A Millennium of Eternal Night

by criticalmess

Chapter One: Harmony

A Millennium of Eternal Night
Chapter One: Harmony

In a warm study in Manehatten, a grey unicorn reclined in a plush chair, levitating both a book and a pipe in front of his face. His white-maned head was topped off by a carelessly-worn fez. An old tome was imprinted upon his flank, giving all who saw him an easy answer as to his job in this story.

The unicorn blew a smoke ring with his pipe and nodded. "Thank you for the introduction." Coughing, he placed his book down on a table next to the chair and stood up, twisting his neck from side to side.

He cleared his throat and began to address the reader. "Good evening, or morning, or whatever time it may be where you are from." He coughed. "For your entertainment, we are going to examine an alternate universe, a land broken off of our own Equestria by a rogue causality, shattering the timeline and forming an entire world unto itself. At first glance, everything may appear normal." He took a long puff on his pipe before proceeding, "but upon further examination it will turn out to be quite bizarre."

The unicorn began pacing in front of the large fireplace that heated the study. "Imagine, if you will, a universe that is the same as our own: same ponies, same dragons, same landscape, same history. Everypony lived in perfect harmony. But what if that world's definition of harmony..." The unicorn stopped pacing and stared seriously into the eyes of the reader, "...is not as cheerful as it is here? In our world, harmony is a daily balance in all things: the sun and moon rise on time, all ponies get along save for a few hiccups, and the villain is always defeated before this can be upset permanently. But imagine a world where it's view of harmony was not a daily one, but one of epochs? Of millennia even?"

He took a long puff on his pipe and expelled a ring of smoke. "What if harmony dictated that a millennium of Celestial freedom must be followed by a millennium of Nightmarish tyranny? What if the Elements of Harmony were not reflections of their wielders and their spirits, but rather forces bound to uphold their code of Harmony..."

The unicorn smiled knowingly and glanced into the fire, "...whether those wielding them wanted to or not. Our story begins with an adventure nearing its end..."

- - - -

The six young ponies stared in awe at the ruined castle. Though ceilings and walls may have crumbled, the majesty of the structure had been little reduced. Broken windows lined the walls, letting in the pale light of the moonlit sky In the center of the room, amidst stones and vines, stood a grey stone statue. Five grey orbs sat motionlessly around a large central orb, images of jewels hewn into their surface.

"There they are, girls." Twilight Sparkle spoke in awe, "The Elements of Harmony."

"Well I'll be." Applejack whistled while she strolled around the statue.

"Well, they're all right." Rarity said hesitantly, "But I was expecting them to be a bit... er... brighter?"

"Eh," Rainbow Dash waved her hoof out in front of her, "they could be about...I don't know... ten times as cool."

"Oh, they look fine." Fluttershy muttered, lifting one of them off of its pedestal so that Twilight could get a better look.

As the Elements were lowered to the floor by the other ponies, Pinkie Pie danced around. "YAY! We found them! I mean, I knew we would, but it's just so exciting to finally be here. So we won, right? Huh? We're going to be nasty-mcNightmare huh? Huh?"

"There's only five here!"

All of the ponies, even Pinkie Pie stopped after Twilight counted the Elements. She looked up at the statue in shock. "There's supposed to be a sixth... where is it?"

"Are you sure sugarcube?" Applejack circled over to Twilight and examined the Elements. "Aren't there supposed to be just five?"

"Well, there's Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, and Loyalty..." Twilight explained, "...but there's supposed to be a sixth that appears when all of them come together." Twilight knelt down in front of the Elements. "What am I missing?"

"Come on y'all." Applejack said, turning to the other four mares. "Twilight needs to concentrate." One by one, the ponies turned back towards the entrance and started to walk out.

"Okey-dokie-lokie!" Pinkie Pie was back to her cheerful self, "Hey, you know what's a funny word? Déjà vu. It's so fancy and so funny too!"

"Pinkie, you're so random." Rainbow Dash muttered, shaking her head.

"It's just I've got this sense we've done this...."

But before she could finish, the ponies were all startled as the doors to the castle slammed shut in front of them. Twilight sharply turned away from the Elements to face her friends. Her eyes widened as a blue mist sparkling like a miniature starlit sky began to rise from the ground right in front of them. With a sudden crack of lightning, the ponies were tossed back towards Twilight. The mist condensed into a black alicorn, her body encased in a blue-silver armor. Her dark dragon-like eyes glared down at the ponies before her, while her mouth curled into a triumphant smirk.

"Nightmare Moon...." The ponies muttered in unison.

"Hey, that feeling's gone!" Pinkie Pie cried out happily, breaking the tense atmosphere.

Nightmare Moon turned her gaze from the ponies to the ruined castle. "So this is what happened to our old palace. Pity." Nightmare Moon's voice was calm and rational, belying her fierce form. "Then again, I imagined the fallout from my battle with Celestia would leave nothing less than this... mess." Nightmare Moon spread her wings and looked up at the broken ceiling nostalgically. "It must be brought back to its former glory. That is, after I secure my new throne."

"Like we're going to let you do that!" Rainbow Dash cried defiantly, flying into the air.

Nightmare Moon laughed mirthlessly, "And how do you plan to do that, little pony? The Elements of Harmony?"

"What have you done with the sixth element?" Twilight spoke up, joining Rainbow Dash in her challenge to the Princess of Night.

"Nothing at all." Nightmare Moon shook her head. "It's hard to get rid of something that doesn't exist yet, don't you think?"

"What in tarnation are you talking about?" Applejack stepped forward, scraping at the ground with her foreleg.

"I mean only the true wielders of the Elements of Harmony can take control of the sixth element and awaken the full power of Harmony." Nightmare Moon leaned forward and looked directly into Twilight's eyes. "Unless you are claiming to be the successors to Celestia's power, the power that sent me to the moon for a thousand years, I have nothing to fear from you."

Twilight's eyes widened, the unicorn backing away. "Everyone... get out of here..."

"Twilight!" Her friends protested in unison.

"I'll hold her off as long as I can." Twilight looked to each of her friends in turn. "There should be another way out of this place. If I keep her distracted, you can go and get help from somepony, anypony else."

"But if we do that, you'll..." Fluttershy piped up and stopped. Instead of finishing her sentence, she shook her head and moved towards Twilight and faced Nightmare Moon.

"There's no way you're going to get me to run away now." Rainbow Dash shot at Twilight and stood her ground.

"Leaving you here alone would be the epitome of rudeness!" Rarity proclaimed and stepped forward. "I refuse!"

"Run away? And miss all of the awesome magic stuff that's going to happen?" Pinkie Pie smiled and bounced up to the front lines. "As if! If I'm going to have one last party, it's going to be here!"

Applejack turned back and winked at Twilight Sparkle. "C'mon now, we're you're friends. You can't just expect us to turn tail and run."

"But...." Twilight tried to object, but at Applejack's words a spark went off in her mind. A sudden light of realization crept over her, illuminating her very being. "That's it."

"Oh?" Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Nightmare Moon," Twilight Sparkle grinned, returning to the front lines, "you claim that the sixth element isn't here, but you're wrong. That's because the sixth element isn't in just one place, it's everywhere. And the Elements of Harmony aren't these rocks," Twilight looked around at the friends that surrounded her, "they're right here with me." Looking at each friend in turn, she recited, "Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty... My friends are the Elements of Harmony." She stared at Nightmare Moon defiantly. "And that's what the sixth element is all about: Friendship! The most powerful magic ever!"

The room was silent as Nightmare Moon stared at the ponies. Then her mouth curled into a wicked smile. "So it is. Well done."

A sudden feeling of dread hit Twilight Sparkle as she realized something had gone horribly wrong. But before she could do or say anything, a sudden light engulfed her and her friends. It was soft and silver, like raw moonlight, and it flowed over each pony, completely enveloping them in its majesty. The ponies reflexively kicked against this sudden feeling, but could not escape as the light wrapped around their forms.

There was a strange whistling as Twilight felt a weight descend upon her head accompanied by a bitter, searing coldness. Twilight squeezed her eyes shut and focused her energy outwards, trying to raise a shield against it, but her magic did nothing against the force of the searing energy. She screamed in shock as the light tried to pierce into her with tendrils of infernal energy, but a force inside of her kept it out. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the light faded and the ponies slumped to the ground, exhausted. Meanwhile, Nightmare Moon laughed triumphantly over the stirring forms of the ponies.

"What... happened?" Twilight muttered, raising a hoof to her head. As she rubbed her mane, she felt something sitting there that wasn't there before. She ran her hooves over the strange object, tracing out the form of a fine crown resting just behind her horn. Though it was light atop her head, Twilight could still feel an indescribable heaviness radiating from it.

"Woah, look at this!" From over to her left, Twilight heard Pinkie Pie squeal in awe. Turning her head, she spied Pinkie Pie admiring something that hung around her neck. It was an ornate blue-silver necklace without any visible break. Attached to the front was a turquoise pendant in the shape of a balloon. Twilight's eyes narrowed as she recognized the design as Pinkie's cutie mark.

"Now that's what I'm talking about." Twilight turned again to find a similar pendant hanging around Rainbow Dash's neck, identical to Pinkie's save for a ruby lightning bolt on the pendant. In fact, each pony save for her bore a necklace with a pendant that mimicked their cutie marks.

"Nice tiara, Twi!" Pinkie Pie called out, trotting over to her friend. "Woah! It looks just like your cutie mark!" Twilight tried to reach up and pull the tiara off her head to get a better look, but found it uncompromising. Through some magical power, the tiara simply refused to be removed.

"Not that I don't mind the new accessory." Rarity said while holding her own necklace, "but there's something familiar about this color...."

Twilight looked from the necklace to Nightmare Moon, who simply continued to laugh manically. Twilight's eyes widened as she drew the connection between Nightmare Moon's armor and the silver necklaces that hung around her friend's necks. Upon seeing Twilight's look of utter shock and confusion, Nightmare Moon stopped laughing and advanced on the ponies.

"Congratulations!" Nightmare Moon cried happily if a little madly. "You have awakened the power of the Elements of Harmony. I thank you from the depths of my dark heart. Now, a new era will begin in Equestria. The Millennium of Princess Celestia is over!" Nightmare Moon flared out her wings as she cried to the heavens, storm clouds forming overhead. "The Millennium of Eternal Night has begun!"

The ponies were illuminated by a brief flash of lightning, a look of abject terror on their faces at what they had unleashed unto the world.

- - - - -

The grey unicorn looked away from the fireplace and glanced mischievously at the reader. "Interesting, no?" He chuckled and looked back into the fireplace, where the flames of fate and will roared, engulfing the wooden log in the fireplace. "Do you think you can explain what's going on?"

- - - - -

With pleasure. This here is a story I started writing long before I came up with the idea for After the Sun or Pantheon, my other two stories. I abandoned it for two primary reasons. One: I could not see an ending for it at the time and I must admit I still don't. I now try to stay away from indefinite-ending stories as they quickly lose my interest. The second... will be explained later.

With a creative dead-end forming at my other stories, I decided to dust off (figuratively) this story and put it up for everypo-... everyone to see. These first chapters should come out quickly as they have already been written and only require a few edits here and there. I hope you enjoy and review. The next chapter should be up tomorrow with the thrilling conclusion to the opening scene... wait....

-The Author

Comments

[BarrenBaron]

this is so darkly aweosme!

they can't help but bend over backwards for her! And i find that darkly hililarious...

[chronicLurker]

Rogue. The word is rogue, not rouge. That bugs the out of me.

Interesting intro! Can't wait to see how this plays out.