in their entirety by large bookshelves filled to the breaking point with hundreds of informative books and the occasional fictional story. Similarly a great window (Directly in-front of her), that spanned the entire surface of what would have been a wall, allowed Twilight to gaze upon the entirety of canterlot, and the equally beautiful sky. The stark contrast between the complex architectural design of each house, and the simplistic; yet beautiful pattern of the stars, is what made the location so perfect to view from, for hours on end; though there were many more houses now, since the war began. This squandered some of the naturalistic beauty that the site originally provided. She now looked at a thick book that lay open, on an otherwise empty brown table. It was the book a Twilight had been reading before she left to Ponyville, the one that had informed her of the return of Nightmare moon. "If it were not for her, I would have never met my friends." Twilight thought out-loud, with a slight laugh, as a small tear streaked down her face at the thought of how simple things used to be. She hadn't seen them in a while. They where all resided in Las-Pegasus; rebuilding it after the very first battle 3 years ago. They could no longer use the elements of harmony since their destruction and release of the shadow; so they instead helped in other pursuits such as aid and, currently, rebuilding. The only one who actually fought, besides Twilight herself, was rainbow-dash. Unfortunately her wing had to be removed by some pony on the battle-field, after she became infected. Thankfully she was alright, and due to Twilight's and other scientists help, they were able to make a break through in the rebuilding of limbs. However, would take a long time to create an entire limb like a wing and so she was put out of commission. Twilight gently removed the large book from the surface of the table, leaving it empty. She then a-lit her horn; faint glows spiraled their way up her horn, before meeting at the tip and sending out a slight burst of magical energy and the previous purple glow now emanated a golden one. The magic coalesced on the table, in swirls of energy that began to condense at a single point. The magic suddenly released and showered down around the table, leaving behind the old envelope that Celestia had given her. It was too delicate to carry all the way to the library; so Twilight had made good use of her dimensional magic, she had learnt in this same building. Twilight smiled proudly at the efficiency of which she had performed the spell, before turning her attention to that of the envelope once again. Delicately, Twilight lifted the envelope in her magic. A faint but audible sound could be heard, as the centuries old glue like substance began to separate from the equally aged paper. She removed the thin paper from within the envelope with finesse as intrigue and curiosity took over. "The paper is incredibly aged." Twilight thought to herself in confusion. "How is this possible?" She opened the parchment. Hello Twilight. If you are reading this then Celestia has tragically passed away, and the war has come to a standstill, due to your magical outburst. I'm sure your wondering who or what I am but I assure you that my identity is of no relevance to what I am about to tell you. Firstly, I'm going to explain the shadow and how it operates. This will not take long, as you figured out most of it during your thoughts on the connection of the villains you have faced. However, I shall tell you that the shadow is both a physical manifestation that can move freely amongst the world, and an emotion of power that grows and cultivates in ponies. This explains how many more ponies are not converted, because for the ponies to "lose" themselves they must first be consumed by the emotional magic and attacked by the physical creature simultaneously. An alicorn, which possess all types and variants of magical essence has their ........................................ when in the presence of .................................. embody. For instance Celestia .............................., when in the presence of the sun. For she is the embodiment of the sun, as a being and you Twilight, ........................................................................ Twilight hour of the day. Which explains how you were capable of creating such a blast against the shadow, and were able to stand against Tirek (Even with all the princesses magic). However this is not all. Furthermore... *The letter reads blank and the ink too aged to discern any language* "What does this mean?", "If only it weren't so aged..." Twilight said in a tired manner. You must use the ............. hour, to perform a Time spell. It is the only way. You must return 3000 years ago, and adopt the name Clover, and you must find Starswirl. Once this has been accomplished do whatever you can to create a magical storage cell, one more powerful then any in creation. One that has the ability to absorb positive emotional magic and use it to absorb the fire of friendship. This is what will start the world. You must do this Twilight. Do it to save Equestria. Without any words to speak Twilight turned the page around to see the image of a complex magical sigil. A time sigil Twilight had never seen before. Author's Note Well this is the longest chapter I have written so far. I seem to be getting better at making them longer, as I go on. Which is great but I can see how the amount of time it takes to make a chapter increases exponentaly. With all the checking and re-checking. But, regardless, I'm enjoying it and thats all that matters really. Once again, Thanks for reading.
Act 1| Chapter 4: The Time spellSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
