"There can only be one princess in Equestria! And that princess will be me!"

"Luna, I will not fight you! You must lower the moon! It is your duty!"

"Luna? I am... Nightmare Moon! I have but one royal duty now: to destroy you!"

"Oh, dear sister. I am sorry, but you have given me no choice but to use these."

"Nooooooo!"

The night was strangely quiet for the forest; never before had the Everfree been so quiet. An oily smoke lingered in the air, a slight hint of arcane magic mixed in. A castle, now in ruins, rose above the tree tops.

A cloaked pony stood for a moment taking it all in. The castle before him, the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, had seen better days. Huge holes littered the walls and roof. Shattered fragments of stained glass windows were scattered along the ground, and once proud tapestries stood shredded. It was clear that a fierce battle had just occurred.

The figure warily moved closer. No guards were around as he nudged a secret entrance open. This does not bode well. The pony mused, blinking a bit at the sudden darkness that wrapped around its form. The figure only paused long enough to get used to the dark before moving forward with practiced hooves. After a few moments, the corridor brightened. Ahead, as the hall turned to the left, light poured out. As the pony got closer, on both sides of the corridor, pony armor on display became visible.

He turned the corner, hooves loudly crushing shattered glass. A hoof lifted up to carefully maneuver around the glass. He took a moment to look up. Outside, past a glassless window, the moon could been seen, rising above the crest of the treetops. A shadow of a unicorn mare could be seen upon its surface. The pony stared intently at the sight, silently debating on its meaning.

Odd. The pony thought.

The pony continued to move carefully around the debris. Once the figure made it halfway down the corridor, the pony turned to see a door half off its hinges. Sliding through the gap, the pony entered a grand hall that appeared to a be a throne room. Two thrones stood at the end of the hall, and above each one was a formerly gorgeous tapestry, now hanging torn and scorched. Interestingly, only one of the royals was there, and was laid across the wrong throne, no less.

The ears under the cloak twitched slightly, as the sounds of soft sobbing drifted in the air. The sobs came from the white alicorn mare with a sun cutie mark, laying on the throne underneath the blue tapestry. Her mane was listless and dull, hanging limply upon her back and shoulders. Her coat was matted, cut, and scorched in spots.

A shout broke out, echoing across the chambers and scaring some birds who were still nearby into a startled flight. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, CELESTIA?!"

"Knight!" Celestia gasped, recognizing the deep voice of a stallion. Turning, she saw the cloaked pony, the eyes from within the cloak glowing in anger and power. She gulped slightly.

Stomping a hoof loudly, the sound echoing, the stallion that Celestia called 'Knight' angrily retorted, "DON'T YOU 'KNIGHT’ ME! YOU HAVE SHATTERED HARMONY!" He lowered his voice, irritated at the echo drowning out his voice, "Don’t think I can’t tell when the Elements are being used, and without, I might add, all of the bearers. Because of what you have done, the 'Elements of Harmony' will no longer answer to you. New bearers must be manifested."

The stallion stood there, patiently waiting for a response. Celestia could not see anything past the enchantments on the cloak, only the—still glowing—white eyes could be seen. Not sure how to respond, all she could do what blubber out, "But I..." She looked up at the blue tapestry above her.

I see. The stallion finally understood the shadow upon the moon. He shook his head in disappointment, "But nothing! I didn't give you permission to use them in the way that you did. Why would you go and do something so foolish without first consulting me? I told you that using them would give Discord a timeout. I asked you to then guard them, only guard them, until I told you otherwise."

He shook off his wonderment of the moon again. His head lowered as he continued his admonishment of Celestia, "My Elements are meant to be used in harmony, for harmony. You were only linked to three, not all six. No one is meant to carry them alone. I told you this."

"But I... I felt I had no choice," Celestia interrupted, ending in a very noticeable squeak.

There is always a choice. He angrily thought to himself, resisting the urge to rub his building headache. This is going to make doing what must be done more difficult. Why does disharmony always happen in Equestria when I’m not here?

He dropped his voice to the point of a whisper. "You only had to hold out for me. You knew I was returning! I would have helped, even with the danger of doing so. Now things… things are..."

Why does everything always have to go sideways? He angrily brewed. It never fails, something always messes with my plans in ways I can’t predict.

Celestia chewed her lip before asking the question that she feared the answer to. "What can be done about my sister?"

The stallion looked back at Celestia, thinking for a moment before answering. "Luna can be saved, but, because of your callous impatience, it will take…" He paused a moment to look at the stars. After making some quick calculations in his head, he continued, "Close to a thousand years before the stars align correctly, giving her the ability to free herself." His eyes finally dimmed, so that Celestia could no longer see anything but darkness within the cloak. "When she frees herself, the new bearers should be able to help her."

"How?"

"Hmmm… Take this dragon egg." There was a quick flash of light, and a green and purple egg, with a faint shimmering rainbow aura around it, floated carefully towards Celestia. "Guard it with your life. For if it dies, so too does this world. With its hatching, you should find the new Bearer of... what did you call it? 'Magic’, right, fine. Don’t fail me again, Princess Celestia."

Oh dear little brother, I pray that you hatch soon... harmony is needed, and we have lost it again this night. The pony called out silently, watching sadly as Celestia carefully took the egg in her golden aura. With a swish of his tail, the stallion silently turned around and disappeared into the shadows, leaving only the echo of of his hooves on the stone floor in his wake.

**A night 1001 Summers Later**

Spike blinked slightly, as the stars shimmered in the dark void he found around himself. He nervously rubbed the spines atop of his head. Where am I? Looking around, he could see that there was no ground. Looking down was—of course—a mistake. He suddenly felt dizzy, and the void below him oddly seemed closer, far too close.

Please tell me I'm dreaming, he thought, trying to hold his spinning head.

"Uhh...Luna?... Anypony?" The dragon called out. This place was making him way too nervous. He really hoped that Luna would show up; he again begged silently that he was dreaming.

"Little brother..." a baritone, male voice, barely audible, echoed from out of nowhere.

"Hello?" The dragon ignored his continued dizziness and began looking around slowly. He dared not moved from where he was; he wasn’t sure if moving would cause him to fall. He still wasn't even sure if he wasn’t already falling.

"Little brother..." the voice called again, louder.

"Who's there?" Still, Spike found nothing and nopony. This never goes well in comics, he thought, grabbing the spade at the end of his tail and beginning to suck on it.

"Your big brother of course," the voice chuckled slightly.

"But you're not Shining Armor," Spike dropped his tail.

"No, of course not," The agreement only caused the dragon confusion.

"Then who are you? I thought only Princess Luna could enter dreams," He absentmindedly smoothed his head spines.

"This plane isn't the realm of dreams, but you are asleep..."

"Then where are we?" Spike’s curiosity overtook him as he looked around again to try and see anything special, other than the stars, if those pinpricks of shimmering light really were stars.

"This place has many names... but it is known to non-keepers as the Plane of Destiny or Plane of Memories. However to those like us, it's the Plane of Harmony," Seemingly to confirm this, memories of Spike suddenly appeared around him. Spike looked at them in wonder, reaching out a claw to touch one. Just as he was about to make contact, the memories shimmered, and disappeared back into the void.

Spike fell over backwards from the shock, and the voice seemed to find amusement in this, chuckling softly.

The dragon shook his head to bring himself out of his stupor, "Us?...Non-keepers... Plane of Harmony?" All of this was only adding to his confusion.

"All in good time, brother..."

"You're not my brother!" Spike pouted, wanting to find the voice and give it a good haircut, dragon style. "Who are you?"

"It’s not time yet to reveal myself...besides, I don't have the strength to come to you yet..." The last part sounded almost sickly, weak.

"Why are you speaking to me?" He tilted his head, trying to wrap his mind around everything.

"All in good time, my brother. I will explain everything when the time comes... So many questions! You deserve answers, but I see we don't have the time."

"What do you mean, no time?" Spike scratched his head trying to figure out the puzzle to this deflective voice. A tingling feeling of frustration crept up his spine.

Spike

"How did you know my name?" After a bit, as the voice had not responded, "How did you know my name?"

Spike

"I will be there soon, but I have a warni..."

Spike...

"..ware of The Dar..."

Wake up Spike...

"Huh... wha?" Spike blinked groggily, and realized that he was back in his basket.

"Spike, you silly dragon, it's time to get up. It's your birthday, remember?" A female voice called out. Spike took a moment longer than usual to recognise that it was Twilight. He sighed.

"Coming Twi’."

Author's Notes:

Edited by sunnypack

A mysterious pony and a strange voice, eh? Wonder who those could be....