It Is Always Best Remembered

Chapters

Chapter 1: A Knight's Trial
Chapter 2: A Knight's Worry

Chapter 1: A Knight's Trial

It is Always Best Remembered

By: Darkevony

Chapter 1: A Knight's Trial

The feint sound of rushed hoofsteps muted off the pleading yells that called out to him. Crunching leaves and heavy steps beacon an anxious rush. The rays of light that broke through the thick treeline began playing tricks on him. The surreal vision turned into a nightmare as the eerie feeling increased. He was powerless to avoid it; it called out him, subtly provoking him into madness. He hadn't known insanity yet, but if he did, he could feel that this was it, or at least as close as it got.

His crystalline white coat and dark blue mane closely resembled his father's, at least to what his mother had always told him. The only difference was that his father had a light blue mane, the dark blue came from his mother who he undoubtedly felt as if she was beginning to worry for his safety. Illuminous had been named after his father.

He was a plain eye sore in the pure green of the forest he had lived his whole life in. Running away to follow something awry wouldn't have been an easy task if it wasn't for his conditioned legs carrying him faster than most ponies could run. Although now he felt lighter, somehow he was sensible to sharp rocks he no longer even felt beneath his hoof as they scrapped him. He felt exhausted as if his entire body had been... minimized.

A terrifying realization had befell upon him. He couldn't control his own body from running and this scene seemed all too familiar. He tried in vain to get away, if this was what he knew it was, then he wanted nothing but to avoid it.

Just as he had feared, the dense woods ran short into a barren landscape of brown sharp rocks. He ran farther and farther occasionally looking back to see if anyone was after him. The horrid deja vu as he fell forward onto thousands of tiny sharp rocks was doing well in lighting his fears in bold, agonizing terrors. He got up weakly, struggling to run. The voice from before that whispered quietly to him, guiding him, now grew stronger, practically shouting at him in unintelligible words.

Piked silver-grey rocks pierced the earth around him strangely aligned in perfect symmetry away from each other, carving a dirt path towards the whispering voice. The closer he had gotten, the silver spikes arched towards each other and created one wide arch that continued along a lifeless junkyard desert of hard sharp rocks.

His fears now correctly confirmed as the jagged rocks circled a wide area creating a sphere and clouding out the sun. This place would have been completely darkened if it hadn't been for a beautiful golden oak tree that centered the hill-like oasis that stood between the lifeless plain that seemed to magically illuminate in a golden glow. Two small streams ran on both sides of the tree, disappearing into the jagged rocks that hid the area of sight somehow not seeping through as no water could be seen from the outside.

Now he tried more than ever to runaway yet his body was unresponsive no matter how much he tried. The sweet, beautiful voice from before began singing like it had then. It had soothe any anxiety or worry he had before, but now it indicated a terror that would come. His worries grew worse. His body began some how shining in the pure white light, and before he could even take a breath, he was levitated several feet off the ground. Blood red light began seeping through the shining white around his body. Suddenly, the light broke and he fell to the floor almost lifeless of all energy.

Sheer terror had become inevitable when a dark mist began to seep from the golden leaves downwards to the ground shrouding the once golden grass and streams. The voice came to a halt suddenly and the dark mist began to twirl in a harsh tempest. He pulled back but stood still, somehow afraid to leave. From the black storm, a malevolent laughter pierced the thrashing winds. The dark mist suddenly made out a shape. Fire began filling in the gaps between the mist and made out three eyes and a mouth. Black mist chains hanged to the ground, scorching the earth it was being dragged on. His entire being seemed... unstable. The bottom half was nonexistent and replaced by fire that scorched the earth it stood over, not even touching the ground.

Illuminous felt his body contract, slowly and painfully becoming more unpleasant as he tried screaming yet he could not even mutter a single word. From behind the dark swirling mist, the three eyes focused on him, seemingly content. Two pairs of limbs grew out of its back and one pair from the sides. It moved ever so closely to him, the pain growing worse. In quick succession, it lashed out at him. Darkness surrounded him and in an instant, he viewed miles of land in flames, the reddened skies raining down fire, the world at its seams in pure destruction.

"Illuminous!!"

Illuminous took in a deep breath, sharply opening his eyes only to see the bright pastel colors of his room's ceiling coming into view, sweat running down his forehead. That dream was from his childhood... one he had always thought that it was always best forgotten.

His legs were levitated into the air as he lied down back first onto his bed. His short robust mane scratched against the pillow as he tried looking sideways to follow the shout of his name. He felt another nudge against his side and saw a light caramel yellow Pegasus mare, her mane a bit darker in color, her flowing hair clouding her eyes. The yellow scarf she always wears wrapped around her neck, her bright emerald eyes glaring at him in deep concern.

"Illuminous are you okay?!" She said as she placed both her hoofs to the side of him and shook him slightly.

He closed his eyes again and sunk back into his pillow, easing his legs from the tense position he had them in. "Yeah... I'm fine..."

"What happened? Was it a nightmare?"

Illuminous looked away, he had no intention of even thinking about it, muchless talking. "It was nothing Dove, please..."

She puffed her cheeks in frustration. "Okay then, but you sir, need to get ready for today's big event. I didn't come to wake you up today for nothing." She said, pressing her hoofs onto his side, pushing him slightly to get up.

"I still don't understand why they would hold it in winter." He rolled out of bed lazily, accidentally hitting himself at the edge of the mahogany cupboard. He strolled over to his curtained window and peered outside. Mountainous snow piled the streets and coveted rooftops making for a beautiful sight. He had woken up a bit late as children had already built snow ponies and gone.

"Its to see if the competitors are strong enough to endure it, you big wimp."

"Well, that's a sure fire way to know." He said sarcastically.

Dove shoved him slightly with her wing. "C'mon, lets get downstairs so you can eat your breakfast. You're as bad as it is, driving on empty won't help you at all."

"Ha ha, well anyways, thanks Dove. For waking me up that is. I'm sure I wouldn't have woken up at all today."

"What are best friends for?" She said, turning around quickly and letting her scarf slap him in the face.

"Sometimes, they are bothersome."

That had clearly annoyed her. She pushed him backwards, bumping him with her tail. "Well that's because we care!"

Illuminous couldn't help laugh. "Sure. If you say so."

She gave him a hmpf sound and walked out, her hoofsteps pressing against the wooden staircase.

Illuminous placed his hoofs onto his dresser to see himself more clearly in the mirror, he shook his hair sideways to naturally align it like he wanted.

I hope everything goes alright today. I've been preparing for this for a while now. The entrance exam to be a knight is said to be the toughest around. Even with all the work I've done I don't think I can make it. I must not think that way, I'll make it, yes I'll make it.

Illuminous had been preparing for this event nearly all his life. It would be held all across Equestria for all able-bodied ponies who had Strength, Will, and Courage. Ponies strong enough to overcome a series of obstacles. Illuminous trained day by day, working his speed, building his strength, and focusing his will. He honestly believed he was ready.

He turned to his cupboard and saw a picture frame of Dove, Rosemary, and him. He had taken it a while back by the fact that they all looked pretty young. Dove had always been his best and childhood friend. Rosemary was his aunt, she was his father's sister. She had told him much about her life with him and her father when they used to live in these very woods. The ones his mother and Rosemary founded together.

Illuminous' mother left from Canterlot to live in peace and also to raise him without concern. Soon after, she founded the creation of a town to be built upon the isolated household. There was fertile land and plenty of trees for the woodcutter ponies. It was a lot of effort, making several houses and moving rocks, boulders even, to make way for fertile land and expand the town. When he came of age and his mom, hesitant at first to let him do something dangerous, finally let him, he began helping with the construction. Now Illuminous hopes that all that work was worth it just for today.

Most of the knights became royal guards to Queen Hemera and Princess Celestia. Some knights were set out to discover new land and build colonies. In short, it wasn't easy to become a knight at all. It was a huge honor just to have such a title. Even though Equestria has seen an era of peace for several years now, becoming a knight is still a big deal.

He threw over himself a pretty big satchel-like bag over himself. The bag itself was created from special cloth that Dove had made for him, her specialty was sewing, but she was a genius at it. What was inside was even more amazing to say the least. He'd wonder time over how many bits it would have cost her to make it. She had always provided him with everything he ever needed, truly the best of friends he could ever have. Hopefully, this satchel would be enough to help him. Not having wings is a huge disadvantage since regular Earth ponies are not as fast, and in the knight academy, they believe that you must have the physical force to endure the trials. Unicorns who use magic take the Mage's Trials.

He walked over to his door only to stop and look back and see the already lonely room. If he did become knight, then this room would be this way for more than he would want to. Strangely, he already felt nostalgia. He closed the door and trotted down stairs.

Upon arrival at the kitchen, Dove was already making herself busy in preparing food for him alongside his mother who heard him come in and turn to him.

"There you are, I would have woken you up myself but someone beat me to it." She said lovingly, signifying Dove.

"It was nothing Miss. Luna."

"What's with the formality all of a sudden? Please, you can call me mommy like Illuminous still does." Luna said, making Dove giggle.

"Yeah, well that's because you make me." Illuminous said irritatedly.

"You know I love you Illy." She said warmly, walking over to him and kissing him in the cheek.

"And that's why I don't complain. I love you too mom." He said, making Luna smile a bit wider.

He thought about how his mother had given up her position as Princess just to be able to raise him. She had told him back when he was just a small colt that when she had him, Hemera had taken her place as Queen and there really was no need for her to stay other than politics that would have placed her too busy to even think about him. So instead, she left her position as royalty and lived humbly in this town with every pony who helped build it.

Really, he couldn't complain. Most of it being because he really did appreciate and love his mom. He felt lucky having the best mom around and he wouldn't stoop down to anyone who said otherwise. Some ponies saw them both as a weird family. It was only them two and since Illuminous had neither wings or a horn, criticism was inevitable but they put with it. His mother always told him he was a special type of pony, but believing that always hurt a little more when he would shout that out against the bullies that made fun of him. Even his mother's reassurance wouldn't help convince him he was more than just an earth pony, son to the Princess of the night.

Suddenly, a pony covered in snow burst through the door. When it shook off all the snow, the familiar white with brown spots around his eye gave way to his identity. His bright smile as shiny as always.

"What are you waiting for?! Do you know what today is?" He said abruptly before looking over at Luna and Dove.

"I don't think I do, pray tell."

"Well this isn't nightmare night that's for sure." He said as he looked over to Luna who smiled back only to scare him by bearing sharp fake teeth.

"Pip, calm down. The event will start in about two hours. Why don't you join Illuminous for some breakfast first?" Luna said after laughing for a bit.

Pip was Illuminous' best friend as well. Not childhood friends like Dove, but him and his family moved in to the town and worked with everyone else. Illuminous met him while he was helping their family construct a pretty big chicken coop.

"Alright then." He plopped down on the stool chair next to Illuminous. "It doesn't really concern me, after all I'm not going to participate this year."

"Well why not?" Illuminous asked.

"I was thinking yesterday, I'm probably not ready, and when I think something like that I'm surely not. So instead of humiliating myself today, I rather wait until next year to do that."

"Better safe than sorry." Dove said shooting a glance at Illuminous.

"I believe I'm ready." He said, slamming his hoof down on the table glaring back at Dove, then Pip and Dove proceeded to laugh. "Hey! I know I'm ready!"

"Well I believe in you mate. I'll be rooting for you all the way." Pip placed his hoof on his shoulder and shook him.

"I do too. I already finished a big batch if ordered rope that I had to find the cloth for, so I can at least go cheer you on." Dove carried the plate of hay fries in her mouth and placed it in front of him.

"What enthusiasm. Sounds like you don't even care."

Illuminous was on a role today. Managing to irritate Dove within minutes was just too easy.

"Are you doubting my words?" She glared at him, her eyes as daggers.

"Maybe." He rolled his eyes.

"That's enough Illuminous, at least say she will be cheering you on." Luna scolded him.

"Yeah, I guess so." He took a bite out of his hay. "I wonder what they will assign me."

"Probably a guard. I think they are having trouble assigning explorers. I heard that some of the exploring knights have disappeared more frequently now. Didn't it first began ten years ago?" Pip turned to Dove. Dove was the intelligible one of the group so most likely she probably would've known something about it.

"At first, only one squad had completely disappeared and when they were traced, the only remnants were burned down houses of the colony they once held in the forest area. No one had heard of them again. Then four years later, there was two confirmed disappearances of cargo supplies that went along the east lines towards the mountain towns."

"Didn't the colony north of the mountains, the plains, also had disappearances a few years later? My dad told me about it when it happened. Miss Luna, do you know anything about it?"

Luna seemed to be in deep thought, suddenly taken aback by the question. "Oh.. uh.. Well I heard gossip from the other moms that lately, the ocean spirit Rotanus has been causing harsh tidal waves for the oceanic colony to the farther east of the mountains."

"It must be tough for the knights lately. However I doubt that they will recruit the oncoming knights for such jobs with all that's going about." Dove took a bite out of her daffodil sandwich, puffing her cheeks as she chewed. Illuminous' regained his thoughts, wondering why he was even paying attention to that.

"Illy, why do you want to join the knights anyways?" Luna looked over to Illuminous.

Pip cut in abruptly. "Isn't it obvious? Being a knight is the best title any pony can have! Since both me and Illuminous don't have a cutie mark then maybe our special talent is being a knight!"

He was right, it had been years and still not even Illuminous or Pipsqueak held a cutie mark. Dove on the other hand found her specialty in sewing and other types of works. Whenever she wasn't with Illuminous, Dove created rope and other sorts of useful clothing that was revolutionary to say the least. Her rope was much more durable than anyone has ever seen, not to mention all her other inventions, like the satchel he now carried on his back.

"Well..." Everyone turned to Illuminous. "I don't really care about being a knight or anything."

"Then why train so hard to be a knight then?" Dove was as confused as everyone else.

"I always felt like I needed to see the world. I don't know, I guess living here all my life makes me want to see new places."

Everyone turned to Luna who chuckled to herself, a warm smile on her face. "So alike yet so different."

"Huh?"

"You see, all your father ever wanted was to live in peace. Of course, he too wanted to view the world, however he had no greater desire but to stay here."

"Miss Luna, how was Illuminous' father anyway?" Pip raised the question.

She closed her eyes to reminisce, the warm smile still on her face. "He truly was something else. A bit clumsy and he always used to get himself worked up about being a burden, but the kindest of any pony you could ever meet. He came to my rescue more than once, and I could never forget it."

"Too bad Illuminous isn't the nicest of ponies around, or the most valiant." Dove insulted him.

"You might be right about that first one but that doesn't mean I'm not brave." He countered. "Mom... do you ever think we'll see him again?" They never really spoke of it so asking such a question took all the courage he had as to not upset his mother.

"I'm sure we will." Luna walked over to Illuminous and hugged him. She slid a box of homemade cookies in the shape of a lunar crescent and also took out a homemade scarf with the night sky on it and placed it around his neck. "Just in case my little knight gets hungry on his journey. I made that scarf as your present Illy." She kissed him again.

"Stop it mom, you're embarrassing me." He said sarcastically as both Pip and Dove began to laugh. "No but seriously, I love the scarf."

"You three should get going, the trial arena isn't exactly close to here. Dove, I finished the gift last night, you should wrap it and leave it under your tree?" Luna said, handing over a beautiful gown that was meant as a Hearts Warming Eve present for Dove's mother. Her and Luna were very close friends. Dove and Luna made the gown as a team effort.

"Thank you Miss. Luna!" Dove said as she hugged Luna.

"Hearts Warming Eve is around the corner and I have no gift for my parents, Gah!" Pip bumped his head with his hoofs. "What am I going to do?!"

"You're barely remembering now?" Illuminous scolded him.

"I was too busy thinking about the Knight trials!"

"That's what you g-"

"Now now, that's enough dear, I'll figure something to give to your parents." Luna eased his worries.

"Talking about presents, be right back." Illuminous disappeared back upstairs and into his room.

He came down five minutes later and plopped down on the stool again.

"What took you so long?" Pip asked as he took another bite from his unfinished hay fries.

Illuminous pulled out a wrapped box. "My present to you. Thanks mom. I had been saving this for quite a while. I heard from someone that they are worth a lot of bits, so I waited for the right time. If I do become a knight, then there is no better time to give this to you."

"Awww," Pip and Dove said in unison.

This was the first time Illuminous had given her a present. She had no words for this unexpected gift. Luna unwrapped it with her magic and two small sparkling stones lay inside. Luna gasped in surprise.

"Whats wrong? You don't like them?"

"Its not that, its just..." She lifted them up in the air to spectate them, the sparkling red stones reflecting her image. "These are Rubian Crystalisens. They are said to be very rare and magically powerful stones. How did you find them? You didn't steal them right?!"

"No I didn't. I found them while clearing some of the rocks for new land two years back. Mr. Rockston was kind enough to let me have them. You can use them as earrings!"

"I have a better idea." Luna magically levitated one of her pure silver pins and magically fitted one of the stones into its very ends and pinned it onto Illuminous' scarf. The other, she replaced the gem that stood in the middle of her favorite necklace and fitted the second stone in it. She kissed him in the cheek again. "Remember, as long as we are under the same sky, we'll always be together."

"Thanks mom." He hugged her one last time before heading out with Pip and Dove into the snow.

Illuminous was the last to go through the door and just as he did, he got pummeled by a snowball that came from Dove. "You gotta be faster than that if you want to pass the Knight's Trails." She said as she dodged a sneak attack snowball that came from Pip and landed on Illuminous' face.

"Well you have to think faster than..." He facehoofed after seeing Illuminous take the snowball that was intended to Dove.

Illuminous began to throw snowballs at Dove, yet she clearly dodged them all. Pip joined in on the target hunt and she set flight into the sky avoiding the incoming balls of ice. "You have to be faster than that boys."

"Hey, that might be some nice practice then." Illuminous reached for his satchel and pulled a small string from with his bag. Suddenly, the sides of the satchel sprung open two wide wings made of the same material as the satchel, a strong and durable cloth. The upper rim that held them together was made of pure gold which was malleable and flexible. Pip stared at it in awe.

"What in Hemera's name is that?"

"Its a little invention I did, let see if it works." Dove said as she flew off, waiting for her challenger.

"Do you even know how that thing works?" Pip asked Illuminous.

"Somewhat yes, I'm seeing if this can help me during the knight trials."

"Well I guess there's no official rules against that... well... good luck."

"Here goes nothing." Illuminous picked up a boulder heavy enough for him to carry and throw into the air over to a cabbage cart high enough for him to have time to get ready on the other side to set off. As the rock landed, the cart propelled him into the sky and he gave a quick spiraling twirl downwards before extracting the wings outwards to gain some stability. "I did it!"

"That's amazing!" He heard Pip say in awe as Illuminous swooped down close to him so he can gain air again by shifting his weight upwards as he went down.

The Pegasi called it gliding. Dove first invented the contraption wanting a way for him to fly. She couldn't get the wings to flap in any way so instead, she created a sort of gliding still-winged contraption.

It needed to fit in his satchel so it could be portable and not just a clunky mess, so she required a metal flexible and strong enough to sustain the role of holding the wings impact and not go all out crazy by the force of the wind and how fast the decent is. Her father was a blacksmith so she learned how gold was made stronger by mixing other metals into its compound, simply by melting iron and blasting oxygen into the mix to create a sort of gold-steel material. Her family and herself were hard headed about using magic so instead, they used the logic they knew.

"Pretty neat huh?" He shouted, still unaccustomed to flying as he heard the roar of the wind in his ears. It wasn't like he could just stay in one place like the Pegasi by just flapping the wings. A snowball whizzed passed him, breaking his balance and making him struggle for aerial control.

"Did you forget someone?" Sure enough, Dove was in the air with one more snowball. She threw it fast and hard.

"Not this time sister." Illuminous dodged it skillfully and swooped forward after her. She darted out of her position in the sky and went into the treeline. "That is so unfair!"

"Not going easy on you anymore." She said as she swerved the trees.

This wasn't an easy task, he had to contract the wings to fit through the spacing between trees and also needing to maintain stability while doing so. Just when he thought he was getting close, Dove would make a sharp turn in the treeline and even u-turn her way back which left him at a big disadvantage. The fact that he could catch up to her left him wondering. Dove was faster than this, she'd said she wouldn't go easy, but that was easily sought as a lie.

There was just no way he could catch up to her. He suddenly thought of the trials. He had to place himself in every scenario with the three elements of a warrior. Strength, Will, and Courage. He had the strength to balance himself and the contraption in the air, both maneuvering through the trees and gaining speed. Will is seen as smarts. If only he could think of someway to catch up with her. He saw the trees sparse as he flew forward and one big gap to his right. If he was right, then Dove would turn right to juke him. He was paying attention to her every move up until now, still unsure as to why but it would come in handy if his plan succeeded. The gap was dangerously hard to turn to, this was the courage part. He felt fear of crashing but he pulled his courage through.

He masterfully swerved into the gap and as he had predicted, Dove had turned right to try and avoid him. It seemed she wasn't paying attention as he caught up to her in no time. The treeline ran short into a clearing and down below was a field and a gathering of a few other ponies. It seemed they had arrived to the trials. "Good, lets finish this little chase then." He whispered to himself as he flew right on top of Dove. He shut his wings back into his satchel as he fell down heavily. He took hold of her waist gently and wrapped his forearms around her and clasped his hoofs together, gently pulling her down with him. "Gotcha!"

"Huh?! Wait what are you doing?! You foal you're going to get one of us hurt!" She began to panic but he was surprised that she wasn't resisting.

He took a look below and saw the ground coming closer. He placed himself between Dove and the ground and with his mouth, unzipped his satchel and placed it on Dove so it wouldn't get harmed. He held onto her as they crashed into the thicket of snow.

Dove got up quickly, safe from harm. Worry was smacked straight on her face as she looked down into the snow to see her pillow on what she believed to be knocked out, his tongue sticking out. She would have realized it sooner if it wasn't for the panic already built inside her the obviousness of his fake acting. She dropped the satchel to her side and placed her hoof on his chin. "Illuminous are you okay! C'mon say something! Oh no this is bad..." She looked around to see if there was anypony around but they had landed a bit too far from the Trial's ground. Her shouts wouldn't be heard. She looked back down only to gasp in relief to see his bright smile and bright yellow eyes gleaming in content at her sudden panic.

"Gotcha. Again."

"You idiot!" She punched him with her hoof, which made him retaliate in pain.

"Ow." He got up and started to run towards the Trial's ground. "Later loser." He said, sticking his tongue out.

Dove's face was burning hot in both embarrassment and shame, getting angrier by the second as he ran away. That was foul play, grabbing me by the waist, pulling me down with him and making me worry... She shook those thoughts out and began to throw snowballs at him furiously, chasing him down pelting him with the ice balls.

Pip arrived shortly after carrying in his mouth the satchel that Dove left behind. "What happened?" He asked, unsure why Dove was so angry.

"Nothing happened!!" She screamed out. She took a snowball and placed all her current rage in it and threw it as hard as she could. Illuminous dodged it with ease.

"Nice throw, just not good enough!" He yelled back at her.

"Who the hell dared throw that?!" A sudden deep voice called out from behind him.

A grey and massive, rough looking, stallion walked over to Pip and Dove. His face not so friendly covered in snow as it was filled with incomparable rage. "Who was the little scoundrel that threw that?!" He yelled at them.

"I-I'm s-sorry sir. R-really I-I didn't mean to." Dove apologized, obviously scared out of her wits.

"Oh well I'll be sorry for pounding you face in the snow. I don't care if you are a mare or not, NO ONE disrespects me."

"U-uh s-sir... S-she really didn't m-mean to." Pip too was scared out of his wits, terrorized by this vicious-looking pony.

"I see you want a pummeling too, you little brats!"

Suddenly, a snowball exploded into tiny bits of ice as it landed hard on the side of his head. He turned his head slowly over to the one who threw it. Illuminous stood tall, with no fear and an his angry-like grin asking for trouble. "Oops, I meant to throw it at the little wimp standing in front of me. Oh wait..."

Dove's wide eyes couldn't get any wider. At this point, Illuminous was asking to get butchered.

The massive stallion walked over to him slowly, towering much taller than him and his stare to kill. He loomed over Illuminous, eying the pony that dared defy him. "I'll give you a few words before I make you bury your own grave."

He stared back at him, his eyes full of determination, his angry-like grin showing no fear. "You do not hurt my friends." He turned his eyes and smile over to Pip and Dove, then he turned to look directly at Dove then back at the stallion. "Especially not my best friend."

Dove flinched, taken aback by his words. She felt her face become hot again.

"You'll do then." He said as he gave out a loud war cry and picked up both his forearms to slam the ground down.

Illuminous jumped backwards, avoiding the heavy hoofs as they pounded the snow, making it scatter in all sorts of directions. The massive pony charged at Illuminous and he quickly dodged it making easy work of him. He kept this going until finally, he noticed the grey stallion grow tired. He held his ground and took the force. Thankfully, making him run around like that to tire him out was a good idea as he could hold him off with ease. With one small shift of force, he made the massive stallion stumble backwards and into the ground, panting for breath.

He charged again only to pound him harder and again Illuminous resisted his force. Illuminous jumped backwards making the big pony lose balance and hit the floor with his face.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you the first time." Illuminous said as he stood over him.

"Whatever, no need in wasting my time with you lowlifes. If you are entering the Trials, I'll make sure you don't taste the light of victory." With that, he stammered back to the others who where out of view point to see the fight.

Pip rushed over to him, at awe with such an unexpected feat. "Wow... weren't you scared at all?!"

Illuminous gave him a reassuring warm smile back at him. "Of course I was! That was exhilarating. I just remembered the elements of a knight and went along with it."

"Yeah well I'm still darn upset about not telling me you had such an awesome satchel and also for leaving me behind."

"Eh, sorry about that."

"T-thanks... Illuminous..." Dove whispered from behind, her face concealed by her yellow hair.

He placed his hoof behind his back and rubbed his head. "Hehe, it was nothing really, that guy is a wimp, just a little big that's all."

"It wasn't just nothing!" Illuminous was taken aback by the sudden assertiveness of her voice. Her eyes were gleaming with something he had yet to comprehend. She suddenly realized it herself and turned away. "I-I'll just go to the spectators seats. You should get going as well, the trials are about to start."

"Y-yeah..." He managed to say, still surprised by the sudden outburst.

Dove and Pip went to go take their seats on the waiting stands that overlooked the end of the trial area since the arena itself would be shrouded from view. The trial grounds itself looked very much like an widened arena probably twenty times larger than a Pegasi racing course.

He put on his satchel and went to go take his place in the group of ponies that were ready for the trial, some Pegasi and others just plain Earth ponies. Standing there and the look at the course gave him an anxiety to die for. He wasn't entirely sure about being ready. The only thing that confused him was why the trial arena was empty.

A tall, broad Pegasus stallion appeared and landed in front of everypony who was here for the knight's trials. His golden armor was unlike a royal guard's armor. This was the commander and chief. Why would the commander be here though? Illuminous was sure that there were other trials more important than the one of this small new found town.

"Listen up boys, since this is the first Trial of this town, you will have a special audience today, so don't disappoint okay? We all want to see you cross that finish line."

What kind of special audience was he talking about? That was soon self-evident when a golden chariot arrived carrying not only just Princess Celestia but Queen Hemera as well. Illuminous flinched at the sudden sight. His aunt and the Queen of Equestria were here. If he failed, he wouldn't just be a disgrace to his hometown, but maybe to all of Equestria. He began fearing the worse, the anxiety building up. He had never even spoken to Princess Celestia since after the disappearances, the royal members held less time on their hoofs for unimportant matters such as family.

"This is the Knight's Trial. I know most of you already know that this is not an easy task. You will endure the worst of what Equestria has to offer. Remember, you must trust in the elements of a knight to succeed. The object at hand is simple. Get from one point of the obstacle, to the other. You are the faith and future of Equestria. The Trials will begin shortly, so I suggest all of you get to know each other. An ally can mean the difference between life and death, just know who you are choosing."

Illuminous was trying hard to just hold in his anxiety. No pony really talked to him so he just quietly stood within the crowd awaiting whatever followed next. His eyes shrunk as he looked around only to see the massive pony from before talking to the commander. He wasn't really going to....

"Good luck out there son. Make not only me proud, but Equestria as well." The Commander said to the grey pony who he had humiliated not even a few minutes ago.

Illuminous' heart sank. What had he done?!

"Hey Dove, look over there. Princess Celestia and Queen Hemera seem to be looking over at Illuminous." He pointed with his hoof

"Pip, its impolite to point!" She smacked his raised hoof down. "But yeah, I noticed. I don't know what they would want with him though. I'm still surprised they came here today."

"Isn't Celestia his aunt?"

"Yeah but he has never spoken to her at all." Dove placed her hoof on her chin to think.

"He looks anxious. I hope everything goes alright for him." Pip sighed, somehow wanting to be part of it all.

"Yeah... well lets just cross or hoofs and hope for the best."

An old unicorn appeared, followed by two other unicorns. All of them in blue robes. They stood behind the arena and their horns began to glow. Suddenly, a series of obstacles began to form. The ground near the beginning of the course began to take on a seriously tough landscape, like a fissure had just occurred with sharp rocks at the edges of the large crevasse. A dense forest stood in the second part of the course. Followed up, an elevated land covered in snow. Signifying mountains as part of the next. A body of blue, the ocean obstacle. The last one being empty planes.

Illuminous already began planning this out. The first, second, and third part were easy enough for him to run through. He'd have to use is satchel to get past the ocean and finish it off by flying over the plains.

Everypony began to walk towards the entrance and he followed along. The beginning part had many entrances. Enough for every participant to go it alone.

"Listen up. What I expect out of all of you is Strength, Will, and Courage. I want you all to be brave, to face these challenges no matter how difficult. If at any case you can no longer continue, you will be handed a small potion. You will be returned to the outside if you drink it, but by doing so, it will also mark your failure. A drum will indicate failure so all of you may know. Now go. Never forget the elements of a knight!"

A grey mare Pegasi with a yellow mane and a bubble cutie mark appeared handing each participant a small flask, the potion for the race. Illuminous had been the last one as she finally got to him.

"Good luck on the trials! Here you uh... " The mare began to search her mailbag. "Oh dear."

"Whats wrong?"

The mailmare wrinkled her nose in shame. "I don't have anymore."

"What do you mean?!" A sort of panic ran through him.

"I'm sorry!"

Illuminous retorted back his anger and panic. He didn't want to upset the poor mare. "It's okay... I don't need it anyways."

"I'm really really really really sorry. Uh I uh... Oh!" She rummaged her bag again and took out a muffin. "I hope that makes up for it."

Illuminous gave a feint sarcastic smile to the mare with the weird eyes knowing that she wouldn't see through it. "Yes it does. Thanks." He took the muffin and placed it in his satchel.

Illuminous was good actor as he had convinced many with his less than mediocre acts.

"Good luck!" She said as she flew out of the arena mindless to his sarcasm.

Illuminous sighed. So far, his luck wasn't all exactly "good".

He looked over at the sides of the arena. There were several unicorns beginning to cast a force field spell to keep the participants from running or flying out of the trials without taking their potion. A rock wall stood between the participants and they all waited in an enclosed area waiting for something to happen. This wasn't a timed trial. Participants were allowed to take as much time as they needed to get to the end. Illuminous began to wonder what kind of challenges he would face. He had to win this, he just had to.

Without warning, two enormous spiked rocks split, sliding into the ground to make way to a shaky and dangerous path. The first part of the trial. He took in a deep breath, ready for what awaited. Before he even took a step, his vision suddenly became blurry a pain surged through his body. Suddenly, he saw the same structure from his dream, and within an instant, her returned back to reality. He panted heavily, trying to understand what had just happened.

He shook it off focusing on the more important matter at hand. He looked over at the path in front of him, spiked rocks dangerously perking out of the ground. In truth, there was no real path, just rough rock spikes that lined the pit-like empty crevasse. He would have to jump on each one to get through to it. He carefully jumped onto the first one, securing his hoofs in place. After a while, this seemed almost natural as he jumped from on to another with ease.

He made a forced stop on one of them. It was a far jump for a dangerously large gap between the two spikes. The fall below was nerve wrecking. He began to analyze his surroundings, anything that might help him.

Two beats of a loud drum filled the air. Two ponies had already failed. Illuminous' anxiety grew worse. He wasn't able to use his satchel with such a low hanging force field and tight space with all the loose rocks. He had to jump. He prepared himself and kicked the ground behind him to propel his body across the air. He managed to grab hold the spike. His forelegs weren't enough to pull him up and his hoofs offered no grip as there was nothing to latch on with his mouth. He slid slowly to the left carefully trying to make his way to the earthen wall.

He felt himself slip and quickly dove to hit the wall with his hoof to raise him onto the edge. Suddenly, another vision hit him. He could see the golden tree again like in his dream. Panic arose in him and his grip was beginning to go as he was still not onto the spike. He snapped out of it only to fall down deep. I...failed...

Suddenly, the end came to a stop and he hit the bottom hard. A surge of pain ran down his back. The bottom was just as dangerous, the terrain was sharp and inhospitable especially for such a hard landing onto his fleshy back. He felt warmth emanate from the places on his back that stung like if they had been cut by the edges. They weren't grave though and his satchel hadn't gotten hurt at all due to his quick thinking. He couldn't afford to break it even if it meant breaking his back. He got up avoiding the pain that he would not let ensnare him. He turned back to reassure the blood loss as it fell onto the floor. He would just have to deal with it, there was no way out of it the easy way.

He began to look for a way out. The only thing he found was a steep spike running down to the ground from the side of the mountain. He slid up on it trying to get as high as possible. With one powerful kick, he launched himself onto another, and another, higher and higher until he could finally see the end of the first part of the trial. He jumped onto the secure smooth dirt surface, relieved to have made it out. He didn't know whether to worry about the next trials or be afraid at what might happen with the visions that nearly cost him his life.

He rested upon the cold, refreshing grass that lay in the second sequence, the forest. He took out one of the cookies his mother had given to him and ate it, happy that he could feel such joy from the sweetness of it through all the bad luck he had been getting. He got up, a little more enthusiastic like if the cookies had somehow helped boost his morale. He began to enter the treeline, his wounds still very much fresh as they left a trail of red upon the green of the grass.

He was used to a forest. He took a deep breath of the nature around him, exhaling joy of being somewhere at the least a bit familiar to his liking. He was very relieved to have not seen a single dangerous obstacle for over minutes of walking through the jungle-like wildlife. More and more he walked and yet the woods seemed endless. He thought it had over an hour and still he stood in the middle of the forest, the exit or entrance nowhere in sight. He could've viewed the mountains if it wasn't for all the tall trees clouding out the sky itself.

Wits and will called for him to get to the top of the trees to get a bird's eye view. Just then he heard one drum beat. Someone had lost either sanity or patience already. These woods seemed to be magically enhanced to make the participant go in circles, Illuminous had concluded. He took out a small piece of rope and circled it around his hoof, tightening it so it wouldn't fall. He placed the other around the tree and to his other hoof. He pulled back as high as he could to get a good grip and with his mouth, he began to cling onto tree branches and breaking them off to pull himself upwards. Sure enough when he reached the top, to the left of where he was facing, the grand mountains took their place in the trial arena. He gulped, fearing that he had to such a treacherous place. Using his wings wouldn't work as the frosted gale would sweep him away like nothing. No choice.

He slid back down and untied himself, later following a perfectly straight line of trees to not lose himself. The bleeding had almost stop all together. He was weakened by the blood loss but he couldn't falter. There was no going back since he didn't have a vial and no one would come and find him no matter how much time it took. He knew that as long as there was still one participant in the trial arena, they would not cancel it until they were all done. Some ponies even took weeks from what he had heard. It had only been around two hours if his calculation were correct.

The warm bright glow of a fire began to show within the shade of the dark trees. Illuminous began to fear that maybe it was a forest fire and if he didn't get quick enough, it would get to him. He slowly approached the glow trying to confirm his suspicions as he did not smell smoke. Just as he saw the bright flames of a camp fire well away from the trees, both relief and terror struck him as he suddenly eyed The Tuturin, malevolent lesser spirits of the forest. He had encountered some whilst exploring his own forest miles away from his home one time and was lucky to have not been spotted then. His mothered had told him to stay away from them since they devoured the souls of the fallen ponies they would kill. He didn't know if this was truth or not or just some tale that his mother would tell him to behave but he didn't want to risk it.

Illuminous slowly crept his way in silence around them, keeping an unbroken line of sight on them. His attention suddenly turned to the fire and a flash of images began to haunt him again. He viewed the black smoke dropping to the ground from the golden tree once again and as quickly as it flashed in front of his eyes, just as quickly had it ended. He unconsciously let out a horrified yelp, the Tuturin suddenly turned to follow the noise.

"Hora! Kita lu hora! Din le kap in awe, likitu hon e hora e bkin hora gid!" He heard one of them shout in their language as he returned to reality aware that he had alerted them. He saw them take up spears and began towards him. He had to run away. He began to run, skillfully dodging trees and vines on the ground. Just when he thought he'd gotten safely away, more of the spirits began to appear from the sides, throwing their spears at him. One of them scrapped his knee making it bleed as he ran. He wouldn't get away with the trail of blood he was leaving. He just had to hope for the best.

He dodged the spears like the snowballs Dove had thrown at him. Somehow, he was glad that he had an early practice earlier today. More and more of the spirits began to appear on top of the trees and even concealed in the grass as they popped out suddenly in front of him swinging their spear quickly as he only managed to escape them. Suddenly, one hit him on the side of the chest. The pain was unbearable but he noticed right away the spears were almost blunt. Of course, the trial masters wouldn't want their participants to fall to their deaths or get speared down by real malevolent carnivorous spirits. The pain was just as real. He pulled the spear out with his mouth while running, by far not the easiest job. The blood loss began and he felt himself get weakened. He took another spear to his side and then another. Drowsy by all the pain and blood loss, he felt himself stumble forward upon a vine his foot had gotten ensnared on and many of the Tuturin began to circle him.

Was this truly the end? Maybe he could distract them somehow...? He had to think. Quickly. That had not happened at all as he mindlessly threw the muffin the grey mare with the weird eyes had given him as far as he could into the trees well overhead of them, wishing with his life for they to take the bait. The Tuturin began follow it with their eyes and began screaming and jumping everywhere. Suddenly they charged forward to it, leaving him be in the process. He was flummoxed by the sudden reaction from the Tuturin to a muffin and he made the time count well as he pulled the spears out of him and ran as fast as he could, finally reaching the end of the forest and into a clearing between the mountains and forest. He dropped onto the snow weak and exhausted.

Even though the Trial Masters had not made their obstacles to kill, there was still a chance of mortality as they did not limit the actions of the spirits or obstacles they placed. If they wouldn't have followed the muffin, they would have skinned him for sure.

He began to doubt himself as he viewed the enormous towering mountain ahead of him. If the last two beginning trials nearly killed him and he was beginning to lose consciousness, if this next trial was harder, then surely he'd be a goner.

The cold of the snow eased the pain of his wounds. He noticed that none of the ponies had failed. Maybe they had gone past the Tuturin and they didn't notice? Well whatever the case, he had to keep going. He began his ascend, slowly and carefully, still hurting from the fresh wounds that began to dull with the cold. The higher up he went the colder it got, he felt like if he would get frostbite if he didn't make it past the mountain soon.

"Hey punk! How's it going down there?" A familiar voice called out, the echo repeating the words. Illuminous turned to look upwards to see a massive grey looking pony at the top of the mountain on a black rock platform. "Remember me? I bet you will."

Without even thinking twice, the massive pony slammed his hoofs down on the black rock. A sudden trembling began to occur. The snow on the bottom of the rock he stood on began to fall. "AVALANCHE!!" The big pony screamed out as he ran to the other side of the mountain and out of view. The snow ran down fast and hard and Illuminous was swept away with it.

He quickly spotted a black rock sticking out of the side of the mountain. He took his rope out again and tossed it over to a small spike from the rock and pulled himself to it, not getting the chance to get under as the debris of hard ice and small pebbles as they pummeled his face as he held on to the side for dear life. The debris began to cut away at his face and he struggled to get under until finally he did. The snow continued until it finally grew to an end.

He sighed in relief to be still alive and not frozen under a mountain of fallen snow. The sound of a drum beat ringed out in the air. A big roar came from the other side of the mountains. I guess the grey pony's yelling caused it and made someone lose too. This was good news for Illuminous. The grey pony probably thought he was taken out and he'd no longer bother him.

Illuminous made his way over to the top of the mountains with ease. Thankfully, this part of the obstacle had no spirits or creatures to it. He looked over the horizon at the top, viewing the last two parts of the trial. He saw every other competitor with four missing, the four that failed, already reaching the final part. He slid down carefully through the side of the mountains slowly reaching the bottom.

His eyes turned quickly to a crystalline clear river that ran down the mountain and towards the ocean. He took off his satchel and quickly dove into the water, the soothing embrace like an angels touch on all his wounds. The blood ran down the river and into the ocean, the sanguine red of his blood spread across it only to disappear as it floated down. His wounds began to heal, the many scars beginning to shape out from all the cleansed wounds who no longer bled, but lay as nasty reminders.

He took another lunar cookie from his satchel and ate it. His mother's cooking was the sure-fire way to boost his morale. He never appreciated his mom more than he did now and that was something to say as he already loved her with all his heart. He took his satchel and went to the beach line. Where the river met the end, a violent bombardment of bubbles lay where his blood had washed down. He disregarded it and went back to planning his trip over the ocean. How were regular earth ponies suppose to get through? The participants were too far for him to see how they had done it. Probably swimming he guessed.

Illuminous spotted a thin palm tree to his left. He immediately thought it would be a good catapult. He slid himself upwards on its trunk and took hold of one of its leaves with his mouth and let his body go downwards. Thankfully, the leaf was strong enough for it to pull it down and not rip. He took the rope he still had and tied it to a nearby stone, only two pieces left in his satchel. The palm seemed stable enough, the rope was the most durable around and it was provided to him by Dove. Again, he had new-found appreciation for his best friend.

He stopped to think about her for a bit. Thanks to her he was able get out of the pit with the rope. Thanks to her he had early practice to dodge so many spears that would have probably killed him. Thanks to her he was still alive. His mind had been filled with her lately. He shook it off, trying to concentrate on the matter at hand more directly as the tree was still bent very much to an angle that would could break its trunk and thankfully didn't since there was no other like it as far as his eye could see. He got onto the end of the palm and readied his satchel. With his mouth, he ripped the leaf off and the palm sent him in the air, letting him open up his wings to fly through the ocean.

"Sooth sailing from here on end." He grinned, relieved to finally be coming to an end.

A famous pony tale tells of foals who take for granted peace. So as karma predicts, without warning, a small scaly red with blue fined fish began to shoot out of the water. One scrapped him on his cheek. Illuminous got to view the fish closely, sharp teeth and popped out eyes signified the worse. These were deadly lesser spirits of the sea. He had no idea why they were lashing at him though, usually they kept at peace with ponies. He felt his aerial balance shift dramatically and he quickly turned to his wings who were being gnawed on by several of the dastardly little creatures. Thankfully the cloth was far too strong for them to cause major damage to it.

He had to do something quick. He took a sharp spin in the air throwing every single spirit who still latched onto him and he gained altitude to the point he couldn't reach them. He was bleeding again, the fish had scrapped almost his entire body. There was just so many of them and he could see it now beneath him. His blood was marking on a trail on the water too? Outrageous.

All the spirits suddenly vanished and a huge dark shadow ran through the ocean. A giant shark-like fin appeared from the water. The huge creature dove down deep and arose again, jumping extremely high into the air, enough to reach Illuminous. It's scales were just as horribly sharp and its teeth were even sharper. Its physical appearances was like that of a manta ray except it was completely black with golden fins. On of it's teeth scrapped his leg hard, causing him to lose balance and its scales reach the wings of his satchel and ripped through the cloth with ease. It broke of his left wing

Fear ran through Illuminous as he fell into the water and the spirit had vanished into the water. He put his broken wings back into their place. He couldn't understand why this was happening. This was a greater spirit of the sea also widely known for its peaceful nature. Were the trial masters truly trying to kill their participants? He was bleeding even worse now than before. He felt his vision get almost blurry by this point.

The spirit suddenly threw him into the air as it rose to the top, its gaping mouth almost an inch away from gulping him down whole. He fell down onto the spirit's sharp scaly back hard and fast. Its scales cut open some of his older wounds and some new fresh ones. The pain was much worse. He had lost the ability to scream with all the pain he had endured recently.

The spirit began to thrash widely, trying to get Illuminous of its back. Illuminous endured the trashing as he took hold by biting the fin. This wasn't pretty at all, the sharp scales were cutting his mouth as the spirit trashed more and more. By this point he knew, if he did make it out alive, he was not going to be a pretty sight. He took out one of his last remaining ropes and tied himself to its fin. He took out his last and also longest rope and he managed to get around the spirit's gaping mouth back into the non-sharp gums of its very end. He pulled back on it like if it was some ridin' pony and the spirit somehow obeyed to it as it eased its thrashing and swimming forward. He placed himself in front of it as if acting like bait, and it swam faster like the pet running method when you place a stick on the pet's back and add a string with a bone attached to it. It brought him a little joy knowing that he could make a spirit come close to a pet, but the only difference was that this spirit wanted him dead as well as supper. He saw the shore and quickly took off control of the spirit and again it began thrashing. He jumped forward and the spirit dove straight for him. He kicked with all his forced the rim of its mouth and it propelled him onto the shore.

He stumbled violently onto the plain, wounded and bleeding. His luck was in the downs today but he felt ingenious with all the clever plans he was able to make and save his life with. The spirit sunk back into the dark deeps of the ocean. He sighed and threw his satchel to the ground. The sides were completely ripped, the wing wouldn't contract back inside as they had been too broken. He sighed, again. Surely he had not been ready for such punishment at all. If he had the vial, he would have drank it a lot sooner. He took out his last lunar cookie and ate it.

"Well, at least now the damned visions are gone." He whispered under his breath trying to think positively. He viewed the planes ahead. Not a single drum beat had sounded since the past avalanche. It would have been safe to assume that the path ahead was nothing but a simple cake walk except that he no longer held any trust for peace.

A wise old pony from his past once told him as well, "If you bargain for the worse, the worse is sure to happen.". Sure enough, he heard the sound of hissing from behind him. Reptile-like creatures began to pop out of holes that were marked all over the plains. They weren't spirits. No, these were monsters.

They gave out a loud, horrific hissing sound as they all started him. They suddenly grew out small wings who were very closely attached to their skin. Their heads grew out small flaps of skin in a triangle to the side of their heads. They almost looked like small dragons like that. They all took flight at once and darted forward to him. He made his wobbly legs get him up and he quickly took his satchel as he began to run at all the speed he could manage. It wasn't easy, he had already suffered a lot and the blood loss was making him almost pass out.

The sudden visions began again. He saw the dark mist taking form of the horrible demon shrouding out the golden tree and grass. He snapped out of it, only to realize that he had gotten slowed down by the vision.

A lot of the creatures began to drop on his back, not doing anything. Suddenly all in unison, they began to bite him. They were literally gnawing at him. Illuminous didn't give them enough time to make serious injuries or huge bites as he dropped the ground and rolled, his blood sinking into the dry soil. They all charged him again, only to stop midway. They all flew as fast they could back into their hiding holes. This was almost too easy to predict.

The earth began to tremble and a huge panic arose in Illuminous. He picked himself up again even more weary, slowly trying to make his way to the end who was just so close yet so far. He was limping from all the pain and suffering his body had already taken. Maybe this was truly the end...

A huge worm-like creature appeared from his side as he luckily dodged it within an instant. It arched downwards and back into the ground. No wonder small plants could only grow in this terrain. The roots of big plants would just get torn aside by these monstrous earth swimmer. Two of them appeared before him, large and horrifying. A twin of the other. Illuminous changed his mind. Make that, "Swimmers."

Illuminous wanted to give up already. This was just too much. He couldn't survive these things at least not two of them. One of them suddenly picked him up high into the air. Illuminous struggled to keep himself from being eaten as he extended his aching hurt body inside the monster's mouth, the sharp teeth cutting into the sides of him. His blood began to trickle down into the beast and it gave out a squeal almost as if it was enjoying the taste. With a sudden movement, Illuminous used his remaining force to kick-propelled himself out of the mouth who shut with huge force.

Another vision flashed again without warning. This time, the fire making out the demon's eyes and mouth. Illuminous came back to reality, the vision terrifying him more than the worm who had just tried to eat him.

He took a closer look at the monster as it went down into the ground again. It had no eyes. It was blind. Although it did have two holes. If his guesses were correct, they were smelling his blood and maybe that's how they were seeing him. Nearly unconscious from the huge lack of force, he had to muster all his remaining energy into his final strategy. He continued forward, the blood making a trial. He stopped suddenly and let hit his blood accumulate at one spot and went to the right at stopped on another spot for it again to gather up. He ran down the the left of his first spot and did it again making a dotted T on the dirt plane. He ran out of the way, making sure to keep moving from keeping his blood track as feint as possible.

His ingenious planned proved yet again correct as the two creatures appeared from the two bloodied spots on each side arching towards the center. He shrouded his hears from the horrible screeching noises of the giant worm-like monsters that collided against each other. They had badly torn each other up with their teeth as they scrambled back into the earth, not to be seen again.

Illuminous fumbled forward, a huge amount of blood already gone and he had not taken a break to replenish any of it. He felt this was it, as he literally dragged himself towards the end, his vision began to fade slowly becoming more dark. He was a bloodied mess. His tears began to roll down his cheeks as his final thoughts included his time with his mother, pip... and Dove... his thoughts were canceled out by sudden flashes of the vision that pulled him in as quickly as it left. His darkening vision and the flashing terrifying images drove him to a stop. He viewed miles of land in destruction... the end of the world...

The flashing stopped all together. Fear had brought the worse to him. He had to make it to the end. He couldn't stop now... the tears wouldn't stop as he reassured himself it was end, halfheartedly telling himself he could still make it. The dirt dispersed quickly and snow began to fall down on him. He viewed the same familiar and normal sky again. The ground was covered in the same familiar snow. He had made it... Dove's face suddenly appeared, screaming out to him yet muted by the ringing in his ears and her image faded by the darkness that kept coming. He smiled weakly, glad that she was there. He tried picking his hoof slowly toward her. "D-d-dove..." He couldn't hear the screaming anymore and darkness had completely taken him over. Was this truly the end...?

===========================================================================================

My image of Dove. All rights to her respect owner.

Sequel to "It Is Always Best Forgotten."

Also, I will not be posting author's note anymore. Everything will go into my blog. Hope you enjoyed! Oh and, please excuse any mistakes I had in this story. I wanted to get it out to act as a Christmas present for my readers who had read the last story due to my inability to make a decent final chapter for it. I will return to review it when time is on my hands, for now I run on empty.

Chapter 2: A Knight's Worry

Chapter 2: The Sky We're Under

In darkness he stood. Exhaustion washed over him, greeting him with its unwelcoming sigh. Left, right, forward, and back. Darkness. All around him was a black void of nothing. Fear spread out into the darkness leaving his sorrow behind. His thoughts were a mess just as he believed himself to be. He could feel his very pulse slowly becoming faint.

From the darkness, two jagged eyes formed as if made by flames, a darkened mist passing through it creating a visual chaos. Its form finally came into view, its torso still incomplete as it had been before. Its third eye began to appear. The darkened mist of its body no longer looked... incomplete. No longer fragile or unstable. This was new... Its form was outlined by jagged armor-like metals. Its gaping mouth and eyes were clearly visible, shadows no longer ran through it, its eyes themselves felt like if they were singeing him to the bone with its blazing stare.

He couldn't move. Couldn't run away. He couldn't feel a heartbeat anymore like if his heart had completely come to a halt. He began to realize that this wasn't a void of darkness at all. This was the world...

As if a grasp had let go of him, he swung his head downwards heavily. He was trying to breath, but the fiery air singed his lungs. Below him, a small pure white circle remained. Was this all that remained of the world? It suddenly grew into white shards all around him like that of a compass rose as he stood in the middle of the wide shards, glowing intensely white. They began to grow in an intense light, it took him a while to adjust to the brightness. As he did, he saw the monster from before backing away as if ready to take a blow. It took him a little to realize that the white glow wasn't from the shards... it was from him.

One of the being's claws pointed towards him. A wave of fire burst from it and filled the darkness. Before it could hit him, he awoken.

The pastel colors of his room's ceiling came into view, the soft green colors soothed his worries as he heaved painfully from his chest. His heavy breath and the beads upon his forehead signified that he had somehow miraculously survived the day before. He sunk his head into his pillow again, and took one deep breath before he finally calmed himself down. He felt the gauze strapped all around his body where he had bled from but now ached.

"You're finally awake." A warm concerned voice called out to him and before he knew it, he was being smothered in his mother's embrace. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"A-ahhoow. M-mom I'm okay!" He said painfully, making the concerned mare worried as she pulled back. "Ah, its nothing, it just hurts. Guess I'm not ready for your tight hugs."

"I'm sorry..." She began before being reassured it was okay with Illuminous' smile.

He finally noticed his weighed down forearm. To the other side, he spotted the Pegasus mare sleeping soundly against his hoof, making his hoof numb as she placed her body onto it. It was warm, and decided not to bother pulling it out of her way. His attention quickly turned to the red patches on her back, smoldered and dry.

"What happened?" He asked the mare who had one of the most intense warm smile he'd even seen.

"Oh-uh, I don't know much of what happened but Dove arrived suddenly with you on her back. It nearly broke my heart when I saw you that way."

So it was true, the red on Dove's back was his blood... She had carried him all the way home?

"The poor thing was exhausted carrying you all the way back." Luna stroked Dove's mane with her hoof. It truly showed that Dove was exhausted, she was still breathing hard even in her sleep probably from running.

"How long have I been out?"

"Half of the half an hour dear. Surprisingly, you recovered faster than I had dared to imagine."

Illuminous looked over at Dove. Without thinking, he stroke her mane as well, putting on one of the warmest and joyful smile that he'd ever have. She mumbled lightly, almost aware of his caress.

She opened her eyes slowly, sleepily trying to focus on the two figures before her that were having a conversation. All while a hoof passed over her mane, stroking gently easing the the headache she had gained from the effort from before.

"You seem to be enjoying that, given your smile."

"Huh? What?! I-I uh... No I just..."

"Its okay dear, I think you should focus a little harder on her though, you didn't even realize she woke up."

Illuminous looked over to Dove, who he was still gently caressing, her emerald eyes gleamed at him both in wonder and some unknown affection he had never seen before, subtle and almost delicate.

A warm feeling surged in him, and suddenly, her eyes became watery, more and more so until she finally cracked and she embraced him with an unbreakable hug. She began to whimper, cry almost, in a high pitched girly way. Illuminous was completely baffled, not by how he felt at first seeing her eyes again, that feeling of joy turned into something he couldn't understand. Not by the affectionate hug she was now smoldering him with, which felt nice...

He had never seen or even heard of Dove having a weakness, muchless crying. This was new to him. Dove had never cried before, not in all the years he had been best friends with her. Her crying was really... sensible, fragile, girlish and high pitched, subtle even.

"D-dove. Are you okay?"

The mare didn't respond to him, instead she dug her face into his chest, still whimpering. He began to stroke her mane again, to see if it calmed her down. It seemed to work as it stopped almost as soon as he had began to do that. She mumbled unintelligible words. He reached downwards and placed on of his hoofs gently to her chin, slowly pulling her upwards to meet his gaze.

"Dove, is everything alright?" He asked reassuringly.

She was beginning to tear up again until she pulled away from him and looked downwards.

"You made me worry...I-I... I thought you weren't going to make it... I was scared..."

"Come to think about it, I also thought I wasn't gonna make it." He laughed warmly, trying to cheer up her mood.

She looked up at him, frustration already visible on her expression mixed with the tears that were beginning to dry and the ones she rubbed out of her eyes. "You idiot." She punched him on the shoulder which made him retaliate in pain. He was still sore. "Oh... I'm sorry."

"Don't be." His reassuring, warm smile nearly left her stunned, but she began to smile too. He kinda liked for her to be the way she had been, caring and crying for him, but he found it was better to see her happy, her smile was never beaten.

He froze as he heard a satisfied, content and amused sigh from his mother. She had seen and heard everything. He had completely forgotten that she had been there. He felt it... he felt the teasing and the jokes coming up.

"Aww, she got to hug you much more than me. Well I'm not one to know, maybe Dove's hugs dull your pain or my little Illy is just too big now to get hugs from me." Luna said in a sarcastic tone.

He shivered, it was just as he predicted. He looked over at Dove, her face was covered by her long mane completely hidden from view. He looked over to his mom, he froze up even more to see her playful evil expression, ready to taunt him even more. Before she even got to utter another word, Pip burst through the door, panting from what seemed like a fast trek back from a far place.

Pip took a second to look at everyone and regain his breath.

"What happened?" Dove was the first to ask.

Pip who still tried regaining his breath, shook his head. Dove's instant reaction was a shocked and almost angry even. His mother stood serious now too. What was happening?

"What's going on?" He asked Pip in a serious, unnerving tone.

"Well... Illuminous you see..." Pip tensed up and let out a deep breath, calming himself again. "You didn't pass..."

"W-what do you mean..." Illuminous didn't care about being a knight, but for some reason, he felt a deep disappointment.

"You didn't pass the trials..."

"But why?!" Dove surprised him with her sudden outburst.

"The trial general was inspecting your whole run and in the end, he voted against you passing. I suspect it was that grey pony who did this, I found him talking to the general... but what really happened Illuminous?"

"I guess I just wasn't cut out for it." He sighed as he sunk his head into his pillow.

"No, what happened? Why were you bloodied and near to death when you came out?"

"Like I said, I guess I just wasn't ready for the challenges."

"The other contestants weren't even touched muchless hurt. Something happened, no pony had ever perished or got hurt in there. Why didn't you leave if you were bleeding so badly? Where was your potion?"

"Huh... oh uh... I didn't have one."

"What do you mean? Every contestant was supposed to receive one in case of emergencies." Pip showed the need for answers as much as Luna and Dove.

"The mail mare who was delivering them from before had ran out when she got to me, so to make it up to me, she had given me a muffin."

"That explains that part, but why were you so... bloodied?"

"The first trial required for me to jump onto rocks, there was a too large of a gap to jump on one and I had ended up slipping and cutting my back deeply on the end of it."

"Huh." Pip pondered in his thoughts. "The first losing contestants had fallen in too, they drank the potions before they hit the floor though."

"When I got out, I ate mom's cooking. To be honest, that helped me out a lot, probably saved my life too. Thanks mom."

"I'm glad that they did, but if you hit your back only, why were you injured everywhere?"

"I had trouble along the way as well. There were some dense woods and I had accidentally ran into the Tuturin, the spirits of the forest. They began to attack me. I remember that mom told me to stay away from them since they were soul eaters and I tried to sneak by, but... I-uh... I alerted them somehow and they attacked me."

Luna looked downwards a bit in shame. "Well, I only said that to keep you out of danger from the woods back when you were small. Tuturin are actually passive gentle spirits. They don't even hurt flies muchless eat souls."

"Then why did they attack me?"

"Their favorite food are baked goods and will do anything to get them, even if its to attack a pony who is running away with them. I had thought they would be adding them to the competition, so I gave you magically enhanced cookies that the Tuturin wouldn't have been able to sense at all."

"Wait... didn't you say the mailmare gave you a muffin?" Dove asked him.

Illuminous sighed and laughed mildly amused. "She unintentionally messed me up twice. They had hit me with many of their spears and when I was about to be killed, they only retired from their attacks when I threw away the muffin."

"What happened afterwards? The spears alone couldn't have been the only reason why you were so..." Dove's teary eyes began as she had said that but quickly controlled them. It seemed seeing him near to death had affected her badly. He almost felt bad even if it hadn't been his fault... and after all, why did she care so much...?

"Illuminous?" Pip said, startling him as he finally realized he was staring a little too long at Dove.

"Oh uh, well afterwards there was the mountain area. It wasn't difficult to get up or anything, the only thing was that big grey pony who caused an avalanche on purpose for it to hit me."

"That coward! Another player lost because of an avalanche too. He was only mildly hurt since he'd taken the potion earlier than it hit him. Few bruises and scratches. The doctor there was tending to him I remember."

"I found refuge under a steady rock that stood out of the side of the mountain, I wasn't able to get under it fast enough though, a lot of the debris that hit me were the small sharp rocks." He placed his hoof on his forehead remembering how one cut him deep. The pain had been unbearable. It wasn't sore at all and he didn't have a scar. "Huh?"

"The doctor who was tending to the other pony had left before you had gotten out, so I took you to Miss. Luna." Dove responded shyly.

"I used to study a lot back at Canterlot castle before I met your father. I would spend ages in an enclosed library just reading. I wasn't entirely new to recuperation magics. It was safe to say that you were indeed in grave danger. I almost burst down crying when I saw you."

"Was I truly that badly hurt?" He wondered.

"You were a complete mess my friend. It looked like you turned from white to red, not to mention all the sweat." Pip placed his hoof on his shoulder and he flinched in pain, making him pull it away. Illuminous hated being fragile like this. "Dove didn't care though. She didn't even have second thoughts of carrying you, bloodied and all the way back to the house."

Dove punched Pip in order for him to shut up. "You were heavy you know..." She whispered under her breath.

"How badly were you bleeding then?" Luna asked him.

"Bad. After I crossed the mountain, I found a river running down into the ocean area and I washed it all off."

"What were the challenges in the third area then?"

"I tried using my satchel to get past, but the spirits attacked me, they looked like piranhas. Their scales were sharp and also their teeth, they cut me several times but they weren't sharp enough to cut Dove's hoofinwork. I... lost it though... I'm sorry Dove..." Luna had already pulled up some sort of book onto her attention before he'd finished.

"It's okay..."

"No its not...!I-I'm sorry Dove... really I am. It probably took you a long time to finish it and I just went and got it ruined." His sudden outburst left the mare staring at him. What was it about her look he found odd about? Deeper shades of red maybe?

"R-really its okay Illuminous. It was no big deal as long... well as long as you're still alive..."

Illuminous sighed. "Yeah..."

"How did it get ruined if you said the piranhas didn't even hurt it?"

"They backed off when I was out of reach and disappeared into the depths, but this huge one took their place. A greater spirit. Its scales were much sharper and I fell onto them as I fell when he lunged at me and shredded the cloth like nothing."

"They are passive spirits though... how would they... why would they...?"

"That was what I thought. I saved myself by riding as bait on top of the greater spirit."

"Wait... didn't you say you washed your self in a river? Did the river lead to the ocean?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Most spirits are generally passive, but when they taste or smell blood, which must be in big concentrations of it, they grow out of control. Even the tamed ones seemed to be hazardous if they suddenly lashed out."

"What about the last part of the trial?"

Illuminous thought for a little while. He didn't know if the worm-like things had been monsters or spirits, but that wasn't what was bothering him. The visions of the past still haunted him every time he dared think of them and it showed, the fear burning bright in his eyes.

"Illuminous... is everything fine?" Dove asked, her concern broke through her embarrassment. "What happened on the last trial?"

He broke out of his trance only to see everypony staring at him in concern. "Oh-uh... on the last trial, there were these flying lizard things."

"Flying lizards? You mean Draco?" Luna said, pulling up yet another book, studying up on them. "They are wild spirits of the plains. Only appear at night though. Unless provoked by the deep iron stench of blood..."

"I knew it, well I was weak by all the blood I lost, so I wasn't very fast when trying to run away from them. They began to bite me. I was horrified to tell you the truth, I thought they were going to eat me alive." He looked at his body, unable to see anything from the gauze they had wrapped him in. He tried moving a little, still sore and in pain. He felt the gauze on his flank as well. "Huh?" He said again, shaking his flank to feel if it was the gauze or bed sheets.

"I had to concentrate in stopping the blood loss and heal you with my magic, somepony else did the hoofs on wrapping." Her playful voice told him everything. He didn't dare look over to where her voice indicated. He knew all too well, but he was far too exhausted now more than ever after remembering past events, he didn't want to stress it more.

He felt his heavy eyes grow weary, making him yawn loudly.

"Did anything else happen? That couldn't be the only reason why you were so badly hurt." Pip wasn't inconsiderate or annoying all the time, but when he was, he did it on purpose. Well, either way, this called for a special occasion, he guessed that Pip was only wanting to know.

"Well... there were these worm things, I don't know what they were but they nearly killed me too."

"What worms?"

"They were massive, and blind too. I figured out they were following the scent of my blood and saved myself by making them crash together."

Luna stood in deep thought. "There isn't any worm that fits your description Illy."

"I saw them with my own eyes, two of them, they were huge, the size of watch towers! They somehow swimmed through the earth as they would come out from everywhere."

Luna's expression was a bit worse for wear as was Illuminous'. "There is nothing in Equestrian history that even resembles something of the sort. The biggest worms are earth worms seven inches long, insects alike to them are centipedes and they hardly grow big enough to be a foot muchless a watch tower."

"Wait, you said that they nearly killed you? So they were aggresive?"

"Yeah, almost got eaten too, I had to hold its mouth open with my entire body, its mouth lined up with sharp teeth that cut me all around my sides. I figured that they were after my blood when some of it dropped into its mouth and it made of sound, like it enjoyed it or something." He said, placing a whoof on his sides.

"The deepest and hardest wounds to heal were at your side. They were more than fatal, and there was some black substance in them too. If what you are telling us is true, then something like that must exist since that substance didn't fit anything I've ever seen or even heard of. I will have to talk to the commander about this." Luna placed a hoof onto Illuminous' hair and stroke it gently, trying to comfort him.

"Yeah... they crashed against each other and their teeth cut them apart. They went back into the ground and I was too weak, so I just dragged myself out of the arena as fast as I could." Illuminous looked over at Dove and smiled at her warmly. "That's when I saw you. I was worried that if I would have died in there, I wouldn't have gotten to see you one last time, but I was happy that I did." He kept smiling, not realizing what he just said and what he was just doing, until finally, he laughed meekly, and thought of something to continue it. "Worried that I wouldn't see any of you."

"Wow Illuminous, you survived through all that?! C'mon, thats pretty amazing. Everypony else didn't even got harmed since nothing like that happened to them. I think that race course wasn't meant to do that." Pip stated what everyone had been thinking.

"Of course, the Knight's Trials were designed to be like Equestria's environment and difficulty. Truth being that Equestria hasn't seen such violent measures, the trials are based off that and everything in there was supposed to help you. I wasn't worried at all that you would fail because of that. It seems like I had been wrong. What is strange is that all of this happened to you and you only." Luna explained.

"Maybe it was that big pony's fault." Pip said.

"That can't be it, the commander and the trial masters would never put the life of a pony in such danger no matter what the cost. Every spirit that Illuminous encountered was supposed to be friendly and helpful or completely unresponsive and tamed, the tuturin were meant to guide you out of the forest and the ocean spirits were to help you get across the sea. I hadn't thought that even if they did consume or smell the blood of anypony, they would go into such a dangerous frenzy, they are tamed trial spirits held at peace by very strong amounts of magic. All the unicorns who create the stage are previous masters of the mage trials. The worms however, were new to me, and I will have to talk to somepony about them." She continued. "Although Pip, you might be partially right. Illuminous was supposed to win if he crossed the finish line. It could be that the general could have been convinced in some way."

"Yeah, I heard him saying something about being disqualified for using the satchel Dove had given him and also for finishing late." Pip added.

"That is injustice! How could he do such a thing?! Didn't he see Illuminous?" Dove spoke up with assertiveness.

"Yes bu-"

"Hold on you two, this is no time to discuss this." Luna pointed one hoof to Illuminous whose eyes were closed, a pained expression on his face. She pressed a hoof to his forehead gently. "He has had a fever all this time, its amazingly lucky that he even recuperated so fast from such dangerous injuries, let alone wake up. He'll need some rest."

Both Pip and Dove nodded queitly and they got up, ready to leave him to rest. Pip yawned and stretched his tired legs, Dove following beside him, looking just as tired. Luna kissed Illuminous on the forehead and pulled up his bed sheets to tuck him in. She walked out as quiet as noise could ever get. She walked down the stairs, believing that the Dove and Pip had already left, and to her surprise, she found Dove waiting for her at the door.

"Miss. Luna... what will happen to him? You even said it yourself, there was no telling what could happen even if he was healing up that fast." She asked, worry clear in her voice.

Luna smiled and closed her eyes, she placed her head over the weary yellow Pegasus in an embrace. "Don't worry dear, he'll be fine. I truly believe that he will be able to pull through." She whispered. "And please, enough of the formalities, call me mom." Dove smiled at her kindness.

"Thanks Mom." She said under her embrace.

Luna snickered and said one word. "Law." With that, she walked over to her room to read, as she would not be able to sleep with Illuminous in such a condition.

Dove didn't understand that last word, but it didn't matter. She trailed behind Luna and followed her to her room.

"Won't you get some rest dear? Your parents must be worried."

Dove shook her head. "I asked Pip to tell them where I was. I don't think I want to leave...you know... with how things are." She shied away after saying that.

Luna looked at her with an interesting smirk, making her even more timid. "Well, I understand, I would have done the same in your position." She smiled warmly.

"Thanks for understanding mom." She said back.

"More than you would know." She snickered again. "Also, in."

"Huh?"

"You should go take a bath my dear, you've gone through a lot today."

"Oh," She looked over at her coat which she had to twist her head to see. It was covered in the dry blood of Illuminous. "Yeah, I guess I do." She said meekly, preparing to leave to take a bath.

"If you want to, you can sleep with him for tonight. I would but I'm a bit too large and I would just be a nuisance." Her devious smile still remained.

"I-I..." She left without saying a word, leaving a trace of her reddened cheeks. Dove knew well not to argue with Luna as she was never beaten in her crazy antics. Although what she was saying was reasonable and... well... okay with her.

Luna laughed silently to herself, although she didn't understand well what they truly felt, it was fun at least for now. She sat back, pulled up her glasses and a book, tucked herself in, and began reading.

Within the reads, she couldn't help think of what the future might hold, not for her, but for them, and also the trio of friends. She understood well she could not deny fate, and even if she didn't want to let go of him... he would do so no matter how much she could try. That was the nature of things. Since the past, on that day when everything stood still, when the world became grey for the second time, she knew all too well, there could be nothing she could do but to support. Maybe... just maybe... it always hurt a little more every time she reminisced about the past, what was done was done, she could only be glad that Illuminous was in her life now.

The ancient magohany wooden floors squeaked loudly in the silence, each pressing hoof like a thunder storm as her nerves so much made her believe. Her sane mind loudly yelled that he was a heavy sleeper, but her heart and gut yelled louder. Such was the way of the stubborness that ran through her blood. Her unending nerves drove her to insanity with each step, especially crossing his door to the room that stood square center in the hall just before the bathing room at the end of the house.

Although she had been friends with Illuminous for such a long time, Dove had not once slept over. She had been to his house many times, waking him several others, and eating many more (as Luna had not let her go without a meal first). She didn't know what to expect, what to do at a sleep over... with a colt. She had many friends, been to several sleep overs, but never with Illuminous. What made it worse was Luna's last comment...

She shook the thoughts out of her head and quietly opened the door, letting her hoof gently glide in the air after her grasp of the doorknob was gone. Thoughts echoed through her mind, their presiding rule on her consciousness making her stand in silence, looking into the beyond as scenarios latched onto her imagination and day dreams, the sort she needed less of right now which ultimately helped her pull out of them.

She sighed, still stressed about all that had happened yesterday. She dropped her weary body and soul into the porcelain bath tub with luke-warm water.. Things just changed within a matter of seconds. She knew well in her heart that if Illuminous had become a knight, he would have to leave... She was worried from the start, to be honest, she didn't want to lose him at all, but she had already decided that within her heart, all she could do was see him go. To help in anyway she could, and that was her goal. She didn't doubt Illuminous passing at all, she knew well that he would pass but now... now it was just... With the possibility that he could... die... it was too much. Too much for her to handle. Too much to bear and she wanted to stick by him even if it meant not eating or sleeping. Although exaggerating a bit, that's how she honestly felt. What bothered her most was not the fact that he was to die but that... she cared so deeply and she didn't even understand why.

After drying herself clean, she brushed her mane, struggling to hold the brush that didn't even have a handle for her hoofs to latch on to. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled at her large bang. It was useful at times, very useful. She opened the door quietly, making way into the corridor. She quietly made her way over to Illuminous' room door. She stood by it in silence not knowing what to do. She began thinking that it would be better if she just slept on the couch. Those thoughts were quickly pushed away when she heard him.

The odd grumbling made her freeze. Did he hear her? She gently placed an ear on the door and tried to hear more carefully. He kept making noises as if he was in pain. She didn't hear footsteps so he couldn't be coming to the door. She quickly and quietly made her way towards Luna's room down stairs. She opened the door, Luna still reading her book and pulled it down to see her. Dove didn't have to utter a word, her expression could tell more than her words.

"Is he alright?" She asked in confirmation.

Dove nodded her head, turning back urgently signifying for her to come. They both entered the room quietly as they possibly could. Illuminous had his eyes closed, the grumbling still continued.

"What's going on?" Dove asked in a hushed voice.

"He is fighting it." Was all Luna managed to respond to her. Luna's serious expression kept Dove from asking further, no matter how much she wanted to.

Luna's horn began to light up. She placed it on Illuminous' forehead and she closed her eyes along with him. All Dove could do was stand by and hope for the best. It sickened her almost.

A little later, the noises stopped and Illuminous went back to sleeping well. A lunar insignia was cast upon his forehead.

"What is that?" Dove asked in wonder.

"Its a sweet dream mark. It takes away bad dreams for a little while and hopefully they don't return. I made it myself, you know, my cutie mark and all." Luna replied, her weary smile bright and playful.

Dove couldn't help giggle under her breath. Luna was always in a happy mood no matter how bad the situation, and that was a contagious attitude coming from her.

"Dove, I need you now to sleep with him. Watch over him. I'm not sure if it will last, so please keep close to him as much as you can and come and tell me if he starts doing that again." Luna asked seriously. Dove replied with a quiet nod.

Dove forcefully slipped into Illuminous' bed alongside him with Luna on her tail, tucking her in and kissing her on the forehead as well. Too bad, so much for sleeping on the couch. This was a serious request and she needed to treat is as such if she wanted to accomplish it.

Luna didn't make a single sound as she left. Dove stood in the darkness, unsure if she could go to sleep. She heard the quiet panting of Illuminous' breath. Her feelings were mixed, both anxious and delighted. She turned her body to face Illuminous who was upright, his back against the bed. Her hooves were much warmer on that side. It wasn't the bed's warmth... She pulled her hooves closer to herself.

Still asleep, Illuminous turned his body towards Dove sleeping sideways. Dove wanted to move, but he was so close and her hoofs were too packed in next to his body, his forehead right onto her's. One movement could mean awakening him, and she did not want that... even it meant feeling his warm breath to hers. She took small short breaths, as best as she could to not let him feel it. Her face was becoming increasingly hot. She couldn't turn her gaze from him.

The soft sound of howling winter wind lulled her to sleep as the frost begin to line the edges of the window. The warmth brought her to sleep, her tired eyes meeting a soothing haven.

The wave of fire drove him to his knees. They were intense, harsh and cruel. Yet they did not scar him, nor did they hurt him. The beast screeched loudly with multiple voices, all dark and beautiful at once. What was this thing? Illuminous wanted to back away, but it was like the light was an invisible wall. His hoofs didn't help either.

"Darkness Incarnate." The voices sounded out. Illuminous smoldered the sound by pressing his hoofs tight against his ears. They were loud, unbearable and ear-shattering.

It repeated itself once more more loudly. He couldn't stand it. He let out gasps of pain. From the fire wave, a few fires remained before him, they were intensely hot. The white light grew more intense, the sound more horrifyingly loud, the fire hotter and singeing him from within. He couldn't stand it. It was all just... too much...

Suddenly, he felt all of that just... wash away... He opened his eyes. He stood in the middle of storm. Cold rain began pouring to the side of his cheeks. This felt... familiar... The rain was soothing, cold and refreshing. His eyes grew weary from the heavy raindrops soaking him wet. This was a relief, but he couldn't help wonder what had happened.

From the distance, he spotted a small pony. He walked slowly over to the figure. The yellow coat and caramel mane looked very familiar. The small wings on the back of the pony looked like small stumps. He knew this... this was back when he met Dove... back when they had become best friends, when they were small.

He involuntarily stood over the small pony, her back facing him, small whimpering coming from the soaked Pegasus.

Sure enough, the pony looked up to meet his gaze. She had been crying, he could tell, under the cold rain that stung at every drop. They stood in silence, water rolling down the back of his head and off the side his face, falling onto the small Pegasus' ears which twitched each time it would, acting as an umbrella. He gave her a warm smile. She rubbed the tears out of her eyes. He lifted a hoof out to her and she took it without question or word.

He placed the small filly over his back and ran to the nearest shelter he could find; a small wooden shack that had been left out for the construction ponies, filled with tools and other wears. He placed his weary body against the wooden walls, tired from the running, he was cold, the water would make him sick but...

Beside him the small filly lay asleep, her small panting brought him a little joy. Its true, he had helped her. Back then, she had cried because her family had moved in from Cloudsdale, she had friends she had missed, memories that were now lost. In time, he helped her, all through her time in Levan, the town his mother had founded and named after Illuminous' grandfather. They became best friend and for years it stood that way... but... things were beginning to blur out. Why would he dream of her... why after one of those dreams? He couldn't understand it. He only understood the joy of seeing her face... happy and joyful that his presence was bringing.

Luna placed down her book, a smile on her face. She was now ready to go to sleep. Her smile was becoming increasingly more deviant. She giggled under her breath knowing what she had just done.

That wasn't a sweet dream mark at all. That was a dream transfusion. One she developed long time ago thanks to a crazy pony with crazy goals and antics with even crazier magic. She saw... saw the glow around him. She knew well that Dove could not see it. She did it out of desperation but it turned out more interesting than she initially believed it so when she gave Dove the task. The dream transfusion was to erase nightmares and somepony else's to bond together their dreams. This type of magic she could only do with the help of Illuminous, and what was better was that she could spectate it all. She chuckled to herself again.

We shall see how tomorrow will be. She told herself in her head, her smile still bright as she dozed off.

Luna opened her eyes only to stare into the face of a yellow Pegasus that sat by her, reading the book she had been reading the night before. She yawned once and rubbed all sleep from her eyes.

"Don't mind me Miss. Luna, just reading." Dove responded as she saw Luna looking at her.

"Well dear, how long have you been up?" Luna asked as she looked over to the sun, noticing that it was barely turning morning. "Usually, I'm the first to wake up."

"You do this all the time?"

"I do indeed. You know, specializing in all that is the night, that including dreams. I don't need much sleep." She responded.

"Hehe, right."

"And what are you doing up so early?"

"Oh I-uh... well I didn't sleep so long, my dream just suddenly ended and I tried falling back to sleep but..."

"Hmm?"

Dove felt her face become red a little. "I couldn't fall asleep again so I just got up."

"Must have taken you a while... and what did you dream of?" She asked, interested as could be.

Dove's face was steaming, was she just guessing or did she know?! Thankfully, she reacted quicker than her face and managed to walk off, hiding her face behind her hair. "I-I uh don't remember it anymore. I'm starving though."

Luna kept the silence for a little while. Dove could feel her devious eyes piercing through her emotions like she did reading a book with a matter of importance. "Oh that's right, you hadn't eaten anything since yesterday, I'm so sorry my dear, I completely forgot."

Luna got out of her bed and walked past her into the kitchen. Dove successfully gulped down the feelings and walked behind her. Minutes later, Luna had baked a fresh bread and picked some of the beautiful daisies that were overgrowing sitting on the ledge of the window, the sun shining bright on them, and made them into a daffodil sandwich.

"Thank you."

"That won't be enough."

"Huh?"

"I need you too..." Luna stopped in the middle of her sentence, looking straight at Dove. Dove looked at her too, baffled by what was happening. "I need... I need... I need you to make breakfast and give it to Illuminous. I must go get some errands, ya see those flower pots?" Luna pointed at the several lined up empty pots that once held daisies. Dove nodded her head. "I must fill them. Be back in a few." She said as she trotted out of the house and into the snow.

Dove sighed and thought of what to do. She smiled and laughed and began tossing flour and pantries all across the kitchen, baking and cooking.

She carried the enclosed platter in one of her hoofs and opened the door by standing upright and pushing the door. She walked to the night stand and placed the platter there. Dove placed both of her hoofs on Illuminous.

Her face became hot again... he was so warm...

She snapped out of it and told herself she needed to wake him up. She pushed him once slowly, ending up with her face becoming hot again. Dove began to get frustrated at herself and took her anger out on Illuminous violently shaking him awake.

"Ow ow ow." He said waking up suddenly to the soreness of his ribs and the yellow Pegasus that scattered backwards, her reddened face as if she had not expected for him to wake up to her violent shaking.

"I-I'm sorry! Are you okay?!"

He yawned and looked around. "I'm alright. Where am I?"

She flinched at the sudden question. "W-what?"

"Where am I? Who are you?"

Dove's eyes shrunk in horror. Could... could he have lost his memories? She had only read of this before and didn't see it as a big deal... but now that it was happening... all those years of friendship... all those times... She began to sniffle, her eyes watering up.

Again, she was much to oblivious to Illuminous' jokes and antics. Like mother like son.

"Hey hey hey, calm down, I was only kidding Dove." He said, which prevented her from actually crying. He smiled warmly at her. He noticed between the watery eyes, the smile that was forming. His smile faded into a baffled look. Why did she look so... cute?

Suddenly, her smile turned a hundred and eighty degrees around and became a frown, the top of her head slammed into his abdomen which was the sorest part of his body. He didn't need to gasp for air since he sensed that she was going easy on him.

"Ehe, I guess I deserved that didn't I?" He said as he rubbed that back of his head with his hoof, sitting up right on his bed now.

"Y-y-you idiot." She said lowly, turning her face away from him. He laughed warmly for a little which mixed her feelings between frustrated and somewhat happy. The relief of knowing it was just a joke... was priceless. "Miss. Luna made you breakfast... so at least eat it."

"Oh." He said looking around and finally spotting the closed tray.

He took off the metal lid off of the tray and saw pancakes covered in honey syrup and butter on top, a mug of watered down light coffee like he liked, and....... a muffin....

His face told all sorts of things, and most of them were utterly hilarious. Dove couldn't help giggle under her breath seeing his face.

Illuminous sighed. "What sort of cruel joke is this?"

At that very moment in time, Luna walked into the room. "What joke do you mean?"

Dove gulped, now Illuminous would know that she was the one who made the breakfast.

"C'mon mom, seriously? A muffin? That's just cruel."

Luna turned a serious look over at Dove. Dove's face told her all she needed to know. She turned her serious face back at Illuminous. "Oh I'm sooo sorry, I totally forgot what happened. Woes me." She said sarcastically. Dove let out an inner sigh of relief.

"Yeah well... not cool!" He said, his frustrated expression biting into the muffin and sipping his coffee. Dove and Luna laughed together.

"Are you feeling okay?" Luna asked

"Yeah why?"

"How was your sleep?"

"Funny you mention it, I was dreaming of back when I met Dove. That had never even crossed my dreams before."

Suddenly Dove turned away. Luna turned an interested stare back at the covered pony. Oh this was precious indeed. She didn't want to be too mean. "Well, they often say that ponies who are sick end up dreaming of their past." This was fun, she could feel Dove sighing in relief again. "That is why you, must stay in bed for couple of weeks. You're grounded mister."

"Aww but but..."

"No buts." All of them laughed warmly at the sudden joke. Luna walked over to him and kissed him on the forehead. "In all seriousness, you can't move about the way you are. You need time to recuperate. Rest easy dear."

Illuminous nodded. "Thanks mom." He said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

Luna walked out of the room, Dove beginning to follow her.

"Wait... Dove." Illuminous said, completely halting her steps.

"Yes?"

"I just wanted to say... thanks..."

She didn't understand him, all she could do was nod at the sudden thanks. She walked out of the room, letting him be as he ate the rest of his food.

He watched the sun rise and fall, sunrise and sunset. He watched as the moon sang beautiful phrases of an earth-bound melody engraved on the earth, ones that he was yet to find.

Sitting on his bed made him a little lonely. Pip visited him for a few hours, him asking how the trials were in detail. The conversations were upsetting, but he did not rule it out, his company was fun to say the least as he would make jokes to cheer him up and they would spend hours just making up nonsense. Dove walked in shortly after and then his mom and suddenly, it was happy, if only for a while.

When everyone had gone, he sat upright in the silence, listening well to everything around him. The howling of the wind, the aching moans of willow tree outside his window, to the ceiling fan that spun slowly to keep things fresh. He didn't feel like sleeping tonight. He turned his gaze from the fan over to his cupboard beside his bed. The small picture of Dove, him and Rose stood. He hadn't heard of her since he was just a small colt. His mom always told him that she had left to go help the establishments in the new lands. He missed the times when it was all of them together...

He sunk his weary soul into the comforts of his bed. His mind was encumbered with thoughts, all troublesome. He couldn't make it to be a knight... he did not have a cutie mark... he no longer had school and his life all seemed too plain. That wasn't the real problem however, he felt a need, a need to... to understand his dreams... the need to know why all of this is happening, to find his aunt... he needed answers, he needed to live...

He hated these thoughts. Thoughts of self-pity. Truth being that he felt useless. He wasn't particularly good at anything besides construction since he helped out a lot around the town, but... he didn't want to be a construction worker. It was okay, he just didn't feel like it was his calling.

His heart was always more attached to the world itself. He'd spend his lonely days grazing through the forest beyond, the one his mother had always told him to stay away, but he was stubborn and he couldn't keep away. It wasn't danger that brought him, honestly, he was terribly afraid of danger and avoided at every step, he was careful.

He could call it a calling was what the Everfree forest brought him, but even that didn't quite suit it. The need to know... why... This frustrated him, he disliked mental fatigue. It was inevitable though, images... an all too blurry past. He could hardly remember the times he spent with Rosemary, his aunt. To be honest, he could hardly remember her image at all... but he could feel happy times... and some awful...

Then there was Dove. Something inside told him certain things that he used to do before were now out of question. He barely managed to pull off that scare in the morning without breaking down from anxiousness. It was a pressure... things had changed... ever since the trials, everything had changed...

He could sense danger. It was his gift. He had avoided danger times and times before because of this 'sense'. An anxious feeling of impending doom. That is what he had felt all through the trials. That is what he still felt up to now... he could feel something was terribly terribly wrong, but nothing presented itself since. His dreams... he didn't want to think about it but he had to confront them sooner or later.

His dreams were blurred images. Things he had yet to understand. They were like surreal subtle dreams, like waking up to realize whatever had happened in the dream was not true. This was different though, he would wonder even after he would wake up if anything was true or not. This had only started recently... the tides of change were beginning to form he could sense, but they would bring with them something beyond the most horrid dreams he dared dream.

It had only been the day and his mind had already been filled with dread. It showed too, he had been asked multiple times over by his mom and friends what could possibly be wrong. He did not know so he could not give an answer, just a fake smile and a little patience and attention. All but Pip could see right through him, he saw as the two mares left with worried expression no matter how warm or how bright of a smile... it was still empty... and they knew.

He could not hide from his mother, and he was beginning to think that the same was forming with Dove, in more subtle ways.

This repeated for another two days. Feelings within him were driving him insane... the dreams continued only to be washed away by some unknown force. He kept dreaming nightmares, washed away into memories of good times spent with Dove. Although nice, he feared dreaming any night in fear that the horrid dreams would completely take over if the good ones were to fail. He couldn't take it anymore...

A sudden thought overcame him. A decision... He didn't want to even dare think of it but... it would just not go away.

He would have to leave his home...

After everyone had left, he pondered deeply of what this could bring. Restless hours deciding. It was a possibility, one that came with consequences he couldn't bare, although, there were things he had to understand... and he wouldn't be able to find the answers staying here... it hurt to say it, it really did.

He thought of his mom... how she would miss him... how he would miss her... He thought of Pip, all the times they had shared and how inseparable they had become. He thought of Dove for a little while and tried to completely brush her away. He wanted with almost every fiber in his body to go... and she... well it was tough to say.

He sighed and turned his head towards the moon. The silver light flowed smoothly onto every surface of his bedroom. A gentle, soothing, and cool breeze swayed the curtains lightly and kissed his cheeks making him shiver. It was at these times that the decision towards leaving was strongest. It subtly called to him until it was madness itself.

As he had been staring out into the night's domain, his eye caught attention to a small flicker of light. His ears twitched, the sound of bells distant but close, it was coming from the direction of the small light. He heard the galloping of hoofs, he saw the flicker of light move rapidly down the road. What could it be? He heard the front door of his house spread open along several others. A blurry shape was visible, it was an earth pony carrying along his saddle two bells and in his mouth, he carried a lantern. It was near to the middle of the night, why would he be causing all this frackus? More importantly, why was everyone getting out of there homes to follow this strange hurried pony.

The flicker of light ran through the viewing distance of his window and he heard the galloping stop close to the front of his home. It seems the pony was waiting for everypony to arrive. He understood now. It was a messenger pony, but why so late at night? If he focused well enough, he could only hear muffled voices speaking, one was his mother's. The urge to know compelled him to slowly crawl out of bed, sore and aching. He felt his bones... shift. Pain is all he could feel, but he needed to know.

He sneaked into the balcony as quietly as he could. Due to his medical condition, he needed to stay in bed no matter what. If his mother found out he was doing such a thing as to get out of bed, he would be lectured, or worse, not be lectured and have to live with the guilt of disobedience. Doesn't sound harsh then, but his mom had awful methods of making him feel guilty. The balcony was to the side of the roof covering the main entrance, siding towards the main road. He crawled quietly and as least painfully as he could towards the edge, the voice was clear now, but the pony had difficulties talking. Apparently the messenger pony had been running a great distance as he tried catching his breathes, occasionally gasping loudly. He saw the other townsfolk appear out of their homes, all carrying lanterns in there mouth and approaching the front of his home were his mom and the messenger were conversing. He hid himself at the edge of the balcony closest to the corner for the shade to coveted him in darkness. Although the edge of the roof did not let him see where they were gathering, he could plainly here everything. He didn't see a single child, everypony who was coming were adults.

"Now calm down, tell us what's going on?" He heard his mother ask.

"Well," he took one last deep breath and regained his voice "I have very urgent news that all of you must be aware of. As some of you might well know by my insignia, I am part of the seventh order crusading knights, those who seek to tame new lands... or at least I was." The change of tone was alerting... this was important alright... but it wasn't good news. He sensed it already.

"What do you mean?" He heard the voice of another mare speak out.

"We got attacked... some didn't make it. We know not of how horrible the threat could be, some of us disappeared little by little until we were just a few and when they finally appeared, we could only run away... I have been venturing through the woods, running since the crack of down to alert any pony I could find." Illuminous flinched. This was more horrible than he'd imagined. Was this pony speaking truth? Could there really be an impending doom over the town?

"That's horrible! What are we going to do?!" Some of the ponies began to panic.

"Fear not, my companions should arrive shortly. Thankfully, we had Mystic Dawn by our sides. With his help, we managed to contact the princess and aid will arrive shortly. As for us, we shall, along side the royal guards, fend off any threat that remain. Please do not panic, rest safe." Everyone began to chatter, some nervous and some anxious awaiting the arrival of protection if this doom was to come.

Sure enough, several other ponies made their way into town. Most of them had chain-mail under black woven shirts as uniforms. They were from the knights... The crusade knights nonetheless. One in particular was a silver white Unicorn wearing a lavender drape. His mane just as white, his hair spiked at its edges as if subtly kept in place by high forces of magic. His white hat hid his eyes. Illuminous wondered if this was the 'Mystic Dawn' the messenger had mentioned.

He knew these ponies well. They were among the most elite crusading squads in Equestria. For something like this to happen... it was a tragedy on the highest degree. Then the words his mother gave him were brought back. "The trials are tested by Equestria's nature." A fear ran through him... what if this menace was worse than anypony could imagine? What if Equestria wasn't ready for something like this? Illuminous quietly ran back to his room as quickly as possible. He was glad to be out of that predicament, he felt warm, as if a fever was beginning to approach. He lied down on his bed, covered himself, and thought of all that had just happened. He couldn't leave now could he? A huge sense of... something, began arising within him. Everyone in the village was in danger...

He bolted up right on his bed. He... he wanted to protect everyone. He had to do something... This could be his chance, but it could also mean his demise... he would need to leave though... tonight. Leave without a trace. His mother, with the circumstances that now lay ahead, would never let him venture with the threat now on hold. His friends wouldn't let him either. He needed to... he needed to... he needed to leave...

He stressed his body as he began packing all essentials into a small rag that he folded it up into a small sack. His mother had left. He understood that she had left to talk to the knights. This was his only chance. It pained him to do such a thing, but he could not leave a letter either. It was best this way. He tossed the small sack over his shoulder containing a week's worth of food. He put on the scarf his mother had given to him... Illuminous wouldn't have been able to part without it. Nor could he with the pin that was attached to it.

It was now midnight, and he needed to move quick, sticking the shadows since the moon was bright out tonight. When he walked out through the back door, the cool fresh breeze that passed through him made his heart pound. He was actually going to do this. He didn't know if this was dread or anxiety, but he felt his body ache with stressed pain. He understood well that he still wasn't able to leave now in his condition, but it was now or never. His mother hardly slept at all, she was a light sleeper and had sense far beyond normal. She would be able to hear him walk out the door from her sleep. This truly was the only chance he had.

He planned it out while he had gotten ready. The path towards the colonies in the regions was simple. There was the main road which lead towards Canterlot if you just went straight west. On the western part of the road, there was a cross turn where it would lead towards the mountains in an arch formation and also ran through the Everfree forest. That is were the messenger had originally ran through. If the threat he spoke of was the way he had been coming from, then taking the east route, which was another way towards the colony in the woods, would be the better option since the road there was only covered by light woods, eventually crossing to the Everfree forest for a small bit before entering the first colony. It was like going around the problem.

A lamp post lighted the road in a orange glow as he passed it with care, trying to be as quiet as possible. He was passing several homes were ponies had already gone back to go to sleep and he was beginning to approach Dove's and Pip's house. He had to make it fast out of there... his emotions still ran nearly dominant in the situation.

Incidentally, he stopped in the middle of one of the lamp post. His head spun and he felt sick. He closed his eyes to ease the sickness out a bit. The fresh breeze was only making it worse, his cold eyes began to felt sickening sticky and his fever began to burn through the cold, the two forces clashing. He felt like throwing up, but he needed to go.

"Illuminous?" A familiar voice called out to him. He froze, afraid to open his eyes, still feeling horribly sick. He had been caught...

"Illuminous dear, what are you doing out so late? You look terribly sick, weren't you supposed to stay in bed since you were gravely injured by what your mother told me?" At that, he opened his eyes to realize that it had been Dove's mother, the long curled hair at the ends and yellow mane closely resembled her.

"Sorry to be bothering Ma'am."

"None at all dear, but please tell me what your doing out so late? You don't look so well."

"I'm suppose to uh... be picking up something very essential from Cornelious' rock farm. I hadn't gone in a few days and forgot to pick it up sooner."

"At this time dear?"

"Oh-uh... I-uh..." He needed to make up something, anything, this was an easy getaway.

Right as the idea had come up in his mind, a voice he had desperately didn't want to hear came into clearing. "Cornelious asked me to tell Illy to go pick it up any time soon before he set out towards Canterlot to sell his merchandise. He just forget is all, don't worry about him."

"Oh, hiya dear, what a lovely night you've managed to bring us tonight. Oh I didn't know, hope Cornelious is careful with all that's going about."

"Its all fine Betty, I'm sure the guards will escort him safely. We'll talk about this later, I'm sure you feel awfully sleepy."

"Now that you mention it... I kinda am. Anyways, see you tomorrow dear."

"You too."

With that, silence was all that remained after the conversation between Dove's mother... and his... He was trying his best not to pass out from the fever or the nausea. How would he explain himself now? The silence remained for a little while, until finally something was said.

"Ah, glad to see you again little sis." This voice... was different. Who could it be? So... graceful... regal... He didn't dare open his eyes.

"Glad as you are to see you too." He heard an embrace. What was going on?

"There are many things we must discuss after such a long time. Although there is something more important now I see?"

"Yes, certainly we should sit down for a while, catch up on the old and new. Right now though... I have to take care of something..."

Illuminous gulped silently to himself. Just when he thought his luck had stretched the thinnest, two more voices joined the fray.

"Miss. Luna? Illuminous? What are you guys doing out here?" Pip's voice called out as he came forward and everything stood in silence except for the trotting of two ponies.

"Princess Celestia!" He heard Dove nearly shout. He heard them bow in respect. Princess Celestia huh...

This was driving him insane. He wished so terribly bad right now that this could all be just a dream. A horrible dream he could wake up from. He felt all the questioning eyes on him. All the attention centered on him. Surrounded by ponies he didn't know how to deal with. Sickened and troubled.

The silence was unbearable with all of them standing... as if they were expecting answers.

"What is it that you want to hear...?" Illuminous mumbled lowly, getting no reply and silence was all there was. Him still afraid to open his eyes.

"Is it, why am I out here? Is it... why do I have a bag full of things and out in the middle of the night?" Still no reply.

He opened his eyes slowly and looked at the ground, blurred and moving. He was feeling like passing out, but something was preventing him.

"I can't answer any of that... because I don't even know myself..."

A small pleased giggle came from his mom. He baffled by what was happening. He looked over to her first... a warm, crying smile on her face. Tears were beginning to swell in his eyes too...

"You remind me so much of him... so much of your father."

"Huh?"

"He was so reckless, so head strong... always with a need to do something. I knew this day would come." Luna approached him and she hugged him, still crying onto his shoulder. Illuminous was thoroughly confused...

"Like your father's image indeed." He heard the regal voice say as he cried onto his mom and Luna onto him. Princess Celestia had been watching all of that. He hadn't even taken a proper bow. Suddenly, he felt his nausea end and all sickening feelings. His mother slowly pulled away from him, tears still staining her cheeks, but a warm smile nonetheless, of both joy and sadness.

Illuminous turned to Celestia, she too had a seemed like crying but instead, upheld a saddened smile. He bowed to her.

"Wait... so you knew?" He turned to his mother.

"I always did." Luna responded to him.

"But... how?"

"I am your mother after all, and I love you with my fullest extent, there isn't a thing that could slip by me. You are so alike to your father... when you were born, you were my bundle of joy, my living hope and my faith that all would be for the better. I know that I couldn't keep you from going... Your father told me before he left, that he wanted you to find who you are, that there could be nothing that would stop you from it, but only you could learn from yourself."

"He believed in you, just as his father had believed in him, Sir Levan was a great pony, and your father rose up to be better. You know just as well as I that a new age is falling before us bringing darkness with it. Illuminous, we need you to be brave, we need to stand strong, protect those you love. You have a great potential, you truly are special." Princess Celestia spoke.

"Then why didn't I pass the trials?"

"You don't need a title to prove what you are worth, you don't have to prove yourself to anyone. You are special, and it is I that I ask of you now to be strong. For times ahead will be too. Protect everyone. Please."

"I will."

"Um..." Illuminous turned around to follow Dove's voice. In her hoofs she held a brown satchel.

"Wait... is that...?"

"I knew you were going to need this, so I rebuilt it for you."

"I asked Dove to watch over you, so she will accompany you." Luna spoke up

"Wait, are you sure? Would you actually leave here?" He turned to Dove.

"I can't turn down a request from Luna." Dove responded.

"I will join along to mate." Pip spoke up after being quiet for so long.

"Wait you too?"

"Of course! You need a sidekick right? A companion! Maybe we'll discover our cutie marks together that way!"

Illuminous was overwhelmed... they were actually doing this... for him?

"Thank you..."

"I'll always stick by your side mate, we are best buddies are we not?" Illuminous couldn't help smile at his remark.

"Please take care Illuminous. Promise me you'll come back. Promise me you'll never forget me." Luna turned to him.

"I could never forget you mom." He hugged her and she gave him a kiss on the forehead.

Luna leaned close to his ears and whispered quietly into his ears. "Promise me you'll find her..."

Illuminous didn't need to know who she was speaking about. He knew all too well already. He nodded.

The sun was beginning to rise, Celestia raised the sun with her magic, the snow turned an orange hue.

"As long as we're under the same sky, we'll always be together." She hugged him one last time and watched the trio leave into the eastern road. She had told him that ever since he was small. She sighed. Equestria is faced with grim times... and only he can bring order, only Illuminous could light the path. Something he had yet to discover.

He was her beacon of hope, the legacy that lives on. In these dark days, they need a hero... she couldn't tell him... about the life that awaits him... about his father... about everything that he truly is. She could only hope that he would find himself before it all could be too late...

Guess who did over 50 million errors. Me. Anyways, I finally finished it! ^^
Special thanks to DoctorWhooves. :3

Songs that cheered me up to help me finish: Stardust Speedway