//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: The Choice 
// Story: Twilily Saga: Past, Present, Or Damnation 
// by Lighttone GryphonStar 
//------------------------------//

Princess Luna woke up screaming. Princess Celestia ran in upon hearing her sister’s screams. She climbed on to the bed, “Luna, what’s wrong?”

“It wasn’t my fault! It wasn’t my fault!”

Celestia realized what was happening. She got close and wrapped her arms around her sister. “It’s okay Luna. It was just another nightmare. It wasn’t your fault what happened in the end.” She knew what the nightmare had been about, for this was not the first time her sister had woken in such a manner. Celestia soothed Luna until she calmed down. Luna had been having these nightmares a lot lately.

This many dreams of the same thing made Celestia concern even more because she had been having her own strange dreams. Dreams of a left hand reaching out and grabbing her by the throat. With Luna being so weak lately, Celestia had to figure out what was going on on her own.

Celestia looked out the window while she held her sister. The Sun would soon need to set, which meant it was near time for Luna to take up her duties. So once her sister calmed down, Celestia let go and got out of the bed. Luna looked to see what time it was and decided that it was best to finally get up.

******

After Luna got dressed, the two walked through the hallway as they made their way to the dinner table. They would always try to eat breakfast and dinner together. As they walked, Celestia would talk about what had happened during the day. She spoke of how she had received a message that representatives of Zebrica would be arriving sometime tomorrow morning and how they would be bringing new spells and books.

Once they arrived at the dinner table, they sat down to eat. As they ate, they heard some commotion outside. It sounded like a guard was rushing over to the dinner room. They certainly hoped it was a small problem that could be handled after dinner.

Suddenly both their entire bodies trembled randomly as a large amount of magic could be felt. Upon that the guard entered the room. “Princesses, you need to look outside.”

They ran to the curtains and opened them. The princesses’ eyes widened as they saw a tall bright column of light in the direction of the Everfree Forest. It was something they had never seen before while gazing towards the forest, the column of light eventually disappeared.

“What was that?” questioned Luna.

“I don’t know. It almost looked like light magic,” answered Celestia.

“Light magic has not been in use since….” Luna quieted herself as she saw her sister’s concerned eyes.

“You’re right. Such a form of magic has not been seen since the time of ‘him’.” Celestia’s eyes strained so much that she had to turn away.

Luna looked to the sky and saw it was just about time to set the sun. “Sister, how about I send the night guard to check on it while you go set the Sun, and we will finish our dinner.”

Suddenly they were stopped as their entire bodies shook once more and another column of light appeared and disappeared. “No Luna, I have to check this out.”

Luna saddened at this, “At least take my night guard with you. And be careful.”

“Of course sister,” Celestia answered as she left the room. The Princess of the Sun was ready, but she didn’t know what she would see out there. She only hoped in her heart that he wasn’t there.

******

Twilight landed on her side out of the portal, she grabbing her head, as it ached from the crash, before slowly getting up. It was a rough landing. She turned to see the table appearing, however, looked in confusion as to who landed on the table. ‘F’, the very creature that had sent her into the past, landed with a severed arm stabbing through his chest.

Twilight ran over quickly, climbing onto the table. “‘F’ what are you doing here? What happened?”

“No time to talk,” he winced. “Pull out the arm, now.”

“Right,” she calmed herself down. Quickly she pulled the severed arm out of his chest and threw it to the side. As it hit the ground, it turned to ash. “‘F’ what about the hole?”

“Don’t worry. You know I can’t die,” he coughed hard. Twilight tried sitting the old creature up, but he continued to cough up red dust.

“You don’t look fine, you’re still coughing up blood.”

“I’m undead, remember. I’m never going to be okay,” he complained to her. At that Twilight stopped worrying and got off the table. She looked around, seeing the place covered in the Everfree Forest. This was no surprise since Ponyville would not be settled for at least another 800 years.

She walked about for a little bit, not noticing that she was being watched. Suddenly, zebras ran out of the forest and quickly surrounded her. There were at least twenty of them.

“Huh, what?” she quickly questioned. The zebras pulled out their weapons. Twilight got ready to defend herself as they charged forward. Their random attacking confused her, but it didn’t stop her from knocking them all back. “Why are you attacking us?” she questioned.

“Because, little mare,” spoke a heavy jamaican voice from behind her, “We are here to capture any time travelers.”

Twilight turned around upon hearing the voice, only to be hit by a stretchy, gigantic fist. She fell to the ground unconscious as a tall zebra with black and white dreadlocks covered in a large amount of random gold accessories in a red blazer over a black, green and yellow tall collar t-shirt with a fluffy magenta cobra skin hoodie and low hanging black pants stepped out of the shadows. His fist slowly returned to its original size.

“Alright colts, let’s get her to the Emperor,” he said.

“Yes Commander Zeb,” they all spoke in unison.

As Twilight layed there out cold, ‘F’ struggled to get to her, but soon found himself falling unconscious too. As he fainted, though, he heard a familiar voice. “Wake up, wake up.”

******

<1000 years ago>

“Wake up. Wake up.”

A young, strong, yellow unicorn stallion with a red and yellow mane woke upon hearing a sweet voice. He turned to see the Princess of the Sun. He came to attention upon seeing her. “I’m sorry Princess Celestia.”

“It’s okay. I won’t tell anypony if you won’t tell anypony I was here.” On that, she walked into the garden he had been guarding. “I just want to have a talk with an old friend.”

He waited patiently as the princess went to go talk to the Statue of Discord as she always did. It had only been a year since Discord’s imprisonment, and she would always take time to visit him. His reign over the land had lasted one thousand years and now he was defeated.

As the guard continued to wait, a mysterious stallion walked to the entrance. The guard saw him and told him to stop. “Stop right there. Nopony is to bother Princess Celestia right now.”

He didn’t listen, so the guard charged forward. The intruder simply looked at him with a glare. The guard caught sight of the glare and kept charging forward. Then something the intruder said stopped the guard instantly. “Bow.”

Uncontrollably, the guard stopped and bowed down against his own will as an unknown force pulled him toward the ground. “What’s happening?” the guard's body quaked in agony as he tried to fight it, but the unknown force continued to pull stronger.

“I said, BOW!,” the intruder repeated. The force that was pulling became even stronger. Finally, the guard could fight no more. It felt like the space around him was being bent. The intruder looked into the entrance and saw the princess talking with the statue. “Hmm, seems Discord is busy talking with that mare. Oh well, I’ll talk to him later.” The intruder then looked at the guard as he pulled out a letter. “Meanwhile, listen guard. You are to give this to Princess Luna. Tell her I will be waiting avidly for her reply.”

Once the letter was placed on the ground, the intruder disappeared in shadowy smoke. And with him so did the unknown force that had been pushing on the guard. The guard fell to the ground unconscious. The last thing he saw was Princess Celestia running towards him as she saw him fall.

Hours later, he found himself waking up in a hospital bed. To his surprise, Princess Celestia was by his bed waiting for him to wake. His head was still heavy, but could of swore he saw great concerned in her eyes.

“Are you okay, sir?” she asked him.

“Of course Princess. I don’t know what happen--” His eyes widened, “Wait where is it?” he searched his neck for it.

“Oh you mean this, it fell off your neck when you fell.” She held out his holy amulet.

“I… I.. I am sorry Princess. I didn’t mean to disrespect you with it.”

She looked at him confused. She looked at the holy amulet more closely. Finally, she let out a small giggle. “Oh, it’s no worry. I can understand other ponies having their own deities to worship.” She used her horn to levitate it over his neck.

“How? All the guards practically worship you and Princess Luna. And I…”

She grabbed his hand, “It’s okay. Truth be told me and my sister often get tired of the idolization. Tell me, what is your name?”

“I am guard num--”

She grabbed his hand more tightly. “No, your name sir. I have to know the name of my new student.”

His mouth fell agape at this news. How was he worthy of such an honor? He was just a unicorn stallion. She had taken on students before but most were rather young. This would not look right at all. However, he could see it in her eyes. This was no ploy. She wanted him as her student but why?

“Why do you want me to be your student? I’m just a soldier.”

“Because the spell that knocked you to the ground was the Glare.” She looked down at that moment. The Glare was one of the most powerful spells of them all. “And yet you survived. This shows that you have talent that needs to be mastered. That is if you are willing?”

He looked at her, then back to his holy amulet and one final time back to her. “My name is Sunfire F. Redcoal.”

******

<1,000 years later>

Soon the night guard and Princess Celestia landed at the area where the columns of light had been spotted. They looked around once they spotted a round crystal table. They saw what looked like red dust covering the table and the imprint of a body. This was very curious. 

“Who could have been on this table?” one of them said.

Celestia walked over to the table. Looking at the shape of the red dust, it looked familiar, but she couldn’t place from where she remembered it. She felt a twisting in her heart that she couldn’t place as she saw that the shape was clearly missing a left arm. “A left arm, like my dream?”

As Celestia looked closer at the table a figure in a neon hood watched them from the trees. “Damn, my hunt is going to have to wait,” the figure whispered.

One of the night guard walked over and picked up what look like a hair from a zebra mane. It stank of heavy drugs. The guard placed it inside a bag and then went to go join the others. Some of the others gathered some more evidence. Once they were done, they walked over to Celestia.

“What do you think it is, Princess?” They questioned as she held the red dust in a magic grasp.

“I think its blood. Yet it’s old. Impossibly old blood.” She looked to see that the Sun could not be held back anymore. It needed to sit. Placing the red dust in a bag, she handed it to the night guard. “Take all the evidence to my sister. I’ll catch up once the Sun is set.”

On that Celestia flew up into the sky, while the night guard left. As they separated from the area, the hooded figure dropped down onto the table. “Now, where did the target go?”

He looked around and saw a pile of ashes in the shape of an arm. Walking over to it, he grabbed some of it and took a sniff, “Wait, this smells like my ashes. Strange, very strange.” Suddenly he took a new whiff that was in the air. “Wait I know that smell. Of any of them I know that magical signature anywhere.” On that, he pulled out his moth wings and took to the sky. Flying just low enough that Celestia would not see him as he flew to a nearby town.

******

An hour later Twilight slowly woke up. The last thing she remembered was being attacked after arriving in the past. She moved her mane out of the way as she lifted her head up. She noticed her hands in chains. She found herself in the navigation room of an airship. At first, she was confused. What was she doing here?

Yet that was not the main problem. She looked around the room as she noticed the zebras that had caught her. The one that had knocked her out was standing beside a throne. She tried turning her head towards the throne, yet something was stopping her.

“So you are one of the ones who traveled through time.” The voice was coming from the one sitting on the throne. The voice was scuffed and distorted yet. With each word, he used Twilight felt small amounts of fear slowly crawl around her throat. “Tell me, who are you?”

Twilight looked to see that her hood and disguise was still on. A sigh of relief fell over her. “Where am I? What is this place? Where is my ally?” she questioned.

“I am the one asking the questions!” he yelled. Suddenly an unknown force pushed Twilight, knocking her head on the ground. All their eyes widened as they murmured and whispered. The one on the throne smirked. “Interesting, you bow to me.” Twilight didn’t know why she even did such a thing. Was it some sort of spell? “Take off her hood.”

“Yes Emperor,” said one of the zebras as they walked over and pulled off the hood. This revealed Twilight’s disguise. She was disguised as a green unicorn with a long green and black mane.

The one on the throne continued. “Interesting. If you wish to know, you are on board my eimlaq airship, the Aljahim.” He got off his throne and walked towards her. As he got closer Twilight felt the fear tightening around her neck. Why was she so afraid of his voice? Once he got close enough to see it, he noticed something under the cloak she was wearing. He smirked and asked, “Why is it one refuses to look upon their lord?”

“What?” she questioned as the pressure pushing down on her suddenly became worse. It felt like she was going to puke.

“”Look at me.” She tried lifting her head at his demands, yet it felt as heavy as iron. “I said, look at me!” His voice grew in anger. “I SAID, LOOK AT ME!” He grabbed her throat and forced her face up. She finally looked upon him. He was a dark blue goat with blood red eyes. He wore a heavy royal red robe and had a bell wrapped around his neck. As soon as she looked upon him, she felt the most agonizing fear grip her entire body. Everything in her body was telling her to run, run, RUN! “So you seem to have dark magic within you. Do you know who I am?”

“No.” she trembled in pain. The longer she stared at him, the greater the pain got. And as well as everything telling her to look away.

“Hmm, it’s no surprise you fear me.” he leaned closer and continued. “All dark magic users must fear me. Now tell me who I am.”

“I don’t know,” she wept.

“Lift.” suddenly she lifted in the air as space bent around her. “I am the one all alicorns fear! I am the demigod of darkness and space! I AM EMPEROR GROGAR!!!!”

Afterward, he slammed her to the ground so hard as everything went black.

******