//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Arcane: Quest For The Dragonlore 
// by Forestlove 
//------------------------------//


"I'm here, Princess Celestia."


The Princess whipped around at the sound of the ominous voice to face the door, her eyes flashing with worry. "I don't remember leaving the door open," She thought, staring out into the inky black hallway beyond. "And it's the middle of the night!" "Who are you and why have you come here? Announce yourself." She said, trying her best to remain calm. "Oh, you know who I am."The voice replied.
A gooey-looking purple substance began to ooze into the room through the open doorway. It stank like death and moved in unnatural and erratic ways. The Princess started to back away, her eyes widening. "Guards! GUARDS!" She yelled, backing into her desk. "That won't help you." The ooze said plainly. Its deep and sickly-smooth voice made her want to vomit. "Why?" Princess Celestia asked, the slightest bit of fear creeping into her voice. "They're always there for me." At this the ooze formed a tentacle on one side and shook it playfully.


"I killed them."


The Princess gasped and stumbled backwards, accidentally tipping over her chair. "How could you!?" she whispered in horror, her pupils contracting as fear overtook her. "And...What are you!?"
At this the ooze began to change shape. It spiraled upward toward the ceiling, writhing and jerking in wild movements as it formed into...


A pony?


But this was no ordinary pony. As soon as it finished forming the Princess wished that it had remained in ooze form. The pony was of an ungodly height, even taller than her. It was black and shiny as oil, and leathery dragon wings grew from its shoulders. Its mane and tail were made of strings of ooze, which dripped and stretched and moved as if they had minds of their own. The pony wore dark gray armor which looked to be made of iron, and it had sharp white teeth like a dragon's. Two metal-gray ram's horns jutted out of its head. They looked as sharp as knives. But the most frightening thing about the creature was its eyes.
They were pure purple--the same shade as the ooze. They had no whites, no pupil...Just...Purple. The solid orbs stared at the Princess, and Celestia felt as if they were examining her very soul.
Princess Celestia tried to run, but found that she could not lift her hooves from the ground. "Don't try to escape. I cast a petrifying spell on you." The monster said. "You...You still have not answered my question!" Princess Celestia retorted weakly, her legs shaking and her heart beating fast. The beast just smiled menacingly. "I am Kwos. You may know me, and you fear me for a good reason. As you know I plagued your family once before, when the world had just been created. Thousands and thousands of years ago. Oh, your great great great grandfather defeated me and trapped me in the Crythis star, but that was not enough. I waited and waited for an opportunity to come back and exact my revenge. My opportunity came when you sent your little sister, Princess Luna, to the moon for her thousand-year exile. By doing so you broke the magical barrier that surrounded the earth. You thought I was dead." Princess Celestia grimaced and nodded. "You speak the truth. I was a fool." "Of course. Anyway, I couldn't go back by myself, of course. I needed help from a living pony. But you provided that as well."
Kwos stepped closer, never ceasing to stare at the shaking princess. He lowered his head until their noses nearly touched, chuckling evilly. "I befriended your sister. She thought that I was only a star with a soul that was lonely and wished to be her friend. Of course I encouraged this. It was so easy. All she needed was someone to listen to her and sympathise with her--someone to help her turn into Nightmare Moon and encourage her to return home and defeat her uncaring and selfish sister." At that the creature lifted his head and laughed. "She cried when she decided to return home because she couldn't take me with her. But I showed her a way." He said with a wink. "Oh, I showed her a way. I told her that she could seal me inside her tiara and that I could be with her forever. She did, of course"
"Why didn't she tell me?" Celestia whispered, her expression changing from one of fear into one of agony and sorrow. "Oh, I told her not to." Kwos answered, leaning in closer. "Didn't you ever notice the extra diamond on her tiara?" The pony stared intently into the Princess' eyes. "Come to think of it I don't remember you talking much to your sister ever since she came back. You're always pushing her away and saying you have something else to do, someone else to talk to. Do you even care about what she has to say?"
The Princess' eyes filled with tears. "Oooh, I see now that I WAS right. You really DON'T care enough about her, do you? Not enough to notice that she had brought another pony home with her. Hah! It's quite funny, actually, when you think about it, isn't it?" He said with a giggle. "But of course, you wouldn't understand." Kwos absentmindedly trotted over to the window and looked out at the night sky. "I do believe she had a bit of a crush on me." He mused, staring steadily at the moon. For a moment he looked almost peaceful.


But that didn't last.


Kwos turned his head back toward Princess Celestia and grinned. "But now it's time for me to do what I came for. I have waited this long to wreak havoc upon you and your family and now I must do it. It really is a shame that you didn't pay enough attention to your sister. You could have prevented all of this if you had."
With that the abomination reared up and a ball of magic began to form between his horns. It grew and grew until it was almost the size of a foal's head. "Time to send you to the moon." He sneered, lowering his head to touch Princess Celestia.
When the ball of magic touched Celestia it began to envelop her. She screamed and tried once again to run, but to no avail. At that moment Kwos grinned wickedly and leaned even closer to whisper in the Princess' ear.


"She called me Starry."


As soon as the ball of magic finished enveloping Princess Celestia she was teleported away. Kwos, looking satisfied with his work, trotted out of the room back into the night-black hall.
Little did he know that Princess Celestia had had just enough time to magically write a short letter and zap it over to her favorite studen't house.