Chapter 1
Every night, when Celestia lowered the sun, the stars came out. Few ponies knew the stories and reasons behind the precise placement of the many glimmering lights that were scattered across the sky, and most didn’t care. Only a handful dedicated more than a passing moment to study of the stars, and so most missed the fact that thirteen were most unlike the rest.
While others moved and shifted and brightened and darkened night to night, the thirteen that made up what the learned few called the Dog’s Head constellation remained perfectly still, glowing harshly compared to their brethren that danced around them. Twelve in various hues formed the outline of a hound’s head, snout pointed firmly at the Mare in the Moon, with a thirteenth emerald sparkle giving it a glaring eye.
For many centuries, these remained, rising and falling with the moon, the dog ever angry in its chase.
Then, came one summer solstice, where the Mare in the Moon disappeared.
Twelve stars flickered and fell, burning their way through the upper atmosphere.
As Nightmare Moon cackled and crowed before the crowd in Ponyville, Celestia was agape in horror, her eyes tracking the descent of the stars.
“No...Not the Arcana...Not now!” She gasped. She spared but a moment to glance at the green glowering glow of the thirteenth, sighed in relief, and charged her horn for a spell - only for a harsh snap to blast her head back, a spray of chocolate milk splattering across her coat and splashing across the walls. “Argh! Cursed anti-magic!” With a snort, she reignited her horn, disappearing in a golden flash.
As six destined mares raced through a deadly forest, the Princess of the Sun followed a blazing comet as close as she dared. Heat radiated from it as it burned through the sky, sparks and spurts of anti-magic scattering busts of chaos behind, coming close to breaking Celestia’s natural heat resistance that protected her from the aura of flame that shrouded the star.
Then, the object impacted. A thunderous crash shook earth and sky, a plume of choking dust and debris filling the air around the impact site.
Celestia risked a small spell, creating a brief gust around the area to guide the dust into settling quicker. It worked - for a few seconds. Then it fizzled, producing a series of pops that spawned a torrent of toads that croaked before dissipating into noxious-smelling gas that made Celestia cough for a few moments before she gave a hard flap of her wings and cleared the air.
Landing delicately and approaching the lip of the crater, Celestia peered down at the steaming center. In that deep hole, she saw a form of metal, beaten, folded, almost three times her size. Celestia studied it for a few moments that, for her, stretched into hours.
No movement.
A relieved sigh left her lips -
And the ground shook. The bottom of the crater fractured and fell, bringing the metal shape down with it into a pit so deep, the bottom disappeared into shadow.
Spikes snapped up from the ground, and the crater lips atop which Celestia sat quivered.
She leaped up and out, wings flapping to bring her out of the reach of the spikes as the crater snapped together like the jaws of a manticore. She ascended a few feet more as the shut maw rumbled, sank, and flattened into an unnaturally smooth surface, into which sunk imprints that formed grooves, lines, all coming together into the shape of a gem around a dog’s head.
“Oh no.”
A Few Hours Later
It was dusk again, many hours after Nightmare Moon was confronted, and purified, with the Elements of Harmony, Celestia’s disciple and her new friends bringing her beloved sister back.
“It’s so good to have you back Luna!” Celestia cried as she nuzzled Luna, the smaller, darker alicorn returning the affection and tears.
“‘Tis nice to be back dearest sister...but...you seem somewhat disturbed…” Luna drew back slightly, studying her sister’s face. Celestia sighed, stepping back and facing her sister head-on.
“When Nightmare Moon escaped...the Arcana fell from the sky.”
“What! No! Did The Diamond -”
“No, thankfully. That beast is still bound. And as far as I could tell, the Arcana are still kept asleep by the Elements’ magic. However, I was unable to recover any of them before the dogs took them.”
“I see. That is most troubling...why didn’t you inform your student and her friends?”
“I…” Celestia sighed, “I didn’t want to bring them down after they brought you back. And the Arcana...I don’t feel they are prepared to deal with foes of that ferocity. And if I’d told Twilight about the Arcana...they would try to track them, and I fear what might happen if they succeeded.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“The Elements have found new bearers, and I’m afraid that that means all the spells we cast with them...will cease to function. Meaning…”
“- That all the villains and fiends we ensnared with them will be freed!?” Luna’s eyes seemed to bug out of her head as she voiced the horrid thought. “Sister, we must -”
“I’ve already taken action with most of our old foes Luna.” Celestia interrupted. “I’ve expanded Tartarus and had them imprisoned in special cells within. It should hold many of our enemies quite well - the only exceptions being Discord, and of course, The Diamond.”
“Yes, Discord would hardly be stopped by the protections on Tartarus, and aside from being unable to reach him, imprisoning the leader of the Diamond Dogs underground…”
“Quite. But my point about Twilight is that, as the new bearer of the Element of Magic, if she learned of the Arcana and found them, I fear that she might only serve to hasten their release in an attempt to forestall their threat.”
“I...do not know enough of your student to say differently…”
“She will only seek to aid, but the chance of her accidentally aiding the Arcana...it’s too great to risk. So we shall simply do what we can from here, as she learns in Ponyville.” The two sisters nodded in agreement, and left to raise the moon.
From the balcony, Luna, for the first time in a thousand years, cast the spell that took hold of the great body in the sky and the world, and shifted. The sun’s rays sunk behind the horizon, and the moon began to rise to prominence over the earth - an eerie emerald star following close behind.