//------------------------------// // Upon the Current State of Affairs // Story: A Beam of Light // by OutofCuriosity //------------------------------// Aduro crept into the cave, sniffing slightly and only finding the scent of the limestone cave itself. This should serve as a suitable shelter for the night. Heading deeper in, until the patch of sunlight at the cave opening was a good distance away, Aduro set down her saddlebag then returned to the entrance. Invisibility spell concealing her, she watched as pegasi gathered up clouds over the forest. They worked efficiently and before long the evening sky was soon replaced by grey clouds. It has been far too long since I've seen a rainstorm. I hate how ponies never seem to get tired of virtually endless, blue, sunny days. At least they've improved on cloud production with time. It seems they can just completely cover an area in clouds, like everywhere else does. Do they even use the cloud line method anymore?...I'm getting distracted, that's how mistakes are made. It'll be hard to smell anypony approaching over the scent of the rain. I should set an alarm. Aduro walked out into the forest and gathered an armful of leaves, glancing up to check if any of the pegasi had noticed her. None did and she reentered the cave and laid out the leaves around the entrance. Two more trips for clumps of leaves and sticks were made before she was satisfied she'd hear any intruders, even a pegasus, if they came close to her. Aduro laid down on the cave floor, barely visible even to her in the abscence of a light source. I've got a food source that will last me at least two weeks, water is easy to find in Equestria, and until winter I won't need any serious protection from the weather. Now what do I do? ...I guess the answer hasn't changed since I left Tartarus: I need to find out more about the new state of Equestria before I can make any long-term plans. Aduro stopped planning for a moment as a sudden epiphany made her groan and lift a claw to her forehead. I could have asked directions to the nearest town with a library back when I got the gems! I could have easily gotten the information then been gone before anypony had even learned of the theft. By now that village is probably swarming with guards looking for diamond dogs, or even for me. Relax, she thought to herself, at most it means following the roads towards the next town the getting directions there. I have a plan for now at least. With that thought offering a small amount of comfort, Aduro curled up and went to sleep. Her sleep was not a restful one however. Pale grey light illuminating dark stone walls, and the heat of the beating object coating her claws in red were the only things Aduro could remember of her dreams as she awoke in a cold sweat. The sound of the rain outside mixed with the sound of her heart pounding away in her chest. She lay there staring at nothing but darkness, thoughts spinning in her head. I thought I made peace with my actions long ago, so why come back now? No ready answers came to mind and Aduro shifted focus from her nightmares to the storm raging outside the cave. It was a fierce one with the wind howling between the trees and thunder rumbling between flashes of lightning. Aduro felt her heart slow its pace as she listened to the storm reverberating off the cave walls. She realized the futility of returning to sleep with her thoughts in such a disarray, so Aduro got up and walked out of the cave. The feeling of the rain hitting her scales was soothing and the sound of the thunder like a lullaby. Eventually all worry at the nightmare's return vanished as she lost herself in the sound of the storm. Then all thought and sense of self disappeared too, replaced with the whirling forces of nature. A small smile grew on Aduro's face as she remained lost in the music of nature and time itself ceased to exist. There was only room for the storm. After some time the wind and rain lessened in intensity, thunder rumbled less frequently and Aduro came to her senses. She was standing in front of a cave soaking wet in the middle of the night. With a sad and disappointed sigh Aduro returned to the cave and hoped for a dreamless night of sleep. ---------- Luna landed alongside Celestia on the small balcony of the Golden Oaks library. Moonlight reflected off the glass of the doors inside as Twilight Sparkle opened said doors for the Princesses. Twilight bowed to the Princesses and said, "The others are downstairs and Spike is asleep in his bed." Celestia thanked Twilight as Luna's horn glowed and had anypony been standing on the balcony they would have seen the assembled ponies' mouths move but no sound come out. The trio moved past the sleeping baby dragon and descended the stairs to join the the rest of the Elements of Harmony who were sitting in a semi-circle facing the stairs. Twilight joined her friends in the semi-circle as Celestia cleared her throat and began to speak. "Thank you for agreeing to meet at such a late hour but as much as I hate to admit, there are some things the fewer ponies know the better." "No problem Princess, I would have been still awake anyway," bragged Rainbow Dash, "I need to be able to practice my moves where it won't blind anypony with their awesomeness." "Ya mean you practice at night so nopony will see ya crash as often," snipped Applejack who looked dead on her hooves completely oblivious to the glare shot by the blue pegasus. "I haven't stayed up this late since that time I tried to harvest the whole orchard by myself." The other ponies present were in similar states of tiredness as Applejack, except for Pinkie Pie who seemed as awake and energetic as she did during the day. Celestia paused a moment to let any other interruptions get themselves out of the way before continuing. "The reason Luna and I asked for such secrecy in our letter is that we felt it was necessary to let more ponies know about the situation Equestria finds itself in without causing a panic that a public announcement would cause. The invasion of Canterlot a little over a week ago might have been avoided had we not decided to try and solve the problem alone. We will not make that same mistake again. "For this reason we must prepare you for the struggle to recapture A-Lucere before any serious harm comes of it." Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight started to speak but Celestia held up a single white wing and silence reasserted itself in the library. "Lucere is unlike any foe you have or likely will ever face. Unlike Discord, Queen Chrysalis, or Nightmare Moon, Lucere has never attempted to seize control of Equestria and I doubt she ever truly will. "Twilight, as you likely discovered to your displeasure, the history books offer vague details at best and none at all at worst about her. I am afraid to say this is the result of a decision a much younger and foolish version of me made almost two thousand years ago. But before I can properly explain my decision I must tell you a brief version of Lucere's past for if I tried to tell the whole story, many years would pass before I finished. "You see, three and half thousand years ago, when Luna and I used the Elements of Harmony to imprison Discord in stone, we were not alone in our desire to free our world of his grip. Among our many allies was Lucere, who had been cursed by Discord to be without a physical body of her own. Upon learning that Discord was imprisoned in stone and not vanquished completely by the Elements she grew angry. The reason was that before being cursed, Discord had brainwashed her into doing...evil things to her loved ones. "This sparked a hatred within her that, despite our best efforts over the centuries we spent rebuilding the world together, never truly faded. Then one day, a little over 1800 years ago, she led a cult of Discord worshippers who wished to free Discord in order to gain more power for themselves, under the name Aduro, into the old castle where we had originally decided to guard Discord's statue. However, Lucere had another plan in mind." At this point Celestia paused, looked around at the assembled ponies, glanced at her sister who nodded in silent agreement, before saying, "I know you already signed a promise to keep what I reveal here a secret, but I must hear you say it again before I reveal the truth about that night." The Bearers of the Elements exchanged curious and slightly concerned glances before in unison performed solemnly vowed to remain silent, except for Pinkie who made a Pinkie Promise. Celestia watched this before drawing breath to continue the story. "What the cultists didn't know and what Luna and I learned later that night was that Lucere had in secret developed a new method to access magic. Normally a pony, be they a unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony, draws their magic from the natural magic that abounds in the world. Other races follow similar rules though some differences are present in the exact process of how the magic is drawn in. What Lucere had discovered after centuries of research and experimentation was that it was possible to use the very life force of a living being to fuel a magical spell. "Lucere had purposefully lured the cult to the vault where we kept Discord's statue and used the cultists to fuel a spell in an attempt to permanently kill Discord. I later learned that being the victim of such magic is extremely painful and it was this aspect of the magic that alerted me about the situation in the vault where I found Lucere standing over the bodies muttering that 'it wasn't enough'." Twilight's expression had started off being one of focus and curiosity when Princess Celestia began her tale, that expression slowly fell as the story progressed and now she sported a look of horror at the perversion of magic committed long ago. Applejack took off her hat and clutched it tightly against her chest. Rainbow Dash was sitting still, staring at the floor dumb-founded. Fluttershy was hugging Rarity for support as tears flowed down the yellow pegasus' cheeks. Pinkie Pie's mane had deflated slightly and in a quiet voice that didn't seem like it should be coming from the pink pony asked, "What happened next?" Celestia exhaled with a weary sigh. "Then I fought her. With Luna joining the battle partway, we were able to defeat Lucere without the use of the Elements of Harmony and locked Lucere away in Tartarus. Soon afterwards I ordered that anything Lucere had ever written be searched for and destroyed if it even hinted at her creation of such evil magic. Then in my anger I went a step further and ordered all mention of her to stricken from every record and tried to erase even the mention of her name. It took Luna's intervention by saving several records of Lucere's earliest achievements in medicine to prevent her complete erasure from history. In the centuries since, I have made infrequent visits to Tartarus to determine her condition and though I can say with confidence she will not resort to such measures lightly, I don't know at what point she will use such magic again. But, I still have hope, hope that she can be persuaded to abandon her quest for vengeance without any serious harm coming to anypony. You see, while Lucere did participate in the Changeling Invasion, nothing we have learned from our sources remotely suggests that Lucere even mentioned she was capable of such unique magic to Chrysalis. With that in mind, I am leaving the Elements with you, Twilight, as a measure of added protection though I honestly believe that you will not need to use them against Lucere. But...Lucere is not the only denizen of Tartarus loose in Equestria at the moment. This creature's name is Tirek..." The Princesses and the Bearers remained the library discussing just what should be done about the situation well after the point where Celestia had to raise the sun. Spike awoke to the sound of hooves ascending the steps to the bedroom. Rubbing his eyes, Spike looked to find Twilight with dark circles under eyes, an all too familiar sight to him. "Twilight, did you pull another all-nighter studying...whatever it is you're studying at the moment?" "Yes, Spike. Now get out of bed. We have a lot of work to do," said Twilight whose eyes, underneath the sleep deprivation, contained a steely determination. Spike sighed and stood up stretching his claws in preparation for what he knew would be a long day of note taking.