//------------------------------// // A Journey Begins // Story: A Dawn of War // by Jaden Rhas //------------------------------// A Journey Begins The first rays of sunlight came through the window and Twilight Sparkle slowly woke up. She yawned and jumped out of her bed. She spread open her wings and softly flapped them; she brushed her mane and shyly putted her crown on it. Even if it had been two months that Twilight was crowned Princess of Magic; she hadn’t gotten used to the title. Even though she knew it was important, a high honor, she hated being putted in front of everyone. Twilight, deep in her thoughts, didn’t notice Spike who entered in her room, holding a scroll in his claws. “Umm… Twilight, you have received a letter from the princess,” said Spike. “A letter sent that early? It must be important,” Twilight replied. The scroll glowed in a magenta aura and lifted in front of her. She was surprised by the length of the message. Dear Twilight Sparkle, Today, you will receive an important guest but don’t talk about him to any of your friends before he arrives and talks with you. Princess Celestia. Twilight turned over the letter, looking at every part of it. Finding that no more information was written on it; she frowned. “Something’s wrong?” Spike asked. “No spike, everything is —” Twilight shivered “—fine.” Twilight felt something in her mind, a presence. It was dark and cold. She tried to repel it but its touch was only getting stronger. The presence tried to reassure her, to convince her that it was friendly. She let it entered in her mind and it said that Spike had to leave. “Y-you can go and see Rarity. I give you your morning,” Twilight said. Spike showed a puzzled look. “Are you sure everything’s alright?” Twilight lifted him with her magic and she climbed down the stairs. She opened the door and slowly dropped Spike outside. “I’m sure. Take all your morning.” Before Spike could reply, she closed the door. Twilight looked behind her to see shadows swirling in the middle of the library. They quickly took the form of a pony and faded away; revealing a crimson-maned grey unicorn. He was few inches taller than Big Macintosh and slimmer than any stallion she had seen before. The most interesting was his eyes; they were in a dark shade of purple. All of these made the unicorn’s stature imposing. “A-are you the important guest sent by the Princess Celestia?” Twilight shyly asked. The unicorn bowed and spoke with a husky and low-pitched voice, “Yes, Princess Twilight. I’m Radiance Bright, archmage of the council of Canterlot.” “Why does Princess Celestia have sent an archmage to talk with me?” “Simple, Equestria is about to live its darkest hour. The Nightmare Moon incident, Chrysalis’ invasion, even Discord’s reign will be nothing compared to what is going to happen,” Radiance explained. Twilight blinked. “W-what will happen?” “War, Princess, war. Since few months, there are changelings swarms that attacked our borders and the other archmages want to declare war against them. Princess Celestia gave me four months to find a pacific way to deal with them but if I fail… war will be unavoidable.” “Why do they want a war to happen?” Twilight asked. “It’s why Princess Celestia has sent me to you. You’re a clever mind, aren’t you? Together, I sure we will find out why the others want it and how to deal with the changelings.” Radiance walked around. “But nopony must know the true reason why I’m here; even your friends, Princess.” “But why?” “Because if the council members learn I’m here, they would try anything to stop me. That’s why I teleported here instead of taking the train or another transportation system.” “Talking of it; what kind of spell it was? I’ve never read or seen anything like it before,” Twilight asked. “You have the thirst of knowledge, it seems. I could teach you that spell one day… But for now, may I ask where I could sleep, Princess?” Twilight shook her head. “If we’re going to work together, you should drop my title and just call me Twilight.” She raised a hoof over a closed door. “I’ve a spare room over there where you can sleep until you find a better place, but we still have a small problem.” Radiance frowned. “What do you mean, Twilight?” “Well, I can’t hide you from my friends forever!” “Just summon your friends and say I’m an old friend. Don’t worry; I’ll take care of the more technical parts.” He walked few steps away before looking back at Twilight. “You little dragon is going to knock at the door in few seconds so I’ll be back later.” His horn glowed and Radiance vanished within shadows. As he predicted, someone knocked at the door. Twilight sighed, “Spike, you can come in." He opened the door, his mouth hanging open. “H-how did you know it was me?” “I guessed?” She smiled at him. “Spike take a quill, we have requests to send.” ~~~ “Is your ‘old friend’ comin’? It’s like if we’re forever waitin’!” yelled Rainbow Dash. Twilight sighed, “Ugh… Be more patient, Dash. He will arrive soon.” They were all six at the sugarcube corner. Twilight explained them Radiance was an old comrade from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and he wanted to see her after her coronation. It wasn’t the truth and she wasn’t at ease with it, but it would explain his presence until she should be able to tell them the truth. Radiance teleported outside of the bakery and looked around to be sure nobody had saw him arrived. He brushed his mane and walked inside. As her friends’ eyes widened, Twilight stepped next to him. “I present you Radiance Bright, my school friend” Radiance bowed. “Ladies.” “So ya’re tellin’ us ‘that creepy colt’ is a friend of yours from Canterlot?” asked Applejack. “Y-yes, but he’s not creepy; he’s…special,” Twilight replied. “Nah, he’s creepy, Twi,” said Rainbow. “Applejack, you have to admit that his eyes are in marvelous shade of purple.” Rarity sighed. “He’s kind of handsome too.” “Kinda ‘handsome’?” Applejack shook her head. “Ya like him just ‘cause he’s from Canterlot.” Before Rarity could reply, Pinkie Pie jumped between them. “Creepy or not, we have to throw a massive party for him!” Radiance frowned. “Sorry Miss Pie, but huge parties aren’t my cup of tea. I’m more the quiet type do you see. But I’m still open to a more private kind of party.” Fluttershy, who remained silent until now, walked towards Radiance. “What kind of ‘private’ are you talking about?” “What do you—” Radiance realized the double meaning of his declaration and sighed. “Not that private. What I meant is a party with only all of us; just to introduce myself to all of you.” Pinkie joyfully nodded. “Oh, you’re the shy type. Okie dokie lokie, Rady!” She bounced to the back store. “Hold on. Did she just call me ‘Rady’?” Radiance perplexedly asked. “Yeah… It seems she likes you,” answered Rainbow. “Funny, it sounds like radish in fancy talk…” he sarcastically said. Twilight gave him an annoyed look. “Sorry, but we must leave. There’s few things a need to clarify with Radiance. Good afternoon, girls.” Twilight waved a hoof at her friends and pulled Radiance outside. “It went better than I expected,” he said. “We have to talk, but we should be inside my library first.” They walked towards Golden Oaks Library. They remained silent until Twilight stared at him. Radiance raised an eyebrow. “Why do you look at me like that?” “I was just wondering… Do you always speak formal?” Twilight asked. “Not always, ‘often’ is more appropriated. You know that old habits die hard,” answered Radiance. When they entered into the library, Spike was cleaning and dusting around. As he saw Radiance, Spike dropped everything he held and bolted upstairs. “It was… something.” Twilight sent a death glance at Radiance “What’s the problem?” Her eye twitched. “What’s the problem? What’s the problem?! You must be kidding me!” Her horn glowed with high intensity. “First, you made me lie at my friends! And now you scare to death the one I consider like my little brother!” She flared her wings. “You are the problem!” With Twilight’s eyes burning with anger, Radiance was ready to fight. He though the faster he could to find a spell that would defeat her without harming her. His horn shone with a bright silver aura and a circle of energy was drawn around Twilight. Tendrils of light went out of the circle and surrounded her; they caught every of Twilight’s members and restrained her on the ground. “Let me go!” Twilight screamed. “Princess, calm down!” Radiance shouted. Spike slowly climbed down the stairs to see what was happening and Radiance quickly noticed him. “Stay upstairs, Spike. She’s out of control, but don’t worry… she’ll be fine.” The alicorn was fiercely fighting against the spell, but more she fought; more she was weakened. It took few minutes before she calmed herself down and her horn’s glow faded away along with the tendrils that restrained her. Once the anger had left, Twilight cried. Twilight said, “I-I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have lost control… It’s all—” Radiance hugged her, slowly brushing Twilight’s mane. “Shh… It’s not your fault. There’s something I should have shown and I didn’t.” Releasing his hold, he looked into her eyes. “Do you want to see it? But I must warn you, it’s really awful.” Radiance eyes weren’t filled with his usual harshness and coldness. He was worried for Twilight. She knew she might regret her choice, but there was no turning back. “Yes I do,” Twilight answered. “Be ready.” As Radiance held Twilight’s shoulders, shadows rose around them. Soon, they were totally wrapped in the shadows and they vanished. The scene witnessed by Spike only made his worries grew. Suddenly, he heard Radiance’s voice in his mind said, ‘Don’t worry, She’ll be fine.’ “Hope you’re right…” The archmage and the alicorn arrived in a place that used to be a town square. A fog was surrounding them and the buildings were either set on fire or crashed down. There was a strange smell in the air; a smell Twilight wasn’t able to put a hoof on. While they walked down the street, she stepped into something wet. She raised her hoof to see what it was; the liquid was glistening red. She froze when she realized what she had stepped into was blood. Twilight asked with a shaking voice, “W-where are we?” “Exactly? We are in the shadow realm,” answered Radiance. “This realm is in the spaces between our world dimensions. There are few individuals who have a grip on it strong enough to be able to use it as I do.” “Do you mean that what we are looking at isn’t real?” He closed his eyes and sighed, “No, it’s real. What we are looking from the shadows is… was Fillydelphia.” “What happened? When did that happen?” Radiance raised a hoof over glistening goo. “Changelings attacked the city few hours ago and the council had sent the royal guard to fight back. The result: bloodshed as usual…” They continued to walk across the destroyed town. Twilight couldn’t believe what she was looking at; spells had been fired in every direction from both parties and many corpses were left behind. Before Radiance could stop her, she rushed to a pile of rubble. She lifted debris and searched through the pile in hope to find survivors. Suddenly, Twilight stopped and stepped back. A young foal was in the rubble, open wounds and burns were all across his body. She sat on her haunches and cried. Radiance sat next to her and shyly pulled her closer to him. They remained silent while Radiance slowly brushed Twilight’s mane. Sobs still cracking her voice, Twilight asked, “Is that the result of war?” She turned towards Radiance to see that he was also crying; not as heavily as she was, but tears were spilling down his cheeks. “N-no, Twilight… It’s nothing compare to the… the result of war.” Twilight caught him off guard as she tightly hugged him. “Even if I have to lie at my friends, I will help you. No matter what, I don’t want that to happen all over Equestria.” Twilight released her hold and Radiance dried the wetness over his eyes. “T-thanks Twilight, I know how hard this will be for you. Let’s return to your library and we will start tomor—” “I want to start once we arrive.” “A-are you sure?” Twilight nodded. “Fine then.” Radiance horn glowed and they disappeared, wrapped into darkness. Not so far from where they had been, another unicorn was lurking in the shadows. A cloak covering its entire body, it walked into the light. With a voice roaring with power, it said, “It occurs that you’ve got help from the Order, archmage Bright.” The unicorn grinned. “But now, I know where you are and I will throw you into pure… despair.”