In the ages of the ancient ponies, there was a great fire, through this fire came a dark Pony, this dark Pony was the beginning of a long Prophecy told by the Twilight Scrolls, there was only one young unicorn that could destroy this dark pony, this young unicorn was Firelight Stardust, born with the soul and mind of the ancient warriors.
A large vessel sail through the open seas of a misty, eerie ocean, carrying below decks a group of the most dangerous criminal Ponies in all of Equestria, guarded by strong knights of the King. In this group of Ponies was a lone strong Unicorn who always kept quiet, this unicorn’s name was Firelight Stardust, who knew he had a gift from the god’s, the gift which gave him the abilities of the ancient warriors. Firelight sat shackled like always, waiting for the ship to reach the cold land of Ponywind, said nothing to any of the other criminals, but just listened to them silently talk, hearing rumors and legends. They have been on the seas for two months now, a long boring trip of nothing but being shackled to a wall, and little to eat. As the guardsmen carried down more hay for the criminals, Firelight overheard a conversation between two large Pegasus’s who had their wings tied together, “Did you hear? There have been doors to the Daed opening all over Ponywind, the prophecy is coming true!” one said in a hushed voice, “Yes, I overheard the guards talking about it, and they’re taking us there? What is wrong with them?!” the other said in a quiet frantic way. Firelight was shocked, for he knew that the prophecy foretold the pony that would end the first coming would be the one who is gifted of the soul and mind of the ancient warriors, but he is the only one in Equestria. A dark smile came across his face; he was the one, the chosen one. And if he were to fulfill this prophecy, he would have to escape from his custody.
Firelight plotted, for weeks, how he would escape, whether he should try his luck and escape from the ship using a lifeboat for transport, or wait until they arrived to try. He decided he would wait, for he knew that if he tried now, the Lunar Republic would surely have knights waiting for him when he arrived. So he waited, for another week, looking out the boats small window, until he saw land, they were finally there, months of being on the sea, and they finally arrived, Firelight was happy, until he saw the docks, what seemed like hundreds of knights and soldiers awaiting for them, he knew he couldn’t escape now, he regretted waiting, but would not give up easily. As the ship arrived at the docks, guardsmen came down to gather the prisoners, and put them in tight shackles. Once the prisoners were accounted for, they were brought up the steps, Firelight breathed in happily as he has not had a breath of fresh air in months.
The knights lined the pathway as the prisoners walked to the fort. It was a woody area, no civilization in sight, and a cold deathly place. Firelight looked in front of himself seeing his breath in the air, listening to the guards giving their orders, “Move! Get going you worthless ponies!” the head guard yelled as they silently walked past him, not hearing anything but the guard’s voice and their own hoofsteps. “After today, none of you will ever see your pathetic lives again! You know where you are going!” the guard screamed again, Firelight looked ahead and could see nothing but a guillotine and a dark Pegasus with a tight black facemask on. Everything seemed in slow-motion to Firelight, walking slowly hearing his hoofsteps as he arrived upon the staircase to the guillotine, the faint sound of the guardsmen yelling at the ponies walking by, it was all a nightmare to him.
He looked to the top as he saw the Pegasus with the black facemask on look him into the eye, this shocked Firelight, because the Pegasus winked at him. He did now know what this meant, or what was in store for him, but he had only hoped the Pegasus was going to help him. Firelight looked to his left, as a pony said, “Hey, you, you don’t talk much, do you? Well, don’t worry, I’m here to help, I know who you are, I was sent by the Ghosts of the stars, we are a group, an ancient group dedicated to fulfilling the prophecies of the Twilight Scrolls, my name is Skyrain, and you see that executioner? Well, he is about to help us”
It was now Firelights turn, he walked up the staircase, as it creaked, his heart started racing, hoping that Skyrain’s words would hold true, a guard unshackled him as he looked over the edge, hundreds of Pony heads piled at the bottom, as the corpses were tossed off to the side, he looked into the executioners eyes, another wink, and a head nod gesturing for Firelight to kneel down to the Guillotine, the Pegasus’ hoof now gripped the lever, Firelight was now overly worried, for he thought that Skyrain had lied. But a minute passed by, Firelight looked up, he was frantic now, as he saw guards and knights in mid-air pulling out swords and beginning to fly, but they were stopped in time, it was an odd sight at first. He felt a hoof on his back as it pulled him up, it was the executioner, and alongside him was Skyrain. Joy filled Firelights heart, but he did not show it, he looked to both of them, and words began to cross his lips, but he stopped, Skyrain looked to him with a smile on his face, and the executioner took his facemask off, Firelight looked, words began to come out again, “Thank you”
The three ponies walked down the long dark lonesome road, staying cautious in case of an ambush from the Republic, sharing stories of their lives. “What exactly are the Ghosts of the Stars?” Firelight questioned, Skyrain looked to him, “Well, we are a group who has been around for thousands of years, our goal is to fulfill, or, in some cases, stop the prophecies of the Twilight Scrolls, you must be born into the Ghosts, like my father, and his father, and so on, but in special cases, we do let people join, like you, if you wish to do so?” Skyrain responded, “I would be honored” Firelight quickly said. “You know, you never told me your name” Firelight questioned the executioner with respect, the executioner responded, “I am Lucion, the mortal brother of the Dark Prince”, this alarmed Firelight, he stepped back hesitantly, “Do not fear, Firelight, Lucion is with us, he has been a part of the Ghosts for centuries, and if not for him, we would not have been prepared for The Dark Princes coming” Skyrain said stepping between Lucion and Firelight.
The group came upon a clearing in the woods, “We better rest for the night, we will be hitting the open plains soon, and we need to be at our best” Skyrain stated. The three settled in the clearing, making a campfire. As they lay out under the stars, they began to here talking, this startled them, they jumped to their hoofs, slowly backing to each other’s backs, they began to hear more talking, it seemed to come from everywhere, whispering from all corners. Firelight began to get angry, strangely, something was happening; he began to stumble as his eyes were becoming blurry, as he collapsed on the ground, Lucion and Skyrain looked back, “Firelight! Firelight! What’s wrong?” Skyrain shouted, raising his voice frantically, Firelight began to black out, seeing nothing now but white lights and strange stars, Skyrain’s voice began to fade away, “Firelight! Get up! Fire…” was the last thing he heard before his vision became black as he slipped into an unconscious state. The whispering became louder, now seeing black silhouettes coming closer, “It’s the Daed, a door is close, we must fight, or we must die” Lucion said with a determined look, the clearing was now filled with the souls of the Daed, whispering, the pair did not know what to do, knowing they needed to protect the unconscious body of Firelight, the souls now overwhelmed the two as they fought, but it was too much to handle.
As the Daed began to seemingly destroy the campsite and the pair, a blinding light shined, which stopped everything, the souls now backed up a step, Lucion and Skyrain lay on the ground bloody and beaten, they looked up to see Firelight’s body raised into the air, covered in fire, with glowing eyes, he dropped to the ground, with an astounding force, sending most of the souls backwards, still with glowing eyes, and an angry look, Firelight’s horn began to shine with fire like his body, now projecting fire from his horn destroying the souls and disintegrating them completely. In just a few minutes of fighting, Firelight destroyed all of the attacking souls.
He had stopped glowing, and was now back to his normal form, Firelight ran to Lucion and Skyrain, and helped them back to the ashes of the campfire, Firelight used his horn to light it again. He laid the two down, their injuries were not bad, just flesh-wounds, “Get some rest, I think we won’t be bothered again tonight” Firelight said to them, “What… What did you just do? What was all that fire?” Skyrain questioned Firelight in a daze, “I don’t know, we will talk tomorrow, get some rest” Firelight responded. As he lay next to the fire, he thought about what happened, it was odd to him, but it must be a form of his “gift”, he relaxed, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
Firelight awoken to a familiar face, it was Skyrain, “Wake up, Fire. I went out and got some fresh hay, eat up… and… Thank you, we would not have survived last night if not for you. You saved our asses” he said with a sigh. Firelight arose, taking a bite of the hay Skyrain had gotten for him, “What did you do last night, you turned into some kind of fire engulfed creature” Skyrain questioned, “I do not know, it was odd, but I was aware through it all, I felt a sense of power, and… It felt good” Firelight responded, Lucion looked over with a hung head, “It is your power, you have the gift of the God’s, use it wisely, do not abuse it, you will use this power to save Ponywind” he said with passion.
With that in mind, the three headed off on the road again, it would not be long before they reached their destination. Somewhere along the road, they came upon a post in the ground, on the post was a wanted poster, showing a rough sketching of a unicorn, this unicorn was Firelight Stardust, “Damn, I must be on every wall by now… What are we gonna do when we go to a town?” he said with anger, “Don’t worry, Fire, when we get to the Ghosts, we will have your name erased” Skyrain responded to Firelight. Though Skyrain ensured Firelight of his name being erased and his innocence returned, he still had a small amount of doubt and fear in his heart.
The group arrived upon a large tree surrounded by small trees, though they seemed odd, the sides facing the large tree were burnt, Firelight paid no attention to it. Skyrain gestured for Firelight to stop. Stepping ahead, Skyrain pulled a large piece of bark from the large tree, under the bark was a hole in the tree, in the hole was a lever, Skyrain looked back to Firelight, “Welcome home” he said as he pulled the lever and the ground began to shake and open.
