Things in Dusk Shine's life were simple, organized, and happy, every day since he began studying at Princess Celestia's school. The aggressive teaching program kept him busy, and more often than not, forced him to learn new things about the world and the way things worked, both natural and magical. It was an exciting, though reclusive, lifestyle, but with the chance to learn so much, who could blame the stallion for enjoying the lifestyle tremendously?

Like many mornings, Dusk was the first to awaken; long before his assistant Barb, who still lay softly snoring across the room in her small bed. A smile crossed Dusk's lips for a moment as he inspected the odd little dragoness, still sleeping curled up around her tail, using its spade to block out a bloom of morning sunlight that glowed through a gap in the drapes and brightened Dusk's observatory.

For now, Dusk let her sleep, knowing the young lady needed all the rest she could get these days. With classes out for the weeks surrounding the Summer Sun Celebration, students were given free time to visit home and relax after a grueling exam period. But Dusk was different. Something in the exams had bothered him, and even now the nagging thought tickled at the back of his mind.

Walking with light grace, the young stallion stepped before a full length mirror Princess Celestia had given him when he moved into the abandoned building. He still questioned what her motive had been for the gift. Often in his free time he pondered adding 'Find an excuse to put it away and add another bookshelf' to his daily work checklist, but Barb had pointed out that with all the other bookshelves already in the massive main workspace, he really didn't need one more. In any case it was a gift from his mentor, and just any excuse just wasn't good enough to make a little extra space.

At twenty-one, Dusk was in good shape for a bookworm. Princess Celestia's insistence that he take part in the school's yearly athletic events to keep in shape and get to know his classmates paid off in more than one way. Never the star of any team, he had put in a fine performance at everything, always aiding the coaches far more than showing off. Thus, he had never done well enough publicly to stand out against others’ skill and talent, and while often considered for an assistant, he never had the talent needed to be a good Captain. Standing at an even six feet and a little over one hundred sixty pounds, he was a lean figure, but without enough excess muscle to show a six-pack. With long, dark, royal-blue hair and an odd natural streak of both purple and pink over his right eye, he had occasionally been teased that he could be a male model if only he was willing to put up with the invasive attention.

Dusk’s eyes started to wander away from the mirror as the package from last week captured his attention. His breath caught in his throat as he stepped forward, speaking to himself to spur this moment forward in hopes of just getting it over with. “Come on Dusk. It was one interview for Canterlot Confidential. What's the worst they could have done?”

The cover was the worst. He had only done the interview as a moment of pride when told he was the youngest stallion to finish Star Swirl U's doctorate exams. And they had approached him in the school library, all sweet words and praise. His picture, showing him sitting below portraits of the Princess and Starswirl himself in the school’s library, was now plastered upon the front page. Quickly, his eyes shot to the story title, frantic to see how they were twisting his words to suit their audience. 'Princess Celestia's chosen pupil, and Star Swirl U's youngest ever Doctorate Grad, speaks exclusively with us!' then the next one below, just as damning. 'Humble genius on duty, his studies, and his flawless athletic track record.' Even here, a nervous tick had started to shoot up his arm and made his head twitch. But there was still one more bubble left on the cover related to his interview. 'Single stallion confesses: Still looks up to Beatrix Lula's record.' Wait what?

Dusk was lost for a moment, turning back to the mirror as he started flipping through the magazine. A mare's publication, it was filled with fashion advice and tips on romance. Why had they asked him about Beatrix? The name was familiar, but they hadn't spoken in years, not since...

Dusk pushed painful memories aside. He had never heard what her doctorate thesis was about, and nobody had seen her since the exams last year. Was she even still at SSU, or had she moved on after submitting her thesis?

A sigh left his lips. What did it matter? The magazine wasn't that important and it wasn’t like anyone he cared about, besides mother, read it. As his gaze lifted to the mirror again, he began to smile, shifting the twin locks of oddly bright purple and pink before letting his bangs fall back to rest over his brow again. The decision to once again leave the question of Princess Celestia's mirror and this headache of a magazine alone, if nothing else, made it easy to make sure he was presentable whenever the Princess needed him for something, and he never wanted to disappoint his kind patron and teacher. Walking downstairs in only his deep purple boxers, he skipped past the kitchen, far more interested in what was in the main hall and his library.

The majority of Dusk's last two weeks had been spent working on the bonus question Princess Celestia herself had posed during their exams, quite suddenly and with only five minutes left. In his mind, he could still see her sudden entrance into the room; walking at a light stride as she wandered to the podium, flanked by two royal guards that always stayed at her side, while that ethereal mane floated in a slight breeze everyone in the test chamber wished they could feel. She may have spoken to the gathered unicorns still buried deep in their tests, but Dusk could have easily sworn her eyes were on him when she spoke. “My students. I offer one extra question not on your tests. Any who can answer it with what little time you have left will receive a passing grade, no matter how you do on the rest of the test.” A pause dropped for the crowd, letting it sink in to allow for the more desperate students’ gasps and murmurs before she lifted a hand for silence again, her voice stern, tone dark and, for just a moment, haunted. “What is the origin of the Mare in the Moon myth?” The Princess waited only a moment as the class whispered in confusion at a childhood legend being brought up in so serious a test.

But there was no time to be confused; the proctor took a step beside his Princess and his voice lifted high, his horn glowing pale rose-white to let his words boom about the room without having to shout. “Five minutes left, colts and fillies. No time for talk and anyone caught asking for help on a foal tale is in line for the same punishment as any other form of cheating.” A serious threat, as expulsion was normal for even small breaks in the rules during a test. Dusk himself had never done extra study into the myths of his childhood, this new question caught him off guard.

While the stories told by his foalsitter, Cadance, were still fresh in his mind to this day, he had been far more interested in her storytelling than the tales themselves. Now he was forced to rack his brain to fill in this one extra credit question. He was so shocked, he had stopped in the rechecking of his answers for the third time, the ever-dedicated stallion trying to ensure not a single answer had been missed or smudged, and that all spelling errors were corrected. Pen in hand he took a breath and scribbled...

His first attempt still burned in his mind with shame. “It's just a silly story about what happens to bad colts and fillies to keep them in line when a sitter is about. Any hints as to its origin have likely been lost to the ages due to the rewriting of history books over time.” It was a bad answer, and he had scratched it out and tried working it out twice more before the proctor ripped the page from his hands. Even now he still felt the stares he had garnered from the gathered students. The shock of hearing himself arguing with the old man even as he got carried away with trying to strong-arm his paper back, demanding just another second to put his words into proper context. That had resulted in him being sent to Princess Celestia's office, and while she had gone easy on him, he was ordered to be confined to the school grounds and banned from the library, pending an apology to the elderly unicorn.

And he had dealt with that last week, making sure to show all the due respect in front of several other teachers and a half dozen students. It had been embarrassing as well, but it was over with and now he could move on with his free time... and Princess Celestia's question. The desk in his study was covered in books, the full collection of every source Star Swirl Library had on hand about childhood stories and foal-tales about The Mare in the Moon. Why was it the legend had persisted unchanged throughout so many decades? Nay, it had been centuries and still the legend was the same! It was almost unnatural for a story this old to remain the same for nearly a thousand years of pony history!

A busy unicorn dedicating himself to a new study topic, Dusk took up the next book from his desk and reached out with the light purple glow of his magic, drawing a quill from the inkwell upon his desk. This next book was old and had to be handled with great care; the unicorn eventually resorting to using magic to help him flip the pages without risking damage to one of the library’s oldest books. As he worked quietly flipping to the page his notepad listed as the next source to look up, a smile spread over his short muzzle, his eyes scanned the page title and a tiny flare of pleasure glowed in the depths of his eyes. This was it! 'Of the Mare In the Moon And Princess Celestia's Public Reading Of the First Edition.' Now this was exciting! The stallion quickly jotted another note down upon the list he was already building in his second notebook. 'Princess Celestia's relationship to the mare myth? First Edition of what?'

A creaking of floorboards three hours later was his only hint that Barb was at last up; the late morning sunlight had brightened the observatory and forced the young dragoness to get out of bed. However, as a good an assistant, she was already entering Dusk's study from the kitchen with a daisy sandwich and tall glass of water. Dusk was deep in his reading, never noticing a thing until one of his notebooks was covered by a plate pushed in front of his face and the tall glass of water held out while a still-sleepy Barb spoke out with annoyance.

“You've been at it again Dusk! Stop reading and eat something.” A sigh escaped her lips. “You promised Princess Celestia you wouldn't let your extra summer studies prevent you from visiting home, and it’s only two days till the Summer Sun Celebration!” Exasperated at Dusk's focus on the paperwork and not his health, Barb was forced to bring out the big guns. “Or do I have to ask Shining Armor to come look into his little brother's diet?”

It might have been an idle threat, but Dusk worshipped his brother’s approval almost, almost as much as he worshipped the Princess herself. And with Princess Celestia and her honor guard busy with the Summer Sun Celebration, getting Shining's attention might not be hard, but his patience for his younger brother’s antics always tended to be short. Dusk had to stop and put down his quill before sheepishly taking the water from his assistant and drinking deeply, a bead of sweat upon his brow. “Sorry Barb, don’t bother anyone. It's just so interesting! Did you know in the hundredth year of Princess Celestia's reign after her sister's disappearance she held a public reading of the Legend of the Mare in the moon the night before the Summer Sun Celebration? Or that she read it from her personal copy of 'The Elements of Harmony,' a first edition penned by Starswirl himself? Or even better! That the copy she used is still housed here at the university!” Excited as he was Dusk moved to swiftly gulp down the water before shifting back from the desk and ripping into the daisy sandwich. Magic might keep crumbs off an eight or nine hundred year-old book, but it was far better to avoid doing such damage in the first place.

Barb began to simply nod at his talk while looking over her adoptive father. Shaking her head, she poked his shoulder. “Then shower, put on SOMETHING, and go to the Library and ask if you can see it. If it’s so rare and important a book, they will never let you at it in your boxers and smelling like that.”

Dusk blushed as he finished the last bite of his breakfast, sniffing at his musk and shaking his head. “You're right Barb. Sorry. I will make showers the first thing on my morning list from now on.” Ashamed he needed to be reminded of something so basic, the blushing stallion sheepishly gave Barb a nod and the empty dishes, closing the book and setting it on the pile to return to the Library. “If you have time after you are done with breakfast could you pack my backpack and get the checklist for today? I do not want to miss anything else today.”

Barb was stuck left only able to nod, a sigh held back until after he left the room. His musk was so strong, and the dragoness’ sense of smell was far too keen. She could only hope he had not noticed she was near retching from his three-day-old sweat. Happy he was off to clean up, she too went to work, a happy whistle on her lips.

A short while later, in the school’s main courtyard, Shining Armor and the royal guard were practicing shield spells. Far from a mirror image of his younger brother, Armor stood at six foot five, the silver emblem of his rank as polished as his name suggested. Hardly even flexing he as he put on this display for the students who had come to watch and the royal guard themselves, his shield bubble, the translucent soft rose colored aura of his magic, wrapped about a Princess Celestia stand-in. A guard in oversized and heavy armor, which gave him the size and proportions of the princess, stood nervously within the bubble; the intent of which was to protect him from any harm. Shining called out with firm, but calm confidence to the gathered crowd. “... and that’s the theory to the Shield spell. If one’s magic is sufficient, it can hold back any form of assault, and can be kept up for days on end. No need to be shy, Thunder Wall is more than well guarded. Throw everything you got at him.” The guard's Captain was being a little cruel today, but Thunder had earned it.

Last week, he had been caught consorting with the teaching staff when he was meant to be training students how to take a strike from a storm cloud without losing elevation while in flight. The pegasus guard was smart, at least; he never denied his relationship with Ember Star or Ribbon Dancer but now had weeks to learn about what he did on duty versus off.

The crowd, of course, was only too happy to test the illustrious guard Captain's powerful version of a spell first taught by Star Swirl himself. Already, students were throwing rocks and other basic and smaller magic spells at the shield, all of them bouncing off and landing in a small pile on the ground around Thunder Wall’s feet. Most spells simply expelling their full power on the shield’s surface. All of this hardly caused Shining to sweat, having already proved weeks ago to Princess Celestia that he could keep the shield up for weeks on end without exerting himself. A sudden surge in the air, however, got Armor's attention swiftly, a thick blast of brilliant raspberry magic slammed into the shield from the far side of the field, near the main walkway that rounded the north edge of the magic field and led to the main library.

This newcomer instantly had everyone’s attention, as Shining took a step and braced both feet upon the dirt field, pouring his concentration into the spell that protected his guard. Sweat broke out upon his brow as the assault continued and grew only fiercer, the excess magic cast off by the focused magical force hitting the bubble of powerful shielding magic burning the dirt around the now frightened pegasus stallion.

And yet, just as suddenly as the blast started, it stopped, Dusk dropping to his knees and panting heavily as he failed to pierce his brother’s defensive shield spell. All in attendance were quick to stand up and start to cheer the guard captain who first dropped his spell before wandering over to the frazzled Thunder Wall and checked the lad to make sure he hadn't been harmed. Anger brimmed in Shining's throat but he held back, pausing a moment to realize it was his younger brother who had thrown so serious and aggressive an attack... and amused at how powerful the spell he had thrown together to break his shield really had been.

Pushing past fawning mares and stallions, the giant rushed to his brother’s side and clapped him upon the shoulder, nodding at little Barb as she stood wide-eyed and fanning Dusk with her tail spade, still muttering darkly at his antics. “.. and yet you always try to push things just a little further Dusk! Did you know what you were casting or did you make it up again? Princess Celestia said you shouldn't try new magic when she isn't around, it’s dangerous.” For the second time in a single day Dusk's behavior had exasperated the poor little dragoness.

Shining's rich laugh escaped at her words and spoke out to cut off her worried rambling in a kind and reassuring tone. “Don't worry Barb, I like his trick. It's so rare someone other than Princess Celestia herself can make me break a sweat while trying to pierce my Shield spell.” A hand touched his brother's soaked forehead, brushing hair aside. “You did really well. A minute or so more and you might have cracked it Dusk. You okay? Been sleeping well since the big exam? Mom said you did so well you were interviewed by one of her favorite magazines.”

Dusk, for his part, remained on the ground, resting on his knees in the nice black dress pants Barb had picked out for him. Dirt was now ground into the knees, leaving a stain Barb was likely to spend an hour getting out later. His light violet dress shirt was buttoned up to the neck and a thin summer vest of pale pink had been worn over top with rich dark royal blue hues edging the trim to offset the pink. All was now soaked in his perspiration from extreme effort at cracking the shell. And here was his brother, hardly a drop of sweat on his face, standing over him, the flawless guard captain offering him a hand up and fawning over Dusk's needs.

Accepting the offered hand, Dusk made to stand up while still blushing darkly; he nodded with a quiet unease. Something that was bugging him in the back of his mind that had been forgotten in the chance to challenge his brother’s magic. His voice was still ragged as he struggled to catch his breath, but Dusk answered as best he could. “Barb's right though. I did just make the new spell up. I was thinking of an arrow to pop the bubble, so I focused the magic to a point and threw it... and yet somehow it just became a fat blob of force before even making impact.”

He sighed, and smile spread as he took a towel from one of the guardsmares, watching his brother do the same, and started to mop up his sweat. “Thanks, Shining. I've been well enough, just researching the origin of some silly foal tale that the Princess asked me about.“ The unicorn stallion paused, something about that sentence nagged at his mind and he knew it was more important than he had thought before. “The exam was great, even if I was panicking beforehand, it turned out really well... And before Barb starts, I have been sleeping just fine. She just sleeps in all the time.” Dusk’s mind flashed back to the copy of the magazine in his observatory, a complimentary copy for doing the interview. He made himself a mental note to get Barb to burn it... no, she might read it, better he destroy it himself when she was busy later. He wanted no member of his family to read that trash. “That interview. It was such a rag, please tell Mom it isn’t worth reading. I bet only mares on the prowl would ever take half the junk in there seriously." Playing it cool, he hoped they could move on quickly enough.

Barb’s mouth was already half open and starting to form a reply before Dusk cut her off, stomping her foot. Mildly grumpy, she spoke up against Dusk anyway. “But he didn't eat ‘til I got up and threatened to make you hand-feed him. And now he’s running around town looking for some long-lost book of pony lore Princess Celestia read a story from nine hundred years ago.”

Shining Armor laughed at his niece’s annoyance and started to pat her head-spines lightly in an attempt to ease her fears. “Don't worry Barb. He is strong, and if needed I'll happily pin him down and sit on his chest while you force-feed him. And Dusk, mares on the prowl are exactly the kind of distraction you don’t need right now.” A chuckle escaped his lips at Barb and Dusk's deep blush in response. “What book is it? Anything the Royal Guard might have in our archives?”

Dusk was recovered and the two nagging ideas in the back of his head were at last finally sorting themselves out, one coming to the forefront long before the other. His voice more relaxed, he spoke out with an easier tone. “It's called 'The Elements of Harmony'. The records from other books say it is the first book to reference 'The Mare in the Moon'. And that it was written by Star Swirl himself.” There was a gasp for breath before the excited unicorn continued. “Plus apparently Princess Celestia's personal first edition is held at the library here in Canterlot.”

Shining took a moment to pause at his brother’s words, confused by Dusk’s obsession over the foal’s-tale reference, yet glad he could at last offer some reassurance. “That? Well I can promise you that copies of that are far from hard to find. The guardponies all read it as part of our history classes since it tells the origin of so many of our traditions. Not to mention the last great disaster to befall the land. You know, the tale of Nightmare Moon?”

Dusk's jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. “Wait, Nightmare Moon? The one who killed Princess Luna and Princess Celestia herself had to defeat in battle? Why would a guard book talk about that?” It had never before this moment clicked in Dusk's mind that Nightmare Moon and the Mare in the Moon might be the same figures in pony history! His long week of research suddenly felt so one-sided and inadequate. “Where can I find a copy?”

Armor could only offer a shrug, his voice light and easy. “First edition reprints of ‘The Elements of Harmony’ are all over the place. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if you had a copy in that massive library you keep at the observatory. You have one of almost every other book I've ever even heard of, and two of some I've never.”

Dusk gasped, and with a nod of thanks took off running back to his room, poor Barb in tow. Shining couldn't help but laugh softly at his younger brother’s antics while the other guards now gathered around and took up casual conversation about his younger brother and the antics of the day. Thunder Wall was soon freed of his heavy armor and sent off to shower and cool off, his punishment clearly not an issue anymore. Philandering on duty or not, it was clear he had learned his lesson today.

Somepony asked Shining a question, and distracted by thoughts of his brother, it took him a moment to realize and answer. “What? Oh. Well, he’s just a little obsessive about learning all that Princess Celestia asks him about. I'm sure he might do well in the guard, but I think he is far more interested in learning than how to be a good guard.” Those gathered saw how candid the guard Captain was about his brother. The rumor mill couldn't resist and soon the mixed group of students and recruits were pressuring the powerful unicorn with questions of every nature. And thoughts of following his brother and questioning his interest in Nightmare Moon were forgotten, along with the letter his girlfriend had asked him to give Dusk. They had only been dating seriously for the last year and Princess Cadance wanted to get back in touch with his little brother after having foalsat him so many years ago.

About to turn and go back to the field, Shining accidentally kicked a backpack on the ground before him, only just realizing it was there as his foot made contact. “Who left these books behind?” He let the question hang in the air for a moment before a swift inspection revealed that his brother’s star-shaped cutie mark lay on the flap. “That airhead. Always running around so fast when he’s obsessing over things. He’ll forget his head one of these days.” A sigh escaped the stallion’s lips and he took a few minutes to hand the class over to another of his lieutenants. He shouldered the bag of library books and began the walk to his brother’s observatory a whistle on his lips.

Author's Notes:

Alright! This is a first work so go easy but feel free to criticize. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly enjoyed. Written in about three hours in Open office, note that rewrites will likely come with time due to the rushed and haphazard nature of my creative moments!

Revised version 1.1 thanks to the assistance of fans who've been reading over my mistakes. Added in the missing and underdeveloped foreshadowing for chapter 1 and beyond. Still likely going to find a lot more errors when i look this over later but hopefully i cleared up the worst of them this time.

Edited version 1.1 posted July 31st 2014 @ 2:10 pm

Edited version 2.0 posted October 29th 2014 @11:12 pm. Huge thank you to Wrabbit for the help editing!

Version 2.5 posted August 14th, Thanks to Shawkthorian for all your help reediting these chapters!

Version 3.0 posted April 29th, 2016. Focused on removing improper use of 'own' and 'would', as well as major formatting changes that have happened across the series.