Prologue
A Shadow Returns
“Honestly, Princess Luna, I do not know how you managed to do all this with one simple scroll seeker spell.” The aged cream colored librarian unicorn sighed with exasperation.
All around her lay scattered scrolls of various sizes. A pair of bookshelves leaned half tipped over against their studier brothers. In the middle of this mess stood a purple unicorn pegasus with a flowing mane of stars, a dark crown rested on her head, and she wore silver horseshoes.
“Truly I am sorry dear Scroll Keeper; thy scrolls swarmed all around me without warning. I know not what went wrong,” Princess Luna apologized, her face and eyes downcast momentarily as a pained whimper threatened at the edge of her voice. She pushed back the whine, lifted her head back up, and fixed her eyes as calmly as she could on the librarian.
She stood as straight and tall as she could manage, trying to maintain her air of royal dignity despite what had happened. Princess Luna did not want to admit it, but disasters like this were happening with greater and greater frequency around her. It was as if her magic was turning against her and she could not do anything right anymore.
How embarrassing was it that a ruler of Equestria could not properly retrieve a scroll without causing disasters like this?
The old librarian mare’s expression softened. She could see that the Princess was distraught enough over the whole matter and needed no further chastising. The unicorn had heard stories of late about the Princess’ misfortune, how strange accidents kept happening to things around her and more recently she had heard that accidents were even happening to the ponies around her.
“It is alright Princess Luna, quite frankly I have this new assistant, and she cannot seem to put away anything correctly. I was going to have to reshelve this section anyway. Why don’t you attend to some other business? When I find the scroll you were looking for, I will send it to you, wherever you may be.”
Princess Luna was about to protest that the aged mare should not have to clean up her mess alone and insist that she should help. However, she quickly realized that even if it had been appropriate for royalty to perform such a menial task, the old mare just wanted to be rid of her as soon as possible much like the rest of the castle.
So, with a sad sigh, Princess Luna gathered up what remained of her dignity. “Very well. We are most grateful to thou, dear Scroll Keeper. Please send the scroll to my royal chambers when you are able to find it.”
“As you wish, Princess,” The cream colored mare nodded curtly, which Princess Luna returned before leaving.
The librarian turned back to the mess and once again let out a long sigh, her evening would be wasted cleaning up the Princess’ mess. It took several hours, but finally, the librarian had the shelves, scrolls, and books back into place. There had been a few misshelved articles that she had found and returned to their proper section, so she really would have to have a talk with her new assistant in the morning.
Now all she had to do was finish up a bit of her own work then she could finally go home and get some much-needed rest. However, as she made her way back to her office, there was a sudden powerful gust of wind that snuffed out the libraries candles and plunged it into gloomy darkness.
“Oh great, now what?” The old unicorn grumbled to herself. The annoyance that played across her face deepened to near anger as she conjured up a spell to set her horn aglow.
The candles were set to automatically light themselves when Princess Celestia lowered the sun but had to be manually relit if they went out during the night. The cream color mare took this as a bit of good luck since now she would not have to go and blow out each candle herself. And yet she could not help but wonder what had happened, as there had never been a draft in the library before.
Suddenly, the room echoed with the eerily loud sound of clopping hooves coming from behind the old librarian. She jumped at the unexpected noise and whipped around to see what was stalking around the library so long after it had closed, but found only empty aisles and rows of bookshelves. Looking up and down the rows for several long minutes, the librarian found nothing and the sound had gone almost as quickly as it came.
Deciding that the noise was just some strange acoustic trick brought about by the recent renovation and reorganization of the library last month, the old mare turned and started back to her office. She had only taken a few steps when the sound of beating wings and a rush of air as if something had just flown past her, caused the cream colored unicorn to jump again. This time, the old librarian shone the light of her horn up to the ceiling above and all around her, but once again found nothing.
She was about to pass it off as another acoustic trick caused by the mysterious draft, the fault of poor workmanship during the renovation she imagined when there was a sudden flash of magical energy. She turned to see one of the bookshelves teeter and creak with strain before falling towards her.
With surprising agility the old mare leaped forward, slipping past the shelf before it crashed into the floor where she had been standing. It cracked and splintered, spilling its contents all over the floor. The old mare panted, more due to fear than exertion, and stared wide-eyed at the fallen shelf.
What was happening? She pondered in horrified astonishment at how close she had been to meeting her end, strands of her gray mane had slipped loose of their bun and fallen across her wide eyes, the pupils shrunk to pinpricks. Her stomach sank as if she’d swallowed a heavy stone and her knees shook like jelly beneath her. She laid there frozen in fear wondering if moving would cause another shelf to fall on her.
The shelf had not been knocked over the wind or bad luck. No, somepony else was there with Scroll Keeper, trying to kill her. She needed to get to her office, convinced that she would be safe there. It had only one entrance, so she would be able to see whomever it was trying to get her before they could reach her.
She moved forward, but around her more shelves started to wobble. She jumped forward, dodging one, nearly jumping right into another. She quickly jumped back, trapping herself between the two fallen shelves. Another fell just short of her to her left as if to emphasize how trapped she was, and all she could do was duck for cover as the shelves all around came down on top of her.
The library was still and quiet for several long moments before the sound of groaning filled the room. The old mare slowly pushed her way through a narrow space between two fallen shelves. Her body was wracked with pain as scrolls and books fell away from her, her strength finally giving out with only half her body extracted from the fallen shelves. With barely any strength left, she could only hope that the sound of the falling shelves would soon bring the guard ponies to investigate and hoped too that her attacker had left believing the job to be done. After a few long moments, she decided she could not just lay there and do nothing, so she gathered what remained of her strength and set her horn aglow so that the guard ponies could find her more easily.
Soon after, the librarian heard the sound of clopping hooves and the old unicorn turned her head to look. However, rather than a concerned guard pony, the cream colored mare saw a dark purple pony standing over her looking down with contempt. The old mare’s eyes shot wide with terror and a name came to her quivering lips.
“Nightmare Moon...”
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Princess Celestia watched the paramedic ponies load the delirious mare into the medical carriage. She had looked over the scene herself; a half-dozen shelves knocked down all intended for the old librarian they had found under the last few. She had several broken bones and severe bruising all across her body, but she would be alright in the hands of the Canterlot medical staff. What was far more concerning was the one whom the old mare was accusing of the attempt on her life.
Dozens of students had seen Princess Luna and the old mare in the library arguing over the shelves that princess had accidentally knocked over. Ponies were already beginning to believe that Princess Luna was cursed and that accidents were doomed to happen to anypony who was around her. However, now it was beginning to seem as if these incidents were not the result of some curse but rather revenge against any minor slight against the princess of the night.
Of course the more accidents that occurred, the more ponies avoided her, and the more ponies avoided her, the less sure of herself Princess Luna became. Before, Princess Luna had been returning more to her old self and her duties as Equestrian Princess of the Night, now she hid herself away more with each incident.
Still, as concerned as Princess Celestia was with her sister’s welfare, she could not ignore the warning signs. Nightmare Moon was an angry, spiteful pony, and if she were resurfacing in Princess Luna again, these incidents would just be the beginning.
Why was this happening? Wasn't a thousand years of separation not enough of a punishment? She had thought she had fulfilled the prophecy by trusting Twilight Sparkle and her friends to take up the Elements of Harmony and undo the evil that was Nightmare Moon. What if the oracle’s warning that Luna would never be able to escape her punishment was true, and no matter how clever Celestia thought she had been there was truly no way to avoid that fate.
Shaking the thoughts from her mind, Princess Celestia sighed and opened her wings, taking a few galloping steps before lifting herself into the air. She flew swiftly back to her throne room and, in that time, decided that to put her trust in the hooves of her most dedicated student. Twilight Sparkle had once already saved her dear sister when she could not, and so perhaps she and her friends could do the same once again.