//------------------------------//
// Prelude: The Collapse 
// Story: Legend 
// by Unknown Six 
//------------------------------//

"Into the void, the spark. After the spark, the fire. After the fire, the void."
-Nerigal Savant III description





Equestria
Canterlot Castle





Princess Celestia saw it. 

It was beautiful, curious, and foreboding, all at once. An interweaving tapestry of images manifested before her eyes, as real and intricate as she was sure they would have been in person. The images were as surreal as a dream sequence, but had a certain definitive quality in them that assured her this was no illusion.

From what she saw, she knew the depictions were not of any of the realms she'd surveyed in her many years of life. It was of another universe, similar in composition to her own but unfamiliar in many ways. 

A completely colonized solar system that knew peace.

A civilization that was several times more advanced than the one she led. 

And at the head of the mysterious civilization was a celestial body of Light, nowhere near as large as the Moon but massive nevertheless. With this mysterious spherical benefactor at the forefront, all life in the solar system prospered, as evidenced by the shining metropolises and the completely lit planets on which the cities were built on. Fleets of enormous colony ships promised settlement of the stars and beyond. 

Cooperation. Prosperity. Harmony.  The sight warmed Celestia's heart as much as the first Hearth's Warming Eve.

Then arrived the Darkness. 

The civilization, which was undergoing a Golden Age at the time, was taken completely by surprise. The unfamiliar race of bipedals, backed by advanced weaponry and sapient robots modeled after their own kind, fought back valiantly, but were overwhelmed by the agents of the Darkness. Planet after planet fell. Civilization crumbled under the harbinger of a dark age. The former apex race was forced all the way back to its home planet. Even their moon was lost, to Celestia's immense sadness. If it was her solar system being invaded, she, and Luna especially, would have defended Equestria's moon to the bitter end.

The Princess turned her attention to the celestial sphere, who, in defense of the beings it had taken under its wing, sacrificed a majority of its own Light and finite power in order to drive the Darkness back. 

But was it enough?

Time, like the inconceivable cipher that it was, answered questions with mysteries and mocking hints. The Light flickered, the celestial body went dormant, and for an evanescent instant, everything was quiet.

Time, literally, came to a halt. Celestia pondered. Was this the past of another universe? The story of a civilization, right down to its end? If so, then what was this Darkness precisely? How could it eliminate an entire race at its peak? Just how powerful was it?

...Could it claw its way into her subjects' domain, the land she swore to justly lead and protect? 

Immediately following her thoughts, the seams of time and space raveled, and the setting blurred as if entire star systems were being traversed several times faster than light. The Sun Princess registered the displacement of location and time, due in part to her own knowledge of the cosmos.

It stopped at...Equis?

The scene focused into Equestria, Celestia's native land. She recognized the surroundings as the quaint town of Ponyville, where her faithful student Twilight Sparkle and her friends resided. Citizens went about their daily lives, enjoying yet another day of peace. Ponies intermingled and laughed heartily, and Celestia saw a rainbow contrail zipping across the distant blue sky.

Celestia didn't know why, but she couldn't shake the feeling that this was the present.

The seams of time unraveled, so quickly and so abruptly that she could not discern how far into the past or future she had gone to, or which.

But what Celestia saw in this Equestria... It was from no past she recognized.

When Princess Celestia was arrived in Equestria's future, the ruler, to her abstract horror, was greeted by the sight of Ponyville's town hall burning. Around her, malevolent creatures ran amok, firing strange devices that Celestia knew were built for war. Terrible flying ships darted across the sky, dropping off more of the monsters then disappearing. Many of Ponyville's houses and establishments alike collapsed as they were wracked with explosions of energy. Sounds of ponies panicking and the monsters waging their grotesque warfare upon Ponyville's innocent populace melded in the thick atmosphere of death and destruction. Bodies consisting of mostly ponies were scattered about, like weeds in a decrepit yard. 

Celestia wanted to do something, anything, to stop the massacre, but somehow her physical body was not present, and only her consciousness was to suffer. She had just managed to salvage her composure from the gruesome scene...

Until she witnessed the Elements' last stand. 

In the center of the town square there was, amidst the carnage, a purple force field in the shape of a small half bubble. Hundreds of the evil troops, large, small, and equally menacing surrounded the bubble, firing away with their myriad weaponry. Some bonelike creatures even clawed away at the shield with fetid claws, others with enormous blades. Celestia recognized the violet color of the magic as Twilight's. The force field's occupants confirmed her fears; their condition did not help in the slightest.

Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's beloved protégé, stood bravely with poised wings and a sparking horn, grim determination etched on her facial features. All her concentration was allocated to her horn in order to provide energy for the force field. Rarity, using her natural abilities as a unicorn, stood adjacent to her friend as she assisted alicorn with maintaining the barrier. Obvious fatigue demonstrated her lesser aptitude with magic compared to Twilight. 

Behind them, a yellow Pegasus by the name of Fluttershy worked diligently to patch up Rainbow Dash's wounds, attempting to ignore the chaos outside the bubble. Rainbow, on the other hoof, was grimacing at the injuries on her wings that rendered them clipped and her flightless. She looked at the horde of monsters attempting to claw its way into their safe haven with contempt. 

Ominously, Spike, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie were nowhere to be seen.

"Uh, Twilight?" Rainbow started, slightly weak, "I don't think we're going anywhere. We're completely surrounded." Flight was out of the question. With Rainbow Dash's wounds, and Rarity and Twilight's exhausting occupation with the barrier, it was clear that none of the ponies were ready to fight, either.

Twilight still had her look of conviction, though Celestia saw right through the mask. "We'll be okay! All we have to do is-" she panted and sweat trickled down her forehead from the added effort of repelling twenty or so monsters that latched onto the barrier, "-hold out until the princesses arrive with reinforcements."

'Twilight! I'm here! It'll be alright!' Celestia iterated as loud as she could, to no avail. She was still a mere ghost in a hopeless future.

Judging by the rapidly rising volume of dark creatures around their barrier, Celestia saw that even Twilight was beginning to lose hope. Celestia wanted to nothing but comfort Twilight and her friends, and protect them from the Darkness, but was held back by her ethereal form.

Though that begs the question: where was the future's Celestia at this time? Couldn't she have seen it fit to protect her protégé from the apocalypse itself?! Celestia seethed.

Minutes passed by agonizingly slowly. Fluttershy had finished bandaging Rainbow's wings, and the both of them just sat helplessly while the unicorns worked their magics. The sound of dark creatures recklessly throwing themselves at the shield assaulted their ears. Fluttershy yelped and recoiled in fear.

Rarity, who was beginning to get wobbly at the knees, looked at Fluttershy in concern, then back to Twilight. She spoke up over the pandemonium. "Twilight, dear... Forgive me, but I don't know if I can keep this up any longer," she said, her voice strained.

"We can do this, Rarity! I'm tired too, but we just need to wait for help-"

"And what if there is no help?" Rainbow said bitterly as she glared at the ground.

All of the others, even the demure Fluttershy, gasped at Dash's remark. 

"It's true. If they were going to send help, they would have done it already."

"Rainbow Dash! Don't say things like that! Defeatism isn't befitting the best flyer in all of Equestria." Twilight said warmly and encouragingly, rather than mocking. "Your confidence has always inspired all of us," she gestured to the other two ponies, who nodded fervently.

Twilight looked Dash in the eye. "Please. Have confidence in us."

Celestia, for a moment, took pride in her student. Twilight could worry over the littlest of things, but when it came to helping others, she was ever the optimist.

Rainbow Dash sighed and looked up, making a small smile. "You... You're right. Sorry. It's just... When you lose a part of you," she looked at her badly injured wings. "You tend to see the negative side of things." 

Twilight put a hoof on her friend's shoulder and grinned. "I understand."

She looked to all of her friends, a large portion of her concentration still on maintaining the purple barrier. "And no matter what happens today... It was an honor to have you all as friends," she said, equal parts happy and sad.

"Likewise, darling! Life without you ponies would be simply unimaginable!"

"It... It was so great being with you girls."

"You guys are the coolest. Like, way more than twenty percent!"

'It was an honor to be your mentor, Twilight.'

For a fleeting moment, Celestia thought Twilight could sense her presence. Twilight smiled and her eyes grew moist. She opened her mouth to say something...

"Um... Sorry for interrupting, but... What is that over there?" Fluttershy pointed with a hoof, trembling.

The Elements and Celestia turned to see a gargantuan ship hovering above, blotting out the stormy skies. A smaller but still huge hunk of metal detached from the ship and fell to the ground with a deafening crash.

"I dunno, but I doubt those are our reinforcements," Rainbow said skeptically as she squinted her eyes to see around the monsters clamoring to get inside the barrier.

The hunk of metal shifted and parts of it unfolded, like a compacted, automated piece of intricate technology. The thing eventually stopped changing, and was revealed to be in the shape of a giant metal spider with a pointed protrusion on the top.

Celestia realized what it must have been. After all, Equestria once waged wars of its own. She wished she could alert the Elements so that they could try to vacate the area, among other things.

The giant metal arachnoid juggernaut took sight of the ponies in the middle of town square and began aiming a red laser at the force field. The ponies inside were still puzzling over what it was and what to do, and decided to stand their ground. 

'No, no, no, no! Twilight, everypony, MOVE!'

Unfortunately, Celestia's frantic warning fell on deaf ears. The large tank, sparing no further delay, fired a salvo of explosive projectiles from its main cannon at the magic barrier, and caused a huge detonation that sent body parts from the monsters around the bubble flying into the air. When the smoke cleared, only a long-spanning scorch mark remained. 

Time froze. Princess Celestia felt like screaming, and disintegrating the nearest object with magic. However, she was not allowed any moment of mourning or rage, as the scene zoomed out of Ponyville and focused on the status of Equestria as a whole.

Good fortune was, again, working against her, it seemed. 

Equestria lay in shambles, and became an epicenter and a battlefield for evil creatures, all vying for control. Brutish albeit advanced scavengers, nightmarish undead abominations, relentless war machines, militant conquerors, and even strange glowing corrupted versions of the other creatures, and to her terror, corrupted ponies, were among those creatures that she saw. The evil factions clashed with one another, paying no mind to the collateral damage. Almost nopony remained, and what little resistances ponykind could muster were promptly crushed by one or more of the feuding factions. From the deserts of the Western towns such as Appleloosa to urban environments like Fillydelphia, no place was spared the Darkness' infighting.

The location finally zoned in on Canterlot Castle. The castle was in ruins and was heavily weathered by warfare. Obvious signs of a siege were present, but there was no one alive, monster or equine. Bodies of both sides dotted the castle grounds, and Celestia took morbid satisfaction in knowing that some of the Darkness' own forces fell with her little ponies.

Anger. An emotion so befitting of mortals. Celestia thought she had cast aside such feelings long ago, but it seems that old wounds were reopening.

Celestia commanded her consciousness to enter the interior of the castle, and so it did. Navigating through the dilapidated remnants of her castle halls swiftly by memory, she arrived at the throne room in no time. 

If Celestia's consciousness had a jaw, it would have dropped.

It looked akin to the destruction she and Luna had caused when her sister succumbed to the influence of the Nightmare. The entirety of the throne room was scorched black, by fire spells she recognized and practiced herself, and by others that were completely foreign to her. The left portion of the room was missing, and moonlight shone through the orifice. However, what was in front of the ruined throne was what caught her attention. 

Celestia and Luna's bodies lay still on the cracked ground. Standing calmly over their corpses was a strange bipedal creature that donned a trench coat similar to the ones worn by the warlocks of old Equestrian lore. Its glowing gauntlets were seemingly infused with the Sun's light, with all the intensity and heat of the star packed into two pieces of armor. On its left arm was a strange band that was alit with alien lettering. The bipedal creature wore a helmet - for protection, Celestia assumed, as it couldn't possibly serve any arcane purpose - and in one of its hands it clutched a contraption that had to be of the same crafting and purpose as those of the monstrous foot soldiers she encountered earlier. 

Princess Celestia hated this creature already - for presumably killing the future's princesses (and by extent, dooming Twilight and her friends), for desecrating their corpses, and for simply coming from the same place the Darkness did, as indicated by its bipedal stance and its weaponry.

Hatred. Such an ugly emotion that she and Luna thought themselves above, as rulers needed to be kindred. However, Celestial had no quandaries with the feeling now.

Celestia "stepped" closer to the warlock, and widened her eyes in pure shock as the being looked up, its visor fixated squarely on her. The warlock sheathed its weapon on its back, and lifted both of its hands halfway up. Right before Celestia, its left hand erupted into flames; its other created a ball of dark energy.

The warlock hurled the bolts of Light and Dark energy at Celestia's ethereal body, and time stopped.










With a start, Celestia woke up yelling in the Royal Canterlot Voice in her chambers. She looked around frantically, taking in her surroundings.

'It was... a nightmare?'

At that moment, Princess Luna, flanked by two Night Guards, burst through her chamber's doors.

"Sister! Art thou hurt?!" Luna sternly inquired in the Royal Voice.

Celestia's eyes darted from between Luna and the Guards, and she put a hoof to her temple. Celestia couldn't put into words how glad she was to be back home with her beloved sister. However, there were guards present, and no matter how much she hated the fact, she had to keep up appearances.

"I'm...fine, dear sister. My panicking was merely the result of a strange occurrence in the night."

Luna raised an eyebrow, but nodded. She gestured to the two Guards. "Brave guards of the night, you are dismissed," she said in her "normal" voice now that she was calm. The Guards saluted and departed silently. 

The door closed, and immediately Celestia pounced and nuzzled a perplexed Luna. 

"Luna...I'm so glad you're here," she said with the fervor of a young filly.

That served to puzzle Luna even more. "Yes, as I am for you. But I know a feint when I see one. What really happened?" she asked seriously, as she took note of Celestia's bedraggled, stressed appearance. Her normally flowing prismatic mane was now flaccid, colored a dull pink.

Celestia withdrew from Luna and took on a somber look. "It was a nightmare, as young and childish as that sounds. But it seemed all too realistic."

Luna shook her head. "Like all dreams seem while they are being conceived. But sister, we must not delude ourselves into thinking we are above mortal function. Strip away the agelessness and we are ponies with a horn and wings."

The Princess of the Night continued, "But your oneiric distress was quite dire when I sensed it. Would you like to talk about it?"

"No, not now. I don't think it is important," Celestia lied. Truly, the revelations of another, lost universe and their own hopeless future terrified her above all else, but it simply wouldn't do to burden her sister's mind along with hers. Celestia, when she could, would interpret this knowledge thoroughly, while taking every available measure to prevent such a cataclysmic event from formulating. But not now.

Luna nodded in understanding, and the two shared a moment of silence.

"So, you sensed my nightmare... I assume that's why you roused the Guards and came over?"

"Yes, but the Guards insisted they accompany me." Luna looked down at her hooves, suddenly finding the intricate flooring rather interesting. "I didn't interfere, as you said not to enter your dreams for fear of what I might find in your nightmares..."

Celestia adopted a warm smile. "I thank you for heeding my warnings, Sister."

'And thank the heavens that she did...'

"This one was exceptionally strange," the Princess of the Sun muttered to herself, referring to the revelations of their future. Could it even be possible for such dark forces to exist? Evil so dark it despises other evil? Could the monsters and the warlock simply be fabrications of the olden machinations of her mind, and Equestria's fall being a simulation; a projection of her earthly fears? And what of the foreign civilization, and their sphere of Light? The Warlock seemed to be of the same race of the one ravaged by the Darkness. Could the Light truly be corrupted by the dark?

Celestia adopted a far off look in her eyes, one that Luna recognized from whenever her sister was lost in thought. Those who were mortal often pondered what went on in the minds of the ageless; Luna knew.

Even as a fellow immortal, it frightened her nonetheless. 

Luna patiently waited for her sister to finish with her thoughts. Celestia, after a few minutes, snapped out of her reverie and smiled sheepishly at Luna. She made a proposition: one of her favorite pastimes from simpler days.

"Since sleep clearly isn't an option anymore..." Celestia looked out the window and saw the Moon glistening in the nightly scenery. "Well, I wager the night sky looks beautiful at this hour. Care to join me outside, sister?"

Princess Luna beamed as radiantly as the Sun itself.