Priori Aevum

by Azure Quill

Chapter 2

A/N First off I'd like to apologize for the... wow, an entire month... heehee, uhm i have no excuse whatsoever... so, just sorry for the delay.

Secondly, special thanks to VDtheBrony for proofreading/editing/being awesome and patient. For now, enjoy this newest chapter and please, take the opportunity to criticize me in the comments, no matter how harsh the judgement.

Aevum yawned sleepily and rubbed her eyes to get the sleep out of them, the sun was shining through the window and she gazed at it for some time, enjoying the simple warmth it brought to the room.

Home...

She looked down at the bandages that covered her wounds, they stilled throbbed dully, but for the most part she couldn’t feel them, all she could feel was a bit of soreness in her side, the stiffness of her muscles and the crusted blood clinging to her coat.

The smell of blood and sweat assaulted Aevum’s nostrils and she almost retched at the putrid scent.

She really needed to wash herself.

“Oh! Good morning, I hope you slept well after drinking that potion.” Aevum startled and looked toward the sound and saw Twilight. Aevum relaxed slightly, her immediate safety assured.

She stretched, feeling her bones pop, wincing as her muscles pulled against some of the larger gashes, and got up. Aevum looked down on the blanket she’d been sleeping on and gave a cry of surprise when she saw the amount of blood she’d lost; the blanket was almost completely soaked with blood and it dripped down the edges of the couch.

She turned towards Twilight with an apologetic look, “Sorry for ruining your couch...”

She waved a hoof at Aevum, dismissing the notion, “Don’t worry about it, it’s easy enough to clean and I just couldn’t let you sleep on the floor.” She levitated the book she’d been reading back in front of her and continued as if there was nothing wrong.

Aevum opened her mouth to reply, and then closed it slowly. There weren’t words that could describe her gratefulness or the true extent of joy she felt at finally being home. Even though her home wasn’t ‘there’ precisely, she was back amongst her own kind and that was enough. Unwelcome images of torture flashed through her mind and she grimaced.

Aevum noticed Twilight looking at her with concern and she guessed Twilight had mistaken the grimace for physical pain, rather than emotional.

“Thank you... words cannot express...” the mare before her smiled, and Aevum looked to the cover of the book she was reading. The book was fairly old, the bindings were a faded maroon with gold linings in the corners. What drew her attention however, was the golden unicorn head on the front. The book had no title, nor did it have any other indicators of its subject material, Aevum was about to ask Twilight a question when she noticed her stare.

“It’s about obscure Equestrian history, I’m trying to figure out... never mind...” Twilight’s words trailed off as she gazed at her body and Aevum returned her puzzled expression.

“I’m sorry, are alicorns not common on this world?” Twilight opened her mouth as if to answer, she closed the book and levitated it back down to the desk as she sighed. Twilight got up from the desk and approached Aevum. She leaned back slightly, it wasn’t that Aevum didn’t trust her, she just didn’t know her well enough to determine if she meant any harm.

Well... she did help me last night. If she meant to harm me, wouldn’t she have done so by now?

Aevum broke free from her reverie to find Twilight examining her flank, the mark that was depicted there to be more precise. It was then Aevum noticed that Twilight had a similar phenomenon on her flank, it was different from hers however and resembled a purple, six pointed star surrounded by five smaller silver stars.

“Your cutie mark closely resembles Princess Luna’s, but only in its general shape, not its subject...”

Cutie mark. Is that what it was?
Aevum didn’t know; there was so much she didn’t know. The purple mare that was now circling her was her greatest hope of finding out where she had come from and what had happened to her.

“To answer your question, No. alicorns aren’t commonplace here, while it’s not unusual for minor alicorns to be born from a union between a Pegasus and a Unicorn, they’re still ponies. True alicorns, however, are not Equian like the rest of us, the physical differences alone set them apart and their maturity is defined by their skill with magic... They are literally gods.”

She bit her lip and stepped back from her close examination of Aevum and gazed at her with a look of immense curiosity mixed with confusion.

“There are only three ‘True’ alicorns in the world that I know of and they’re all royalty... who are you?” Aevum averted Twilight’s gaze. She asked herself the same question every single day as she searched her meagre memories for any clue that could lead her to discover her identity, but all she had ever uncovered were memories of other ponies dressed in black, standing over her as they did unspeakable things.

Asides from those horrid visions all Aevum could remember was her time in Rome... and her name.

“I-I don’t know. I don’t remember much, I am... was... Aevum, I don’t know where I came from...” Twilight looked at Aevum with sympathy and it touched her heart. Nobody, not even Julius Caesar had shown her any kindness in her memory and while the Romans hadn’t outright hated her, recent events aside, they had never raised a hoof... or hand, rather... to harm her in any way.

Aevum opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to think of something, anything she could say that could express her gratitude. No words came to mind and she found herself drawing a circle on the floor with her hoof.

She looked up at Twilight to find that she’d come closer and was now examining her horn in closer detail. She seemed to have completely forgotten about Aevum’s teary response to her question about who she was and Aevum kept her head still as Twilight appraised the magical ‘limb’.

“...not as long as the others... in fact... not much longer than mine...” she stopped muttering and switched her gaze to Aevum and gave a sheepish grin.

“Sorry! It isn’t often I get to examine an alicorn up close and you are a unique specimen to be sure!” Aevum cocked her head to Twilight's somewhat amusing act of objectifying of her, as if she were no more than a potential pet.

Aevum noticed Twilights smile as she giggled and realized her ruse had worked. Twilight had gotten her to smile and now proceeded to release her own stifled laughter. Aevum’s joy didn’t last however as she became aware again of the state she was in and she then asked Twilight if she could avail herself of her bath house.

“Bath house? Huh... oh there’s a bath upstairs, it’s the second door on the left, take as long as you need Aevum.” Aevum thanked Twilight and went up the stairs slowly, trying to avoid moving her muscles as much as possible.

She opened the door Twilight had directed her to and looked around. It was unlike any bath house she had ever seen. It looked far more advanced than anything in Rome and Aevum wasn’t certain how to operate the object that was obviously a bath in the center of the room.

Aevum made her way towards the porcelain tub and examined it carefully, noting that it shared many similarities to the bathing tubs she’d used back in Rome, its shape being the first and foremost.

There was a drain to one side and a curtain that could be drawn around the tub to provide a modicum of privacy. She turned her gaze to an odd contraption that sat at the top of the tub, just above the drain. It was made up of three pieces of metal protruding from the wall the part in the middle was a shaped metal tube that ended in a curve that pointed towards the bottom of the tub.

The other two parts closely resembled knobs that the humans were fond of placing on their doors as a method of opening them. What caught her attention were little colored circles in the center of each knob, one was a sapphire blue and the other was a ruby red, the purpose of these knobs mystified Aevum.

She continued her examination and surmised that the tube was the method by which water was dispensed, and she figured that turning one of the two knobs would result in water being deposited into the tub.

Aevum prodded the knob with the blue circle experimentally and was reward with a stream of water exiting the metal tube. She put her hoof in the flow of water and smiled at the sensation of cold water running through her fur. Aevum prodded the other knob boldly and water flowed from the tube faster, steam rising from it steadily. She put her hoof under it again and sighed appreciatively as the heated water soaked her fur.

She carefully unwound one of the bandages from her foreleg and winced at the ferocious gash. The potion Twilight had given her the previous night seemed to have sped up the healing process, but she was still far from full recovery. Aevum began to unwind the rest of the bandages and inspected the other wounds, and found that they weren’t as bad as she originally thought them to be, most of them merely seemed to be flesh deep.

She stood amongst a heap of discarded bandages and gazed at the bandaging on her shoulder, every movement she’d made so far had brought a slight twinge from it. Aevum unwound it slowly and dropped the bandage to the floor with the rest as she gazed at the arrow wound.

It was by far the worst injury and blood slowly seeped from it. The fur around it was stained red and the flesh beneath was an angry red, but at least it wasn’t infected.

Aevum turned her attention towards the bath and turned the knobs to stop the flow of water, watching as the water calmed. The room had steamed up at this point and Aevum was content to leave it that way as it reminded her of the steam baths in Rome. She dipped a hoof into the water and, finding that the temperature was near perfect, slid down into the hot water, wincing slightly as the liquid enveloped and soaked her injuries one by one.

Aevum rested her head against the porcelain tub as the rest of her body remained immersed in the steaming water, slowly washing away the blood and dirt. Aevum shuddered as the water worked its way into some of the open wounds, and she tried to relax so the hot water could do its work.

Aevum closed her eyes, falling into a contemplative mood. She thought about last night’s events, but most of her memory of it was nothing more than a blurry mess of incoherent images and sensations. Antony had tried to kill her that night. He’d never tried to hide his dislike of her a secret and often threatened her but would he really commit treason just to end her life?

It seemed too far for one man to go on his own.

She filed the thought away with irritation. Antony was no longer a problem being on another world as he was. Still, Aevum couldn’t help but shake the feeling that if she could somehow get here, then the humans could too...

Twilight Sparkle skimmed through the pages of the book, frantically searching for any references to another alicorn. She groaned in frustration and slammed the book shut with her magic and dropped it on the table.

She paced around the room, her thoughts circling wildly.

“Celestia would have told me if there was another alicorn! I’m her personal student, she trusts me!” she stated the fact out loud to fix it in her head as the sounds of her hooves clopping against the floor woke Owlowiscious and he let loose an irritated hoot.

“Oh! I’m sorry Owlowiscious. I’m just frustrated, that’s all.”

The owl, now intrigued, hooted again in an inquisitive manner as he glided down from the rafters to perch on a small stack of books.

“She’s an alicorn, Owlowiscious, but she can’t be! There are only three in Equestria and one is only an alicorn minor! There’s no mention of ‘Aevum’ anywhere in this library, now I know that’s not saying much... but...” Twilight stopped and gazed out the window, where she could see Canterlot, the shining capital of Equestria, perched on the cliff side precariously.

“Princess Celestia...” Twilight swallowed hard as the truth slowly began to dawn on her, “She would have told me if there was another alicorn... she trusts me... doesn’t she?” she gazed over at Owlowiscious, who was now preening his feathers calmly. He noticed Twilight’s stare and gave another hoot.

“She’s definitely an alicorn, if her cutie mark is any indicator...” she looked up at the clock on the wall trying to judge how long Spike would take to get here. She had to send a letter to Celestia, to inform her if she wasn’t already aware of Aevum’s presence.

Twilight figured she could get a start on writing a letter to Celestia while she waited for Spike to return. She sat down at the desk and shifted the pile of books Owlowiscious had perched on to one side and took up a feather quill with her magic as she levitated a blank roll of parchment before her.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I’m not sure if you’re aware of this already, and I may be just telling you something you already know. However, last night while my friends and I were enjoying a slumber party, somepony appeared on my doorstep grievously injured and muttering deliriously. I didn’t notice it at first but she is an alicorn.

I am still struggling to grasp the fact myself but the evidence is clear. She has a light blue mane with a streak of sapphire and a white coat, and her Cutie Mark resembles a silver sundial over a bed of sand.

I am unsure what I should do, I’ve done my best to see that her wounds are treated and that she is comfortable but I am not a Doctor, and I’m not sure that taking her to the local hospital would be a good idea.

I just don’t know how to handle this; I need your help Princess.

Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle

Twilight set the quill back in its pot of ink as she leant her back against the chair. She had never asked Princess Celestia for help before, not once in all the time she’d spent as her personal student had she ever thought about it.

She was not qualified to deal with this kind of situation, both Aevum’s injuries and the fact that she was an alicorn!

The door to the library opened and Twilight looked over her shoulder as Spike walked in, “Spike! I’m glad you’re here. I need you to send this to Princess Celestia for me.”

Spike looked at Twilight incredulously, “Aww, common Twi! I just got home!”

“Spike.”

Spike let loose a defeated sigh, “Okay okay! Sheesh Twilight!” Spike took the scroll from Twilight's magical grasp and held it before his face, focusing his thoughts on Celestia.

‘Princess Celestia, regent of the sun... Celestia... Celestia...’

He blew out a stream of fluorescent green magical flame and burned the letter, watching as the ashes flew on an invisible wind as they sought out the Princess of the sun. Spike turned to Twilight, who now looked visibly nervous, “So what was that letter about anyway, another friendship report?” Spike began to clean up some of the mess his guardian had made while he was with the crusaders.

Twilight sighed and got up, beginning to pace and Spike gave Twilight a concerned look. The only thing that ever bothered Twilight was the threat of vague, impending disaster and when she got going, there was no stopping her.

Uh-oh! Something’s got her bothered...

Spike shifted his gaze around the pile of books he’d picked up and was about to tell Twilight that she needed to relax when she cut across him.

“There’s an alicorn upstairs, Spike.”

Spike dropped the books he was carrying in shock, “An alicorn?! Oh... is it Cadence? Luna?” Twilight threw Spike a dirty look and levitated a book before her, flipping through the pages with magic.

“No, neither of them. Her name is Aevum and... and well she turned up last night...” Spike was about to reply when he felt something build up in his chest and burped, a gout of magical flame burst forth and materialized into a scroll before him. Twilight caught it before it hit the ground and levitated it before her, unrolling the parchment nervously.

“Wait there. I am coming.”

Twilight flipped the parchment around, searching for more words, “T-That’s all it says, Celestia is never this brief I don’t unde...” A thought struck Twilight and she dropped the letter in shock.

“Princess Celestia... is coming here... now.” Twilight stood there for a moment, the gears in her head had stopped churning as she recovered from the sudden shock. Spike edged towards Twilight, “Twilight... are you okay?” Twilight glanced at the door, then at Spike, she had to get the town prepared for Celestia's arrival.

Now.

She galloped at the door and Spike leaped in front of it, arms splayed to keep Twilight in, “Twilight! The princess is just coming to check out this alicorn! You don’t need to throw a celebration!”

Twilight tried pushing past Spike but he stepped between her and the door at every turn, and she let loose a frustrated groan, “Spiiiiiike, out of the way! Princess Celestia could be here any minute!” Spike stood firm and refused to move.

“You really need to calm down Twilight! It’s not like Celestia will banish you to the moon for being a little disorganized!”

Twilight stopped and looked back over the library...

‘Oh no! The library is a mess! What am I going to do?’

Twilight began around, frantically levitating several books back into their places on shelves as she whined in anxiety, “Spike! Hurry up and help me! The library needs to be spotless before Princess Celestia arrives!” Spike groaned and picked up a few books, stacking them neatly before returning them to their proper shelves as he mumbled, “It might be easier if you stop leaving them lying around...”

‘KNOCK KNOCK’

Twilight dropped all the books she was levitating and stared at the door, her pupils the size of pinpricks and her left ear twitching. She gulped and opened the door to Celestia, “H-hello Princess! I, uh, it’s good to see you again...”

Celestia smiled and nuzzled her favorite student, “Twilight, you really must learn to relax, I’m not going to be mad if your library is a mess. I still remember what you were like as a filly.” Twilight blushed furiously as she, too, remembered the messes she’d left in the library. Mountains of books everywhere and a small purple unicorn filly in the middle of it all, muzzle buried deep within a dusty old tome.

“ehhehheh, uhm, well yes, I suppose so. Anyway,Aevum is upstairs in the bath and she should be down shortly.” Twilight led her mentor inside the library, still cringing at the state of it. She casually levitated a few and stacked them on tables, trying to keep some semblance of organization.

“It has been so long... I suppose I few more minutes won’t hurt...” Twilight turned towards the sound of her mentor’s voice, not quite catching what she said. She was about to ask the Solar Princess to clarify when Celestia cut across her.

“So Twilight. Tell me about Aevum...”

Aevum rubbed the fur of her leg over the mirror and wiped away the excess moisture, a pair of bright amber eyes framed by light blue hair gazed back at her. With an action born of long habit, Aevum levitated a brush and moved it through her mane, working out the knots carefully, wincing at each tug. Once she was done with her mane, Aevum lightly toweled herself off, carefully avoiding the gashes that dotted her body.

Aevum gazed over her wounds, realizing she didn’t have anything to bandage them with. She searched the cupboard below the mirror, feeling more than a little guilty at ransacking Twilight's home. She ended up reasoning that Twilight wouldn’t mind if she used the bandages to keep her wounds closed.

She wound the bandages around her wounds tightly, keeping them in places with small elastic clips. She finally came to the arrow wound and put some thought into how she would go about bandaging it. It was on her right shoulder, right over a large muscle group.

Aevum awkwardly went about looping the bandaging around her neck and over the wound tightly.

She clipped the bandaging in place and appraised her hoofwork. It wasn’t perfect but it would suffice until something more suitable could be arranged.

Aevum set about righting the bathroom, disposing of the used bandages and placing everything back in its proper place, thinking it would be rude of her to leave a mess for Twilight to clean up. Once she’d finished, Aevum left the bathroom to head back downstairs.

She pondered again what she would do now that she was back on her own world, she’d been in Rome for four years and she had no idea how long she’d spent as a captive. So she could safely assume she’d been missing for about four years, a long period of time to be sure, but not long enough for anypony to completely forget her.

Maybe Twilight could help her find out where she’d come from.

Aevum began descending the stairs when she heard somepony speaking, one of the voices belonged to Twilight Sparkle but she didn’t recognize the other, it did sound... familiar, though. The living room came into view and Aevum stood transfixed, staring at an alicorn like her, but she was different. Her mane flowed and sparkled in an invisible wind and she wore a crown and mantle, her hooves encased in golden horseshoes.

Aevums gaze locked onto the alicorn’s amethyst eyes, she couldn’t move, she was paralyzed by the gaze of the figure before her.

She felt something begin to uncoil from within the depths of her mind, thoughts and emotions unfolded and she stood, her eyes never leaving the regal alicorn’s.

The memories finally broke through and Aevum collapsed with the shock.

Aevum struggled and shouted as the figures tied her up, running a piece of rope through her mouth as they took her away, “Keep the filly quiet! You want to end up like the others?” Aevum struggled against the bonds as the ropes bit into her fur sharply, where was mother? They had strapped a piece of cloth over my eyes so she couldn’t see.

Aevum felt a wave of disorientation as she passed through some sort of energy field, she shuddered as her body passed through the wavering wall of magic. The ponies who’d kidnapped her threw Aevum to the ground and she curled up there, unable to see or speak.

One of them, the leader, shouted a command, “Nightfog! Shut the rift. We have what we came for.” there was murmuring around me as the strange beings conversed quietly amongst themselves.

Aevum remained still, her heart pounding in fear, she didn’t know who these ponies were or why they’d foalnapped her but she knew it couldn’t be for a good reason.

“This is just perfect... We finally have an Alicorn, now our plan can begin in earnest...” Somepony probed Aevum with his hooves, examining her wings and horn.

Somepony else approached and Aevum began to shiver, this one’s presence felt familiar, he had struck Aevum several times when she had struggled.

“Watch that you don’t remove the anti-magic collar, Doc, she’s a nasty little wretch.”

“I don’t think she is much of a threat to us, she is but a child.”

The other one growled, “I’m not willing to take that chance, Celestia was none too happy when we took her. You wanted an ‘alicorn’ now you have one, so sedate ‘it’ and get ‘it’ out of here.” Aevum relaxed slightly as the dark one left and listened intently as the ‘Doctor’ sighed.

She heard him rummaging around for something and she felt a prick in her back leg, her eyelids drooping almost instantly as she became drowsy.

Celestia stared down at the unconscious alicorn as she twitched in response to whatever dream she was experiencing and reached a hoof out towards her, touching her forehead gently. Celestia struggled to contain herself in front of Twilight, she was still a princess after all and she had an image to keep despite her relaxed approach to ruling.

“Uhm, well that was interesting.” Celestia looked over her shoulder at Twilight, she would have to explain everything to her faithful student soon.

But not now... not yet...

“Thank you for taking care of her Twilight, you’ve done a wonderful job, so I’m sure you won’t mind if I take it from here?”

“No. Of course not Princess, I only wish there was more I could do.”

Celestia carefully levitated Aevum onto her back, bringing forth a questioning look from Twilight. Her student knew she could have simply kept levitating Aevum with little effort and Celestia knew she would have to step carefully around Twilight for the time being.

“I know you have questions, my faithful student, but I’m sorry to say that I cannot give you the answers... at least not right now... I can only ask for your patience, I will explain everything to you soon.”

Twilight opened her mouth as if to protest, but thought better of it as her mouth closed, her inquisitive nature barely held in check. Twilight nodded solemnly and returned to her desk quietly and Celestia felt a pang of sorrow as she realized she’d caused a small rift between her and her faithful student. She could only hope Twilight would forgive her for keeping something like this a secret.

She looked over at the sleeping alicorn as she left Twilight's library and made her way towards the waiting carriage.

Yes, a big secret indeed. Nopony but herself and Luna knew of Aevum’s existence and she had, regrettably, kept that secret for three thousand years. It was a constant source of pain and guilt for Celestia and she’d done her best to rule over her little ponies despite her personal demons.

Perhaps... now that she had her daughter back... Celestia could finally forgive herself for allowing Aevum to be stolen in the first place.

The torch light flickered and danced across the walls of the dim hallway and Prince Blueblood walked at a leisurely pace, he had no better place to be, he was a Prince after all. The Unicorn Prince was close to the heart of the castle, not the throne room, but the structural center of the royal household, where its martial design was still prevalent even underneath the additions Celestia and Luna had made thousands of years ago.

These corridors were traveled by few during the day, as most of the nobility preferred to dally in the light soaked courtyards and gardens if they weren’t socializing in ball room or getting pampered by their servants.

Normally Prince Blueblood would be up there with them, exercising his superiority over all beneath him. Today, however, he was avoiding a certain mare he’d ‘supposedly’ offended the previous evening.

Really, all he’d said was that no matter how rich she was she was still the descendant of a peasant rock farmer.

Which was entirely true of course, he couldn’t imagine why she’d take offense at such a comment on her birth. In fact, she should be honored that he even knew of her family’s origins, royal attention was not easily garnered after all.

Still, the mare had a vicious streak and he did not wish to associate himself with an earth pony savage, no matter how large the mountain of bits they sat upon. So this was what he was driven to, scuttling around in these dank corridors like a common serving pony. He wrinkled his nose at the stale air and lack of any respectable level of lighting.

Blueblood didn’t notice the shadows in the corridor behind him deepening, nor did he notice that these shadows crept and stalked him as he moved, always maintaining a discreet distance.

The shadows could feel the hatred within the regal Unicorn, but it was hidden beneath a thick layer of propriety and a heavy sense of self-importance. He could not be taken at this time, but the shadows were patient, they had remained hidden and undetected in this castle for centuries not even the cursed sun goddess could see them.

The shadows stopped following Blueblood as he ascended a set of stairs and remained below in the darkened corridor.

Blueblood could be used in time.

And the shadows had all the time they needed.

All the time in the world.