In Luce Lunae

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two royal sisters who ruled together, maintaining harmony in their kingdom.  The older used her powers to raise the sun, beginning the day.  The youngest used her own power to summon the moon and the stars, beginning the night.  For centuries, this cycle continued, and they brought about great happiness for the ponies they ruled.  But this could not last.

As time moved on, the elder sister grew jealous of her sister's beautiful night.  It was in the night in which the ponies relaxed and rested, weary from a long day's work in their various occupations, and it was the night, not the day, that captivated the ponies in its beauty.  More and more restless the elder sister grew, until one one day she refused to lower the sun to give way to the night.

The younger sister tried to convince her sister to lower the sun, begging for her to restore the harmony that had vanished in an instant, but it was for nothing.  The elder sister's jealously had turned her heart cold, impervious to the heat of her own sun, and she became bitter and cruel.  She proclaimed herself the Tyrant Sun, and demanded her younger sister step down as a diarch, letting her hold her "glorious sun" in the sky forever.

The younger sister, finally realizing that she could not convince her elder sister to abandon this madness, was forced to use the most powerful artifacts in existence: the Elements of Harmony.  Even as she lamented what she was doing, the younger sister activated the Elements, and defeated her sister, sealing her in the sun.

So it has been, from that day, that the younger sister ruled Equestria, the Sun, and the Moon.  Under her rule, the land has flourished, and peace has reigned ever since.

"Hmmm... The Elements of Harmony.  They sound familiar."  Twilight Sparkle looked up from her book and into the night sky, lost in thought.  'It truly is a beautiful night,' she thought idly as she wracked the library of information that was her brain.  Eventually, she stood up and picked up the book she had been reading.  It wasn't anything more than a foal's book, but she had read through virtually everything else in the main library, and the castle's archives were closed on the weekends.  She trotted out of the grounds and into her tower, intent on figuring out what these mysterious Elements were.  With any luck, they'd be in the book collection she kept in her tower.

She made sure not to shut the door loudly, not wanting to wake her baby dragon friend/brother Spike.  She was about to start pulling books down with her magic, searching for a copy of Predictions and Prophecies she just KNEW she had lying around somewhere, but her mouth chose that moment to unleash a yawn of epic proportion.  'I guess I'm a little tired, and I am technically on a break.  I can allow myself a little bit of sleep,' she thought.

When Twilight's eyes opened up again, the Sun was shining bright in her eyes.  Too bright.  She scrambled to her hooves, somehow managing to throw her blankets straight in the air as she dived out of bed.  She was too frantic to bother making her bed, so she just scrambled down the stairs, arriving in her personal reading room.

"Hey Twilight," a voice said as she reached the foot of the stairs.  "I figured you should get to sleep in, since it's our break and all."  Spike turned towards her, looking rather cheerful.

"Spike, I needed to get up early.  I wanted to research something I found last night in that foal's book I was reading."  Her extremely serious expression was returned with one of confusion, and then amusement.

"So you're telling me that you want to research a fairy tale.  Twilight, relax.  We're on a break.  The Winter Moon Festival is, what, tomorrow night?"  Spike replied.  This wasn't the first time he'd seen Twilight go on a study spree, and he was sure that she would regret missing the Festival more than she would regret getting less study time in.

"Spike, I need to figure this out.  It's important.  Where's that copy of Predictions and Prophecies?"  Twilight rapidly pulled books down from the shelf with her magic, tossing them behind her with a quick "No" into a stack that grew by the second.

Her frantic search was interrupted when Spike shouted "It's over here!"  She grabbed the book with her magic as she turned around, holding the book up so that she could read it as a helpless baby dragon landed on the floor.  She vaguely recognized that she had dragged him down, and she would have apologized, but she had more pressing matters.  "Elements... E... Elements of Harmony!  See the 'Soul in the Sun'?"

"The Soul in the Sun?  That's just a legend."  Twilight casually ignored the dragon behind her, who resumed his reorganizing of the pile of books she had left in her search.  She searched the book again until she found what she was looking for.

"The Soul in the Sun.  A myth from ancient times.  An extremely powerful pony who wanted to take over Equestria.  Defeated by the Elements of Harmony and imprisoned in the Sun.  It is foretold that on the shortest night of the thousandth year, she will return and bring around eternal day!  Spike, do you know what this means!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Uhhh, no?" Spike replied from behind her as he put away the last of the books she had pulled out.

"Spike, it's time to write a letter to the Princess!" Twilight said, levitating over a quill and a scroll to him.  He grabbed the objects before looking at Twilight expectantly.

"My wondrous mentor," Twilight began, pacing back and forth.  "In my studies of magic, I have discovered that we may be on the verge of a catastrophe!"  She was stopped by Spike's questioning gaze.  She sighed before continuing.  "On the edge of annihilation."  Seeing him still staring at her, she took a deep breath before continuing, slightly peeved by her assistant's spelling abilities, or lack thereof, before resuming her pacing in the opposite direction.  "that something terrible is about to occur!"  Without looking back, she restated "Happen," and she heard the frantic writing behind her resume.

"The mythical "Soul in the Sun" is actually the Tyrant Sun, and she is about to return!  You must make sure to do something so that the prophecy does not occur and she won't bring about eternal day!"  She waited for Spike to finish writing before ending with "I await your quick response.  Your loyal pupil, Twilight Sparkle."

They stared at each other for a few moments before Twilight prompted "Well?  Send it!"

Spike looked uncertain, and shuffled his feet before he replied.  "It's just that the Festival is coming up, and Princess Luna is surely busy."

Twilight's voice ringed with confidence as she said "I know Spike, but the thousandth anniversary of the Winter Moon Festival is when the prophecy is to occur!  Send it."  She saw him burn the scroll and the smoke fly out the window.

Spike looked slightly smug as he looked back at Twilight.  "I just hope you don't get your ho- BUURP"  His statement was cut off as he belched out a puff of smoke that rapidly condensed into a new scroll.  Now wearing a slightly saddened look, he grabbed the scroll and started reading.

My loyal pupil,

You know that I have absolute faith in you and that I completely respect you, but you must stop reading so many of those old books!

A/N

Aaaand its done.  Or started.  If you didn't read the first chapter author's note, just realize that I meant this to be VERY parallel with the plot in episodes 1-2, at least for now.  Leave constructive criticism and/or tips, if you want to preread and/or edit and/or have/know of/can make cover art, tell me through a pm or put it in the comments!  Hope you enjoyed.  Also, I'll probably end up rewriting this.  I won't change the plot or anything, but I might improve it some.  I don't write massive dialogue very much.  Can you tell?