Prologue: The Star Has Returned
Prologue
Princess Celestia lifted her head up to the sky, where a star was falling across the sky. She watched with fear in her eyes as it soared in the night, so bright that even the clouds could not hide it. She tried to use her magic to stop the star from falling, but her magic could not reach to the star. She glanced around her room, and, sensing no pony around, trotted to her library.
She didn’t even have to look it up; she knew exactly where the book was. She trotted quickly up the stairs to the third floor, to the fifth row of shelves, on the right side, in the center. The only book Celestia had refused to let her most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, read. The book of the Dark Stallion, Black Star.
The princess had a grave look on her face as she pulled the book out of its place on the shelf. Its glossy black cover glistened in the lamplight, and the silver buckle that kept the book closed was still looking as new as ever.
Celestia carried the book back to her bedroom and set it down on her desk. She opened it cautiously, growing ever so aware of her sister’s nearing presence. The princess glanced out her window and saw the star galloping across the sky, taking its time, as if knowing its presence was unwanted and didn’t want to disrupt anypony.
She turned back to her book, unaware that she had been flipping the pages with her magic. She took a look at the page she had stopped on, and her eyes grew wide with fearfulness. She gulped and forced herself to read the passage.
“Black Star cried triumphantly, thinking he had beaten every last pony in the land. But he did not expect two alicorns to survive; two alicorns who would one day rule the whole country. One of them, the eldest, stood up on shaky legs, and used her last bit of strength to force the dead microscopic planet on top of the dictator. Black Star glared at the two alicorns, and said with his final breath, ‘One day, you little alicorns. One day, I will come back, as I came this time. And I will defeat you.’
The alicorn who dropped the planet on the now dead pony wore a grim expression, and said into the wind, “We’ll see about that, Black Star. But if you ever do somehow come back, my sister and I will be ready. And we will defeat you. And you will be destroyed.
And with that, Celestia and her sister Luna ran off to tend to the wounded, and begin their reign as princesses of Equestria.”
“Sister?” came a voice from behind Celestia. She jumped and quickly shut the book, trying to let her sister not know what she had been reading.
“Yes, Luna?” she said brightly. But one look on Luna’s face told her she had not done enough. Luna’s eyes wavered from her sister to the window. She took deep breaths and slowly walked over to the window.
“Sister… tell me it is not so. Tell me he has not returned!” Luna whipped around, looking at Celestia with frightened eyes. Her heart slowly beat faster with each dreadfully long second Celestia did not answer.
Celestia closed her eyes. “I-I believe he has returned, Luna,”
Luna gasped. “No! Y-you killed him! He can’t be alive, Celestia! It’s not possible!” But in her heart she knew that it was. Black Star was back. And they were not ready.
