Prologue: The Last Entry
A glittering tome with images of stars and swirling galaxies emblazoned on it’ cover sat opened on his desk, as its reader looked over its pages in thoughtful recollection. “The best elements within us can spread light and virtue, and I know the people who represent them all."
The reader turned the next page as a picture of a blank stained glass window came into view. “--strength, bravery, healing, beauty, hope, and sorcery.” The reader read aloud, almost as if narrating his findings to an invisible crowd. His eyes glanced over the renderings on the stained glass portrait. He could see Rockfoot, Flash Magnus, Mage Meadowbrook, Mistmane, Somnambula, and finally himself, Starswirl the Bearded, as they appeared on the page.
He turned another page, unsurprised to see the six he had seen before, but now with another man standing beside them. He was younger in his appearance than even Flash Magnus, and sported a bowl-cut and was dressed in the brown simple robes of a scribe. “Myself and theses Pillars of Mystica were gathered together by another to maintain and share these powerful ideals"
Another page turn, and again Starswirl’s voice was stopped as he noticed another image of the young man. This time he was shown taking Rockfoot’s shovel, Mistmane’s flower, Somnambula’s blindfold, Flash Magnus’ shield, Meadowbrook’s mask, and his grimorium. “But we soon came to believe the man who brought us together only wanted that power for himself.”
He found another image, the group was scolding the man, before collecting their items and slamming a big wooden door in his face. “Cast out and alone, this power-mad man turned to darkness to satisfy his thirst. Transformed into a being of shadows, a walker of the Night, he returned for revenge – to extinguish the Pillars' light and rob the world of hope.”
The image led directly to another, this one of a being of shadows towering over ten feet tall. The page turned to show this Nightstalker charge Star Swirl and his allies. “To stop him, the Pillars and I must make a grave sacrifice.” The pages turned to show the six each take hold of what looked to be a crystal, then each transferring some part of themselves into it and burying it. “But we shall leave behind a seed in hopes that one day it will grow into a force to stand against the darkness for all time.” The pages of the book turned a final time, as the Pillars were seen charging the Shadow of their once trusted ally. “We must now face the fiend with the only plan we have…”
The location and voice changed as Sunburst finished reading the entry from Starswirl’s journal. The three princesses, the rest of the Bearers of Harmony, Starlight Glimmer and Spike all hung off every word as he spoke. “...I only hope it will be enough." He closed the grimorium before turning his attention toward his audience. “That's the last entry, and the final words of Star Swirl before he vanished.”
Chapter 1: Lost in the text
Celestia and Luna were standing as they listened to everything Sunburst had read, but almost immediately felt the need to sit down in their respective thrones, as both were taken aback at what they heard. As they let it all sink in, Celestia was the first to speak, “I've always wondered what happened to our old teacher. This is quite a discovery, Sunburst.” She said as she held her hand out, to which Sunburst started to levitated the tome to her. As she looked through it while showing it to Luna, “Where did you find this missing grimorium?”
Before Sunburst could answer, Starlight gave a chuckle. “It was in that blind buy at the antique store in Magiville.” Everyone sans Twilight and Sunburst turned towards her. “Long story short, Sunburst visited me, turned out he has more in common with Twilight, Trixie, and Maud then me. But despite how much we’ve changed we still love to play Dragon Pit.” Everyone still looked at her, “Another long story for another time.” Starlight gave a nervous laugh. Everyone was about to question Starlight but then they saw Twilight was pacing in place giddier than a child on Hearth’s Warming Day just before the giving of gifts.
After a second Twilight, out excitement, teleported right next to the princesses with a big grin and massively dilated pupils as she stared at the tome, “So it's genuine? You can verify that this grimorium really belonged to Star Swirl the Great?!” She asked in fanatic disbelief. Luna and Celestia looked at each other before taking one more quick glance at the tome’s pages to verify. They nodded when they knew it was indeed true. “From the looks of it, this grimorium was the last one he wrote before facing the... Nightstalker… I never heard of such of being.” Luna turned towards Celestia. “Tia, have you heard of this creature.”
Celestia place her chin in the space between her thumb and index finger, “I have heard folk tales, but there are so many out there. It’s more of a boogie-man like being than anything else.”
“But it was real? Right?” Rainbow asked as she called attention to herself and the fact that the Nightstalker has been pretty much written off as a myth.
Celestia could only shrug her shoulders. “It is an extraordinary claim and we don’t have any extraordinary evidence to support it, beyond the sheer number of region folk tales, much like the stories of Nightmare Moon.”
“So Star Swirl never told you about it or gave you something to back up the claim?” Spike asked as he munched on some rubies he had on hand.
Both princesses shook their heads. “Mother deemed that we were too young to be involved with the dangers they faced at the time, and with our various other lessons under the tutelage of Chancellor Puddinghead, Commander Hurricane and Princess Platinum, we had few chances to meet them. On top of that Star Swirl didn’t even introduce us to the other Pillars.” Luna answered.
“Now hold on one cotton-picking moment!” Applejack declared, bring everyone’s attention to the paladin. She brought her left hand up and seemed to press the air down like she was trying to pull a lever used as the braking system for a train. “Let’s see if Ah got this,” She took a breath and looked squarely at Celestia and Luna. “Rockfoot and Flash Magnus were real? They were friends with each other and with Mage Meadowbrook, Mistmane and Somnabula? And they went off with Star Swirl to face the Nightstalker, and then none of them were ever heard from again?”
Pinkie turned to look squarely at the reader and walked up to the 4th wall, and blocking the right side of her face with her left hand, “Yes, we just covered all that, I know it might come off as insulting to you, but it’s meant to convey that to us this is an outlandish notion.” Pinkie paused, “You all got it?” Pinkie smiled, “Great. You all are awesome.” As Pinkie was speaking to the readers, everyone looked in the direction she was facing and saw only a blank wall. They all then turned to each other and shrugged. Pinkie turned back towards her friends. “Okay, we’re good.”
Everyone blinked about three times before they all shook their heads and muttered, “It’s Pinkie Pie don’t question it.”
Starlight then spoke as she held her chin in thought, “So what happened to them?” She noticed Rarity start to move her mouth. “We all know they managed to defeat the Nightstalker, we all have eyes and we can see the light.” Rarity then shut her mouth with a huff. Starlight continued “But how did they beat the Nightstalker and what actually happened to them after the battle?”
Celestia and Luna both took turns reading the last few pages of the book and both seemed to have a hard time understanding the text. After a few more seconds, the two sighed in defeat. “My Bullion is rather rusty,” Celestia confessed. Luna gave her own weak smile as if she too was having a hard time trying to translate the old language. Celestia shut the book and looked at the cover, “But if my memories of Star Swirl serves me right, I am certain that there are answers somewhere within the pages of this book.”
Twilight cleared her throat and everyone turned to her, as she looked to the ceiling in an attempt to feigned modesty. “Well, I just happened to be an expert in Bullion.” She then dropped the act as she looked towards Celestia and Luna, or rather Star Swirl’s lost book, with a pleading glimmer in her eyes, “I mean, I've practically memorized every text about Star Swirl there is!” She all but shouted very much like a child in a toy store.
Spike groaned as he facepalmed himself. “Seriously. All of them.” He stated bluntly.
Celestia and Luna both shared a laugh. Luna took the book and rubbed it fondly as she closed her eyes. “We have fond memories of our old teacher.” She then turned to Twilight and began to levitate the book towards the much younger demigod. “If you could discover what happened to him, we would be most grateful.” Twilight accepted the book and hugged it close to her chest as a young child would a security blanket or teddy bear. This caused Spike to groan as everyone else had a slight laugh.
Sunburst, however, was not laughing as he too was smiling much like Twilight, “Can you think of it?” He asked Starlight as he grabbed her by her upper arms and looked straight into her eyes, giddy as a schoolboy. “Deciphering the last written words of Star Swirl, solving a mystery that’s millennia old,” He said looking to each of the others, his enthusiasm ever increasing. “Think of the research! The re-reading! The re-re-reading!” He finished squarely looking into Spike's eyes as he held out his left hand in a fist as if he asking for Spike to bump it with his own. The dragon signed and compiled before Sunburst stepped to stand next to Twilight as they both started to read the spell book with massive grins on their faces.
Celestia had another giggle before she spoke to Twilight and Sunburst, “I do believe you might need some assistance in your quest.”
Applejack then took off her hat and placed it on Twilight’s head, “Luckily, these two bookworms got a whole bushel o' helpers right here.” Everyone cheered in agreement. “Alright Y'all,” Applejack then cleared her throat as she looked towards the rest of her group. “To the library!” she declared as she pointed towards the doors of the throne room.
The scene changed sometime later, Twilight’s personal library/The Crystal Tree Library. Every book was off the shelves in various piles and states of open, and everyone was in some state of falling asleep or asleep. Spike replacing a fizzled out candle. He had black circles under his eyes. He yawned as he walked towards Twilight who was the only other person awake as she looked at the tome, a pencil in her left hand. “So did you figure it out yet, Twilight?” he asked. Twilight only shook her head as threw her pencil away in frustration.
Unintentionally the pencil hit Sunburst as he snored. This resulted in him slipping and thudding his head against the table he was at, as he woke with a yelp, there was some paper that he rustled before he righted himself. Once he adjusted his glasses, everyone else started to wake up. “What did you figure out?” he asked, clearly still in his resting state, he didn’t hear the question Spike had asked, or rather Twilight’s answer.
Everyone got up from where they were and walked towards Twilight each with questioning looks. Twilight sighed as she covered her face, she then shook her head, “Star Swirl was a genius, obviously.”
“Given what I’ve read in Clover the Clever’s own notes, and King Bullion’s memoirs,” Rarity retorted as she looked at the books that were closest to her. “I must question that assumption, Darling.” Twilight frowned at Rarity, however, the enchantress continued, “Star Swirl was clearly well verse and intellectual, but given his age, if King Bullion is to be believed, it’s hard not for him to know as much as he did.” Twilight gave the enchantress a scowl of disapproval. Rarity showed no signs of being phased by it. “But carry on.”
“Anyway, just by going through this tome, you can forget translating Bullion into our language. There are parts where his handwriting is like another alphabet system entirely!” She groaned as she covered her face, shaking in frustration.
Applejack walked up to the demigod and placed her hand on her shoulder. “Listen Sugarcube, we've been readin’, studyin', referencin' and cross-referencin' for three days straight now. That’s longer than Rainbow has ever sat down and read, even when the last Daring Do book came out.” Rainbow gave a weak laugh as everyone turned to her. “Heck, that’s two days more than she put into her written exams for the Wonderbolts before she realized how… well bucked she was if she didn’t pass.” Applejack than had a soft laugh which got her a growl from the elementalist, not that Rainbow could deny it.
Then, Rarity walked up to Twilight and placed her hand on Twilight’s other shoulder. “Perhaps it is time to take a break. A good night’s sleep and some de-stressing away from these books are in order.” Rarity and Applejack both lifted Twilight from her the books and headed to the doors, “This mystery is over two thousand years old, after all. Another day or two won't make a difference.” Rarity added with her eyes closed and smile on her face.
“Two days?!” Twilight shouted as she jumped out of the chair and flew to a chalkboard with notes on it. As Twilight flew, Applejack turned to Rarity and gave the enchantress a frown. Rarity gave a weak laugh before they all turned to Twilight as she stared at the chalkboard, “I don't want to waste two seconds!” Twilight declared as everyone but Sunburst facepalmed themselves. “I'm close to an answer. I can feel it.”
Rarity sighed as she looked at a calendar and noticed the date that was circled. Rarity then cleared her throat, “That might be the case, but don’t you have as you say a” Rarity then began to make air quotes as she said the next word, “‘hangout’ with Flash Sentry in about half an hour.” A bell rang, and everyone turned to check the clock on the wall, “Make that five minutes.” Rarity corrected. Twilight began to hyperventilate as she realized she was going to be late. Rarity cleared her throat, “Applejack, Dashie, you both try to keep Flash occupied and explain the delay. Fluttershy, Pinkie, you’re with me, we got to get Twilight ready asap. Starlight, Sunburst, Spike get this place cleared up. Chop chop everyone.”
As everyone was about to do what Rarity ordered, Starlight looked at the page in Star Swirl’s tome that Twilight was looking at. "Hearg sylfum se Grandehenge". She read out loud. “Well it’s a good thing Bullion has the same alphabet we do. But what exactly does that term mean?”
Twilight’s jaw dropped before she bolted over and looked at the text then to Starlight in utter confusion, “You can… how… I’ve tried.” the demigod stuttered in confusion.
Starlight gave a weak smile, “Well when you have handwriting as bad as mine,” She then looked at her hands and looked at the cling, “Well there are few things that aren’t legible.” She then gave a weak laugh as everyone’s jaw hang opened. “Um, so what exactly did I read translated into words what we all understand?”
“The temple of Grandehenge,” Twilight answered as she flew to a pile of books, specifically one which was closest to Rarity before Sunburst woke himself up. She swiftly found the memoirs of King Bullion. “According to Bullion’s own words, he constructed it as a stone circle-like henge at the southernmost part of what would become his realm, the domain where the founding tribes came from, right on a place where the very magic of the world and elements can be used. A place of power.” Twilight began to read through the memoir as she spoke, “But he trusted the knowledge of its location during his life to a handful of people, namely his daughter, Princess Platinum.” Twilight stopped as she found the part she was looking for, “Princess Platinum’s addendums.” She was silent as she read through the text rapidly, “And so Father showed me the great henge, tucked away, near the base of Mt. Philistine.” Twilight shut the book, “That’s our next stop, Mt. Philistine.” Twilight then turned back to Starlight, “Does Starswirl’s spell book say anything else?”
“Toward dol grimlic of folu firgenbeorg, user endemest scield". Starlight read before she turned the page and stopped reading. She looked up as if to say that those were the last words Star Swirl wrote. Twilight and Sunburst both gasped, “Can I get a translation?” she asked.
“Literally, ‘at the base of the foul mountain, our last stand’.” Everyone was surprised when they heard a male voice that wasn’t either Sunburst’s or Spike. “A more accurate translation of the concept that phrase conveyed is ‘for the final battle, at Mt. Philistine.’” Everyone turned to see Flash Sentry dressed in a black tuxedo enter the library. He chuckled as he walked towards the group. He looked squarely at Rainbow, “Seriously Blunderbolt, you should know that.” He then had another chuckle as Rainbow groaned in response. He then turned his attention Twilight who had fainted with black spirals replacing her eyes. “I was told I was a lady killer, but I never thought it was meant literally.” He tried to laugh at his pun but got glares from all the women in the room cut it short. Sunburst was stroking his beard as if he was trying to figure out the joke. Spike had a snorty laugh but that too was short-lived. “I guess the date’s off.”
“It’s a long story,” Starlight told Flash as the girls went to help Twilight back to her feet.
Flash looked at the clock then back to Starlight, “I got until twenty hundred hours five days from now before I’m considered AWOL.” Flash then took a seat on a stack of books as he loosened his tie, took off his jacket and undid the top button of the shirt. “Try me.”
The following day, in the mid-morning hours, Twilight et al arrived at the base of Mt. Philistine, after about an hour of searching, they came across a circle of monolithic stones. Each stone was etched with many runes and various other alphabets and symbols. “This is it. Grandehenge.” Twilight stated as they all looked over the stones. “I can't believe it is real.”
Flash lifted his hand and started to count as he listed off, “The Elements of Harmony, The Crystal Heart, The Alicorn Amulet...I am starting to see a pattern.” He said, saturated with sarcasm. This was apparently unheard by Twilight and Sunburst, as they seemed to be engrossed in the stones. Everyone else seemed to want to say something but couldn’t retort as they turned their attention to the stones.
Sunburst was lost in the writings on one of the stones, like a child looking at a wide away of candies through a window, “I've never seen magical runes like these before!” He then turned to Twilight and asked, “Have you?”
“Uh-uh,” Twilight replied as she looked from the spell-book to the markings on one of the stones and then another.
Rainbow looked over all the overgrowth in the area, “I don't think anyone has seen any of this for a long time.” She tried to pull off one of the vines from one of the pillars.
As Rainbow was trying to remove a vine, Rarity’s eyes and focus gems started to grow and then all the markings engraved into the stone flashed. About a second later, Rarity’s eyes and focus gem stopped glowing, “Seen them in all in Clover the Clever’s personal notes,” the enchantress stated. After Rarity finished, the vine that Rainbow tried to remove flung the elementalist back. There was a yelp as she crashed into a bush.
Applejack then helped Rainbow back to her feet. After helping the elementalist brush off, “It'd take a whole battalion of the ESM’s corp of engineers to clear away all this brush.”
Flash took another look of the site, “Actually a battalion would have too many people waiting on their hands, a platoon would be more appropriate size.”
Fluttershy was standing next to another pillar and touched it, however, a piece of the rock fell off. In a panic, she picked it up and tried to put it back. “Even then,” she said, nervous about what might happen if Twilight and Sunburst saw what happened, “I'm not sure we'd find out what happened here over two thousand years ago.”
Twilight had to sigh as she looked at stones, then the tome and then to everyone, “You're right. I suppose it was a long shot."
Flash flew up to Twilight and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Cheer up, Twilight, you found Grandehedge. That’s a pretty impressive feat. You could write a doctoral thesis about it.”
Twilight gave a slight sigh, “I guess.” Twilight then placed the tome down next to the base of one of the pillars. “I hoped we'd get here and the mystery would just magically be explained, or maybe a clue as to what happened.”
Pinkie then turned to the readers and shrugged her shoulders, “I got nothing, folks. She is supposed to be Miss Research and fact-finding.”
Unbeknownst to everyone, the tome started to glow. Spike was the first to notice and pulled on Twilight’s hand, “Uh... Twilight?”
Everyone turned to see the tome glow and vibrate as it opened by itself. Twilight gasped as from the pages of the tome a semi-transparent projection of Star Swirl the Great stood with a copy of his spellbook in his left hand. Twilight walked to the image, “Star Swirl!? I... I've wanted to meet you my whole life! I can't believe you're here!” she exclaimed in excitement as she reached out her hand for it to pass through the projection. She took a step back in utter surprise.
Sunburst then walked up to the projection, placed his hand into the projection and waved it through the image. He turned back to Twilight, “I don't think he’s here.” He then turned his gaze from Twilight and everyone else to the other stone pillars, “I don't think any of them are.”
As Sunburst spoke everyone turned their attention to see the similar images to Star Swirl appear of the five other Pillars, each standing at one of the bases of the other five pillars of the stone circle. A light then came from each of their artifacts as they seemed to summon one another. Once the light cleared a towering being of at least 4 meters of what could best be described as tangible shadows appeared. Its eyes, fields of white and on its forehead an obsidian horn like focus gem. The being looked at the six that had used the magic of the area to summon him to it. He then gave a deep and bellowing laugh, “You summon me at your peril, Star Swirl!” he said as he looked Star Swirl. “Once I’ve defeated all of you, this realm will embrace the darkness as I did!” As he spoke, the Nightstalker looked at each of the Pillars for a second before he returned his gaze to Star Swirl. The Nightstalker then roared as it called lighting down on the site. Not a single bolt hit any of the Pillars but it was way to close for comfort. The Nightstalker vanished his conjured storm revealing the night’s sky, all the while it seemed to grow in all ways until it was over five meters in height and its form that of a mountain and bat-like wings large enough to lift it off the ground grew from it’s back. The Nightstalker looked over his form and laughed as he felt his power increase ten-fold, “Drawing me here has only made me stronger. You will never defeat me!”
Star Swirl took a deep breath as the bells on his hat and clock started to ring, “We did not come here to defeat you, Nightstalker,” Star Swirl raised his right hand and a beam went from it to Flash Magnus’ shield, then to Mistmane’s flower, to Somnabula’s blindfold, to Mage Meadborrow’s mask, to Rockfoot’s shovel and then back to Star Swirl’s tome, “but ... to contain you.”
Nightstalker looked around him and laughed, “Even if you throw me into that mirror of yours, It’s only a matter of time before I come back.”
“Who said anything about a mirror?” Star Swirl asked with a smirk on his face as the lights went above the Nightstalker and stopped.
“What?” Nightstalker asked in confusion and then looked above to see a portal opening, “No!” He sent out his body six tendrils, each one to grab one of the Pillars, “If I go down, I am taking you with me. ALL OF YOU!” He looked around and saw each of the six grimaced. “Of course.” He then started to laugh as if he was not the one bested, but the victor as he and the Pillars were pulled into the portal. Then the projection continued to show Mistmane’s flower, Rockfoot’s shovel, Flash Magnus’ shield, Somnambula’s blindfold, Mage Meadowbrook’s mask, and Star Swirl’s spell book all fall to the ground, all the while the Nightstalker’s laughter still echoed. After a couple more seconds, all that remained was Star Swirl’s spell book resting were Twilight placed it.
Everyone had their mouths agape as they tried to process everything that they just witnessed, save for Pinkie. She turns to face the readers, “Well, she did ask for a magical explanation and this is a world full of magic.”