//------------------------------// // The prophecy // Story: The return of Nightmare Twilight // by Sombra63 //------------------------------// Once upon a time in the magical land of Equastria… There were two regal siblings who ruled together and created harmony for all the land… To do this the elder used his unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn… The younger, brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus the two siblings maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects. But, as time went on the younger sibling became resentful, the ponies relished and played in the day her brother brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sibling tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the younger one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness, Nightmare Twilight! She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal twilight! Reluctantly, the elder sibling harnessed the most powerful magic known to pony-kind, the Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the elements of harmony he defeated his younger sister and banished her permanently to the moon. The elder sibling took up responsibility for both sun and moon… And harmony has been maintained for generations since. On a grassy field on the outskirts of Cantorlot a pearly white unicorn, her cotton candy pink mane cut ruler straight, lay comfortably on the soft grass. As she finished reading she brought a hoof to her chin. “Elements of harmony, I’ve heard that before, but where?” “Yadda yadda yadda theme song” Walking down the pristine streets of Cantorlot, Sunlight Shimmer, hoofs clip-clopping on a cleanly paved path, walked briskly to her book filled haven, when her walk was interrupted by three excited mares. The middle mare grinned cheerily before saying “Moon Dancer is having a little get together in the castle courtyard!” At this she flicked her similar pink mane with a hoof “You wanna come?” The three leaned in expectantly so much that Sunlight half expected them to topple right over. “Oh sorry girls I gotta a lot of reading to do.” She said, an apologetic smile on her face. And then she was off in a blur of pink and white leaving the disappointed mares in her dust. “Ugh, does that pony do anything except read?” “I think she’s more interested in books than friends.” Galloping at much faster speeds then before to escape the horror of social interaction Sunlight spoke to herself. “I know I’ve heard of the Elements of Harmony!” As she ran she failed to notice (or simply ignored) a friendly wave from her fellow student, Lyra, whose happy grin turned into a frown when the white mare's lavender eyes didn’t even look her way. After running up several flights of stairs she at last arrived at her destination and flung open the doorway causing an unsuspecting reptile to go flying. “Phila! PHIILA!” She called; confused as to where her dragon assistant could have gone. Until she looked down at the poor orange dragon who opened her eyes and revealed shimmering-golden irises who seemed to have decided that today they were going to do a incredibly realistic impersonation of derpy’s. “Ah, there you are” Sunlight said, seemingly ignorant to the trauma she had just caused the baby dragon. “Could you please get me a copy of "Predictions and Prophecies.” Philomena trudged up the purple stairs, a once perfectly wrapped gift now speared on her pudgy ,triangle-tipped tail. Looking over at her disgruntled dragon companion Sunlight asked, looking at the gift that Phila somehow got stuck on her tail. “What’s that thing for?" The dragon, noticing that her gift was now a crumpled and speared mess, pulled it off her tail, yanking extra hard to get it unstuck from the red spikes that ran all the way down her spine. “Well it was gift for Moon Dancer but-” As soon as he said it the smashed remains of a teddy bear came falling out a large tail-shaped hole at the bottom of the destroyed gift. “Oh Phila, you know we don’t have time for that sort of thing" At that she began throwing books aside, with seemingly little to no care for their safety as they came tumbling to the ground. “But we’re on a break!” protested the young dragon. Ignoring the annoyed dragon Sunlight lifted her head and began concentrating on her spell. In seconds books began flying off the shelves in her golden magic and presented their titles to her searching eyes. “No,no,no,noNO! Ugh!” Her patience worn thin by all the wrong books she yelled for her scaly assistant. “Its here!” she shouted triumphantly from the top of the library’s ladder *yank* “Ah” Her search ended, she dropped her magic leaving nearly twenty books and one dragon flat on her face on the blue floor of the library. “Elements, elements, e, e,e ahha!” Another search completed she began to read aloud. “Elements of harmony, see Mare on the Moon?” Phila, climbing up the library ladder with a pile of books precariously balanced in her claws, looked down at Sunlight. “But that’s just an old pony’s tale” Once again flipping through the book Sunlight found the passage she was looking for and read aloud once more. “The Mare in the Moon: myth from olden pony times. A powerful pony who wanted to rule Equastria, defeated by the Elements of Harmony and imprisoned in the moon. Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year the stars shall aid in her escape and she will bring night time eternal! *gasp* Phila do you know what this means?” Phila, who was now teetering on the ladder responded with a short “no’ before the ladder fell out from under her and she screamed as she plummeted only to be caught by Sunlight’s back. “ow” It turns out unicorn backs aren’t very fun to land on. “Take a note please “she says, straightening her tail which Phila uses like a mini, hairy diving board.” To the Prince.” ‘Okie dokie” Once the dragon had a quill and parchment Sunlight began dictating, speaking in a formal tone as the little dragon wrote all she said. “My dearest teacher, My continued studies of pony magic have led me to discover that we are on the precipice of disaster!” “Hold on, presi-prese-“ Coming up blank, Phila looked over to her starburst flanked friend for help. “Threshold” “Threee-“ “Uh, brink?” The dragon stared at her, giving her the “ You’re the smart one” look “Ugh, that something really bad is going to happen!” The dragon wrote down the much easier explanaition, glad that her unicorn friend had at least a few small words in her vocabulary. “For you see, the mythical Mare in the Moon is in fact Nightmare Twilight and she’s about to return to Equastria and bring with her eternal night! Something must be done to make sure this terrible prophecy does not come true! I await your quick response Sunlight Shimmer. Looking out the library's vast windows, her thoughts became full of horrible images of what would happen if that great, big sun in the sky disappeared forever. “Sun-light-Shim-er, Got it” “Great, send it.” “now?” “Of course!” Phila, less than convinced of the letter's importance, shrugged her shoulders. “Uh, I don’t know Sunlight, Prince Shining is a little busy the with Summer sun celebration and it’s like the day after tomorrow!” Sunlight turned around around, surprised by the dragon's negative response. “That’s just it Phila, the day after tomorrow is the thousandth year of the summer sun celebration. It’s imperative that the prince is told right away!” The dragon, once again confused by her friend's vocabulary, started writing down the foreign word trying to figure out how to even say it. “Impar-impara-impara-“ Sunlight, Fed up with Phila’s lack of understanding, merely yelled ”IMPORTANT” so loud in her ear that the poor dragon went toppling into a bookcase. “Okay okay” he yelled back (not even half as loud as Sunlight) before taking a deep breath and exhaling a burst of red flame which seemed to have burned up the letter and ruining any chances of it getting anywhere until it turned in to a sparkly cloud of yellow smoke which exited through a small, circular window. “But I wouldn’t hold your breath” Phila said tauntingly. “Oh I’m not worried Phila” she replied, a smug look on her face” The Prince trusts me completely and through all the years he’s been my mentor he’s never once doubted me.” The orange dragon crossed her arms, a snide remark on her tongue when it was halted by a belch and a cloud of yellow smoke bursting from her mouth which then materialized as a scroll with the signature royal seal. “I know he would want to take immediate action.” The dragon then scooped up the scroll with her claws, careful not to rip it, cleared her throat and began reading in what she thought was a very strong and masculine voice. “My dearest most faithful student Sunlight Shimmer You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely!” At this Sunlight made a small sound of agreement. “But you must stop reading those dusty, old books!” *dun,dun,dun^