Discoveries and Demons

The group was oddly quiet save fore the sound of hooves on stone as they walked down a long hall that was empty of any artwork on the walls. The walls were cream white with thin pillars in them that had a spiral design. Carvings lined the base of the walls and close to the ceilings, and though sunlight poured gently through the windows that they past the hallway had an old somewhat eerie feeling to it.

"Where are we going?" asked Pinkie Pie to break the silence.

"To a more hidden part of the castle." Answered Celestia.

"Hidden?" said Twilight, "why is it hidden, Princess?"

"So that the old knowledge inside doesn't fall into the hooves of any random pony." Said Celestia.

"Ooooh," said Pinkie, bouncing in front of the princess to get her attention, "so like, we're going to this super secret place to find this super secret knowledge to help us find the super secret alicorn that took Fluttershy to her super secret hideout?"

"Basically, yes" said Celestia, barely sparing the Pink earth pony a glance as they walked on.

"But hasn't anypony discovered it before?" asked Shining Armor.

"There is an illusion spell cast over it so that it may go unnoticed by any passersby," said Princess Luna, "to them, it's just another wall."

"Very clever…" commented Shining.

"What kind of knowledge would need to be kept under such security?" asked Cadence, "and why haven't Twilight and I heard of this sooner?"

The group of ponies turned a corner and the Princesses slowed to a stop. The Sun Princess turned her attention to the wall on her left and her horn glowed in a sunray golden aura. A large spot on the wall shimmered and distorted for a moment before fading away to reveal a regular looking wooden door with a round, bronze door knob. The doorknob was surrounded for a moment in Celestia's magic as she opened the door that swung inward. She went in first fallowed by Luna, Cadence, Twilight, Shining, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity and Flash. As the door closed behind the guard Pegasus it shimmered again and the illusion resumed.

Inside, the ponies save for the moon and sun princesses, gasped at the vast library that was inside. It looked as big as the Crystal Empire's library.

"The books and scrolls here were written long before the three pony tribes came together in Equestria." Said Princess Celestia.

"There are many spells here that are actually illegal in Equestria." Mentioned Princess Luna.

"Why are they illegal?" asked Applejack,

"Because they are meant for war, execution, torture and others are dark magic." Celestia said bluntly.

A shocked look appeared momentarily on the faces of the other ponies.

"There is also much titled about the ancient history of the pony tribes before Equestrian times." Said Luna, "however, for reasons we do not know their pages are mostly blank, as though they have been magically erased."

"why were they erased, Princess?' asked Twilight.

"I'm afraid we don't know Twilight." Celestia replied solemnly.

"Now hang on a minute here," said Applejack, "if their pages are all blank, what're we all here for? What are we supposed to learn from a bunch o' blank pages?"

Celestia's horn glowed as she walked forward in between two high bookshelves. From high above them she pulled out a dusty brown book. She brought it down to them and walked over to a small round wooden table, gesturing for them to come nearer. The ponies crowded around the table as Celestia opened the book, skipping several pages. She came to a page that had a picture of Princess Luna in the corner and underneath were the words: Princess Luna, Former Element of Generosity.

"My goodness," said Rarity, "Princess Luna, you were the Element of Generosity?"

The lunar princess nodded.

"Yes, I was."

"This picture appeared shortly after Luna returned from the moon as Nightmare Moon." Said Princess Celestia, "before her return my own picture was the only one in it."

Her horn glowed as she flipped back a few pages to her own picture. Underneath were the words: Princess Celestia, Former Element of Magic.

"Princess, you were the Element of Magic?" asked Twilight, looking up at her mentor.

"Yes Twilight," the Sun Princess replied, "I was once the wielder of the Element of Magic."

"Why didn't you tell me?" the lavender alicorn asked.

"What about the other wielders, Princess?" asked Shining Armor, his words drew all eyes to him, shock on the faces of all other ponies. The thought of other wielders of the past had never occurred to them. The ponies turned their heads to the two oldest alicorn, expecting an answer. Celestia sighed sadly.

"Unfortunately, I do not know." She said.

"What?" said Twilight, "how could you not know who it was Princess Celestia?"

"There is a large gap in both of our memories," said Luna, "there is much we do not remember about our own past."

Celestia turned the pages to a picture of Discord, underneath the words were blurred as well as the words on the rest of the page.

"this picture appeared after the return of Discord, before he was reformed," said the Sun Princess. "we later had Fluttershy reform him because we wanted to find out more about our mysterious past."

"we had hoped to learn more from him,' said Princess Luna, "unfortunately, he too does not remember."

"or he does but he's lyin' bout it." Commented Applejack. Princess Celestia shook her head.

"No, he allowed us to cast a spell so that we may gaze at his memories. He does not remember." She said before returning to the first page of the book and beginning to flip them one by one slowly. "perhaps this strange book can tell us about who this alicorn is."

The noise of chattering foals filled the air as Ms. Cheerylee came to stand in front of her desk.

"All right children," she said, getting their attention, "it's almost time to go home. But first, would anypony like to share what they did this weekend?"

All hooves in the classroom were raised. Cheerylee examined the class and pointed her hoof to one.

"Applebloom, what did you do this weekend?"

"I got this letter from mah cousin in Apploosa," she said, "it was talking all about these scary monsters that attacked the town and set the whole orchard on fire!"

The class gasped and another Featherweight spoke up.

"I heard from my big brother that monsters attacked Cloudsdale too!"

"I heard they attacked these ponies that were traveling on hoof to Manehatten!"

Suddenly there was an uproar as the foals all excitedly told about the rumors they had heard, shouting over one another.

"QUIET!" shouted the teacher, silencing the foals, "class dismissed."

The foals all left their seats and exited the classroom. As they headed towards Sweet Apple Acres, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon caught up to the CMC.

"Hey Applebloom," said Diamond.

"What do you want Diamond Tiara?" Applebloom replied.

"Aren't you scared?" asked Diamond.

"Scared of what?" said Applebloom.

"Of the monsters silly, they do like to attack farms, after all."

Applebloom stopped for a moment to consider the pink earth pony's words, but shook her head and walked on.

"aw, they won't come after my farm." Said Applebloom "There's nothin' interestin' fer'em there."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," said Diamond "there wasn't anything interesting on the other farms either."

"Buzz off Diamond Tiara!" Snapped Scootaloo, getting into her face with a scowl.

"Yeah, leave us alone." Said Sweetiebelle. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon frowned as they stopped fallowing them.

"Whatever…" said Diamond, then she called after them, "don't say we didn't warn you!"

"You're the only one that talked." pointed out Sweetie.

The CMC continued on there way to Sweet Apple Acres, walking in silence. After a while they reached the orchard, heading straight for the tree house. The three fillies were chatting happily as they trotted to the tree house, talking about how they'd try to get their cutie marks today.

"I think we should try something a little more simple today," said Applebloom.

"Like what, Applebloom?" asked Sweetie.

"How about we help Big Macintosh fix the barn roof?" Applebloom suggested, it's was leaking a bit the other day when it was rainin."

"That sounds boring," said Scootaloo, "why don't we try sword fighting?"

"Nah, that sounds a little dangerous." Said Applebloom.

"Don't worry; we'll be using fake swords, not real ones."

"Big fake swords or little fake swords?" asked Sweetie.

Applebloom suddenly noticed how quiet it was in the orchard, save for the chatting of her two friends. No birds sang, no sound of crickets, nothing.

"gee," said Applebloom, getting the attention of Scootaloo and Sweetiebelle, "it sure is awfully quiet today."

"Now that you mention it," said Scootaloo, "it is pretty quiet. Kinda creepy actually…"

Suddenly, they heard a scuffling from behind them and the spun around in fright. Applebloom gulped.

"m-maybe it was just a squirrel." She said, trying to hide her sudden nervousness.

"Yeah…" said Sweetie, "a squirrel."

Cheerylee was speaking to Big Macintosh in front of the barn. She was there to pick up some apples for her grandmother. Big Mac would have delivered them himself, but has awfully busy that day and she had wanted to make it easier on him.

"Thanks, Big Mac," the mare said as he passed the apples to her, "I'll see you around then?"

"eeyup." He replied simply. Suddenly Winona, who was lying next to him, sat up and growled, facing the apple orchard.

"What's the matter girl?" asked Cheerylee, concerned.

The fillies cantered towards the tree house. Applebloom felt odd, like somepony was watching her, fallowing her… they heard another scuffling from beside them and they broke out into a run. From the corner of her eyes, Applebloom could see the shadows of somepony running beside them, just a little more that five feet away.

Winona suddenly sprang up, barking and snarling as she ran into the orchard at full speed. Big Macintosh and Cheerylee stood there in puzzlement for a moment, until the screams of three fillies reached their ears.

"Applebloom!" Big Macintosh burst into a run towards the sound, Cheerylee hot on his heels.

Applebloom, Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo all huddled together against the wide trunk of an apple tree. Surrounding them were five black monsters with red eyes. They each had the same shape of a Pegasus colt, the size of foals. They had long black fangs protruding from their mouths and membranous wings. They snarled at the whimpering fillies, edging closer to them. The sound of barking in the distance made them turn their head as Winona came running through the trees, launching her self snarling at the nearest demon. But before she could touch it, the monster suddenly turned its head and clamped its fanged jaws around the dog's ribcage, swinging its head and flung her into the trunk of another tree.

Winona yelped as her back connected with the trunk and she hit the ground with a sickening thud.

Well the part with the part with the CMC came out worse than I'd hoped but I'll do better in the next chapter hopefully. Review will make me update faster, so review, ok? Also, if you like Sgt. Frog and angst go read my one-shot, Destroyer of Worlds.