It was a lonely house, abandoned by its occupants as the Everfree Forest advanced. Grass grew up through the floorboards and vines snaked in through the windows. It was dark, as it always was these days; dark enough that one might miss the dirty orange mare sitting in the corner.
She tilted her Strutson up to listen, holding the hat away from her ear. The hoofsteps she heard could only be described as ‘dainty’. She relaxed slightly, no longer reaching for her bow. She recognized that pattern well enough.
The front door creaked open, then slid shut. The sound echoed in Applejack's ears even though she knew there was nopony around to investigate the noise. She relaxed further at the familiar face as a unicorn walked into the room. This newcomer was clothed in a deep purple outfit, almost black in the dim light of the single candle the orange mare lit as her new company sat at one of four rickety old chairs.
For her own part, the unicorn didn't visibly relax until she reached up with both forehooves and lovingly undid the bun in her mane. Royal purple flowed over the white coat of her neck, framing her face in a darkness that was somehow softer than the rest of the room.
Applejack leaned forward a little and began to speak conversationally. Her mouth maintained more than a hint of her now-permanent frown, but its corners did lift slightly. “Evenin', Rarity. What's the news from the castle?”
Rarity looked around, as if she could spot eavesdroppers through the walls. Then she turned back, face serious. “I didn't hear of any developments on the usual fronts. However…” A grin spread across her face, “Something quite unusual happened today. There were some unexpected visitors in the castle.”
AJ moved her ears forward to their fullest. If Rarity was smiling, that meant what came next would be juicy; and hopefully, useful to their cause.
The unicorn paused dramatically, speaking again just before AJ could get annoyed by the delay. “One was a little colt of a dragon.”
The farmer's eyebrows went up at that, but she remained silent, waiting on the promise of more.
“And the other,” Rarity took another dramatic pause, inducing AJ to subconsciously hold her breath, “was an alicorn.”
Now Applejack's eyes grew wide. She whispered her next words. “You mean, like, wings and a horn? An actual alicorn?” She drew back a little as a thought crossed her mind. “Was it Princess Cadenza?”
Rarity's grin fell away at the mention of the name. “I haven't heard anything about Miss Cadenza since she vanished two years ago.” She forced the memory away. “No, this alicorn was somepony I didn't recognize. A fourth alicorn. A new alicorn.”
“So, what happened?”
Rarity pursed her lips. “Well to start, the little dragon positively jumped on me, almost as if I were his mother. Poor dear, I treated him simply horribly. I absolutely loathe keeping up that act all day.” The unicorn looked down, staring into the candle's flame for a moment before continuing. “Both of them addressed me by name. They looked… happy to see me, as if we'd met before.” She looked back up at the Earth pony's eyes. “But what they said was stranger, still. They-”
A thud from above interrupted them. Applejack instantly blew out the candle, and the two mares held their breaths, listening to the sound of hoofsteps as the intruder made their way across the second floor, dislodging dust from the rafters with each clop. Applejack picked up her crossbow as the sound started down the stairs, training it on the door as the steps drew close. Rarity sat frozen, caught between fight and flight.
The intruder stepped into the doorway, a dark shadow against a black room beyond. Applejack could make out the silhouette of bat wings and the crest of a Lunar Knight. In the moment before she released the arrow into the shadow's face, it stepped forward, removing its helmet with a hoof and allowing a single beam of moonlight from a crack in the wall to grace a blue face and rainbow mane.
Applejack tried to direct the bow upward, but it was too late to change the flight of the arrow as it left its hold. Dread flooded her as she watched the arrow speed toward their guest.
The projectile froze just short of the guard's face, the newcomer recoiling only belatedly. The faint blue glow of Rarity's magic carefully placed the arrow on the table as Applejack and the fresh arrival caught their breaths.
The guard recovered quickly from the near-death-experience, walking over to take the third chair as Rarity re-lit the candle with a spark of magic. She spoke with a hint of laughter, despite the recent incident. “Hi to you too, AJ.”
The orange mare poured all of her effort into not shouting. “Rainbow Dash! You gotta be more careful, I almost shot you!”
Settling into the sagging chair, the guard shrugged. “Yeah, I noticed. What should I do, whistle or something?”
Applejack's scowl deepened. “Announcing yourself before comin' in would be right sensible, yeah.”
“As I was saying,” Rarity interjected before the two of them could go at it, again, “they claimed to be time-travelers.”
That got Applejack's attention. She turned back to Rarity with astonishment. “They said what now?”
“Time travel.” Rarity repeated. “Nightmare Moon seemed to believe them, and I think I do, too. They had no idea that Nightmare Moon is in charge, or that Celestia is… gone.” Rarity chewed her lower lip before continuing. “Nightmare Moon commanded that they show her how they traveled through time, tied up the poor dragon as collateral, and headed into the forest with some guards. I'm afraid I don't know what happened after that.”
“Lucky for you that I was there.” Rainbow Dash sat with her hooves crossed behind her head, leaning back in her chair so far that it was making faint creaks of protest. “The alicorn led us toward the outskirts of Old Ponyville. There was this weird old table with a map on it or something, just sitting there in the middle of the forest.”
AJ interrupted. “Could you find it again?”
Dash's grin fell a little. “No. Not to say I can't find the place again, that's easy; but the table disappeared when the strangers left.”
Rarity's ears perked at that. “Left, as in got away? How?”
The pegasus shrugged. “Magic. They teleported onto the table, hit it with something, and got sucked away by this dome that appeared overhead.”
“So they're gone?” AJ waited for Rainbow Dash to nod in affirmation. “Anything else you remember?”
Dash sat up. “Yeah. The alicorn knew about the Elements. She claimed that, where she came from, she had used them to defeat Nightmare Moon herself.” Both other pony's eyes grew wide at that. “There was also something about another pony using magic to mess with the past and stop Nightmare Moon from being defeated, but the alicorn sounded pretty confident that she was going to fix that when she left.”
They sat quietly in the candlelight for a few minutes as Applejack ruminated on this information.
“Ah'm not sure I believe this time travel stuff,” AJ eventually began, “but it's certainly not something we can ignore. If she claims to have been around to defeat Nightmare Moon in some other version of events, that means the her from our time may be out there right now. We need to find her.” AJ looked off to her left. “Sweetie Drops, write a letter to the Captain summarizin’ all this.”
A fourth pony, sitting just outside the candlelight, gave a sharp solute and whipped out a scroll from her saddlebags. Rainbow Dash's startled eyes fixated on the mare in the shadows, but she knew better by now than to ask how long Sweetie Drops had been sitting there.
“Rarity,” AJ turned back to the mare in question, “can you draw a picture of this alicorn? Oh, and the dragon, too.”
“I already have.” Rarity pulled a scroll out from underneath her uniform and passed it to Applejack, who unfurled it, looked it over, and then hoofed it to Sweetie Drops.
“And send this with it.” AJ said.
“Yes, Ma'am!” Sweetie Drops replied, and in a few moments, she was gone.
Rainbow Dash harumphed, having failed yet again to catch her leaving. The remaining mares exchanged a few more brief words before themselves disappearing into the perpetual night.
To Shining Armor, my Loyal Guard;
After one thousand years, my sister, my greatest mistake, is about to return. I cannot face her in battle; not again. I am sorry.
I fear that by the time you read this it will already be over. But she has not won; not yet. My last act will be to hide the Elements of Harmony. These six artifacts have the power to defeat Nightmare Moon, but only when they are wielded by their chosen Bearers. I task you with finding these ponies, wherever they may be. It is a task I myself failed, but I have high hopes for you. I was eyeing you for Captain of the Royal Guard, if all had gone well. Maybe that can still be.
When the Bearers are gathered, the Elements will reveal themselves again. Until then, the days will be dark, but do not let that cast shadows on the future. Keep working towards the dawn.
The stallion reached the end of the scroll, eyes lingering on the final words. He stood, adjusting his battered armor as he surveyed the collection of tents nestled up next to a river. Only the sentinels were awake right then; a half-dozen pegasus guards hidden in the trees around the clearing.
His gaze turned up toward the ever-present stars, and he smiled as one of said lights appeared to approach, coming in for a landing on his shoulder. The phoenix held a scroll in her claws, much like on that first dark morning.
He thanked Philomena and took the paper. The seal was generic, and when he unrolled it, the surface was blank. Shining Armor expected that. Weaving a small spell with his horn, the invisible ink glowed a warm gold and he began to read.
It was an odd bit of news from their contacts near the castle. He took a moment to glance back at the older message, the one from Celestia. An alicorn, who claims to have wielded the Elements? Could it finally be one of the ponies they were looking for? The bit about time travel didn't exactly fuel his confidence, but it was the first lead in a long time. They needed to find this mare, if she was still around.
He finished unrolling the scroll to read the rest of the message, only to find another piece of paper inside. Setting the primary message aside, he cast the revealing spell on this second item. Only a faint outline appeared. Shining Armor realized that it was a picture and poured more power into the spell. The image revealed itself in full, presenting what must be a rendition of the visitors mentioned in the letter. He stared for a long time.
His concentration - or perhaps trance - was broken by a familiar call. The soldier turned to see a youthful unicorn mare approaching. Her light purple fur was easily identifiable, as was the magenta stripe in her deep blue mane. It was his sister. She'd been the one to come up with the blank-paper spell, among many other things that kept the resistance going. He didn't react as she reached him.
“Good wake-time, Shining. I was up late thinking about the camp's food production, and I have a few ideas to increase efficiency. Would you like to go over them?” Twilight Sparkle held up a few scrolls in her magic for Shining Armor to see.
The commander was still for a few seconds, jumping when the mare prompted him again. He gazed at her silently as she waited. Finally he shook his head, though it was unclear if the motion was to indicate an answer or to clear his mind. “No, I think you have a better grip on that than I do. You can run it past Miss Jubilee when she wakes up.” He smiled faintly at the younger unicorn.
“Got it,” Twilight said. She smiled back before walking away, heading in the general direction of the cropland they'd set up a little ways downstream.
Shining Armor continued to watch her until she disappeared behind a tent, at which point he just watched the tent. His smile fell away, replaced with a light frown and a creased brow. He looked back at the picture of the unknown pony who had visited the castle. If not for the wings, it would be an exact portrait of… his sister.
“What the buck?”
Author's Note
I actually wrote this a while back. It's on hiatus immediately because I'm not sure when I'll be able to get myself to write more, but I decided to post it in hopes of sparking something.