Author's Note

This Cave Is Not A Natural Formation...

(I have no idea what was happening before and after Rainbow Rocks, and I also wasn't expecting to be writing in normal Equestria. So please, bear with me if I get anything wrong. Enjoy!

Intermission III - The Prophecy (TBR)

CANTERLOT, EQUESTRIA
TWO MONTHS AFTER THE RAINBOW ROCKS EVENT

Twilight's hooves clopped against the royal floor as she continued towards the throne room. "I still don't know why you don't just have me write a letter Twilight. This seems a little much."

"Spike, you and I both saw what Noah was capable of when we went through the portal. There's no way that magic just exists without anypony knowing how or why. And if anypony knows, it has to be the Princess."

It'd been quite some time since Twilight had stepped foot in the mysterious portal and was transported to the human variant of Equis. Or as it's internationally designated, Earth.

Twilight had been meaning to question Princess Celestia about the Super Element, but due to her duties as a princess herself, she could never get the chance.

But taking a day off from the help of her friends and brother, Twilight was finally ready to ask. Spike, on the other hand, didn't see the big deal.

Noah was as strong as the Elements of Harmony combined, maybe even stronger. Big whoop, they live in a world of technicolored magical talking horses.

Twilight finally arrived at the
large royal doors and took a deep breath. It was simply another meeting with her teacher, who was the Princess of the land she lived in. And could raise and lower a literal star. No big deal.

With one hoof, Twilight pushed open the right door and poked her head inside. "Princess Celestia?" She asked for confirmation, to which she received a kind reply. "Princess Twilight Sparkle. Greetings."

Sitting upon a majestic red oval throne was the Princess of the Sun herself. Enveloped in her magical golden aura was a beautiful white and yellow teacup encrusted in several beautiful gems that had Spike drooling over from a mile away.

At her feet stood a wealthy red stallion wearing quite the suit. At his own feet were a few business papers that were mainly charts and graphs stretching from yesterday to a decade ago.

"Hemlock Thyme, the information and data you presented to me today are indeed something my sister and I shall return to. If you could be so kind as to excuse my student and I, that would be much appreciated."

The stallion named Hemlock bowed and replied, "Of course your highness. Thank you." Hemlock used his opaque-blue magic and enveloped the papers. He lifted them to eye level, swiveled around like a steering wheel, and exited. Leaving both princesses to themselves.

"Now, Twilight, what brings you here today?" Twilight cleared her throat and entered the main area of the throne room. "Well, you may not know Princess, but two months ago, I traveled back into the portal."

Celestia raised an eyebrow, "You did?" Twilight nodded, "Yes. I was called by my friends over there with the help of the book you used with Sunset Shimmer before me. It turned out three creatures known as the Sirens had made a move on the school via manipulation as their main goal was planetary domination."

"I'm guessing that seeing you here means you and your friends successfully vanquished these creatures?"

"Yes, but it's much deeper than that. Much deeper." Celestia frowned, "What do you mean?"

Twilight took a deep breath, "It turns out that the Equestria over there isn't alone. An unusual yet advanced version of humans exists outside it as the Equestria over there is just a giant island."

"The outside world is called Earth instead. It includes inconceivable amounts of nations and kingdoms that possess such weapons and devices that I doubt anypony could even fathom. But, it's not their fault."

"A thousand years ago, Starswirl The Bearded banished the Sirens to Earth for who knows how long. Without any Equestrian magic, the Sirens would eventually be deprived of their magical and maniacal abilities of manipulation. And well... the Sirens... they were enraged."

"Without Equestrian magic, they had to resort to negative energy from basic humans without any abilities. But the way they gained it was... truculent."

"The Sirens put the humans through Tartarus. Using what they had with their amulets, the Sirens would create life-threatening conflicts relentlessly. They led to murders, massacres, genocides, crimes that haven't been committed in Equestria for centuries, including war crimes, and wars themselves."

"Because of the Sirens, humanity, what they're called as a whole, was forced to fight against an invisible force of mayhem. They kept creating larger and graver things to protect themselves. Metal armaments that fire lead and copper for miles, vehicles that shoot devastating explosives, and bombs of such great size that they could level our entire country within seconds!"

Celestia's mouth hung agape. "Twilight... how... how do you know all of this? How are you still alive?" Twilight took another deep breath, "I was told by a male human. Not an Equestrian human, an Earth human. His name was Noah Rictorshine."

This caught Celestia's attention heavily, Rictorshine?

"Apparently, Noah lost everything to the Sirens and began a journey of crime and escape. The end of his journey brought him to Earth-Equestria with the aid of his own amulet, something I'll return to later."

"Noah took refuge at Earth-Equestria and attended CHS, the school the portal stands in front of. For three years, Noah was locked in a seemingly endless rivalry with Sunset Shimmer herself due to her evil ways taking form." Celestia frowned.

"Eventually, they had to work together against the Siren threat as they found Equestrian magic in CHS. The Equestrian magic being my friends. With an unexpected twist, it appeared Noah was more special than my friends and I nearly combined."

"Noah, a simple human, had Equestrian magic within him, or more so, his amulet. It turned out that Noah himself wasn't just magical, he was an Element of Harmony!"

Celestia shook her head, "Twilight, I-I don't understand what you're talking about. How can a normal human be an Element? There's only six."

"That's just it Princess, he was more than just an Element. It's actually why I came to you. We gave him the term the Super Element. The ultimate Element with power and magic that matched the Elements of Harmony combined. But, it didn't feel like it did."

"You should've seen him Princess, he was spectacular! His hair had turned a bright beautiful white. A mighty aura that resembled ours, but wasn't, surrounded him! And his magic, he was swift, tough, durable, and could produce astonishingly tremendous beams of magic and light!"

"I'm not sure if he was an Element, or something else entirely, but it had to do with his amulet. Which is why I've come to you Princess, I need to know. I need to know if a Super Element truly exists. I need to know it's history! It's been killing me for months!"

Celestial gawked as her jaw dropped so low, it'd hit the ground with a simple nudge. "W-Well Twilight, that's... t-that's unmistakably excellent information. Staggering, b-but excellent." Twilight gathered herself and asked, "So, do you know anything?"

"No, but I think I know what does." Twilight cocked her head, "'What'? What do you mean, 'what'?" Celestia stepped down from her throne and began towards the door Twilight entered through. She answered as she passed her, "I'll show you."

Twilight glimpsed at Spike. He'd fallen asleep on her back humorously fast, but at least he wasn't missing. Or worse... She trailed behind the Princess as the two guards that normally stood by her side caught up to her.

What is she talking about?

"So, exactly why do we not have the guards along with us?" Celestia slid the stone wall closed, "Because we don't. The only danger down here is the danger of being lost. And since what we're after is straight ahead, we won't be having that problem."

"Okay, so why did Spike have to stay outside?" Celestia answered as they began down the steps, "Because this place is off-limits to all those who aren't alicorns or Element bearers."

"Why?" No answer. "Come Twilight. I've been waiting for a reason to show you this place. Otherwise, you'd have just come across it yourself at some point."

Twilight cautiously followed behind Celestia as their hooves clopped like their fore-hooves clapping against each other.

She was confused, nay, she was dumbstruck. Twilight knew the Princess could be whimsical and mysterious, but this was something else. Twilight had never been left unanswered, and that set off many red flags in her head.

After quite some time, Twilight and Celestia ultimately reached the end of the steps. The room, or whatever it was, left Twilight speechless. "Twilight," Celestia began, "Welcome to The Library of Space and Time."

Twilight stepped in front of the Princess and felt her eyes grow to the size of emeralds. She and the Princess had set foot in a massive black and gold library full of her favorite things: Books. Books, everywhere.

She glanced left, endless. She glanced right, endless again. She even glanced up, endless. They'd traveled so low into Equis, they couldn't even see above themselves.

"Come Twilight, I understand there's many here you want to look at, but we have time for that later."

Celestia continued down the large path as Twilight nodded. Library of Space and Time? I haven't read anything that talks about this place. Do others even know this place exists?

"Princess, forgive me, but I'm confused. How long has this been here? How vast is it? Do other ponies even know of its existence?" Celestia took a deep breath, "No Twilight, nopony else knows except Cadence, Luna, myself, and now you."

"This magnificent library holds all the knowledge in the known universe. Every book here on the left holds all the information and history in existence. Whether it be about swans, cakes, or the dawn of time."

"Every book here on the right holds all the derived knowledge of those who have ever lived. Everything they have done or made an impact on from birth to death. Even beings outside of Equis, or Earth."

"For as long as I can remember, this library has been growing and building with intelligence. I found it when my sister and I took a walk outside our castle so very long ago. We were afraid to enter for centuries, but we eventually attained the needed bravery to investigate."

"We were blown away. Perplexed as to how nobody had found it, or even cared. But ultimately, it was made known to the Royal Guard, but only the Royal Guard. We didn't need ponies entering and getting lost forever. It didn't always work, unfortunately."

Twilight had her eyes locked on the right side of the library. "It... h-how do you know that's what it is? I-It could just be a large underground library!" Celestia frowned, "You doubt me, I understand. But let me show you how I know."

Twilight peeked ahead and found a simple wooden table that held two books. One black, one gold. Celestia came to a stop at the table and spoke. "These are two of the three most important books in the library, and existence. On the right: The Book of Time. On the left: The Book of Space."

"Both books hold the understanding of everything. Time, space, and the list of contents. Without them, nothing would make sense. Nothing." Twilight gawked, "This... this can't be real... but it is, isn't it?" Celestia nodded.

"Well, you said there were three books. Where's the third?" Celestia used her magic and placed both books upon each other. She connected them gently, but the very touch rang like a church bell throughout the library. The table shook and rose as a solid block of more stone sprouted from the ground.

When the rock fully surfaced, It revealed another part of the library. Celestia stood aside and motioned for Twilight to enter. Falteringly, she did. Once again, Twilight's eyes dilated as she walked along a gold path.

The room was beyond belief, the gold path led to a single floating platform that held a book pedestal. But that's not what caught her eye. The platform was surrounded by what Twilight could only estimate from sight as hundreds of billions of books. They were all a part of the library.

Giant shelves ran spiral all across the area. It was like standing inside the shell of a massive egg. Only instead of a shell, she saw millions of shelves, and near trillions of books.

"P-Princess... what... w-what the hell?"

"That's a word I haven't heard of. What does it mean?"

"N-Nothing! I-It means nothing!"

Celestia nudged Twilight from behind and she began down the path. It was hardly large enough to hold her, let alone Celestia. The walk took nearly ten minutes, so Twilight questioned, "Princess... how... how large is this thing?"

"This library stretches across all of Equestria. As for how deep we are, I’d say we're just barely far enough from scratching the upper mantle," Twilight felt a single hair in her mane flick up like the pluck of a guitar string.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Twilight and the Princess of the Sun reached the platform and stood side by side.

Celestia began, "And this, is The Book of Righteousness." Twilight placed her front hooves on the table to get a better look.

Celestia explained, "Clearly Twilight, somepony created this library. That somepony was a tan bearded stallion by the name of Christian J. Rictorshine."

"W-Wait, Rictorshine? That's the same as Noah's last name." Celestia nodded, "Indeed. Christian was an odd one. He never spoke, and just appeared out of nowhere. When I first met him, he was undoubtedly perfectly sane and well-mannered, but I don't think he even came from Equis."

"Something in his eyes made him appear... off. They weren't as bright, vivid, or large as a normal pony's eyes. He didn't look odd, but I doubt anypony had seen such a pair."

"The last time he was seen, however, was behind the castle. And where do you think he went?" Twilight returned to standing, "To this library. I... there's no way he built all this! All due respect Princess, but I doubt even you could do this!"

"He was no ordinary pony Twilight. He probably wasn't even an ordinary being, but we know he created all this because he wrote every book here. Including this one."

Celestia flipped the book over, and Twilight read the words aloud, "'By Christian J. Rictorshine. Please take care'. I can't believe this. What does it say?"

"The book is based upon magic, power. The book talks about all kinds of obscure and unheard powers that not even the books of the left know of. It talks of tales from an unknown world, many verses, and much more."

"I'll be honest with you Twilight, I've only read the first page, and only I know of this book. And of course, now you." Twilight stared at the book, her answers to Noah's abilities laid right in front of her. Leaving the book to the unknown was not an option.

"Let's read it.”

Celestia turned to the table of contents and found it just like how she remembered, written in cursive. She analyzed the contents until she found what they were searching for.

"Ah, here it is. Part three, page five hundred twelve: The Super Element of Righteousness." Celestia flipped through hundreds of pages about notes, info, and such things that couldn't quite be defined.

Celestia landed on the page she was told to and was met with an odd symbol. "Twilight," she began, "Does this look like Noah's amulet?" Twilight studied the symbol, it'd been a while since she last laid eyes on Noah's necklace.

She tried to remember... a time when Twilight, Sunset, her human friends, and Noah had finished practicing and were on their way to the school. The memory felt faint and light as if she had imagined it, but she remembered regardless.

...

"Can I just say, your pendant has such an unusual design,” Twilight began. “It resembles a bird and it's wings rising from a shield or something, or it resembles a beam of light or a sword rising from... a shield?"

Noah stared at his necklace, "I'll be honest, I'm not sure what the symbol is, but it's a symbol of integrity. A symbol of righteousness, which was aforementioned but, apparently, words mean more than actions in this world."

Sunset strolled up from behind carrying two guitars, "That's not our fault, that's just the way the world works." Noah crossed his arms, "Motherfucker, who's the one who burned my bookbag, slashed my tires, and smashed my two hundred dollar laptop with a sledgehammer?"

"O-Oh! Y-You need help there Fluttershy?"

...

"I remember. This symbol, Noah said he was told that it was a symbol of integrity. A symbol of righteousness. I guess he was right in the end, huh?"

”This Noah of yours, tell me more about him." Twilight sat down, "Well, Noah is... he's... uh... he's probably the furthest thing from Equestrian ever. Of all time. He acts like... like a... it's hard to explain. He's rude, but... not like 'rude' rude."

"He seems to act like everyone may turn against him except his close friends. Insecure maybe? No, not even close. He's very confident and acts like nobody can touch him. The way he speaks is odd though. Almost half of every sentence includes a curse word, but it isn't directed at us. He just says that's how he and his people talk and act and that it's no big deal."

"But when he's being genuinely rude... he says some very unpleasant things. Of course, it wasn't to me and my friends. It was towards that version's Trixie from a while back and the Sirens. He probably said some things to Sunset before as well, and considering they've done that for years, her psyche might be damaged a bit." Celestia grimaced.

"But you don't have to worry about that rivalry anymore. Last time I saw them, they seemed to have made up and become friends. They even exchanged hugs." Celestia smiled, "This Noah sounds like quite the character."

"He is, and I'm proud to call him one of my friends. He shows me that friendship comes in all forms, kindly, sensibly, or aggressively." Celestia beamed, "That's grand Twilight. Good to know my student is still widening her knowledge of friendship every day."

Celestia returned to the book and flipped the page. She read, "I saw a vision. A vision of evils arising. Such evils that these sentient horses cannot fight off. I've decided to leave them something. A final weapon. By using the power invested in me, their Elements of Harmony now possess the ability to fuse to create the ultimate Element: The Super Element of Righteousness."

"When the time is right, and there's no other option, the Elements shall come together to create the Super Element. With the fusion, the Great Man of Righteousness, wherever or whoever he may be in the world, shall wear the Element and gain its abilities."

"From what I've accumulated, the warrior should be stronger than the main six Elements tenfold. The speed to travel across the planet in minutes. Triple the durability of graphene. And enough strength to control the sun, the moon, the stars, love, hate, and in time, reality itself."

"When peace returns, the Elements will forever be fused, and the Bearers of the Elements will no longer be able to call upon their Elements in times of need or want. They will be remembered, but will never return to their duty as the Elements of Harmony."

"I've already given the Element to the other side as their time is already at their doorstep. I believe in this world that day will not arrive for another nine thousand years, and when that day comes, this world will change forever..."

Celestia stared at the book. She remembered nine thousand years ago seeing Christian. If he prophesied that in that time, an evil would arise, who's to say it isn't true?

Twilight witnessed firsthand the capabilities of this Super Element. She'd believe it in an instant. How could she keep the peace in Equestria, nay, Equis itself if it was doomed kiloyears ago?

Was the end really on the rise?

"Princess? Are you okay? You're sweating." Celestia returned to Equis and lost a bit of balance. She steadied herself and answered, "Y-Yes Twilight. I'm quite alright. You found what you are looking for, did you not? Let's make haste up to the surface and-"

"You're scared, aren't you." Celestia froze as she began down the floating path ahead. "I'll be honest with you Twilight... I'm horrified. But, if you've seen the powers of this Super Element, I guess the only thing we can do is plan, and wait."

"That sounds like a good idea to me. This whole righteousness thing goes deeper than I thought." Twilight smiled, "Thank you for showing me all of this, Princess. I was afraid that'd be the death of me."

"Death from a lack of understanding? You sure do value knowledge, don't you Twilight?" Twilight blushed, "W-Well, that's me for you I guess."

"Come, Spike and the guards are possibly worried for us right now. And a simple question could result in a national tragedy." Twilight tilted her head, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that there's a reason that only alicorns and Element Bearers may enter." Twilight tried to connect the dots before being hit with a rogue wave of anxiety and concern.

"Oh shit! I-I-I mean, Oh no! We gotta hurry Princess!" Twilight galloped down the pathway and exited the large egg-shelled library while Celestia remained still and thought to herself.

Well... she must've been quite exposed to Noah's language... I hope that doesn't spread. I'll be in a world of trouble...

(Please leave a comment. I enjoy reading what you have to say. )