//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 - The Darkness Beyond the Horizon // Story: The Darkness among the Stars // by Haseo //------------------------------// Chapter 15 The Darkness Beyond the Horizon Princess Celestia levitated two big cushions and a medium sized one from one corner of the room and offered them to her sister and student. As soon as everypony made themselves comfortable the Princess looked to Twilight. She opened her mouth and tried to speak several times but no words left her lungs. Her gaze broke every time until she focused on Twilight again. The eager unicorn couldn't wait any longer, her eyes sparkled by her tautness. “Princess, I've read every history book that I could find during my studies. What events could you possibly mean? I'm sure I know them!” The expression in Princess Celestia's face became even more worried, but she still couldn't bring herself to talk. Her sister laid a supporting wing around her sister and nuzzled her cheek, she turned to Twilight and cleared her throat. “I think my sister will agree with me that it's better when I tell you.” Princess Luna looked at her sister, who had turned her head away from her student. “Where shall I begin... Well, can you tell me when history recording began?” Twilight scratched her chin and looked thoughtful at the floor before her. “The first recorded event is the founding of Equestria. The three founding tribes were the earth ponies, led by Chancellor Pudding-head, the unicorns who were led by Princess Platinum and the pegasi who were under the control of Commander Hurricane.” The princess smiled for a brief moment but it faded right away. “Yes, this is the lie we told pony-kind after the founding. Of course it isn't entirely false, this event really happened and these ponies were indeed leaders of the three pony tribes, and it was the founding of Equestria that you know today, but it was more of a successful attempt of fleeing from war. We thought it was a more appropriate story for a new land of peace and harmony.” Twilight's mouth hung wide open a whole pony would fit into it now. “No, no, no. There were no real wars that concerned Equestria except for the defeat of Nightmare Moon, Discord, and King Sombra, if you can call them wars.” The Princess of the Night looked motherly at the smaller pony in front of her, she could only smile. “This is one of the things that my sister and I adore so much about mortals, their naivety. You have to listen carefully.” Twilight levitated a scroll and a quill to her so she could made notes, but Princess Luna burned the writing tools immediately, wearing a gaze that told her that she really wanted her to listen only. “I should begin with the basics. So where to start... Ah, I know. My sister and I ruled over this land far before the founding-tale. But there are major differences between us now and than.” Twilight sat on the ground with her typical I-want-to-know-more gaze and beamed over both ears while Luna cleared her throat once more to prepare for a longer speech. “Since the beginning of time, we ruled over this land. Back then, I was known as Selene and my sister was known as Helia. We ruled over this land equally, we made an agreement that Celestia would take care of the defensive forces and that I would take care of the offensive forces. From our viewpoint now, you could consider us evil back then. We had driven countries into war for our own amusement and used brute force if something didn't suit us. Time had passed and various countries had been destroyed during countless wars. The foreign regions hated us, our own subjects feared our wrath but felt safe under our watch at the same time. They was only one real threat to us, Discord... But he wasn't like you know him now. Compared to the past, he is only a little child. He was an unstoppable monster, his blood lust was legendary. The fights between him and us were disastrous. Many ponies had to die, many were injured. Until one fateful day.” Twilight turned her head slightly and raised an eyebrow. “Why did you change your names?” Princess Luna closed her eyes and took again a deep breath to continue her history lessen. “I will come to that later, please don't interrupt me. So... Tia had chosen her first student, she told me that she was bored when no war was raging through the world. This student's name was Star Swirl. I began to look for a pony that could had became my personal student. While I flew through the cities and forests, I came across a path of destruction, the trees were burned and various animals were singed to death. I followed it until I reached a small village, it was called Canterville. The village was where Canterlot is today. It was once a peaceful and calm village, but when I arrived, the homes of the inhabitants were burned and demolished. Corpses were lying on the ground, covered in blood and mud. Not a single voice could be heard in the whole town, I thought that nothing was alive anymore. I walked through the village to estimate the damage although we probably wouldn't raze this village again since every resident died. I reached the centre of the village, but I couldn't believe my own eyes. Inside a huge crater was the body of a large draconequus, fighting for his life. He couldn't move nor fight anymore. He was clinging to his life like an ill newborn. The ground underneath him was filled with his blood. Even his destructive power was gone, even if he regenerated his body, his original strength would be lost forever. I was somehow happy that our greatest enemy was no longer a danger for us. I left his remains to die. I turned around and began to take off again to report to my sister, but something stopped me. I turned again and looked more precisely.” The lavender unicorn couldn't resist any longer, she raised her hoof to show Luna that she had a question. Princess Luna groaned in displeasure but allowed her to speak. “Princess, but Discord is still alive, so how could he laid there near death?” Princess Celestia curled up into a ball until only one eye was visible. She starred into the night sky and stroked her own mane. Princess Luna's face took a worried form. “Yes, this was a fateful mistake, I should had given him the final blow to end his suffering. But that doesn't matter to the recent developments, please let me go on.” The Princess had to concentrate on where she paused the story before so she could finally go on. “Well, when I turned around to face the battleground again, a small black thing caught my attention. While I approached it, it took the form of a small unicorn colt. He was still breathing but he was unconscious. Carefully, I levitated him before my hooves and inspected his injuries. His coat was burned as well, a deep scar crossed his eye and several bones seemed to be broken. Even his horn was cracked, he must have used an extreme amount of magic to cause the injury. I decided that he hadn't much time until he would die. I wanted to leave him alone to perish along with Discord. I took just a few steps until my brain could put one and one together. The small colt was the slayer of Discord, he must have destroyed the spirit of chaos.” Twilight shook her head in disbelief. “This isn't possible! We had to use the Elements of Harmony to restrain him. How could a colt be strong enough to almost kill Discord!” The Princess’s face turned dark and her eyes hardened. They showed no mercy. The atmosphere in the room turned dark and heavy, like something powerful and filled with anger and wrath watched them. “This colt channeled the raw magical power of the stars into himself and used them to oppose Discord. There are four planetary spells, their power is beyond everything that ponydom had ever seen. My sister and I mastered two of them, the Solar Flare and the Lunar Ray. Star Swirl had mastered the fourth one. The spell was called ‘Aetas Alterantia’, he could alter the flow of time. Black Terror mastered the third spell during the fight with Discord with the age of six. The spell is called 'Urano Metoria', blazing stars fall from the sky to annihilate the enemy. He gained enough strength to surpass the power of a god.” Her gaze eased and returned to a more friendly one even a small smile appeared on her face. “Star Swirl had mastered the spell at the age of fourteen in order to compensate the gap of power between him and my student. As I realized how huge Black Terror’s potential was, I took him to our castle in the Everfree Forest and my sister and I healed his wounds with our magic. For saving his life, and due to the fact that he had lost everything that was dear to him, he swore eternal loyalty to me and became my student. The name if this colt was Black Terror. Days had gone by and our students became stronger and stronger everyday. I let him attend my military training site to turn him into a real fighter. He rose higher and higher until he became the leader of my army. Like Star Swirl became the leader of the Solar Guards, so became Black Terror the leader of the Nightmare Legion.” Twilight jumped from her cushion by the mentioning of the Nightmare Legion. “You mean Night Guard right? Princess Celestia told me before that he was leader of the Night Guard.” Princess Luna looked at her sister, who was shivering and cuddled with her cushion. “Please be patient, everything should be clear when I'm finished. “ The eager unicorn fell back on her cushion and listened to the lunar Princess. “Black Terror and Star Swirl became best friends over the years. Though they had fought various fights, they lived happy and fulfilled lives. I can't really speak for Star Swirl, I didn't know him so well but Black Terror was indeed happy. He had a wonderful unicorn filly-friend. She had a beautiful snow-white coat and her mane had every colour of the rainbow, just like the mane of the Element of Loyalty. Her name was Harmony. She was everything that the elements today stand for. She was honest, generous, kind, loyal, full of laughter and understood the importance of the magic of friendship.” Twilight tapped her hoof on the ground and let her ears fall from one side to another. “This is a nice story and everything, but does this have to do with these creatures or Soul?” Princess Luna raised an eyebrow but said nothing until Twilight got the hint that she had to be quiet and listen. “Well, these creatures were once our enemies. A team of scientist created them to support our armies but it got out of hoof, the lead scientist went mad and turned against us. They are incomplete beings called Leyfeeder, they are highly unstable lifeforms. They have to drain magic energy to survive and to solidify their bodies. This is most likely the reason you couldn't use your magic properly. Black Terror had crushed them in a single week. He destroyed an army of two and a half million of them by himself. His abilities were unbelievable even for us. He could turn his own body into a draconian form to fight against dragons and other strong magical beings and he could modify space itself. He was the perfect warrior.” Princess Celestia's student’s expression was the one of annoyance, she hadn't gotten the answer she hoped for but kept quiet for the moment. “I think this is everything you need to know for what is coming now. I will tell you about the war that changed us forever.” Twilight couldn't bear it any more and burst from suspense. “You will tell me about the war? Soul mentioned that he had fought in this war and that Black Terror and Star Swirl had fallen in this battle.” Princess Luna couldn't suppress a small gasp. Her ears peaked up and her body tensed up. “The one you call Soul… what did he tell you about the war and himself? I want to know everything you can remember.” Twilight didn't thinkt long about him, it was still freshly placed inside her memory. “He introduced himself as Soul Tearer, former master over time and space. He was born in Canterville and attended the Lunar Training Site for Military aspirants. He and his best friend joined two different armies. Hmm... he had a fiancée that was killed during this war. Soul had stolen the power of the aspect of time and banished his enemies in different places in time until he sealed himself up. This is more or less everything I know about him.” The Princess of the Night was still tense and licked her lips. “Tell me… where did you meet him?” Twilight raised an eyebrow until she remembered a certain book that she had found in the Canterlot Archives. “I met him the first time in my nightmares. Well, it was my last nightmare when I had fallen asleep in the library and you found me afterwards. A monster haunted me through my dream world. It attacked me but I remained unharmed. In the next moment, Soul stood behind me and I tried to take him away from that place, to save him from this monster. When you found me sleeping, I first checked if he came with me, but he wasn't there. I returned to Ponyville and found him lying on the library floor.” Princess Celestia's ears turned in Twilight's direction, so she could listen better to her. “The only difference to the dreams before was that I was wearing my tiara for some reason and I used a spell from a book that I found in the archives to get there. I think it was called 'The power of Imagination'.” The solar Princess surged up from her cushion, she starred at her student with bloodshot eyes. Her mane was a mess and covered the majority of her face. “Which spell did you use?” Worries could be clearly heard in her voice. Twilight remembered the spell but wasn't sure if she should tell her, the little unicorn's eyes tried to avoid the gaze of her teacher but couldn't resist. “It was called 'Imaginary Transportation'. Why is this so important? I was only sleeping and I still don't get the connection between Soul and Black Terror.” Princess Celestia couldn't believe her ears, she tried desperately to regain her royal charisma. “Twilight, you weren't sleeping … You were gone and the book was turned into ashes.” The Princess lit her horn up and let an old painting appear. It was a painting of a black stallion with a silver-grey mane standing next to a Lunar banner. She turned it to Twilight. Her breath stopped for a small moment. “This pony on this painting looks like Soul maybe a few years younger. I'm absolutely sure that this is Soul. Where did you get this painting? I looked all over the place for hints but I didn't find any.” Princess Luna and Princess Celestia exchanged worried looks. She turned the painting around, in one corner were words written: Proud Captain of the Nightmare Legion, Black Terror. “Twilight? Don't you understand? Soul Tearer and Black Terror seems to be the same pony.” Twilight gasped for air, she became sweaty and began to shiver a little bit. “Then he didn't lie when he said he was a time traveller... I have to tell Applejack!” Princess Luna was still standing on her cushion, she extended her wings to make herself bigger. “No, you won't! Nopony is allowed to know about the content of this conversation. Never!” The little unicorn couldn't believe that she wasn't allowed to tell Applejack the truth about the pony she felt for. “You have to know that...-” The Princess was cut off by the sound of bells that came from the clock inside the room as it hit midnight. They looked at the clock for a few seconds until Princess Luna laid down her soundproof shield. A strong wind blew through the open balcony doors that caused the curtains to move. “I think this is enough for today, the Grand Galloping Gala will start this evening. You shall rest now and prepare yourself for the celebration. We will discuss this matter tomorrow when everything is over.” Twilight wanted to say something but the Princesses had already had left the chamber and closed the doors behind them. She threw herself on the freshly made bed and groaned into her pillow. The royal sisters walked upstairs until they reached the giant doors that hid the Elements of Harmony from the rest of the world. The younger sister stroked with her wing over the back of her sister. “What do you think about our situation. What purpose does he follow?” The unease was clearly written over the face of the solar princess. She still shivered and hid her eyes behind her mane. “I think that the Elements led his way back to us to take revenge for what I have done.” Princess Luna cuddled herself under the wings of her sister and nuzzled her cheek. “I hope you're wrong.” A few meters beneath them, the left behind and disappointed unicorn turned around in her bed and stared at the ceiling. “For what purpose did he return?” While Twilight tried to comprehend what she just had heard, small, slimy footprints distanced themselves from behind the curtain towards the balcony until they faded into the night sky. Slowly burning away under a light green radiation.