Equestria's chain of conflicts

by Dranz_89

The Tale of the Midnight

The Observer, surprised to hear about the ancient magics, as if she didn't expect to hear about them after a long time. It took some seconds after she calmed down before she answered the question made by Twilight.

"T-The R-Rainbow of Darkness, you said?." Said the Observer, sweating nervously. "Do you even know what kind of magic is that? Do you think you can control it?"

"I... I don't know..." Twilight answered, with great doubt in her voice.

"Do you know why ponies stopped using the Rainbow of Light?" Lickety Split asked the mane six, and this time, she wasn't stopped by her master.

"Wasn't because it lost its power? It needs the Rainbow of Darkness to be complete, right?" Applejack responded. But she wasn't sure.

"Correct. The Rainbows of Light and Darkness are two faces of the same coin." The Observer got up from her seat, and with the help of her telekinesis, she brought one of the books from the shelves behind her. She put the book in front of Twilight, and opened it on a specific page, referring the Rainbows.

"But unlike the Rainbow of Light." The Observer explained. "The Rainbow of Darkness is dangerous, and hard to control. If the wielder is not prepared, the dark side of the Rainbow will control the wielder instead. To be honest, I don't think you can handle it."

"Yeah, yeah... We'll see about that." Rainbow Dash asked, losing her patience. "But where can we find it?"

"Well... I don't know." The Observer stared at Rainbow Dash, very intimidatingly. "The last time it was seen, was a long time ago. It was witnessed by the original wielder of the Rainbow of Light."

"Moondancer's mother?" Twilight wondered.

"Wrong." The Observer smiled back. "The original wielder wasn't even a pony. It was a human."

"A human?" Twilight Sparkle wondered. "But humans know nothing about the ponies or our magic, they're from a different world. How could a human use the Rainbow of Light?"

"I don't know the details." The Observer replied. "The real expert about humans is a pony from Ponyville. Her name is Lyra Heartstrings. I suggest you ask her."

"Wait, wait, wait." Pinkie Pie interrupted, while jumping on the coffee table. "Are you talking about our Lyra Heartstrings from our Ponyville?"

"You mean the crazy mare who used to sit oddly on the park's benches?" Rarity also questioned.

"I have no knowledge of her strange manners." The Observer stated, pushing Pinkie Pie back on her seat. "But her researh about humans is, actually, very interesting."

"But all of Equestria's towns were destroyed by King Sombra." Applejack said. "And everypony was caught by dark ponies. Maybe she was trapped too, or maybe she's one of them, dark ponies, now."

"I think Lyra can deal with some dark ponies." Twilight said. "She's another student of Princess Celestia. But then again, she never was the strongest unicorn. I hope she's ok."

"Then we should leave inmediately." Guardian Sword spoke after staying silent during the whole conversation. Twilight and her friends nodded and prepared for another trip, this time, Ponyville as their destination.

"Miss, I think I should go with them." Lickety Split was also leaving, she wasn't asking permission as she already knew that The Observer wouldn't stop her.

"It's time to face your past, huh?" The Observer closed her eyes and took another sip from her cup.

"It seems that soon, it will be your time, too." The pink pony looked back, from the door which leads to downstairs.

Before Lickety Split left. The Observer said goodbye to her assistant with another command. "I forbid you to die, my good friend." And after nodding, Lickety Split left the observatory, then, she caught up with Twilight, and after a short chat, they boarded the Sky Wanderer, and lifted up the flight.

Once on Ponyville, the sight was not better from Canterlot. Houses were destroyed by the dark crystals which sprouted from the ground. Sweet Apple Acres wich was barely recovering from the burns, was also devastated by dark crystals, the trees were turned gray, and the apples looked rotten, still, there were ligths coming from inside the barn, as if somepony was living there. The ponies decided to land near there, and investigate.

"Don't separate, y'all." Applejack slowly walked forward. "We should stick together."

As the ponies got closer to the barn, the lights inside it were turned off, whatever was inside it was obviously hiding its presence. After some steps inside, the lights were turned on again. Silver Spoon, Vinyl and Octavia came out of their hiding spots.

"Phew... It's only you." Silver Spoon said in relief.

"Sliver Spoon, where is mah brother? Where's Big Mac?" Applejack grabbed Silver Spoon by her shoulders and asked, desperately.

"Well, he... he is..." Silver Spoon showed a sad face, and was shortly interrupted by Octavia.

"It's not your fault, Silver." Octavia put her right hoof on Silver Spoon's back, trying to cheer her up. "Your brother is a hero, Applejack. He saved us, from those things."

"But he got hurt, I've never seen such a bad beating before." Vinyl added only to concern Applejack about her brother's condition. "They took him to the library, I guess."

"They took him, who?" Applejack looked at the unicorns crimson eyes, very intimidating.

"Cheerilee, and, who was it?" Vinyl nevously answered. "That mare with the candy cutie mark, you know, the one with the bicolor mane."

"Wait, Applejack!" Twilight's tried to stop her but her call was to late. "Let's go with her."

"Yeah, stick together, she said." Rainbow Dash mid closed her eyes. "Lickety Split, Scrapped Cloak, I think you should stay here. Things can get ugly with the dark ponies."

"Okay." Said Lickety Split with a cheering smile, as Scrapped Cloak just sit down.

Cheerilee and Bon Bon were bandaging Big Macintosh's left hind leg in Twilight's room, while Lyra Heartstrings was iluminating the place with her magic as she read one of the books. Suddenly, the entrance door downstairs, was brusquely open, wich startled the ponies.

Big Macintosh got up and, silenty, headed to the door to investigate, but he was stopped by Lyra, who made him a signal with her right hoof to stay still and rest, then, she took a peek outside the room. She saw a dark silhouette come in, but almost inmediately, two more silhouettes appeared at her both sides. They were dark ponies who attacked, the first pony tried to punch her, but she ducked, and quickly teleported back to the room.

"We've been spotted!" Lyra screamed, as her friends gasped. "Let's get outta here!"

The dark ponies approached the door slowly, trying to sneak on the ponies, but the door was blasted off by Big Macintosh's strong charge, and the dark ponies with it. Big Mac and the mares escaped the library, but the streets were filled with dark ponies, and Big Macintosh was still hurt by his leg.

As they escaped, they were chased by the dark ponies, Lyra led the group to a narrow dead end alleyway, and turned against the dark ponies, she opened her legs in a battle position, the alley was so narrow that only small groups of dark ponies could get in to attack, Bon Bon took out an old frying pan from a box nearby, and Cheerilee armed herself with a broom.

"It's alright, Big Mac." Cheerilee sounded brave, but she gulped. "This time we'll protect you."

First, only one dark pony attacked, Lyra closed her eyes, she pointed her horn at it, and righ before he could hit her, she fired a magic beam at him and knocked him away. After this, the dark ponies kept coming in groups, Lyra tried her best to repell them all, using magic beams, but she couldn't stop them all, a dark pony reached her, but Bon Bon knocked him back with the frying pan and Cheerilee was hitting as many dark ponies as she could with mere lucky strikes.

Lyra and her friends were barely repelling the attacks, but each dark pony was more successful on their attacks than the last one, and to make things worse, dark pegasi and dark unicorns also joined the attack. Some dark ponies could connect a punch or a kick on the mares before they were defeated. After all, the ponies were getting exhausted as the dark ponies kept coming, Cheerilee was just a school teacher, Bon Bon a candy maker, Lyra a musician, and none of them had any fighting experience.

One of the dark ponies got pass Lyra, and lifted Bon Bon to the air with a hind legs kick, and Bon Bon was recieved by a dark pegasus who hit her against the ground, and Bon Bon was the first one to fall in battle. Cheerilee jumped on the dark pegasus who knocked Bon Bon and after struggling with him as they rolled on the ground, she defeated him and hit him on the head with the broom. But shortly, she was tackled from her left side by a dark pony and a second dark pony headbutted her against the wall. Big Macintosh furiously punched the dark pony, he then grabbed his hind legs and threw him away towards another small group of dark ponies, then, he ran and stood beside Cheerilee to help her up.

Lyra looked at the situation, and desperately closed her eyes, she opened her legs to keep her balance and her horn began to glow as she prepared a powerful spell. Suddenly, seven strings appeared from her horn, and using them as whips, she swept dark ponies, far and wide the alley. The unicorn, exhausted of performing one of her strongest spells, panted of relief, but another group of dark ponies was left standing, Lyra looked back at her tired friends, she then, dropped to her knees, and closed her eyes, as she was ready to accept their unfortunate fate while the dark ponies came closer.

But just when the ponies were surrounded by their enemies, Applejack came running to help, the dark ponies turned around and the last thing they saw was Applejack charging over them. The dark ponies enraged, they targeted on Applejack for their next attack, but behind them, in front of the alley entrance, Twilight and her friends were backing up.

"Is this all what's left? Ha! They're all yours, Guardian Sword." Rainbow Dash commanded, and without a word, Guardian Sword attacked, and with quick wing attacks, the group of dark ponies were no match for the strong pegasus.

Applejack reunited with her brother, as Twilight and the other ponies met with Lyra, explaining the situation, Lyra smiled really excited and agreed to help, and so, the group went to the barn, where it was safer.

"Hah! I knew it! And you said I was wasting my time!" Lyra was rubbing her glorious momment on Bon Bon's face. "You said I was wrong! You all said I was crazy!"

"So what if some ponies believe you." Said Bon Bon who was still esceptical on the matter. "It means nothing."

"It means a lot if those ponies are Princess Twilight Sparkle AND the rest of the Elements of harmony!" Lyra was very proud of herself.

"I'm not a princess anymore, remember?" Twilight informed the light blue unicorn, but she was completely ignored.

"If you don't mind, could you please be quiet, now?" Rarity was concerned. "I don't think any of us would like to engage with them again."

"Hehe, sorry." Lyra finally calmed herself, picked a book from one of the layin saddle bags, and opened it. "I started researching about humans after I found this a long time ago in the princess' library."

"Ohhh! The adventures of Robin Hood... What is this?" Pinkie Pie read the cover of the book.

"It's a tale. Robin Hood is a human who steals from the rich, and donates it to the poor." Lyra responded. "It's a creature called man, wich equals a stallion for us ponies, there are also women, wich equals mares."

"But I've met the human world. And they look different from this one." Twilight saw the pictures of the book, and she was confused, the humans in the book looked were nothing like the ones from the world she met.

"Yes... but that's because they're from a parallel world from ours." Lyra put a serious face as she continued her explaining. "After some researching, I found out that long time before Equestria was founded, there were another kind of creatures who used to live in this world, the only description was a hairless monkey, with hair only on their heads. Coincidence? I don't think so."

"Hairless monkeys? That's hard to believe." Cheerilee was not too convinced with Lyra's description.

"Yes. How did they protect themselves from cold?" Fluttershy added.

"It's true! Look at the book. Maybe that's why they always used clothing." Lyra tried to convince the sceptical, and showing the pictures page from page. "And look, women used to wear dresses just like mares do, nowadays. And they used sewing machines. A lot of the artifacts we use now may be based on those the humans invented."

"Humans used to live in this world... That would explain the original wielder of the Rainbow of Light." Twilight touched her chin with her right hoof. "Lyra, do you know anything about it?" After asking her last question, Twilight showed the Rainbow of Light to Lyra.

Lyra gasped, and picked up another book, and after turning she showed it to Twilight. "This book talks about the Rainbow of Light. But I have no evidence this was written by a human. I showed it to a bunch of ponies, but they all said it could have been written by anypony."

April 14, 1984

Dear diary, today the most strange thing has happened to me. A talking pegasus named Firefly came flying to the farm to ask me for help and took me to his land, a land called Ponyland, a place inhabitated by ponies, unicorns and pegasi. But some of them were kidnapped by dragons and a strange creature named Scorpan. I'd never let those dragons get away with this. So here I am walking with ponies to save their friends. I keep telling them that we can do it, but I'm not sure how can I help.

I almost die trying to save Applejack, but thanks to the seaponies we're fine. Twilight took us to the woods and we met a strange little man named The Moochick, he gave me this beautiful pendant he called the Rainbow of Light and I need to use it to defeat Tirek, now I know I can help these ponies. Now we're heading to Midnight Castle.

When we got to Midnight Castle, the seaponies helped us again. We confronted Tirek and Scorpan turned out to be good, he tried to help, but Tirek and the Rainbow of Darkness were too powerful. The Rainbow of Light looked weak at first, but somehow it emerged from Tirek's Rainbow of Darkness and we were victorious.

Scorpan turned out to be a prince, and the ponies are free in Ponyland again, they treat me like a hero, they are my friends, now. I hope I can see them again soon. This has been the most exciting adventure I ever had, sometimes I wonder if it was just a dream.

"This... This is fascinating, where is this from?" After reading, Twilight checked the first page, but the only information she could find, was a single word. "Megan? Is this the author's name?"

"I thought the author's name was Dranz." Pinkie Pie stated, confusing everypony with this last comment, a short moment of awkward silence invaded the barn.

"Megan is a weird name for an author." Said Rainbow Dash, they have never heard that name before. "But what are your name and Applejack's doing in this book?"

"Ah don't recall knowing anypony called Megan." Applejack scratched the back of her head. "What 'bout you, Big Mac?"

"Nnnnope."

"I do." Lickety Split said, making a nostalgic face, as she cherished the book with a touch of her front right hoof. "Megan... She was, indeed, a human girl."

"How do you know that? Weren't humans supposed to have lived a really, really long time ago?" Pinkie Pie met eye to eye with Lickety Split, invading her personal space.

"My mother told me about her." Lickety Split answered. "The mothers of Applejack and Twilight also met her. As this diary suggests, humans also lived in this world when Hollow Shades was known as Ponyland."

"That means, there was a time when ponies and humans shared the world." Octavia said. "But it's been some time since Ponyland was renamed. I wasn't even born when that happened."

"Yes! Think about it, back in the day, it was a tradition to name the daughter after her mother." Vinyl palmed Octavia's back.

"But then, what happened to the humans?" Fluttershy wondered, she was curious to know more about these strange creatures.

"They became extinct." Lickety Split put a sad face. "It happened about five hundred years ago... Our mothers were teenagers, back then."

My mother told me that Megan was a young human girl when she first came to Ponyland wich was a country that recently united to Equestria. She was brave, kind and with a strong sense of justice, even if she lacked confidence, she never gave up, no matter how strong the enemy was.

But there was an enemy that she thought she had defeated, but he came back, to take revenge on everything. Maybe you've heard of him, Grogar. He unleashed a destructive spell called, The Wrath. A hole appeared in the sky, and with lighning storms, and meteor showers, little by little, almost the whole world was destroyed, plants, animals, even humans died. Megan was the last survivor of the humans.

She came back to Ponyland, now as an adult. Before The Wrath reached Equestria, the three leaders saw the signals and found out disaster was close to Equestria. They deduced that the only way to stop it, was by using the Rainbow of Light in The Wrath's core.

Megan and the young dragon Spike, sacrificed themselves to save us ponies. Grogar was easily defeated by the Princesses once The Wrath was closed. Equestria was saved from disaster before it happened, but the rest of the world was not. This is kept a secret from the next generation of ponies by order of the three leaders.

"What? Spike?" The young dragon gasped. "Was there another dragon called Spike?"

"Yes... Our mothers knew him." Lickety Split nodded. "He was older than you are, tough. He even grew wings."

"Now that you mention it." Twilight thought about this last fact. "It was my mom who suggested me to call you Spike when you were given to me. This Wrath story actually makes sense."

"The Wrath, it really happened?" Cheerilee knew the story, but she didn't believe it.

"No way! My mom told me that story to put me to sleep." Bon Bon also stated. "It can't be true."

"Did your mother told you all of this?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Who was your mother, anyway?"

"My mother, the first Lickety Split, gave the Rainbow of Light back to Megan. But after that, the Rainbow was powerless, so Princess Celestia gave it to Moondancer's mother to find out why. If you want to use the Rainbow of Light again, you will have to find the Rainbow of Darkness where it was left. In the Midnight Castle."

Author's Note:

Oh, man! This is a lot of story telling.
Please consider that ponies in this story tend to live about seven hundred years. That's why thirty years seem like a short time to them as stated in the chapter "The Battle of Canterlot".
The story of Grogar and The Wrath, is from my own creation and has never been mentioned before.

Comments

[Dranz_89]

Sorry for the delay... But here it is, episode... ummm... eleven?
Well I am really proud of this one because we got to an interesting point in the plot, please comment and thumbs up if you like it or thumbs down if you don't. You can also ask questions about the plot and, with some luck, I'll be able to find an excuse to answer you (But please, don't question anything).