//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Story Time 
// Story: Stopping the Future That the past Creates 
// by Yoshi1990 
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In the land of Equestria there are stories of a golden age. A time of harmony, a time of friendship, a time of peace, and a time of happiness. But those times ended when an ice dragon appeared from within the Crystal Mountains. The first places to fall to the dragon’s dark powers were villages and towns in the Crystal Mountains. After destroying some of the villages and towns in the mountain range, the dragon started moving towards the Crystal Empire.


Queen Chrysalis, Princess Cadence, and Prince Shining Armor had been preparing for an attack on the Empire for a few days since they had seen the dragon in the mountains. The crystal ponies were taking shelter. They would help protect the Empire but not directly. They would stay in their homes thinking about happiness and love so that they could help power up the Crystal Heart. Five days after Cadence and Shining Armor had seen the dragon, their worst fear was now coming true. The dragon was flying toward the Crystal Empire. The power of the Crystal Heart was protecting the Empire from long range attacks from the monster. However, it did not stop the dragon from entering the Empire. The dragon pounded against the magic shield until it collapsed and left the Empire unprotected. Thats when Queen Chrysalis, Princess Cadence, and Shining Armor would use their magic with the help of the Crystal Heart to fight in a more offensive way. Sadly, all their magic had little effect on the dragon, and physical attacks had even less effect. Soon the Crystal Empire had fallen, and then it became the new home of the dragon. The power of the Crystal Heart became part of the dragon’s power.


In Canterlot the three other princesses were preparing to attack the Crystal Empire or to have to defend Canterlot. Whatever came first. Unfortunately they had little time to do anything as three hours after the fall of the Crystal Empire the enemy was now coming towards Canterlot.


Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends representing the Elements of Harmony used the Elements to create a shield around Canterlot so that the dragon could not attack from far away. Just like the last one, this one was no problem for the dragon. The dragon crashed right through it when he got to Canterlot. The forces of it being destroyed caused the six elemental ponies to fall down as their concentration was broken. The shield slowly dissolved from the spot that was broken until it was no more.


Princess Celestia and Princess Luna prepared their most powerful spells to attack the ice dragon while Twilight and the elemental ponies were recovering, but before the sister Princesses could launch their attack, the dragon used its own magic spell first and teleported the two princesses somewhere else.


Twilight was filled with worry and anger from not knowing if the princesses were OK. She realised that they were most likely fine. She was still filled with some anger as she realised that her brother and sister-in-law were probably not fine and she would never see them again. 


Twilight was ready to use the Elements of Harmony to their fullest and totally destroy this monster. Twilight’s eyes glowed white with magic as rainbow-colored energy surrounded the six elemental ponies. This magic was then directed towards the ice dragon. The dragon countered with his own magic as he shot a light blue beam of magic from his claw. The two powerful magics collided in an explosion of light and energy. The two magic forces continued to clash against each other, but Twilight and the elemental ponies were running out of energy. The dragon did not seem to be losing any energy. If anything, the dragon seemed to be getting stronger. As if from nowhere, the dragon had what seemed like an infinite amount of magic and the light blue magic shot straight through the rainbow magic of the Elements and turned Twilight into stone. As it impacted her, the magic radiated from Twilight and turned all the elemental ponies into stone. The dragon shot a ball of magic at the now defenceless pony statues. Upon impact they all shattered, and only the crown of princess Twilight was left. 


The dragon turned towards the castle and crashed through the roof to get to the Princesses. Both Princesses were trapped in a light blue shield that made them unable to use magic. The dragon landed in front of Celestia and stuck his claw through the shield and grabbed Celestia's horn. He began absorbing her magic energy using an ancient spell that has been banned and forgotten from history. Princess Celestia could feel her life fading as her magic was leaving her. Princess Luna could do nothing but watch her older sister slowly die.


Luna began to cry and pound on the shield that was trapping her as she realised that she could not save her older sister and that her magic would stand no chance against this powerful enemy. Luna was tempted to give into her anger and transform into Nightmare Moon but she knew that it would not help anypony if she was evil. Even if by some amazing miracle she did save Equestria from that dragon, she would then take over Equestria. So she sat there crying as she saw her sister die. She regained some composure as she saw her enemy coming toward her. She pleaded and begged for her life. The dragon chose to spare Luna's life due to the fact that Luna was no threat but Luna was never seen again.


After the fall of Equestria, the rest of the planet fell to the power of the dragon. The Crystal Empire was used as a weapon to destroy all who rebelled. Only a small place with a few cities in the mountains of an unknown nation were able to repel the dragon and his floating city. That place was known as Maple Valley. A unicorn claimed to have found a magic greater than that of the sun and the moon combined. She was able to fight the dragon, but not without losing the ability to protect the small valley that she lived in. So she chose to make an agreement with the dragon. The two powerful creatures would leave each other alone and would not interfere with the other’s worlds. Ponies from the miracle valley can leave and come as they want. Some go around the world to spread hope to others. So in this new world of darkness there is a small place of hope but nopony from the outside world can go into it. They can just see the magic shield that protects the valley and listen to what the ponies from this miracle valley say to them. 



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Lightwing stood up and stretched her hooves. They were getting a little sore from sitting. “I have actually talked to some of these ponies and seen the valley...the shield that protects it anyway. Living over six hundred years and being rich has its advantages.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “You're over six hundred years old?”

“I have not got to that part of the story,” Lightwing said with a slight blush. “Yes, I am that old. I have talked to the alicorn that rules that valley too. She would not tell me much because she feared it might make problems for her agreement with the dragon. She only told me that in her dreams she sees a large round object in space that has the power to destroy anything, but it is also the source of creation for families of stars. It is also her cutie mark. Have you heard of such a thing?”

Twilight had a look of fear in her face. “It sounds like a dark vortex.”

“It did look like a vortex but it was not dark. What is a dark vortex anyway?”

“It is an object in space that destroys everything that gets too close to it. Nothing can stop it except a bigger dark vortex. Celestia and Luna might know more about it.”

Lightwing looked at Celestia. “Do you know more?”

Celestia nodded “I may know a story of two. I shall keep it short so as to not interrupt your story. Long before I was born, an evil unicorn discovered this power and used it to take over our world. For a large time is history she was ruler of the world but she was eventually defeated by a small group of unicorns that harnessed an older and more powerful magic. As the goddess’s final dying act, she destroyed the sun and moon in hope that our world would die with her. The group of unicorns used their magic to make a new sun and moon. They used their magic to move them around the planet, so that one side of the planet would not burn while the other froze. That is how the sun and moon of today were made. Both the magic that was used to take over the world and save it were sealed away in hope that something this bad would never happen again.”

Lightwing was amazed at the story. “That is just as amazing as my story. Except my story is not over.”

Celestia smiled. “Thanks for the complement. Do you want to hear another short story about a similar event and possibly the origins of the evil dragon that controls your world?”

Lightwing nodded her head as Twilight said, "Yes, she would, and I would as well."

Celestia began the next story. “A long time ago, before I was born but not as long ago as the last story, an evil unicorn tried to take over Equestria, but he failed. He was banished from Equestria and was not heard from for quite some time. He came back hundreds of years later and claimed he had found a new world to take over, and would create a dragon and an army to take over this world while he ruled over the other. He began to cause trouble in Equestria again for many years, but nopony could find him before he would vanish. Many cities would be destroyed by him, and no trace of him could be found after he left. Only the stories of the ponies that survived in that city gave any clues. One day he vanished. Nopony knows when, where, why, or how. Most ponies forgot of this evil unicorn over the years. The rulers of that time kept the story alive by telling their children who would one day be rulers too, so that they could be ready for such a day that this unknown dragon and army might come, but they never came. I am pretty sure that the rulers of that time did not want to have to make a new sun and moon like their ancestors. So they kept this obscure story alive and told their children to do the same. Equestria has never liked having dragons in its borders because of this, but we have not banished them from our land. I have never had a reason to tell this story because I have no children but I have told this story to Princess Cadence, and my sister knows of it too.”


Twilight had a question, but not for Celestia. “Lightwing, how do you know all your story if you were not there?”

Lightwing was now laying down on the ground. “I read it in a history book that was hidden in the Canterlot Library. Celestia, that was an interesting story, and it would explain the origins of a mysterious dragon appearing to take over the world. I think it’s time to continue my story now. Now you will learn about me.”


11,600 years after the world was taken over (give or take a few years) a new pegasus was born into a dark world and named Lightwing. This pegasus was interested in unicorn magic from a young age, but that was not a good thing in this day and age. She loved to try to make potions that could mimic magic, but her parents tried their best to keep her away from magics. So she secretly practiced making magic potions in her spare time. Sometimes she would be seen by others, and as a result of that her family had to move homes quite a lot until she was seven years old. They had moved to a small town in a valley between some mountains, and Lightwing found a small cave to practice in.


Lightwing liked to visit the place known as the Canterlot Ruins. It was a historical monument and, even though it was in ruins, there was a large library that had lots of books on history.



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Twilight raised a hoof. "Why are you talking about yourself like you are somepony else? How do you know that you were born 11,600 years after the world was taken over?"

Lightwing sighed. "First answer is because its a story and second is because there are history books and schools. Just because an evil dragon rules the world, doesn't mean there is no education.”



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One day Lightwing found a sealed-off section of the library and like any curious filly she found a way in. The books in this section were also about history but from the time before the dragon. Such a time had been long forgotten. By the age of eight, Lightwing was paying for trips to the Canterlot Ruins by herself because her parents did not have the time to take her there every day. Three days after Lightwing turned ten she discovered a huge book titled Advanced Potions and Recipes of Chaos in the sealed-off part of the library that told of a potion that could allow her to stay young forever and a lot of other strange potions and meals. She made it her goal to figure out how to make the forever-young potion flawlessly. She already had her cutie mark which was about making potions.


Her parents did not approve of her making potions. It was hard for Lightwing to get supplies into her home without her parents noticing. So it made making complex potions annoyingly hard.


At age fourteen Lightwing was really good at making random herbal potions that were usually good for healing. Also at that age, Lightwing moved into her own home and started her own food business using the recipes from the book Advanced Potions and Recipes of Chaos. The foods were very popular with all the weird, strange, and fun stuff that happened after eating it, and the food was just awesome. I mean, who would not want to drink chocolate rain, eat cupcakes that taste different every time you take a bite, eat fruit that changes your mane color or buy a cake that lasts forever? Lightwing made those cakes very expensive since you only have to buy one for your life.


Lightwing did not let any worker ponies cook food in her restaurant. They could only serve food and clean the restaurant. No pony wanted to cook the food anyway because she told them it involved using magic and magic always came with a price.


Lightwing spent the next few years alone in her home, only leaving to go to work and visit her parents on weekends. At the age of thirty-four Lightwing had finally mastered making the potion she had devoted twenty-four years of her life to. The anti-aging potion was a great success. It had taken a lot of testing and time but it was worth it. So now what was she supposed to do?


Lightwing decided that she would devote her life to making strange and amazing potions of all kinds. That was what Lightwing loved to do anyway and she had a longer life ahead of her than most ponies.



Now that Lightwing knew she could outlive her parents by thousands of years she decided that she would spend the rest of their natural lives with them, but she still had a restaurant to run. So for the next seventy-six years she lived with her parents and sometimes gave them small doses of the anti-aging potion.


After her parents died, she sold their home and returned to her home to continue making new potions. She also had a large underground chamber built for her under her home for making potions in secret. Lightwing liked her appearance to be in her early twenties. On the rare occasion that some pony saw her and asked her age she would tell them she was twenty-three but she wore a cloak when she went out to buy stuff from others to hide her identity. For the next one hundred years Lightwing used the knowledge from the books in the hidden part of the Canterlot library to make lots of strange potions and learn history. In that time she had found a potion that would allow her to be invisible for a short time.


It took three years for Lightwing make the invisibility potion. In the sealed off part of the Canterlot Library she found a history book that explained in detail how the dragon took over Equestria but, to Lightwing's disappointment, not the origins of the ice dragon. It was like somepony who was there saw how the dragon took over the land and they wrote the book. The book also told of an item called the Dragon Pendant that the dragon had created. The book also said that the Pendant was directly connected to the dragon's life energy, and it gave true immortality to the dragon and made it immune to magic. That meant that the pendant had to be destroyed in order to kill the dragon. The book also said it was hidden in the Crystal Empire. Not too many exciting things happened for next year as Lightwing was just researching the Crystal Empire and made an exact replica of of the Dragon Pendant but it lacked the magic qualities of the real one. Lightwing had a plan and that was to save Equestria from the dragon somehow.


After a few more months Lightwing had made a plan on how to steal the Dragon Pendant and replace it with the fake one using the invisibility potion. She successfully executed her plan and now she had to figure out how to destroy the pendant. That would be more difficult than she knew.


After five years of trying every way she could think of to destroy the pendant, she gave up on that goal. She had tried just about everything, even putting the thing into magically enchanted lava. Lightwing decided to give up on destroying it and put the pendant around her neck and vowed that she would never go anywhere without it.


Now it was time to make new potions. Lightwing went over to one of her many bookshelves and dusted off the old book Advanced Potions and Recipes of Chaos. She needed a goal that she had faith in completing, and making new potions was just what she needed. The next week was spent reading the whole book. She found lots of potions that piqued her interest but none more so than one that said she could travel through time. That seemed too good to be true. Magic always came at a price. It was a super-complicated potion and it required something she could not get and that was true magic. The kind only a unicorn has but finding a unicorn that would be willing to help her could be a problem.


Lightwing began getting unicorns to help by bribing them with money. She had plenty of it with her one-of-a-kind foods. Lightwing did her best to not get to know the unicorns working for her. It was simply a do-what-I-tell-you-and-you-get-paid relationship. Lots of unicorns worked for her. They came and left when they felt they had enough money. 


One day when when Lightwing was at her restaurant she received a letter saying that the ice dragon was coming to visit her restaurant the next day. She was very surprised. She knew her one-of-a-kind food was good but she never expected the ruler of the world to eat her food. She made plans for the special guest and put a sign up that said the ruler of the world was coming to visit and when he arrived all other guests were to leave. There were no normal guests at her restaurant the next day. Only a dragon came that day. The dragon told her an important piece of information that surprised her in a good way and a bad way. Before the dragon left he said that his master created him for two reasons. Those reasons were to take over this world and to kill Lightwing, but he would not kill her because of reasons she would find out later.



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Twilight raised a hoof. “Did you ever find out what those two other reasons were?”

“Um...no. At least, I don't think so. The only thing I can think of is that the dragon knows more than his master did about time travel or I somehow did something to offend his master. The master traveled back in time to change history by creating this dragon and now I had to travel back in time to fix it. I honestly don't know.”



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After 227 years of bribing unicorns Lightwing met a young unicorn mare at the age of eighteen. (They were all young compared to her considering that they only live 180 years at most.) She was named Vivian Rivers. Vivian wanted to help Lightwing but would not accept more of Lightwing’s money because Vivian already worked at the restaurant and made money. Lightwing was shocked that such a young unicorn would not accept more.


Five years after Vivian started working on potions, Lightwing decided to get to know her as a friend. Ten years after meeting her new friend, Lightwing trusted her new friend enough that she began to share some of her secrets with her and when Vivian reached the age of thirty-four Lightwing shared the Secret of her anti-aging potion and they worked together for the next 211 years. They worked together on potions and the restaurant until Lightwing finally finished the time-traveling potion and traveled to the past and...you know the rest of the story.”