The Dark Defender: False History

by Lord King Cocoon


02 - The Foreverfree Empire

“Come on, Ecko. I know you don’t like going to the doctor. But it’s for your own good,” Fluttershy said as she attempted to coax a young filly to follow her out of the cottage. The filly was gray…just gray. There wasn’t more to say about the filly other than she was a gray pegasus filly. Her mane and tail were somewhat unkempt, but resembled Fluttershy’s mane and tail somewhat. She also had Fluttershy’s kind and gentle eyes. Though her eyes themselves were not normal. Her eyes had no pupils and were just a gradient of grays, becoming white where the pupils should be. Ecko was born without the ability to perceive sight.

But it wasn’t her blindness that was the strangest part. The strange part was that to compensate for her blindness, Ecko was born with the ability of echolocation. Twilight theorized that perhaps this was caused by some residual magic from when Fluttershy had become Flutterbat.

“But why don’t other kids my age have to go to the doctor as much as me?” the gray filly questioned, apprehensive about leaving the cottage.

“It’s complicated. But because your brain is unable to process sight, it means your brain is different. We don’t know how this will affect you in the long run,” Fluttershy tried to explain, “It’s one thing that you can’t see. But you’re echolocation means that your brain can process what most ponies can’t. Again, we don’t know if that will have an affect on you in the long run, since ponies aren’t supposed to be able to see sound.”

“But I can’t see sound. I’m blind,” Ecko said with a hint of sarcasm.

The change in her tone was so evident that Fluttershy could hear her smile, “You know what I mean,” Fluttershy sighed in frustration. As much as she loved her daughter, the only other pony who frustrates her this much was her brother, Zephyr, “You use sound as an alternative to sight. Besides, you shouldn’t be able to hear a smile, yet I could hear your smile.”

“So does that mean you have the reverse of echolocation?” Ecko asked, walking up to her mother, no longer apprehensive of going to the doctor. Fluttershy just rolled her eyes, knowing that was one thing Ecko couldn’t detect with her echolocation. Echo was still young. Still at an age where her mood can turn on a dime. And Fluttershy will sometimes have to use that to her advantage. It’s a case where patience is a virtue.


After what felt like a long train ride home, Twilight returned to her castle. She was greeted by Spike and Starlight Glimmer as always. But her focus was on the documents she’s been given by that strange librarian, Solanales. She wasn’t sure how much she’d trust him. But if there’s something about Equestria that she doesn’t know about, she wants to learn.

Starlight and Spike were confused when Twilight just passed them by with little more than a nod and wave. But they knew Twilight well enough that it most likely meant she had something to read and wanted to get started right away.

Up in Twilight’s room, Twilight put away her stuff before getting straight to reading the documents. Solanales’ words echoed in her head…

‘What I have will change your view of the history of Equestria, as well as things you may not know about the princesses. The fact is that the history you may know is not what it seems.’

Was it possible that the true history of Equestria was not what is taught in schools? Twilight wondered why Celestia would lie to her subject about something like that. But then she remembered something else the librarian said…

‘Just know that you may not think of the princesses the same way after reading these documents.’

Was it possible that the princesses had secrets to their past worse than the Nightmare Moon incident? But even if that’s the case, the past is in the past, and what matters is who the princesses are now…right?

Twilight was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn’t realize that she was subconsciously stalling for time out of worry of what she may learn. But one more thing came to mind that the stallion said that was more than just stalling…

‘I trust this knowledge to you, because you have a desire for knowledge.’

How did he know that she had a desire for knowledge?

Finally, her mind had nothing more to stall with and she opened up one of the scrolls. It was in fact a map of Old Equestria. Or to be more accurate, it was a Pre-Equestrian map. It was written in an ancient language, referring to Pre-Equestria as Liberum In Aeternum. Twilight had to check another scroll that was magically enchanted to translate ancient languages into modern Equestrian. The name given was loosely translated into ‘Foreverfree Empire’.

“Foreverfree Empire?” Twilight questioned, “Is that what Pre-Equestria was called? And does that make the Everfree Forest somehow connected to Pre-Equestria?” Twilight was becoming giddy at learning something new.

Twilight saw that the capital city of the Foreverfree Empire was located right where the Everfree Forest was now. It was called Civitas Solis, or ‘City of the Sun’. In the center of Civitas Solis was Templum Solis, or ‘Temple of the Sun’. Checking a modern map of Equestria, Templum Solis was in fact the old castle ruins.

“Wow, that castle existed before Equestria! This is so exciting!” Twilight chimed, “And all this information just from a map!”

Twilight would study the map more later, perhaps if the other documents referenced a location. So she opened up the tome she was given to her. Thankfully, the language was written in modern Equestrian, or at least modern compared to the ancient language of the map.

The History of Queen Sol Caelest and her Children

“I’ve never heard of a queen Sol Caelest before,” Twilight said, “If this is the story of her and her children, could the children be Celestia and Luna?” The only way for her question to be answered was to continue reading…

It was the second era of Equestria, the era of the queen’s rule. The newly crowned queen Sol Caelest had taken the responsibility of raising and lowering the sun and moon. It had been an exhausting task for the unicorns of Civitas Solis to continue to raise and lower…

“Wait, I thought it was Celestia and Luna that took on the rolls of raising and lowering the sun and moon,” Twilight realized. She knew that before the princesses came to Equestria, the sun and moon were raised and lowered by groups of unicorns. But it was Celestia and Luna who took the responsibility though, not their mother. At least, that’s what Twilight thought…

…It had been an exhausting task for the unicorns of Civitas Solis to continue to raise and lower the celestial bodies. But the queen had learned to bind her magic with them, making the task second nature to her.


Luna was standing on her balcony once again, curious about that foreign yet familiar sensation. It was getting late and was about time to raise the moon. Reaching out with her magic, she grabbed the moon and lifted it above the horizon.

Luna turned around to head inside. But instead, she was met by a strange pony, “Your life is a lie, Luna,” the pony said.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Luna demanded, “Who are you?!”

“Your memories are not your own,” the pony said, motioning towards the moon. Luna turned around to see that the moon wasn’t there. She attempted to reach out with her magic again. But when she did, she found nothing. The moon was there, but her connection to it was gone.

Luna turned back to the mysterious pony for an answer. But the pony was replaced by Nightmare Moon…


Luna shot up in her bed, a cold sweat on her brow. It was a new moon tonight, and Luna tended to have strange dreams during the new moon. But this seemed different. She couldn’t put her hoof on it though.

But before she could think any further about it, a young filly walked into her room. She was an orphaned changeling filly. Or to be more accurate, a changeling/pony hybrid. Her mother, Chrysalis, had been experimenting on changeling eggs as a way to create a breed of changelings that didn’t have to feed on love by infusing pony DNA into them. But ever since Thorax had shown that Changelings don’t need to feed…as well as overthrowing her rule, the project was scrapped.

However, one of the eggs she experimented on was a success…mostly. She was a ghostly white filly with a straight navy blue mane and tail with emerald highlights. She also had a unicorn horn. What would make her stick out among ponies was her dragonfly-like changeling wings and her silvery changeling eyes. And her ability to take the form of others didn’t allow for her eyes and wings to change. So she wouldn’t be able to hide among ponies.

Thorax had intended on taking the hybrid filly in. But when Luna came and saw her, Luna tended to bond with the filly. And so Thorax allowed the hybrid to stay with Luna.

“Mommy, I had a bad dream,” the hybrid filly whimpered, “Can I sleep with you?”

Luna smiled. The filly was at such a young age when Luna took her in that she basically imprinted onto Luna as if she were her mother. And seeing as Luna did basically adopt her, it wasn’t a wrong assumption.

Luna patted on the bed, “Of course, Dax,” Luna said.

The filly, Dax, jumped up onto the bed and snuggled up next to Luna. Luna would help to comfort Dax. But Dax being there may also help to comfort Luna, as the dream she had still laid heavy on the back of her mind. What could it mean? Loss of control of the moon, Nightmare Moon’s appearance, a strange pony who felt foreign…but familiar.

Luna would think about it later. Right now, Dax needed her attention.


Celestia was in the throne room dealing with some issues. It was getting late. Luna had already risen the moon. Normally, Celestia would be in bed by now. But she couldn’t help but wonder about what it was that Luna had been sensing recently. She had an idea of what it was, but didn’t want to believe it. But at the same time, she wanted it to be true. Celestia was conflicted. And the dream that Luna mentioned earlier didn’t help her mood.

As Celestia was lost in thought, Someone barged into the throne room. The guards came chasing after the intruder. But they kept getting deflected by magic. The intruder was a stallion with a maroon mane and muted purple coat. It was the librarian from Las Pegasus.

As the guards attempted to grab him again, they were all frozen in place. Or rather, time was frozen.

“Hello, princess,” Solanales said, venom in his voice when saying ‘princess’, “It’s been awhile since we last saw each other.”

“What is the meaning of this?!” Celestia growled with an uncharacteristic ferocity, “Who are you, and who do you think you are?!”

“You’re emotions betray you,” Solanales said in a calm yet cocky tone, “Your words say that you are unaware of who I am. However, your ferocity says that you know exactly who I am. But perhaps you aren’t just playing dumb. I’ll give you a moment to let your conscious knowledge catch up with what you’re subconscious already knows.”

It took a moment. But a look of realization came to Celestia’s face. “What is the meaning of this?” Celestia asked in a much more calmer tone, “And what are you doing here?”

“I assume the first question is intended to ask why I’m here. To answer that question, it’s simple. I just want a few ponies today to just be aware of the lies you’ve spread. Specifically about me…or rather, what’s not about me,” Solanales explained, “Changing history is one thing. But completely erasing somepony from history can really get under that somepony’s skin. As for why I’m here…it depends. Perhaps I wanted to see you face when you learned that your protégé will learn the truth about you. Of course you could order her to stop and hand over the documents. But then you’d show your true colors and reveal that you are in fact a higher rank than her. If you asked her, I’m sure she’s loyal enough to do as you ask. But then her curiosity will eat away at her until she asks for it back. And if you let her read those documents, she’ll learn the truth anyway. There’s nothing you can do that won’t reveal your true colors. There is one thing you could do. But you haven’t done it in over a thousand years.

“Then again, maybe I just came here out of nostalgic sentiment. As I said, it’s been a while,” Solanales said, his tone going from ominous to playful, “But then again, you should know better than to think I’m actually here.” Solanales then evaporated into a cloud that flew out a window. But before the cloud left, Celestia heard the a disembodied voice, “We’ll meet again.”

Suddenly, time resumed and the guards who were stuck in mid-air fell to the ground, “Hey, where’d he go?” one of the guards asked.

Thinking fast, Celestia came up with an excuse, “I teleported him away from here,” Celestia lied, “He won’t be bothering us again for a while.”

Celestia had successfully convinced the guards of her claim, allowing them to leave without concern. But then she felt something in the pit of her stomach. A sensation that she previously thought she had become desensitized to a thousand years ago…guilt from telling a lie.


“Apple Bloom, is everything okay?” Scootaloo asked, “Ever since we left the library, you’ve seemed out of it.”

It took a few moments for Apple Bloom to get her thoughts together, “To be honest, Ah don’t know,” Apple Bloom said in an almost worried tone, “The last couple of weeks, Ah’ve been havin’ strange dreams. Ah still don’t remember what the dreams were about. But Ah remember feelin’ out of it afterwards. As if Ah were disconnected from my body.”

“So what you’re saying is that you had another one of those dreams?” Scootaloo asked.

“Ah don’t know. Ah’m not sure what happened,” Apple Bloom said, “While we were at the library, Ah think Ah had one of those weird dreams while Ah was still awake.”

“You had a dream while you were awake?” Scootaloo asked. “That doesn’t make any sense. I mean, I’ve heard of daydreaming. But that’s not the same as an actual dream.”

“Don’t you think Ah know that?!” Apple Bloom snapped. But then she calmed down, “Sorry ‘bout that. Ah guess this dreamin’ thing is just gettin’ to me. Ah honestly didn’t mean to yell.”

“I thought I was the one who needs help getting through a tough time,” Scootaloo said with a slight laugh, “Why haven’t you told anyone about these dreams?”

“Ah didn’t think much of it,” Apple Bloom said, “Ah didn’t think it was an issue. And since everyone seems to think Granny’s death was causing stress fer me, Ah started to believe that mahself. And it’s hard to talk about dreams when ya can’t remember what the dream was ‘bout.”

“So, you can’t remember any of the dreams?”

“No…well, the one Ah had at the library Ah kinda remember,” Apple Bloom said, “Ah remember reaching for a book. But it was strange. It was almost as if Ah were seein’ things from my own eyes as well as from the perspective of the book. And then Ah thought Ah heard a voice sayin’ my name before Ah snapped out of it. That’s when Ah realized Ah never reached fer any book, and that the book wasn’t even there.”