Hello, and welcome to my first My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfiction, Project Dawnstars! This is the first part of two in the Project Dawnstars duo, and my first fanfiction that I'm posting here on , so the formatting's bound to be a little strange at first. In fact, I've already had formatting issues with this thing, and I have no clue what I'm doing. Hopefully these are fixed this time, and you can actually read it. If not, can somebody help me, please?

Well, hopefully, there's no problems with this, and I hope you enjoy.

Prologue: The night rain's revenge against the sun

The unicorn looked around outside cautiously, a cloak covering all but her hooves and muzzle. Nopony in sight. She quickly went inside, shutting all of the blinders and locking the door. She took out of the bag she was carrying a stack of parchment paper, a fountain pen, and a well of ink. She dipped the pen into the ink and began writing as fast as she could.

It was always a rush to her, this forbidden business. Writing whatever she wanted to happen, and trying not to get caught. She had been doing this for almost two years, and knew the punishment for being caught would be.

One of her good friends, after all, had been captured, but escaped and lived in hiding until he was found again. She didn't know what happened to him, and didn't want to find out, either. All she knew from him was to never, ever get caught.

It was merely redundant ringing in her ears since she started this.

Suddenly, there was a loud pounding on her door. She looked up for a split second, but crawled under the table, which had a long white tablecloth draped overtop, hoping that her cloak disguised the glow coming from her horn. She hoped the tablecloth didn't give her away, either, if they were using light magic.

The pounding came again. The door was kicked open, and at least ten unicorns and pegasi donned in armour of the Royal Guard flooded the small house.

"Where are they?!" One of the pegasi shouted. "There's papers and broken pens everywhere, They must be around here somewhere!" He turned to one of the unicorns. "You! You sensed unicorn magic around here earlier, didn't you?"

"I'm sure I sensed unicorn magic around here somewhere..." One of the unicorn guards murmured, and closed his eyes, his horn glowing softly. He walked over to the table, where his horn grew brighter. He lifted the table with his magic.

The pegasus grinned when he saw the unicorn scribbling rapidly with her magic on the parchment. As the Royal Guard officer tried to grab her, she teleported to the doorway, where she turned and ran, the guards behind her, stumbling and slipping in the mud.

Suddenly, she turned around and tackled the guard right behind her. The other guards surrounded her, but she fought back, dodging their blows and running the opposite way, deeper into the town. The guards, of course, soon followed.

Looming ahead of her was her target: The clock tower, tall and mysterious, and on this starless and moonless rain streaked night, ominous and frightening. If she could get there, she would be safe.

Her heart pounded in her ears as she approached the clock tower, only to be knocked down by one of the pegasus guards. She fought him off, only to be held down again. She screamed for help and shook the guards off, but it still wasn't enough. She was attacked from the side, and her head hit the ground first, tinnitus setting in before black dots swam in front of her eyes, and she fell into unconsciousness.

She fell just a few steps from the clock tower that had silently watched everything unfold, and was struck by lightning, causing everything to crumble away in a bright flash of light.

It was just how she wrote it to be before she was captured.

The rain splashed against the marble and glass balcony, droplets scattering all about. Luna sighed, her breath coming out in ragged clouds. She looked up to the sky, which was filled with nothing but black. The clouds had rolled over Canterlot in the afternoon, but the sky didn't open up until dusk, forcing Luna to have to sense the moon in order to raise it into the sky.

She scanned the area, watching quietly. All was still, as usual. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Luna saw some slight movement. She called out, but stopped when she realized that it was Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's former student, now a princess herself. Celestia had invited Twilight back to Canterlot to attend a royal court meeting, and she and her dragon partner, Spike, didn't get there until late into the afternoon. When they arrived, everything was chaotic, and had to help until evening, and were given a light supper and sent into the bedchamber prepared for them to rest for the court meeting. Luna watched Twilight with a strange sort of intensity. She seemed to be in a sort of daze, as if under a spell. She sat down and leaned her front legs onto the edge of the balcony, looking out at something beyond the rain. A soft wind blew her mane back.

It made Luna's heart ache tremendously.

Luna also stared at the rain, letting the memories she always kept locked deep inside her permeate her thoughts. She didn't used to abhor the rain as much as she did, which was natural, considering the fact that water fell underneath one of the elements of the moon. She used to love the rain, and splash around in it in euphoria.

Luna shook her head. She couldn't stand those memories anymore. Besides, she had changed now. She was no longer the weak, feeble Luna who relied on her older sister Celestia for everything. No, that Luna was somepony else, somepony who no longer existed.

She was now Luna, the alicorn who raised the moon.

She would never let those memories stop her from being anything but that.

Ever.

Twilight Sparkle looked out at the falling rain. She got out of bed and opened her balcony doors, then sat down at the edge, leaning on her front legs.

"So, it has finally come to pass, has it?" She asked. She paused, as if listening to somepony's reply. "Yes, it is quite risky, doing this so soon. But, we honestly don't have a choice, do we?" Another pause. "The sun is becoming too powerful too soon. If we let this go on for too long, we'll be the ones banished, not her." Another pause, and Twilight picked up a small cup, about to take a sip from it, when she heard the sound of something stirring. She turned and saw Spike awake, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"You're awake." Twilight said.

"Twilight, who're you talkin' to?" Spike asked, still half asleep. "Are you alright?"

Twilight smiled and let out a small 'mii.' "I'm just talking to myself. Don't worry about me, Spike. Go back to sleep."

Spike nodded and lowered his head again, and was soon snoring softly. Twilight walked back inside, taking the cup with her. She closed the balcony doors and swirled the crimson liquid around softly.

"Yes, it has already been decided." Twilight said, taking a sip of her drink. "The sun has no choice but to die."