Magus. The title coveted by earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, and solar ponies alike. Long before the Princesses came to rule Equestria, there was a tumultuous period of transition as each of the four tribes tried to reconcile with each other and form a strong pony nation.

To achieve this, they created the Council of Magi. A gathering of the four strongest pony mages in all the land, one from each tribe. From the earth ponies, a Geomancer named Avanlanche the Unstoppable. The pegasi, a lithe  wind mage called Lunestra the Silent. The unicorns, a water molder known as Sonus the Persistent. From the solar ponies, a flame shaman known as Ignis the Searing. Each pony respected each other for the mastery of their individual arts, and so peace was achieved amongst the four tribes.

This continued for a half-century before one by one, the Magi grew weaker and closer to death. In order to continue the Council and thus keep the nation bound together, they adopted a system of holding tournaments within each of the four tribes to determine the successor for each Magi: the Magus Apprentice. Being determined as the strongest mage of their generation, each Magus would train his or her apprentice in all the ways of their magic and thus heightened their prowess until they were ready to take over in the Council of Magi.

However, something went wrong. During the first Tournament of the Sun, the entire solar pony tribe had been destroyed, without a trace of what had caused such a fate. With no apprentices left to teach his skills to, Ignis the Searing resorted to one desperate measure: he froze himself in a body of light, to remain in stasis until one suitable to learn his art would re-appear in the world and take over as the Magus Firus.

Centuries would pass before his hope would be rewarded.

They called him Starswirl. The Father of all Magic. Greatest Conjurer of the Pre-Classical Era. And the last Magus of the pony tribes.

Artemis is just your average librarian. Apart from the fact that he's the librarian of the Royal Canterlot Library. And Chief Scholar of the Royal Archives. He's acerbic, quick to anger, and reclusive, and nopony in their right minds would associate with him.

Or would they? Follow Artemis as he is forced to take a brief vacation in Ponyville, recording the events of his daily life.

Hey, maybe he'll even find love at the end of it all.

EDIT EDIT: This story is now cancelled but holds possibility in the future of being revised and overhauled.

EDIT: This is my first fanfic, I would please like for anypony to give me constructive criticism so I can write the rest of the story in a higher quality! This story is going to take a while for me to finish, so there's lots of time for me to improve on it.

By the power of the Elements of Harmony, Nightmare Moon had been cast out from Princess Luna and peace was restored to the land...

But what if the Elements had not been enough to defeat her?

The year is 2000, around the time of the Summer Sun Celebration after a millenium of  peace and prosperity. On what was to be the brightest day in Equestria, the stars aided in the escape of Nightmare Moon from her Lunar exile, throwing Equestria into a dark and everlasting night. The Elements were scattered by Nightmare Moon before the friendship of the Mane 6 could fully utilize them, and thus Equestria was claimed by night.

With her solar highness missing and presumably dead, the citizens of Equestria had no choice but to kneel in terror in front of their new soveriegn.

A century passes. In Ponyville, a group of friends had been wandering around past the ridiculous curfew that had been set since the beginning of the Lunar regime when some of Nightmare Moon's guards had come across them. Alarmed, they each ran off in a different direction, promising to see each other the next day.

One of these friends, a unicorn named Artemis was in the middle of making his escape when he came across a small cave. He dove in to take shelter for a while when he stumbled across a discovery that would change his life- and possibly those of every pony in Equestria- for the better.

Inside the cave,  he discovered the Celestial Tomes - books that outlined the entire fate of Equestria. Within these mystical pages, the young stallion discovered a way of ending the eternal Darke and bringing sunlight back to all of Equestria...