Downstream (MLP Fanfiction)

Chapter 1

A heavy blanket of snow covered Equestria one winter morning; most of Canterlot's houses were snowed in. Only one pony was even outside in the city on that day, aggressively shovelling snow out of her way.

"It had to be today, didn't it?" Luster muttered to herself. She looked over her shoulder to realise she had barely made it a single trot outside.

"Oh, Come on! I don't have time for this!" She huffed, kicking the snow.

Luster dropped her snow shovel and attempted to push her way through to Canterlot Castle.

Turns out, trudging through pure snow was much more difficult than Luster had expected. Losing patience, Luster practically hopped her way to the castle gates.

The only guard outside didn't bat an eye at Luster. "Another 'emergency appointment' with the Princess?" he asked, poorly masking his smirk.

"Morning to you too, Gallus," said Luster, shaking the snow off of her hooves before stepping inside.

Just as Luster stepped through the door, another familiar face was there to greet her.

"Luster Dawn, glad you could make it!" Princess Twilight was dusting the barricades on the main staircase, not wearing her royal jewellery.

Luster spoke frantically. "Oh, I'm so sorry Princess, I was running late and I just-"

Making her way down the stairs, Twilight said "Hey, it's OK to be a little late, especially in this weather," as she gestured to a nearby window, almost entirely covered up by snow accumulated throughout the night. "Besides, we're just here to do something fun today. No need to stress."

Luster raised an eyebrow. "So, what are we actually doing today, then?"

"Hmm, how about some cocoa first?"

About two hours later, Twilight and Luster were in the castle's private library; almost all the books had been pulled from the shelves and stacked half-harzardly.

"So, how about we start with fiction? We can sort them into genres later." Twilight suggested, scooping up a whole pile of books with her magic.

"We're reorganizing everything?!" asked Luster, intimidated at the sheer amount of books.

"Oh, absolutely not! As much as I'd love to, I'm only free for the morning," said Twilight. "We've got the whole winter to get this done anyway."

Luster giggled. "Yeah, it would take a village to get this organised in a day."

Twilight and Luster spent the rest of the morning sorting every book by fiction and non-fiction. They were almost done by the time Twilight was called to the throne room.

On her way out, Twilight turned to Luster. "Oh, feel free to borrow a book or two, by the way, I won't be reading any of these for a while." She barely caught Luster's grin as her guard closed the door.

Luster carefully looked around the room. There was a specific book that caught her eye earlier, but she had no idea what it was even called.

She wandered about to find it and eventually found herself in a dark corner of the library, where a few books still sat on the shelves. Luster noticed a small hole at the bottom of one of the bookshelves, but it was just big enough for a pony to crawl through.

Curiosity overtook Luster. She had time to spare and had never seen a hidden room in the castle before. On the other side was a small room containing a cluster of unlit candles and some kind of furniture in the center, it was too dark to tell. Luster lit up her horn to get a better look and realised what it was.

Another bookshelf. But it wasn't like the rest of the tall, blue shelves that could reach the ceiling in the other room. This one was almost like something you'd find in an old mare's home. Scrolls tightly packed in all the shelves, except at the top. A single book was the only thing on the top shelf, propped up by a display stand. A bookmark could be seen poking out the top.

Meanwhile, Twilight's meeting was completely pointless and long-winded. The Saddle-Arabian delegate had travelled all this way just to report nothing of significance. It's probably just a formality at this point. Or maybe it's to make sure the two nations are still on good terms. Twilight didn't know; it's impossible to get into the mind of their ruler, Queen Maryram.

At last, the meeting was over. "I bid you farewell, your Majesty." The delegate bowed and excused themselves from the room.

Twilight waited for a while to talk, just to make sure the delegate didn't overhear. "Is it just me, or was that meeting even longer than last time?"

The guard glanced at the sun's position and spoke. "Your Highness, this meeting lasted approximately 45 minutes. Last moon's meeting was about an hour long."

Twilight slumped over in her seat, not caring what the guard thought. "Ugh, I wish I could drag Maryram to these meetings, maybe then she'd understand how pointless they are. I mean, I see that delegate more than my own niece--"

Then, a scroll materialised on the table. Bringing it closer, Twilight noticed the heart-shaped wax stamp, a letter from Princess Flurry Heart herself. She wasted no time opening it and unravelling the entire thing.

The letter read:

"Dear Princess Twilight,

As it stands, the pony we discussed in our previous letters is still circling the Empire. I have asked the Captain to confront them, but we've had no luck so far.

However, one of my guards saw their face and was able to provide a brief description. They have a dark grey pelt, spiceberry eyes and a black mane, style unknown. I can confirm to you that they have a horn. We're still unsure of this pony's gender and exact race. As you already know, they tend to wear a hooded cloak, but the witness claimed that the pony wore some kind of necklace or amulet as well.

Please let me know if your guard spots anypony matching this description. We need to get to the bottom of this before it becomes serious.

All my love,

Flurry Heart"

Twilight took note of the description and was about to pass this onto the guard before there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," said Twilight.

Luster opened the door with a book in tow. "Princess, you gotta see this!" sang Luster, opening it on the table.

Twilight gently took the tattered thing into her hooves and flipped through the yellowed pages.

"I've never seen this one before. How did you find this?" asked Twilight, skimming through.

"I found it on a really old bookshelf in the back of the library," said Luster, "But wait, there's a really awesome spell in there I wanna show you!"

Twilight pulled a face. "Old bookshelf?" she muttered to herself as she handed the book back.

Luster flicked to a page covered in sketches resembling stars and strange patterns. She took a step back and pointed her horn at the floor just to her left.

A bolt of magic zapped the ground and left behind an intricate pattern seemingly burnt into the floor. Without hesitation, Luster stepped on it and waved at Twilight, who was both concerned and horrified.

As Luster stepped off, the pattern glowed a bright orange and a clone of Luster appeared, repeated the wave and stepped off, vanishing along with the rune itself.

Twilight rushed off her seat, her thinly-veiled panic showing. "Luster, give me that book."

"Wait, what? Why?" Luster glanced at the book, then Twilight.

Twilight took the book off Luster, clutching it tightly. "Runes are bad, Luster. It's dark magic."