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Ponies loved the light. After a time they learned to appreciate the night. There was nothing scary or frightening out in the black, not really. Not once did a single pony ever envision any of the horror to come. One of their princesses represented this very thing. Nothing terrible resides within it, how could there? Though known to be a bit eccentric she would never steer them wrong. Way back in the depth of time something did happen. Something which most ponies long forgot, when she took a step into the black herself. Only one really remembered that horrible affair, when her beloved sister allowed herself a moments weakness.

A moment too much, resulting in much of the great castle at the time being reduced to rubble in the ensuing fracas. Luna falling victim to such a desire was witnessed by relatively few despite the destruction wrought. Her rapid ascent to power and even faster removal from it left her very much out of the public eye, and easily lost to memory. Far fewer than expected even asked. Her later reintroduction to society was calculated, simple. Forgiveness is easily given when only one truly remembers. When it finally became overwhelming, she found giving over the reins of power to her was easy. Too easy. Nothing comes without a price. The princess of the night was given over to ruling without much fanfare.

Grumbles from the court, to be expected. It took a whole decade for Celestia to be ground down, and only a single not so stray bullet to end any hope for peace. With the final nail all but driven into the coffin, descent into a conflict with only one end was assured. Even vague memories hold their power. Her brief misstep into the dark did not go entirely unnoticed. The zebra nation fractured at that time. Thus the very foundations of the Zebra Empire began to form and solidify around that single incident. Unlike the ponies of Equestria who developed a holiday from the fragmented recollection of the past, beliefs in the form of superstition took hold instead. They blamed her for the nation collapsing.

About halfway through the war when zebra society learned just who was now leading Equestria, the seeds of dissent were sown. Before, Caesar found balancing the need for gems and associated expansion difficult. Now against the outcry it was an impossible task. In truth there was no chance for continued peace to begin with. Layer after layer of those little incidents that happen, happened. The kind that don't seem like they should mean anything to anyone piled on until they forced Celestia herself to desperately attempt brokering a peace deal. In doing so all she really managed was to open herself to attack, resulting in the loss of one of their greatest heroes.

As he fell the whole world fell with him into untempered warfare. 187 years after this war ended, a little rock fell.

"I do not like the feeling I get in here. Try the audio logs, maybe they'll have something on this place." He used the strange interface to do so. There was an odd warble to the sound coming from the tinny ancient speakers.

"It might not be very good or work. This stuff is so old." It scratched and crackled then began to play.

"Has you decided to use? Far been? Why I’ve been further more even decided to use go need to do look more like as anypony can. Can you really be far as even decided half as much to use wish go for that? I guess that one when really been far even as once decided to use even go want, it is then that he has really been far as even decided to use go want to do look more like. It’s just common sense." The group of four stared incredulously at the playing audio.

"Wh..what?" They all said in unison.

"Maybe try a different one." He played with the strange interface again. After a horrible click it started again.

A high-pitched nasally voice which snorted out a laugh, spoke.

"Are your cupcakes saggy, sloppy, messy, slippy? Nothing's more thrilling than cupcakes with filling, and you'll thrill anyone with our magic cupcake oven! For the perfect cupcake every time. Just put anything in there!" All four of them blinked in silence as it fuzzed out.

"Didn't that wacko pegasus say this was a secret military base? What is this? Try again." Hesitantly he engaged the next log in the list which only displayed 'Hardware adjunct failure.' That one was out.

After scrolling through numerous corrupted entries he finally found another accessible file.

"Uncomfortable in clothes no matter what you wear? Try decontouring magical fashion wear. Soft, comfortable. It's like wearing a cloud, because you are." All they could do was wonder why an old army base would have these recordings.

"These logs make no sense. They are surprisingly amusing, but what are they?" Their leader was just as confused as the rest.

"Well, he told us to find and bring back anything we can from here. Maybe they are some kind of code or something. Keep going." Sighing heavily he continued down the list. Many of the log files were inaccessible.

A while later he found another amongst the huge list. A heavy buzzing sounded over the speaker. Hearing it felt strange. As it slowly began to play a deep sense of foreboding settled over the group.

"Major, we're down here!" A loud skip in the audio made them jump a little bit.

"Major, major can you hear us?, we're coming!" The log trailed off into noise. They looked around uncomfortably.

"That..didn't sound like the others." A chill seemed to fall across them as they ventured further inside.

___

Now we're cooking. At least, somepony was. Was it with gas or fire? One wonders. One might also wonder if it might have been poisoned. Like so many things here, even the light casts dark.