//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Eternal Twilight // by Squirrelloid //------------------------------// The mare, her coat the color of dusk, blended into the shadows of the hall in the deep twilight. She stood before a stained glass window, the colors dull and lifeless in the gloom. Captured by its lead-rimmed panes were six fillies bearing the Elements of Harmony. Wreathed in halos, they wielded the magic of friendship against Nightmare Moon. The mare bent her head, her horn almost touching the window. Her wings rustled slightly in the still air. A single tear rolled down her cheek before falling to the marble floor. She remembered. The door is open after all this time. We have missed you. She remembered that fateful day, one thousand years ago. Princess, you were right. She remembered the betrayal. Who are you? I am memory. She remembered tears shed then. Tell me it's not true! Tears she shed every year on this, the anniversary of her ascension. No! It's not her time! Take me instead! Take me... Reduced now to just a single tear, for all that was lost, for all that was gained. They are yours now. All... of them. Remember... the... dawn... She remembered the prophecy which would not be denied, in the end. On the longest day Of the thousandth year, When the stars will aid, With their twinkling tears, And break the moon To release the mare. Then the time is soon; The pony will dare To find all out, Old wrongs to right, And bring about Eternal night. But what hurt more were the memories that were not her own. Memory was a treacherous mare. Most of your little friends are dead. You'll never wield your precious elements against me now. They're here with me, monster, in spirit! Oh ho ho, maybe you do have what it takes after all. There was a sound of creaking hinges as one of the two great double doors slowly opened. She looked up, blinking to clear her eyes. Her heartbeat quickened in her chest. It had been a long time since anypony beside her had opened those doors. The door stopped moving without opening halfway. A young unicorn poked her head around the edge of the door, her coat of tawny gold washed almost white in the weak light. "Is this it? Are you here to kill me?" The filly stopped halfway through the doors, quivering. Her eyes wandered the darkness, searching for the source of the voice. The mare closed her eyes and exhaled, willing the magic of her horn to illuminate the hall. A purple light sprang forth and the shadows became individual things, scattering away from her in long lines of darkness. The filly's eyes opened wide in shock. "N-no Princess!" The mare's head sagged a bit, eyes still closed. "You might as well come in. It's rude to stand in doorways." The filly finished pushing herself through the door, her movements full of awkward, embarrassed energy and nervous excitement. The pony's mane was the color of red gold, long and haphazardly splayed down her neck. On her flank, her cutie mark stood out, the sun rising from behind twin peaks. Free of the door, the filly rushed through a sketch of a bow, before standing in mute awe. She's so young, the mare thought. Was I like that once upon a time? I think I must have been. "Certainly you didn't come all this way just to stare at me." "No princess!" "Well, you seem to know who I am. Who are you, my little pony?" "D-Dayspring." "Of course you are," the mare muttered, mostly to herself. "A poetic term for dawn." "So, I was, uh... reading the histories. Old ones, about you." Dayspring's hoof pawed at the marble floor idly. "There's so little detail left... about what happened. And then the whole palace just... um... disappeared." She looked away, trying to find something interesting in the dust. The mare let the moment stretch before speaking. "You seem to have found it." "I just thought that it was sad, given how much the histories said you liked to read; how there was so little to read about you. And that it was sad that you had lost your friends. And I knew you still had to exist, because the sun and the moon still came up. And that you had to be lonely." Dayspring turned back to the mare, her eyes wet. "I thought you might need a friend." The mare turned her head, shutting her eyes tight against the tears. The memory came, unbidden. What Ah'm saying ta you is the honest truth. Maybe she speaks the truth, Applejack, the mare thought to herself, but friendship mostly brought me a thousand years of regret, and you, an untimely death. "Princess?" Dayspring asked timidly. "The impulse to friendship is powerful magic indeed. Powerful enough to open the gate," the mare said slowly, before returning her gaze to the filly. "Tell me, what do they say about my friends now?" "They say... They say you loved them so much that you called down starlight for them, and sent them into the heavens where they would prance among the stars for a thousand thousand years." A second tear escaped down her cheek and fell into space. "You named constellations after them..." "But you stayed here for us, so we'd have day and night. And the stars are so far away..." There was a reverent silence, the pony's attention fixed on the old mare. The mare turned her head to look at the stained-glass, her friends picked out lovingly in life-like colors. "So you want to know the sordid truth, Dayspring?" "We know so little. Somepony should speak for you, princess." "If you're going to be my friend, you should call me by my name." The mare turned back to the filly. "I'd like that, Twilight Sparkle." "Just Twilight. It's been a long time since I've had any sparkle."