//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Remnants of Nightmare // by KibaWR //------------------------------// Thunder clapped outside as she made her way through the darkened corridors though she could barely hear them. The outside walls kept the noise outside so the thunder was barely more than a grumbling in her ears. Frankly though, she didn't care. Even if the thunder would erupt right next to her ears she wouldn't have minded, because tonight was far too glorious to be ruined by some loud noises. A smirk crept onto her lips as she slowly descended down the stairs of the castle she called home. 'If at all, this storm is fitting...' she thought as her smirk grew wider. The sound of her hoof steps echoed from the old stone walls and with each step, she could feel the magic growing stronger. Her dark blue fur stood on end with excitement. Finally, after long years of suffering and pain, she would be able to let them all pay. Pay for their ignorance and ungratefulness. They would all pay dearly for it, but especially her. Yes, she would suffer the most. All her empty words and hollow smiles... she was so sick of them. “Give them time, Luna.” Her words still echoed in her ears like she had just heard them a moment ago. “But sister...” Her own voice sent shivers through her body. So shy and helpless... but that would soon come to an end. “We have been doing this together since the beginning. They had just as much time to get used to Our night as they had for Your day. How much more time do they need? Why can't they be happy and playful during the night as well? All they ever do is sleep after We bring out Our moon for them. All We want is...” “Shh, Luna. Not now. Court is beginning. We will talk about this later, okay?” She didn't even look at her again after this. Instead, the white princess turned her attention to the pony who was now kneeling before her throne. Some random earth pony mare with blue coat and a grey-ish white mane. Neither her nor her sister had ever seen her before, or even knew her name, and yet here was her sister listening to this ponies problems with a smile on her face. How could she dare to do that. Silencing her own sister just so she could listen to somepony else’s problems? The memory made her dark blue wings rattle in anger. Thankfully, the sound of another thunder brought her back to the here and now. It didn't matter anymore. She would regret ignoring her soon enough. They all would regret it. She stopped when she came to a big, wooden gate. It was made out of big timber beams enforced with small layers of metal. On the surface was a very detailed craftwork of a scene she distantly remembered. On the bottom were ponies of all three kinds: earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi. All of them were cheering, looking towards the center of the picture. There she saw two all too familiar figures. Standing on a cloud were two alicorns. One, slightly taller than the other one, standing on the left while the other, smaller one stood on the right. They both had their heads lowered down towards the ponies on the ground and, in the very center of the picture, their long, elegant horns were touching, creating a small spark of light at their tips. Behind them there was a beautiful full moon but she could also see the rays of the sun behind it. Just looking at this picture made her eyes water. The Eclipse. An event they used to preform every year. Her moon and her sisters sun together in perfect harmony, bathing the world in mellifluous twilight. She slammed her hoof against the surface. “Lies... Nothing but lies...” Her eyes narrowed with fury to an almost catlike state. It has been almost 400 years since the last Eclipse now. Nopony, not even her sister had even brought it up again in all those years. She could understand that the other ponies, given their short lifespan, could possibly remember something from that far away but she and her sister were timeless. There was no way that the white princess could have possibly forgotten about this. Back in the day, her sister would tell her stories about the time when they had been born into this world out of the tolerance and friendship that were born when the three races had put their differences behind them for some reason, the dark-coated mare could not remember much from that time but her sister could and if she could remember something from that far in the past then she had to remember The Eclipse too. So why did they never preform one again? The answer had dawned to her for a while now. The Eclipse was something that symbolized her unison with her sister, their stand as equal rulers of this land that had been born out of harmony itself. But there was no harmony, no unison. The ponies shunned her night and preferred to live in the light provided by her sister’s sun and her sister has grown used to it. SHE was the one everypony loved. SHE was the one who was asked for advice. SHE was the one solitarily ruling the land. SHE was the one who had taken everything from her. She and her light-hungry ponies. Hate swelled up in her heart as she withdrew her hoof from the picture again. She would have loved to just smash it to pieces to get into the room behind it but she knew that the enchantments that were built into the gate would prevent that. However, she wouldn't need to resort to force. She took a deep breath to calm herself down again before she gently leaned her head against the picture. Her horn touched the wood right in the center, the same spot where the horns of the alicorns in the picture touch each other. Once she felt her horn making contact she released her magic. Her horn lit up in a midnight blue hue and soon the whole gate did as well. She heard a crack when the ancient arcana locks were broken and the gate started to open up. Not even a minute later, she stood in the archway of the now open gate with a victorious smirk on her face. She took one final step to cross over and as soon as her hoof came in contact with the ground, crystals lit up in the same dark blue light as her horn to both sides of the wall, flooding the room in an eerie dark luminescence. She continued to walk with deadly determination in her steps. She knew exactly what she was looking for and where to find it. She walked past old shelves with even older books and scrolls in them, each one giving off a vibe of intense magic, but she ignored all of them. None of those held the power she was looking for. The one she was actually looking for was hidden further in the back but it didn't take her long to find it. There, lying between two old, dusty books was the object of her desire. Once again she called upon her magic and pulled the small scroll out of the shelf. Her smirk grew into disturbingly big dimensions when she levitated the parchment in front of her eyes. She knew that she had the right one but she wanted to make absolutely sure. She was fairly sure that her sister had not caught on to her plans yet but one could never be sure with her. For all she know, the white alicorn could have had the scroll she was looking for taken out of here secretly and replaced it with a useless piece of paper. Nothing would be as humiliating as to make it this far and then take the wrong spell. She opened the seal on the scroll with a flick of her horn and she could have sworn that another thunder roared outside when she did it. Then her eyes scanned over the ancient words written on the parchment... “Hmm.... Hehe.... Hehehehe... HahahaHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”