My little pony: The Dark Secret

Twilight looked around trying to understand where she was. Darkness covered everything, and for some reason Twilight couldn't light her horn. She tried to call for her friends, but no sound came out of her mouth. All she knew is that the placed had a terrible smell, and the soil felt soft and wet. She probably was in a marsh, or a rainforest. She walked carefully around, somehow hoping to bump on Luna or one of her friends. Then, suddently, a green light spread on the area. With horror, Twilight realised what she was standing on was not mud or wet soil. She was standing on a thousand corpses, laying in a bloody marsh. She couldn't move, or scream, so she tried to find the light source. Ahead of her, floating in the air, there was a unicorn. In a circle around him, floated ten other ponies, whose corpses were dilaniated, scarred, or burned. Twilight started panicking, trying to move everywhere, but being blocked by some kind of force, she tryed the only thing she thought could save her: She shot a beam of energy toward the unicorn, turning him in a swirling mass of ashes and vapor.

To her horror, the unicorn body reformed, and floated closer to her.

"Why?" He asked.

Twilight opened her eyes barely managing not to scream. The fire was still burning and she felt Dash's warm coat on her. "Just a dream.. a bad dream.." She thought, wiping her face and moving Dash away to stand up. Everypony was sleeping, except Luna, who was still focusing on her ritual. The stony ring wich was going to host the portal had started glowing with a dark blue light and she assumed that was a sign the ritual was almost complete. In fact, the sun was dawning outside, meaning Luna had been working on the portal for at least four or five hours now. Twilight sat next to the fire, and levitated the book she had from the unicorn's bag to her. She wouldn't be able to sleep some more anyways, so she decided to examine further the misterious journal.

Everything was written in weird characters, but one single line. Starswirl, the betrayer. She didn't get it. First, why would someone write three words in equestrian and encrypt the rest of the text in some other language? And why betrayer? Those questions troubled her, It just made no sense. She resolved to look through the rest of the book, just to discover it was completely blank. Was the book a diary?

"Good day, Twilight Sparkle." Twilight dropped the book, and looked up. The princess was there, and the portal was swirling behind her, ready to be crossed.

"The portal is ready. Before we go, may i know what's troubling you? If you haven't realised it, you've been thinking aloud for a few minutes."

Twilight took a few second to snap out of her self-questioning trance and assimilate the princess' word. When she realised she had been talking to herlself like a crazy pony, she covered her face with her hoof and let out a sigh.

"Sorry princess.. It's just that i found this book inside that unicorn's saddlebag and i can't figure out what its contenent means."

Twilight horn lit as she floated the book to Luna, who opened it and started examining its contenent.

"Hm. It's written in the so-called "black tongue", the language the cult uses. Except for this line.." Luna stopped, looked at Twilight with a puzzled look and than back at the book. She looked like she had just found something interesting. "Yes?!" Twilight asked, eager to know.

"It's.. scratch what i said, it's not written. Can't you see? These are not ink letters, they're burn marks!"

Twilight jumped a bit, and Luna turned the book so she could see what she meant. It was true, there was no ink on the page. Inteasted, the black letters were just burns on the thick paper.

"Furthermore, I can feel a slight magic aura on the page. I'm not sure... But i think these are the thoughts of the unicorn you defeated. Somehow he must've burnt these words on his journal in a burst of magic seconds before dying. That's the only explanation i can give.

Twilight found it resonable, but hardly useful information. She asked Luna if she could translate it.

"I can't. The only pony who knows this language and is not a cultist is Celestia. We're going to show this book to her once we come back. Now wake up your friends, we've got a portal to cross." Luna turned, and headed for the dark blue swirling rift.

"Alright everypony. Are you all ok and ready?" Twilight asked with a quite shrill voice. She was excited. Being maniacally interested about both magic and space she had been reading a lot about teleportation and wormholes' or portals' interactions with it, but aside from her short-range blinking spell, she had never actually tryied a long-distance teleport.

"Ya bet it." Applejack said yawning. Luna stepped forward and cleared her voice with a cough. "Good. Now, since noone popped up from the portal until now, i think there shouldn't be anyone on the other side. But if there is someone, know he is not friendly. So as soon as you get on the other side, be ready to fight."

Everypony nodded, and one by one, they crossed the stony ring, disappearing in the swirling fog of the waygate.

Twilight felt a tickling sensation. She was laying on some cold floor. She opened her eyes to see the Princess standing close to her, smiling. Her other friends was standing up too, she did the same, and looked around. She was in a big castle hall. The floor, the walls, and even the roof were made in different types of marble and golden carvings decorated the angles of the room. Painted on the left walls there was a nocturnal sky, and on the right, a daily one. The moon, engraved with silver on the black marble, faced the sun on the other side, made in pure gold. The place looked really antique, yet well maintained. She reached Luna, and asked where they were.

"We are in Haylgard. Capital of the old kingdom. Home of Luna, princess of the night, and Celestia, princess of the sun. Bastion of light over the surrounding lands." She seemed to find strangely satisfying saying that line. "Yeah. And what now?" Dash asked. Luna smiled, and answered they were going to need a map.

"The message spoke about a place where "The souls of a thousand miscreant lingers, and the bloody river of Kargor rises from the depths of the earth, forming a swamp". I know of only one place wich matches such description: The Ruins of Pon-Kuron."

"Do tell." Twilight asked. "What happened there?"

Luna face darkened a bit. "We were told the story from the only survivor of that fateful night.. One thousand and one hundred years ago our forces fought a terrible battle aganist the Order. They had attacked Pon-Kuron, our forward post in their lands, with a small army. They looked absolutely hopeless, disorganized and outnubered, but than.." Luna paused a bit and the ponies looked at her eager to know. "Than Starswirl the Younger showed up. A glow of his horn, and a thousand defenders crashed on the ground, dead." Luna paused, and bit her lip. "One spell Twilight. One single spell destroyed an army. The Order then conqueared the fortress and turned it in their own bastion. It was then that, thrilled by Starswirl's dark powers other ponies started to join Discord on their own. Thus, the "Sons of Discord" were born." Luna finished.

The ponies stood silently, watching the floor. One thousand lives broken by one single spell.. Could a unicorn's power really be so terrible? They stood there, silent, until Rarity decided to break the silence.

"What happened is indeed terrible, yet I think we have little time to mourn the losses of the past. Princess, how are we going to find a map here?"

"This castle hosts the biggest library in both Equestria and the old kingdom. I'm confident we will find everything we need there."

Twilight's eyes lit. A huge library full of of 1000-years-old books waiting for her. Incredible knowledge that went beyond her imagination! The thoughtful expression on her face was quickly replaced by an dumb smile as she imagined all those ancient books dancing around her.

"..And you're not coming with us, Twilight."

"What?!" Twilight snapped out of her daydream.

"You are not coming with us. I'm sorry Twilight, but we don't have time to waste waiting while you read ond books." Luna continued, with a cold voice. Twilight wanted to belive it was some crude joke Luna was playing on her.

"But i.." The princess cut her. "I said no Twilight Sparkle. Far from eyes, far from heart. You will have some time to explore the castle while we look for a map, be happy with that."

Twilight tried to protest but there was no way to convince the princess.

"Well, let's go girls. Meet you here in half an hour, Twilight."

Twilight was frustrated. She couldn't belive the princess played her such a trick. Having nothing else to do, she started walking around the richly decorated castle halls, thinking aloud. "Why can't i snoop around some bloody BOOKS!? Damn it." Twilight was snorted as she talked to herself while she walked. Eventually, she arrived at a big set of stairs wich brought to a big hall. The room was probably the main entrace, having a huge door opposed to the stairs and two smaller doors on the other sides of the room, leading to two lateral gardens. "Oh, Twilight is such a bookworm, if she gets in that library she won't come out anymore! Gne gne gne gne!" Twilight faked the princess voice. "To hell! They're snooping around the biggest library in Equestria and this bloody nameless land and i got to walk around a damned hall! And this damned noise of swords clashing won't stop! Argh!"

Twilight took a couple of seconds to realise what she just said. "Swords? Clashing? Who in Equestria.."

The noise came from the left garden. Twilight didn't think twice and rushed in its direction, but she found herself trapped in a wildly grown park, with the noise coming from not far ahead. Instinctively, she burnt the wild grass with magic and arrived to a clearing in the park. In front of her, a blue unicorn in a silverly armor was clashing with a brown coated pegasus. She noticed the pegasus cutiemark was burnt and had a nail in it and she shot a purple enegy projectile in his direction without thinking twice. The pony twitched, and fell on the ground, lifeless.

The unicorn pointed his sword in her direction, unsure if she was an ally or a common foe.

"Who are you?!" the stallion asked.

Twilight backed, and answered she was Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's protegé, on a quest aganist the black order. The unicorn lowered his sword and put it into his sheath, and closed up to Twilight. He was a bit higher than the average unicorn, and quite bulkier. Actually, he had about the same physique of her brother, except his mane wasn't cured, in fact, it was quite rugged.

"Alright, so you're not an enemy.. Thanks for the help. My name is Starswirl the brave, last of the Starswirl's family line, ruler of the Ironhoof clan. It's a pleasure to see a friendly face in this land, Twilight Sparkle. Who is this Celestia anyways?"

Twilight started to laugh hysterically. Did she just meet a descendant of Starswirl who didn't know who Celestia was?

"You don't know..? And you are..? Ruler of what?!"

"Woah, calm your horses milady! I asked first, answer and i will answer you, one question at a time." The unicorn said smiling. He closed up to Twilight, and, standing by her side, he wrapped an arm around her.

"Is he trying to..?" Twilight thought. She pushed him away, and answered. "Celestia is the ruler of Equestria and was once the ruler of these lands. Not to mention she is the most magically powerful pony in the world. How's possible that you don't know her?" She asked, trying to ignore the looks of her new friend.

"Well.. you see," He started, rubbing the back of his head with his hoof. "My people know little from the outside, or our story. We just know we were left behind when our people moved after a great war. Ever since, we've been fighting for every inch of cultivable land in this crude wasteland. These people.." He pointed at the dead pegasus. "Have been hunting us down for a millennium, according to the little hi\story we know. Our name came from Starswirl the Third, who founded our clan. He was called "Ironhoof", since he lost one of his hooves fighting with these people, and had it replaced with an iron one. At least, that's the story." The unicorn looked at the ground with a somewhat sad face. "I am called "The Brave" because my people consider me the bravest fighter in the land, i never throw down a challenge. But, i'm not the strongest, and i am really bad with magic, even if my line is considered to be full of magic power. I came here because of some legends wich speaks of two powerful and benevolet magic being who lives in this place. I wanted to learn more about it and magic. Sadly, no powerful magic being, just a bounch of this crazy dudes pillaging the place." Starswirl smiled and looked at Twilight. "At least i found you." Twilight rolled her eyes. "Calm your hooves romeo. Well.. let's have a walk, shall we? We will share what we know."

Starswirl nodded, and they started walking back towards the hall.

"It's incredible!" Luna sighed. "There are hundreds of books and not a blasted map!". She dropped her muzzle upon a pile of books and puffed.

The other ponies looked at her with a long face. They had been searching for a good fourty-five minutes, and they found nothing. Plus, they were late at their meeting with Twilight, who was mad them. Real bad situation.

"I'm sorry, I took them, i figured out they would've been useful to my people. Here, take this one." Said a blue unicorn to Luna. "Thanks! Girls, we got the map!" She said triumphally.

"Wait, who the hell are you?!" Luna asked, realising she just spoke to a pony she didn't know in a place no other pony should be.

Twilight stepped inside the library, and forcing herself to ignore the culture-filled scaffold, explained:

"He is the last of the Starswirl family line. He is the leader of a group of people who were left behind when you fled to Equestria."

Luna blinked her eyes and scanned the blue unicorn. He didn't look much like Starswirl, but that seemed pretty fair since a thousand years had passed. What struck her was his magical aura. It was much similar to Starswirl's, but not as much trained.

"Starswirl had a son?" She asked, blinking again. "Seems so. Starswirl "Ironhoof" the third, to be precise." The other five ponies just looked at the three and listened to what they said. Luna looked pretty confused. "And how comes he is not a cultist?" Luna asked, blinking her eyes a third time.

"I got no idea. In fact, his clan, founded by Ironhoof, has been fighting the Order ever since its fundation." Twilight answered.

"And, pray tell, why is he with you?"

"I saved him from a cultist. He said he's coming with us wherever we're going. He wants to learn from us and help on our quest. Is that okay?"

"Yeah i guess.." Luna looked like she was under inquisition. Well, with the voice Twilight was making, anyone would feel that way.

"Can we go now?" Twilight continued.

"Yes, sure."

"Fine. Remember that you owe me to carry a set of these tomes back in Equestria when we come back. Girls, let's get going."

Everyone nodded, and Luna lead them throught the main entrace. Once they left, they met with a devasted landscape. There was no trace of grass or flowers, and the trees had died.

Luna remembered the lands quite different from this. She gazed questioningly at Starswirl, and asked what went on here. He darkened, and answered.

"These lands fell under the control of the Order long time ago, when i was still young. This is what they do to any place they conquear. Somehow they just kill the very land: grass dies, trees falls, flowers burns. This piece of land was really important to us, almost sacred i'd say. We lost it after a terrible defeat in a battle aganist the Order. We have a song about it, if you care to listen, i can sing it." The other ponies nodded, and Starswirl began.

"During the first six of our long wars

We ironhoof found shelter between these wild rocks..

At that time this region, known as Haylgard,

was green, majestic, heaven on earth..

When the sixth war was sadly lost,

for our beloved lands, this meant the fall.

The Order found a new land to ruin,

so woods and flowers decided to die,

rivers and falls became suddenty dry,

From the time the cold darkness reign,

Haylgard became the darkland it's today..

Haylgard became the darkland it's today.."

The eight ponies were a few miles away from the castle now. The monotony of the landscape made them fall pretty silent. Even Starswirl, who had been trying to get closer to Twilight the whole day was suddently quiet. Somehow Twilight had started liking his care. In her life Twilight had been so focused on studying that she haven't had the time to find some friends until Celestia forced her, let alone receiving the attention of a stallion. She decided to break the silence, as the others too needed to distract a bit from the dullness of the land.

"So.. Starswirl. Your song tells about "six wars". Care to tell something more?" She asked, poking him on his shoulder. He smiled back, and started.

"For you, sure thing. You must know that my people had a total of six wars with the Order. Altought we have little written evidence, since we are nomadic, or better, we are forced to be, and we have little time to write books or evidence of the past, any Ironhoof has memory of the last three wars. The fourth ended when we destroyed their forward outpost of Kargor, forcing them back on the Pon-Kuron marsh. We didn't hear them until the second war, wich began with their assault on our encampment, close to Kargor and ended with our failed counterstrike on Pon-Kuron, during wich my father died."

He darkened and lowered his head looking at the ground. " I was barely twelve when i had to take the command of the Clan, because of my father's death. The last war began immediately after. On their tide of success, the cultists attacked Haylgard plains. I was too young to properly command our soldiers, and without a steady battle strategy and a good leader, they wrecked us. Our beloved land fell in their hands.. And my clan was pushed back in the borders of what we now call the Darklands. And it was all my fault."

Twilight regret asking him, and tryed to comfort him wrapping her arm around his shoulder.

"I don' get this. Is he tryin' it with Twi or is it her who's trying with him?" Whispered Applejack to Rarity, who just chuckled.

"You see, my people love me and don't hold any grudge for that day.. but i know it was my fault. And i swear i will fix it up in due time. Twilight explained me a bit of your quest, and i think i can help my cause by helping yours. This is why i'm here with you."

They had been walking for a good five hours now. They were all quite tired, except Luna, when they finally reached the borders of a red marsh, surrounded by hills, and beyond it, high stony mountains, full of caves and rocky formations. There, perched on the footsteps of the mountain, was an ancient-looking fortress. The whole landscape would've been quite a good view actually, if it wasn't for one slight detail: The ground of the marsh was covered by dead bodies. Twilight eyes widened at the vision. It was the marsh she dreamed of, she was sure of it. The six girls were dismayed, and they tryed to look away. Before they asked, Luna explained.

"These bodies are the remnants of the war that went on. A spell casted by Discord himself has prevented the bodies from decomposing, remaining as a warning of the Order's power on the land." She announced.

"This place has ever since been sacred to the Order, this is why my father wanted to conquear it and burn it down. Actually, it's also a strategic point in controlling the land. It is probably their most important stronghold. There's no way we will get in there by the main entrance." Starswirl said, but Luna shook her head in disagreement.

"Actually," She said as her horn lit in a blue glow. "That's quite strange. I don't sense any life sign inside the fortress."

Starswirl was puzzled. Were the cultists giving away their most important point in the region? This was a trap. And an obivious one.

"This can't be true, Princess. It must be a trap" He protested, but Luna cut him, saying there was no turning back. They had to get in there and steal the book, or die trying.

"Very well. Anyways, charging the front entrance would still be dumb." Starswirl announced, drawing a map in the dust. "There's a cave, just east of the stronghold. It leads inside Pon-Kuron underground complex, the place where's most likely the cult would keep a treasure. if we cross the marsh and camp by this cave until night" He pointed at a point in the distance, and than at his map. " We should be able to sneak him and out without being spotted."

Luna looked at the unicorn questioningly. "How do you know all this?" She asked.

"My father had been planning the assault on the fortress for ages. He knew every weak spot of the place. His plan was to enter the fortress throught the doungeons, and catch the defenders by surprise. Unfortunately, he didn't think about one detail."

The group looked at Starswirl puzzled, asking him to go on with their eyes.

"Spies. His second-in-charge betrayed him, and revealed the plan to the cultists. They ambushed him in the caves, and slaughtered his army."

He finished, and suggested they should start crossing the marsh.

The eight ponies were hidden at the entrace of the cave. Luna had checked many times, there was no form of life in the keep, or in its nearbyes. After assuring them there was noone around, Luna suggested them to rest until night, to get some sleep, and went to the entrace of the cave. She looked at the sky, and closed her eyes.

After a long flight, Luna had finally reached the castle. The foal in her arms had finaly awaken and had been since watching Luna with a pair of big eyes. She glided to the entrance of the castle, Her sister was waiting for her.

"What happened?" The white-coated mare asked.

"Bandits. They burnt her house and killed her parents. I came just in time to save her."

Celestia bit her lip. It was the sixth murder in four days. She looked down at the filly, who probably was too young to understand what happened. She looked back with her violet eyes. She was one cute filly. About one and half feets high, with a purple coat, and a blue mane.

Luna opened her eyes, turned back and looked at Twilight. Damn, she was so similar to her. Except for the purple stripe in her mane, she looked identical. She closed her eyes one more, and continued her daydream.

Celestia smiled at the filly. "We should get her inside and feed her. It's cold out here."

Luna nodded, and, picked the filly up, she walked inside. It was actually cold outside. She put the foal on a table, and carried a few selection of tender plants to her. Celestia chuckled as the filly tried to eat a huge shamrock, almost bigger in surface than her face.

"Does she have a name?" She asked. Luna answered she didn't know. "We could call her Clover. It's a nice name. By the way, Luna, i've heard that Starwirl the bearded was looking for a student and the king was looking for a friend for her daughter Princess Platinum to take under his protective wing. You should carry her to the unicorn court. They would take good care of her."

Luna nodded, watching the foal eating. She felt Celestia's hoof touching her shoulder and turned her face to Celestia's who was looking at her with a much more serious expression now.

"This is the sixth murder in four days Luna. And the 20th in the month." She said.

Luna looked down. "What can we do sister? It's how the world goes. There's darkness in all of us. I do my best to make our people feel safe." She replied. Celestia gave her a really serious look.

"I think i know how to stop this." She said.

Luna opened her eyes. She had been thinking for quite a long time. The sun had almost disappeared down the horizon, and dusk was falling on the plains. When darkness would've fallen, she would wake her companions up, and they would descend in the bloody abyss beneath Pon-Kuron.

The fallen's lament breaths in the cold winds

whispers of death surround the wide marsh

Pon-Kuron is there to swallow their souls,

Perched over them, another hell's gate!

COLD MYSTIC NIGHT - IT FALLS ON THE PLAINS

ON THE WHOLE DARKLANDS REIGNS NOW THE SHADE

CELESTIA'S LIGHT GIVE THEM THE FAITH

TIME NOW HAS COME

PON-KURON AWAITS

// Author's Note:

// My account is bloody bugged. First i didn't get the bump, than the site randomly says my email is unverified and i suddently can't view the chapter. I resolved to delete it and reupload, now works fine. The emal works now too.

// The next chapter will be a bit shorter and will be out in a few days. Won't spoil anything so don't ask.

// As always, please review, rate, and feedback. Should you find any error, do tell. It really helps.