Twilight looked up from her book on older kinds of spells when there was a knock on her door.
"Who is it?" she called. There was a pause.
*knock*knock*knock*
Hm. Maybe they didn't hear her. She trotted downstairs and opened the door. The tan Unicorn put the box of books down.
"You ordered some books?" the Unicorn asked.
"Yeah. There's plenty in here but when I visited the Archives a while ago some caught my attention, so I asked if I could have a copy of some." Twilight responded.
"Uh...huh. Well, enjoy." the Unicorn scratched his forehead before leaving. Twilight's horn glowed as she lifted the box onto a table. She opened the top and sifted through them.
"All records of pre-Equestrian history, that book on 'weapon magic', that series of adventure books, "Scar Horn the defender" and...what is this?" Twilight lifted the dusty, dark purple book out of the box and plopped it down next to it. Looking at the fact it looked worn and still dusty, it seemed as though it was the only copy.
"Well, another antique then! But what's it called?" Twilight asked herself as she dusted off the cover, but all there was was a picture of the moon. But for some reason a massive crack ran the whole way through the moon, and one side seemed as though it was blurred, like it was fading away. But it had been drawn to do so.
"Odd. Maybe it's just some creep's thoughts about the moon." Twilight thought aloud. Spike came downstairs.
"Oh, MORE books?" Spike grunted.
"Not just. Special. Old special."
"So?"
" This one seems odd."
"How?"
"No title, seems antique. Odd cover drawing. Look."Twilight briefly explained as she showed Spike the strange drawing.
"Huh. Maybe it's just some old adventure book and the writer forgot to give it a title." Spike suggested.
"Yeah, maybe."
"Tell me if there's any mention of valuable gems like a Fire Stone." Spike joked as he walked back upstairs.
"Yeah...yeah."Twilight responded as she thought.
~~~
It was getting dark, and Spike had fallen fast asleep, as had many ponies. But not Twilight. She wanted to read this strange book. She'd been occupied with Scar Horn. She sat a candle next to her and opened the oddly heavy cover. On the inside read 'Maarven: Fallen world'.
"Hm. Maybe Spike's suggestion is right. It was then she noted the two words scrawled in the corner in what LOOKED like charcoal.
'Vadarka namisen!' Twilight read aloud.
"The heck does THAT mean?" it was then her eyes glowed slightly, and she shot back when, in the depths of her mind, she heard a horrifying death scream and what sounded like a planet falling apart. Twilight leaned closer.
"Odd. Maybe it's about some ancient civilization! Cool!" Twilight suggested.
" But then why is it Fallen WORLD?" she added. She turned the page. A few of the words were faded or unintelligible but most of it was readable. It read:
'Maarven is like a moon, but not. Those of Equestria cannot find it, unless they could move freely through the stars. And they would not like what they found.
Maarven, thousands of years before even Celestia and Luna first appeared and defeated Discord, was covered by sprawling, advanced civilizations, far more advanced than anything even thought about on Equestria. But when a certain...there is no word for the one who appeared....appeared, Maarven quickly fell into ruin. But there is a tale of a hero, a strange character who could move things with her mind, among a great many things, who defended the people of Maarven and fought desperately to save the moon behind the moon. Most of this is speculation and guesswork, as the odd...journal I found in a meteor was mostly destroyed and only a small portion of what survived I was able to translate, over several years. The most notable sentences in it were ' We of Maarven wish we could speak with you. It is unfortunate that we cannot, despite what we can do.' I constantly ponder what they mean. I wish I could meet them, or anything left of them, and find out.
Maarven was not massively populated, but the cities, apparently, made it appear as though it was. Alas, from what I can tell, now they are not populated. I know nothing more of this world, so I will leave you the surviving pages of the journal and my translation. I have it copied word for word, anyway.' the book confused Twilight, as over these 3 or so pages the same sort of scrawl from the cover was written all around the text, some seemed to be calmed writings, others hurried, and even more seemed to have been cut off part way through being written. But they unusual thing was they all seemed to have GROWN from further in the book. Twilight turned the page. She must have sat there for at least 20 minutes staring at the roughly scrawled words 'I AM SO SORRY TAANVI' in a bad attempt at Equestrian.
When Twilight finally managed to pull her eyes away from the odd message she saw paragraph after paragraph of strange letters and symbols. Despite not being able to read any of it, she got the vague emotion behind it, wether it was happiness, sadness, fear, vigilance, whatever. Repeatedly there was mention of 'Taanvi' and when she read one paragraph written similarly to the odd message the words seemed to meld to at one point it said 'VANISIQUE KAMIDINIA KAVOI AM SO SORRY TAANVI KIMANA VO...' Twilight wanted to know who had written this. She flipped through several more pages and 'I AM SO SORRY TAANVI' messages, finally encountering a paragraph that used the same letters and symbols as before, but in a way that could be made out as Equestrian.
'Taanvi, I write this is in a hurry. I have little time to spare. I think I know how to save Maarven! From that tyrant! From everything bad that's ever happened to us! But I fear he may try to stop me, so I ask of you, friend and closest to my heart, stop that tyrant! Stop him from reaching the Palace of Maarven, or my plan will be nothing and Maarven will be lost, despite everything we have done. I hope I can see you again when Maarven is safe. I hope I can come with you and meet these friends of yours, this 'Celestia', everyone. See you soon.I hope.
Vanda' Twilight nearly cried. This pony had been trying to save his world AND this Taanvi, and yet, from the looks of the book and the same style of writing between this and the message, he failed. She had to find out more! Without a second thought Twilight slammed the book shut and, as she drifted off to sleep, planned what she had to do tomorrow.
~~~
The two Royal Guards moved their spears aside when Twilight approached. She walked through the massive gates and into the Palace in Canterlot. As she trotted through the hall, she tried to find Celestia, finally spotting her looking over something.
"Celestia!" Twilight called.
"Oh, hello Twilight! What an unexpected surprise! What brings you here?" Celestia asked.
"A rather odd book was in the box I got from the Archives. Strangely heavy, purple, no title. Do you remember it?" Twilight asked.
"Why, no, just that old series and that history book, I picked them myself. What about it?"
"Does a book with a picture of a cracked book ring a bell?"
"No. The only book I recall with a moon on it Is a book that goes into great detail on the Mare in the Moon prophecy, even more detail than that book you have."
"Hm. Odd. It was a dusty old book on a moon-planet called Maarven, which two ponies called Vanda and Taanvi tried to save."
"Now, THOSE two names I recall, but I don't know where from."
"And it had a journal pasted into it which was apparently made by the Vanda pony."
"May I see?"
"Sure." Twilight lifted the purple book out of one of her saddle bags. She handed the book to Celestia, who opened it and read quickly.
"What are these strange messages written around the edges?"Celestia asked.
"Don't ask. They make weird noises in your head." Twilight answered. Celestia nodded. She kept reading, and seemed almost saddened by some of the paragraphs.
"I can make out some of this. It's a language, no one knows who invented it, supposedly an old, long-gone pony folk. It's this Vanda fellow writing to someone. At first the bits I could read seemed ok, but here... It just gets worse and worse." Celestia explained. After reading a paragraph she scowled and stamped a hoof.
"This tyrant, whoever he is, MUST be stopped!" Celestia snarled.
"I think the time for that's passed. Read on." Twilight responded. When Celestia reached the final paragraph, where Twilight had stopped, a tear welled up in her eye.
"Incredible. Truly. I wish I could have seen this disaster. These two tried so hard to save their world, but it seems as though it was all futile." Celestia had a slight stammer in her voice as she tried to keep back the urge to break down into tears.
"I'm sure things would have gone differently if you were there to see it." Twilight responded.
"We need to find this Maarven, whatever the cost." Celestia lost a bit of the sadness.
"Have you ignored half of it, Princess?"
"What do you mean?"
"It says it's a moon, a separate world altogether, behind ours."
"Hmmm. Maybe Luna will know something."Celestia suggested, before calling her sister. A couple of minutes passed before the Princess of the Night appeared, greeting her sister and Twilight warmly.
"Yes, sister?" Luna looked to Celestia.
"Do you remember when you were on the moon?"Celestia asked.
"Yes..."Luna obviously didn't like talking about that.
"Do you remember seeing a strange second moon?" Celestia asked.
"Uuuh, I think so, why?
"Twilight gained possession of a book that talks of a second moon, called Maarven."
"What did it say?"
"Well the original author did not write much, it's the ruined journal in that mysterious language that forms most of the book."
"And?"
"It is written by a 'Vanda' and it tells of him and his friend, 'Taanvi', as they fight to save Maarven."
"Is it a story, a tale?"
"No. Looking at the journal, it happened."
"Oh."
"Yes. It has parts that seem like a story, but it all happened at some point. It is almost a...a true tale of a pair of heroes who tried to save their world, but their efforts were useless."
"May I see this journal?"
"Yes, of course."Celestia handed the book to her sister, who quickly opened the book.
"Do not read the words in the old language around the edges." Celestia warned. As Luna read, making sure not to miss anything, Twilight had some things to ask.
"Princess?"Twilight whispered.
"Yes?"Celestia responded.
"On the inside of the cover, there's a message that gave me the sounds of screaming. What do they mean?" Twilight asked.
"They mean 'Someone, help us.'. The noises are the sounds occurring when that message was written. It has an odd magic that gives you the sounds made there. If you closed your eyes you would have seen what the writer saw, too."Celestia answered.
"Do you know what the others said?"Twilight asked.
"I briefly looked over all of them."Celestia answered.
"And?" Twilight asked.
"They were all screams for help."Celestia answered. Twilight shut her slightly open mouth and her eyes widened. Those scrawled messages were the final words uttered, or written, on the second moon.
"They must have used a magic that sends it out, like a letter, in hopes someone would receive it and come to their aid. Looking at the age of the journal, it seems a bit too late to help. We should try to find out a bit more about what ended Maarven." Celestia added. Twilight simply nodded. Luna reached the final paragraph, and like Twilight and Celestia, did not go further, closing the book and giving it back to Twilight.
"I...I remember a few things of this 'second moon'. I remember seeing a strange grey planet, it looked as though it had a strange metallic mass of tentacles on it."Luna told them.
"That must have been one of the cities."Twilight suggested.
"There is no way we can find out more about Maarven's history, or an exact way to find out what happened to it in the end. Our little journey ends exactly where it started. With Twilight's book."Luna added, gesturing to the old book. Twilight flicked through the pages, sure there was more to this than a book and a devastated moon. As she passed the page where it first said 'I AM SO SORRY TAANVI' Luna looked to the floor, tears welling up in her eyes, and Celestia took a deep breath, having not seen that when she read it. Twilight flicked through the old pages, but accidentally flicking past the final diary entry, onto the next page. On it, it had a simple message:
"Taanvi, please, come back to us. To me."When Twilight read it she heard a loud, raspy breathing, rushed scrawling, booms echoing outside, and then a pair of doors slamming open, followed by the words: 'Silly fool! You have doomed us all with your silly plan! Your home, your friends, your Taanvi! All of us!' before the sounds faded away. Opposite the message was a strange symbol, supposedly the symbol of Maarven, as the word on the symbol actually translated to the word Maarven. Below it were the words:
'Thee who readeth this message; come to us, to our majestic word, to MAARVEN'. Twilight read the message aloud, and just before she read the last word Celestia seemed to move to knock the book away from Twilight, but it was too late. A purply-blue magic ring formed around Twilight, and the book hovered on its own, the symbol and words now glowing, all of them. As the magic ring rose up, starting to form a sphere, Celestia and Luna moved to free Twilight, but when they touched the magic they were thrown away, the forming sphere seeming to hiss at them for trying to interfere. The magic started to lift Twilight as the sphere neared full shape. The pages flapped about madly, faster and faster until they formed the image of a strange Unicorn-like pony screaming at her, tears streaming down their face, but the image grew slightly distorted, the flesh seemed to rot away leaving a skeleton screaming in apparent agony. The sphere had fully formed and Twilight was completely off the floor. Celestia and Luna had no choice but to watch in horror as the sphere lifted off the ground.
"Princess! Help!"Twilight screamed, turning away from the increasing horrific skeleton image screaming at her. Celestia was about to say something, when the sphere shot skyward, leaving just the fading sound of Twilight screaming for Celestia, tearing a hole in the ceiling as the sphere disappeared. Some Royal Guards ran in after seeing the magic sphere shooting off through the ceiling.
"Princess Celestia! Princess Luna! What happened? What was that?"a Guard asked the confused and shocked Princesses.
"That was Twilight..."Celestia answered.
"And an ancient magic." Luna added.
"Twilight? Where did she go?" the Guard asked.
"I do not know." Celestia answered.
"But we must find her!" Celestia added, looking down from the hole in the ceiling.
"I agree. We must make an Equestria-wide search!" Luna agreed. The guard nodded.