It has been one thousand years after the fateful encounter between the two sisters. The world now shrouded in everlasting veil of shadow, however fear not the dark that embrace you but the eternal wrath of the gazing light.
It has been one thousand years after the fateful encounter between the two sisters. The world now shrouded in everlasting veil of shadow, however fear not the darkness that embrace you but the eternal wrath of the gazing light.
The world has become surprisingly industrialized with most things now being powered through diesel, although the social hierarchy has become radically different, as the Bat Pony now consider themselves to be the chosen people by the goddess of the night herself is treated with respect and having considerable authority, while other ponies kinds such as Earth Pony and Pegasus are mostly seen as dispensable worker. The only exception is the unicorn due to their aptitude in magic.
The story follows a promising unicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle who is supposed to navigate her life in a study environment but due to some forsaken luck, she ends up having to traverse around the land to continue her study.
“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there lived two sisters who ruled the lands together, creating Harmony for all of Equestria.
The elder sister used her unicorn powers to bring the sun from the dusk and the younger sister with her unicorn powers raised the moon at dusk to begin the warm night. And thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects.
Yet, as the times went on, the elder sister became ambitious, seeking to rule the land of Equestria by herself. Despite all she did for the creatures of Equestria, raising the sun so that they could continue their daily lives, there was no connection that was formed between her and them. Unlike the humble younger sister, who ruled the silent night, had no grander desires. For what she needed was to protect the dreams of her subjects.
Overtime, a strong bond was formed between the younger sister and her subjects. Seeing her younger sister's bond with her subjects, the jealousy of the elder sister grew ever bigger, eventually turning into a vendetta against the younger sister. And one day, the elder sister refused to lower the sun.
The younger sister tried to reason with her sister to lower the sun to make way for the calm night so that all creatures could rest but jealousy and bitterness in the elder sister's ego transformed her into the wicked ruler of the feverish sky, Daybreak.
And so the elder sister battled the land so that all will be bathe in the eternal gaze of the sun. Reluctantly, the younger sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to all of Equestria, the element of Harmony, using the magic to battle against her sister. Upon defeat, the hateful driven elder sister would then curse the land of Equestria: That for as long as the sun continues to rise, all will be consumed by its wrath.
So the younger sister sacrificed herself, using the last of her powers and her life to ensure that the sun would never rise again.”
That is what the legend told anyway but as for a purple unicorn in in the midst of all of the train passenger known as Twilight all she can do is but smiled as she finished reading one of her favorites when she was just a small filly, but now she is a grown up mare. Using her unicorn magic to put the book back into her luggage, she decided to look outside of the train window. In the distance she could see waves of tall buildings, each with their own unique and methodically crafted designs but most importantly the Palace that the Goddess Luna used to rest in is in sight, Canterlot.
Twilight herself smirked at the fact that her talent and aptitude in magic finally got herself a scholarship in the capital city, for her whole life she had been studying hard for this day to come. Of course this means compared to the rest of the sleepy passengers in the train only she is filled to the brim with happiness.
As the train got closer to the city, Twilight thought to herself. “How should I greet the professor?” Of course, being the excellent student she is, she wanted to make sure that she would leave a good impression on supposedly the brightest minds of Equestria .”Should I go with a strictly formal manner? But then again I heard from some of my peers back that they are apparently quite laid back… hmmm.” after putting her hooves on her face for a while. “Ah whatever, it would be better if I just act like I usually do.”
Twilight would then obviously spend some time looking at the beautiful moon as a way to kill some time until the train finally reached it’s destination. Soon or later when the train arrived at the city, the purple unicorn can only gaze in astonishment at the sheer size of it. Of course, it was huge when she saw it from afar, but it was still amazing to be directly in the city.
“TO ALL PASSENGERS ONBOARD, THE DESTINATION HAVE BEEN REACH YOU MAY NOW LEAVE THE TRAIN, HAVE A GOOD DAY!” The speaker said loudly and bit screeching to the ear. Nonetheless, Twilight Sparkle finally arrived in the promised city of dreams, she would then go to the station checkpoint to get herself checked.
“Hello!” She said with an utmost cheerful expression while turning her passport to the guard, compared to her the guard just boringly does his job.
“Miss, you are all clear.” he said in a begrudging tone.
“Thanks!” Twilight then proceeded to venture out of the station and finally put her hooves on the ground of the city. Around her is the buzzing sound of life from people talking with each other to mechanical engines roaming the city, but what matters now is getting to the Luna University of Specialist Mages. Twilight used her magic to levitate a map in front of herself to look for directions to the university. “Let see… left, left , make turn, right, then left, then right, and lastly a straight walk… think I got it”
After a bit of an uncountable amount of time getting herself lost in the labyrinth of the city, Twilight herself finally made it to the university, looking at it one can proudly say that you will be filled with awe judging from the university’s pristine architecture and prestige. Twilight imagined to herself what delicate and new knowledge that she would learn from the greatest of greatest teachers! No longer able to contain her excitement she quickly moved her body as fast as possible toward the towering door of the building and opened it…!
It's just so unfortunate for her that it won't be going in the path that she wanted, let just say through some miscalculated luck or whatever irony fate lies for her, she won't be spending time doing things akin to her ways but rather something else more unusual.
In a gloomy corridor where light has been almost depleted, there lies a white earth pony mare with broken legs dressed in some sort of gray outfit crawling towards something, only a few words can be heard from the mare desperate grasping.
“Shit… oh Luna… ghk.”
Surrounding the mare was nothing more but uncomfortable silence occasionally broken by her hooves clenching on the hard and metallic ground and mumbling. Despite that her head is constantly rotating back and forth anxiously, as if she is anticipating something behind her.
‘Damit! everything has gone haywire!’ the mare thought to herself. ‘If only we- no, I listened to her then this mess wouldn't have happened! Who knew a Conflagrate would be this intelligent!’ The only thing she can ideally do now is grumble at past mistakes.
‘Not gonna let everything end like this! I worked my entire life to -gkh- get to this position!’ as if gratification would help solve anything.
Suddenly she was startled by a noise, it sounded like some mince of meat sluggishly sliding against the metallic floor. This made her ham down her hooves on the ground faster in a struggle to lunge her body forward.
Yet no matter how hard she tried, it only delayed the inevitable, sooner or later the mare would have her final moment in life. Her face now packed with fanatic sweat sliding, teeth clenching together and hooves struggling more to get out of something’s reach.
‘No, no, no - shi-’ her eyes finally gaze upward to see something, something can only be described as an amalgamation of melting flesh, a composite of drifting flesh resembling that of ponyparts. Her body froze, signaling this is the end that there is no point beyond this struggle.
The white pony wondered to herself if things had occurred differently, would she be able to see tomorrow's moonlights? That is all to her thought before herself is entranced in a darkness, painful yet somehow soothing… The flesh creatures or “Conflagrate” now finally finished consuming its meal and satisfied with itself, began to return back to whatever rotting pit it came from.
The grand hall, the place where Twilight Sparkle herself is currently in right now, just from the sleek but antiquated design of this hall, one could guess that this place is filled to the brim with historical significance, each row of chairs is lined up precisely to make up the rest of the hall’s space.
Of course the hall is rippled with chatter of a hundred ponies, each piercing through the short but comfortable silence that Twilight was enjoying. Her eyes and ear sometimes twitched in annoyance and in a vain attempt to deter her attention from the onslaught of sound, she tried to focus on her study unlike the rest who seem to be interested in striking up conversation.
Fortunately for her, the sudden disperse of light completely shut down anyone’s urge to continue talking with each other, then in the long distance specifically on the stages of the halls, a lone beam of light shined down a unicorn , who seemed to be dressed methodically and in an extravagant suit, he then tipped off his tophat and exclaimed loudly by the used of audio enhancer magic. “Hello there, Everypony! It is I, Argentum Vernal!” The stallion put his hat back on again and brightened the spotlight ever further through the use of his magic.
“Everypony here knows that you have been chosen for your own very great and exceeding ability in magic! Regardless of where you come from!” He would summon a line of banners each decorated with different symbols. “As you can see from two of our biggest and also main banners, you could probably guess that our university is divided into 2 sections of magic study! Theoretical Magic and Practical Magic!.”
Twilight’s head straightened up a bit upon hearing mention of ‘Theoretical Magic’’. As a young filly Twilight herself always had an interest in ancient magic and some form of advanced magic that so few could possibly cast. Therefore it only made sense for Twilight to be deeply interested in ‘Theoretical Magic” due to it mainly dabbling in the complexity and research behind those kinds of magics.
Argentum let out another loud speech before which echoed throughout the hall. “Unlike most other universities where they hold boring lectures about what these are!” The stallion unicorn would sarcastically express himself before continuing his speech, ”We are going skip straight to having a test that shall place you on which magic you are good at!”
The lights would be turned on again, after that a sudden burst of white clouds appeared in front of Twilight herself and everpony, revealing a test paper in its disappearance. Indeed the prospect of suddenly having a test now without any indication does make the rest of the ponies shrivel a bit but then again it is just a mere test for the purpose of placement within the university. How hard can it be?
“So good luck everypony!” Argentum said loudly before eventually disappearing into thin air with some teleportion’s spell particle left behind.
Twilight quickly skimmed through the test and thought to herself a certain thing. ‘Huh, seems like half of it is just spells formulae, mathematics, and other stuff.’ A grin begins to form on her face. ‘Shouldn't be too hard for some like me! Heh!’And then she finally started to levitate her pencil.’Well, let's get this over with!’
Only just a bit of time has already passed and Twilight herself has completed the test, although the same cannot be said for anypony else, though it seems like they are taking their time with it rather than efficiently completing it in the most logical matter possible like a certain purple pony. Nevertheless all she can do now is wait for the timer to run only if she was some other pony she would but because she is Twilight, she’s gonna do nothing and goof around, so what she does is meticulously checking the test again for any slight mistake that could be made.
Argentum appeared on the stage again and shouted. “Timer off everypony!” The test paper everypony was having immediately disappeared after he said that. “So is anypony prepared to see their…” The unicorn stallion held a dramatic pause before continuing his speech. “...score!?”
‘That fast?!’ Even Twilight herself is amazed at the fact that they can somehow calculate the score for around a hundred or so ponies this fast, yet the surprise would fade quickly after twilight herself realized that this is perhaps one of the best magic schools in the world so it should be expected.
Immediately another sudden burst of cloud appeared in front of everypony, this time in its disappearance it left back some sort of envelope, before opening it twilight could overheard otherpony talking about their placement. ”What the hay? How did I end up Theoretical?!” one of them said, followed by another. “Check this out Tarn Blue! I got in Practical!” and another. “Oh me too!” Soon the hall is once again filled with chattering from multiple ponies.
Twilight, now feeling mildly annoyed due to the sudden outburst of voices, actually got to opening her envelope, it revealed the following contents:
-Dear miss Twilight, due to you receiving a perfect score on the test, we, the board directors of the university couldn't possibly select which field of magical study we should place you in; Therefore we have granted you the authority to choose which field you want to study in. However if you don't feel confident enough to select between two of the fields to participate then we can assure you that in three days before the study officially starts, we shall hold a discussion with you to decide on which path you should undergo-
And the rest is just individual scoring of each question that was on the test. Twilight sighs upon reading the content of the envelope, she closes it back up and of course as someone who isn't interested in socializing she just went back on spending the rest of her time focusing on whatever studying she is currently interested in.
“Everypony! Times-up! That is our eight o’clock routine! All of you may freely explore the university’s dorm now! Or whatever places this university has to offer!” He exclaimed cheerfully while snapping Twilight out of her focus. “In short, basically get yourself comfortable in this place! See y'all again at seventeen o’clock for our next presentation!” And just like that it ended simply and now everypony who's been daydreaming or extremely bored can finally and eagerly venture out to explore the entire university. As for Twilight, all she does is just find a comfort spot to continue her pursuit of knowledge.
Somewhere in a huge room lit with magical lamp light where the wall seems to be masterfully crafted and the floor sleekly smoothen out, there lies a round table in the middle. Each side is seated by twelve ponies all of whom seem to be dressed in nobility and prestigious clothing gesturing their power and influence.
The red and yellow-ish mare unicorn who seemed to be wearing some kind of velvet crimson three piece suit and an overcoat is finally the first one to say something “Good moon for everypony who participated in our meeting, nevertheless shall I begin to state our problem today?” upon hearing that everypony else nodded in agreement without needless reluctance.
“You may have heard that a team specializing in exterminating Conflagrate that we sent to one of the Pie’s family rock harvesting sectors have been fully annihilated by a single monster.” Some pony sitting at the opposite of her startled a bit
”For all we know from the last record sent by the team, it is said that this ‘Conflagrate’ possesses intelligence higher than that of any we encountered before, and add-on saying that it is smart enough to set up laborious traps instead of usually brute forcing their way. That is all I have to say for now.”
A blue-ish gray and bearded bat pony with his luxurious coat speaks up energetically. “So yet another incident where another of our forces got wiped out huh, sunset? probably because they follow the same and outdated standard of dealing with these horseapple things!”
“So what suggestions do you have to deal with these then? Hoary Delp” She replied back unbothered by his passive-aggressive attempt.
“You see, instead of spending an unnecessary amount of time training ponies only to have the procedure completely fail and risking valuable members, I suggest bringing out younglings to the forefront of this whole ordeal!” He said without a single trance of irony this time.
“Hoary! That is utterly insane! How in Luna 's name does this even make sense?!” The tan-colored bat pony speaked in unease. ”How do you even think of sending someone completely inexperienced out there? If the trained-professional can't even deal with it!”
“I have to agree with him on that one, Hoary.” Sunset said. “Your so-called ‘plan’ doesn't seem to be rational at all,” Hoary smirked and answered back. “You see my dear friend! The problem with our current procedure is that it relied too much on previous information without updating any new one on its own, and yes this in fact led to our tactics being adapted by those flesh-eating monsters and in turn causing more casualties, now you see?”
“Alright I see your point but what does this have to do with sending ‘youngling’ out there?” Said the vested tanned bat-pony with a concerned raising eyebrow.
“Ah that? Well Tawn you see, what I actually mean is sending one of those from the Luna magic school or something, specifically those who score the highest, why? Well what we need is a new perspective on certain things! But why don't we just train them instead? Because we need them to be untainted by any obsolete idea as possible! We need them to adapt to their current situation through their own thinking, not through following procedures that cannot guarantee their own safety.”
Tawn then asked. “Huh alright then but the main problem is how would we realistically even snatch even a single student at Luna University? Almost of them are bound by some nobility only so few are not and those few don't even possess that much talent”
Surprisingly instead of Hoary who answered the question it was Sunset herself instead. “Actually, from the newest report from the university there is a unicorn that scored full marks on the entrance who also happens to come from an impoverished background, nevertheless if we follow your idea, what would be your proposal plan then?”
Hoary then let out a cheerful smile. “So it seems my words have persuaded you all heh? Very well you see what I planned to do is quite simply lure unsuspecting youngsters with the promise of new knowledge and then take them onto an already established team and send them off to flesh-eating monster infestation locations under the guise of ‘study’. Now one will ask ‘wouldn't that make them easy prey for those monsters?” You see I'm not foolish enough to lead them head on those monsters alone, what I truly want is to show them the horror of these horrifying creatures head on, specifically the feeling of hatred, vengeance, that is what is needed to cultivate a great Conflagrate hunter…” He finnish up his speech with a chuckle
Sunset then let out a final speech. “Then everypony here agrees with the Hoary plan for dealing with Congregate? If not then don't raise your hooves.” She waited for a bit and only to see that the people round the table were fully in acceptance with this stallion plan. “Hmm, very then let us begin putting this plan into full action.”
