//------------------------------// // First Prologue: Fugue of the Elements // Story: 0, Prologue. The Epic of the Wisterian Empress. // by Allington Sinclair //------------------------------// Jus' a little clarification here, every scene change will be numbered for yo' navigational comfort. The Epic of the Wisterian Empress Prologue, as transcribed by Allington Sinclair First Prologue, The Fugue of the Elements. ~A.S.I~ Really? This is how it was going to be, I have not been free from my self for even an entire day and here I am staring down the six most powerful artifacts on this planet, five of which I was sure I just destroyed. This really isn't fair in the least. These six little mares are now wielding a power they could never hope to understand, a power that can topple queens, silence gods, and even manifest the very majicks that bind the races of this planet together; and they are planning to use it on me. Me, the very Queen of the Night, The Mare of the moon, who's power can end all life on this miserable little ball, will not stand for this. I shall not, there has to be some where to escape, but why can't I run? No, I am not going to spend the next millennium trapped in my own soul again, I would sooner drag these little fillies one by one into the very depths of Tartarus then watch that green and blue marble stare back at me mockingly for the next one thousand years. To think, I took pity on them and spared them all a quick death. I have to act and act fast. Move you miserable legs, you can still run! Curses! Why Am I afraid? That purple one, the unicorn, the harlot my dearest sister sent to silence me; I need to think of some way to stop her. She is still prattling off the obvious, I need to act, I need to stop her! Why can't I chant? Why cant I cast? Is she suppressing my magic? How is this possible!? Can't they see I took pity on them?! ~A.S.II~ Nightmare Moon had played her first hand, it was simple enough abducting her sweetest sister and trapping her on her surface, but her second card wasn't as successful. She needed to get to her ancient castle and destroy the elements before somepony gets to them and uses them to destroy the Black Queen. She had little choice after she knocked out those guards back in the town hall. As she raced through the dense growth of the Everfree forest, passing a vague familiar herd of fillies on the way. Wait, what? She stopped mid air and looked down at the six little ponies slowly tread their way through the forest, and there in the back was that purple little harlot her sister had sent after her. She had to stop them, and stop them fast. The first thing that came to her mind was the rapids below her, the water was deep enough to somewhat safely catch them and float the merry little gaggle of girls back to that despicable little hamlet from whence they came. Sure, she would need to swell the water a little to catch them without killing them or at least not seriously maiming their little bodies. She just needed to get them all off that overhanging terrace. The malevolent purple mist quickly flew towards the group and shattered the rockface, the two pagasi were quick to take flight, but the others began to slide. She hadn't counted on the pegasi to swoop down and catch the whinny unicorn and the annoying pink one, but smiled as the little orange serf and the harlot slid down the lorraine towards the cliff face. Quickly, the Nightmare mist had lost altitude and swelled the water surface, looking up at the dangling little harlot with a grin. If this didn't send her packing, then nothing will. A sadistic smirk cracked her face as the lavender harlot lost her grip and began to plummet, but the smirk was short lived as she was caught by the two pegasi and slowly carried down to the rapid's bank. “Drat!” she muttered to herself, if she could she would curse them all for this, but she didn't have the time. She had to get deeper and find another way to stop them. ~A.S.III~ At least she is done talking, but I still haven’t been able to move! Drat drat drat DRAT! If swearing was decorum then I would be making a sailor hide right now. She is stopping me, I'm sure of it. It is that crown, the Element of Magic. That is what is holding me in place. This isn't fair! They are using it now, there has to be something I can do. Anything! Think, what happened when sister dearest used the five on me last time? I wasn't so immobilized then, Had I known she got the drop on me then I would have been able take her with me... Yes! That's it! Teleporting, I can still do it can't I? If I can preempt the elements then I can take that little purple... thing with me. Ok, I need to focus. Focus on Tycho, I can take her with me- Wait! What? Why is there no charging? It took Celestia a quarter of an hour to chant! Why is it working so fast, no! NO! ~A.S.IV~ Nightmare Moon could be cruel, but she isn't a big fan of wonton bloodlust. She had to admit that peace was nice, and after spending a majority of her lifespan with her sister leading the three pony nations to war to with the other sapient species on this land, and having watched as many ponies died in her name, including her dearest Duskbr- No, she wouldn't sully her memory of her sacrifice by even putting it in this context. This wasn't about blood and war, this was about her rightful place as Queen of Equestria, and killing six little ponies who only look a few years past rearing age was not the best way to start her infinite rule of the world. She needed them to turn around and trot back home, now if she could only find a way to reverse their tracks. As quickly as she had that thought, the solution had presented it's self. A young manticore, a whelpling at best, was sleeping near the trail. It would be a simple matter of enraging it and watching as it scared the little ponies back into the arms of their mommies. With an imaginary smirk, the purple mist condensed into a thorn and wedge herself firmly into the for paw of the young chimaera. If the six ponies were fearless, then they could easily overwhelm the manticore, but she had no doubt that it would easily chase the little girls off... The ponies in question almost fearlessly charged the manticore, even the whinny white one was fleet enough get a good buck in. She couldn't help but wonder when did girls, let alone serfs and peasants, were presented with any form of martial education beyond body shields for the knights? Regardless, if it kept up like this then they would defeat the mantico- For the third time tonight, the ponies had superseded the expectations of Nightmare Moon as the reserved yellow one plucked her thorny avatar out of the manticore's forepaw. As simply as that, she was tossed aside and a rather retching scene played out with the manticore vivaciously licking the reserved yellow pony in gratitude. The harlot's gaggle of cohorts were verily wearing down her patients, and she took this distraction to speed ahead and to attempt to find another road block to hinder their advance. ~A.S.V.~ It was in that minute that Nightmare Moon was surrounded by the rainbow colored magic that the composed elements emit that she learned that she had her voice and legs returned to her, and she had little time to act. With a mere thought she ensnared the lavender harlot and sent her to the moon, hoping it would be fast enough to sever the elements, but it was too late. Panicking, she hoped she could teleport out of range of the elements, and with a small variation of the spell she had just used on her sister's spy, she sent her self to the moon as well. Only, it was too late for her, as en route to her other self, she felt her anger and lust of revenge dissipate into a feeling of loss and shame. The power her hatred and jealousy had given her was ripped from her heart and replaced with a feeling of guilt, something she hadn't felt in well over a millenia. As she came out of warp, and her hooves touched the all too familiar ashy surface of the moon, she looked back at the earth with a resurgence of anger. Not at her sister or her former subjects, but at herself. Sure, she knew in her heart that she hadn't been banished again, but her desire to return was no more. As her gaze on the Earth locked, she fell to her knees and let out as shrill of a wail as she could. In the atmosphereless surface on the moon, only she could hear her scream ringing in her ears; despite the fact that she wasn't alone. ~A.S.VI.~ She was flying as fast as she could, so fast that she narrowly avoided cutting through the river serpent that was in her way; rather, she sheared off the vile drake's mustache. She quickly considered smiting the foul beast but a more dastardly idea presented its self. No doubt such a vain creature as a dragon would be driven to blind rage over such a fleck on it's appearance. Her theory was confirmed as the meander was quickly turned white with rapids, the beast letting out a loud... sob? If Nightmare Moon was tangible at that moment, she would of never of looked so exasperated in her eras of existence. Not only did the aqueous drake have the voice of a palace castrato, it was crying like a filly deprived of her favorite toy. Quickly composing herself, she hoped that the lispy serpent would fall into a blind rage and blame the ponies for it's appearance. As if this night existed only to spite her, the whinny white unicorn pacified the sexually ambiguous dragon by shearing off her tail and fusing it to his facial hair. “Really?” she thought to herself sardonically; “It doesn't even match it! Purple and Orange are a horrible colors together!” If she could be any more flummoxed she would be. Six little mares were making her look like a fool time and time again. She made a mental note to put each one of these mares in the nearest brig when she took control of Equestria, but for now she had to find another... something. At this point she was just running out of ideas, These little ponies surely existed just to spite her. Ironically, she didn't know the validity of that statement. ~A.S.VII~ The first thing Twilight noticed was that it was cold, bitterly cold. It was so cold that the shock of it caused her to gasp, which lead to the second thing she noticed. Where ever she was, it certainly did not have any air to breath. Immediately panic seized her mind, she began to attempt to hyperventilate, but all her lungs could pull in was ash. She could taste the soot that her location mostly consisted off, and the dust in her frigid lungs only forced the organs to attempt to cough the particulate back up, but with no air, it only caused her body to spasm painfully. She knew she only had a few moments before ether would take her mind and she would suffocate, but in her panic, there was no way she could focus on any solution long enough to attempt it. All she could do was stare at the royal blue pony only a few hoofs in front of her, who was screaming at something, she caught what she was looking at, her eyes tracing the other mare's line of site until a distant blue and green marble reached her sight. It was Earth, she knew that immediately, but her conclusion scared her. She was on the moon. There is no air on the moon. She was the first mortal pony to traverse space, and she was going to die. It was only then that the blue pony looked over at her, Twilight made eye contact with the strange pony; and tried to force the most pleading look she could to her. Luna put two and two together and quickly figured that Twilight was suffocating. As loud as she could she screamed at the lavender unicorn, commanding that she breath, but by the lack of change of expression on the lilac unicorn, she remember that here no voice could work. With only a few moments left she did all she could think of to save the little purple mare; she didn't have time to teach her how to use her moon's magic to conjure air into her lungs, so she would have to use herself as a medium. The princess of the night dashed towards the suffocating mare, placed both her hoofs on the little purple muzzle and leaned in... ~A.S.VIII.~ She stared flatly at the blue pegasus fixing the bridge before her, she hadn't really tried with the shadow bolts, she really only hoped the rainbow maned pony would be gullible enough to fall for it long enough to, she didn't know, fry them all with lightning? No, that was too much for her, she sighed with resignation. Her only option was to shatter the elements before the ponies could get to them. She hoped that her power would command the elements that were once hers and she could use them to control her dearest sister, so with that she returned to her old castle and hoped for one final chance to crush the six mares that were so making a fool out of her. ~A.S.IX~ .. and closed the space between her's and Twilight's lips, forcing a rescue breath into the suffocating lungs of the little mare. As humiliating as this was, she didn't have time to focus a spell to return her to the castle. Twilight's first reaction was shock, a mare she didn't even know was kissing her right before she was about to die, but as soon as she felt the mare's forced breath enter her lungs, she recognized it as a weird form of resuscitation. She inhaled the welcomed warm air, no matter how awkward it was to have a stranger's lips against her own, and carefully exhaled it out of her nose. As soon as her lungs were emptied, a second breath was forced into her lungs. She had never breathed like this before in her life, but between the blistering cold and the lack of gravity making her queasy to the stomach, she had a little comfort. It was some time before her breathing had slowed and she was able to focus her magic on warming herself again. As soon as she began, the blue mare leaned in a little and tapped her horn against Twilight's, it was through this intimate behavior that she learned that this whole time she had been blushing deeply. “Is thou all right?” a feminine voice had rung in her mind after some time, and she quickly recognized it as telepathy and projected an affirmation into the mind of the blue... pegasus unicorn? Her eyes widened as she was staring into the lidded eyes of a blue pegasus unicorn, only a little taller then her and much shorter then Princess Celestia. “Yes, We are a princess... We... We are Celestia's sister.” It took a second before she realized that the princess before her was much more adept at mind reading then she was. While she was only able to receive the thoughts projected at her, she knew that her own mind was layed bare before the royal blue winged unicorn before her. She slowly thought of Nightmare Moon, her eyes surveying the alabaster wastes surrounding her. “Aye... We are named Nightmare Moon.” The voice rang sullenly in her mind. Twilight looked forward to Nightmare Moon with a million questions ringing through her mind, and for some reason her mind decided on lingering a little while longer on how she was kissing Celestia's little sister than it should of, and thusly, her cheeks burned even redder. “We... are confused, why doest thou surge thy emotion at the thought of our kiss? Do not friends share kisses often? Let alone that the reason our lips are agaisnt thine ist so that we may preserve thy vitality?” The voice was clearly confused, and the fact that Nightmare Moon could so easily pick up the embarrassment in her mind only made her flush deeper. Before Twilight could formulate a response a third but not un-welcomed voice rang in her mind, it was Princess Celestia's! “Not exactly anymore little sister, in this age touching horns and kissing are both signs of the intimacy of lovers, not the endearment of friendship.” Celestia touched done beside lip locked mares, here serene gaze resting upon both of them. “Sister, We do not understand, surely these small endearments could not be comparable to wedlocke or lovemaking? We certainly do not wish to impart such things upon thy student! Make no false meaning of this, despite her endearing features we simply wished to save her life!” Nightmare Moon's tone was slightly agitated, she certainly didn't regret saving Twilight's life, but she really didn't mean to embarrass the poor unicorn. Of course, the more Luna spoke the darker Twilight Sparkle's cheeks would flush. She was both fairly certain that she was just complimented on her looks, and that she did not entirely hate the sensation of being close to another mare. On top of this, she was aware that her own thoughts were betraying her, as Luna was entirely aware of every thought that crossed her mind, which made her really wish she wasn't in this situation right now. “Luna before I am forced to be privy to anything else about what my dear pupil fancies, may we please be returned to our old castle, I am sure Twilight's friends are very worried right now.” Yep, Celestia was now aware that she was enjoying this. And with that Twilight was now aware that she was enjoying this herself too. Luna stared at her rescuee flatly, and weighed her options. “We do not wish too, nor do we wish to be causal of your pupil's self-awareness, this whole situation is grating us greatly.” “Well sister, if you could return us all to Earth perhaps you can stop pulling Twilight out of her closet. I was really hopeing she would have a change to have a normal friendship before she had to worry about finding companionship.” Yea... Twilight really did not want to be here anymore. As excited as she was to be on the moon, and the amount of knowledge she could glean from this, the whole angst behind why she could “never find herself holding conversation with any colt other then her brother” thing was a bit too overwhelming for her. “We do not wis-” “LUNA WE ARE RETURNING HOME TOGETHER OR SO HELP ME I AM MAKING YOU TAKE UP BALLET ONCE AGAIN!” Before Twilight could be taken aback at her teacher's outburst, the resuscitation was broken and all three of the mares were returned to Earth. Falling back on her but her surprise was broken by the sound of her friends rushing her in relief. But as soon as the five ponies had rushed her, they immediately broke contact and bowed before Princess Celestia. “Thank you Luna, now, listen, it is time we put our differences behind us, and return to your rightful place as co-ruler of Equestria.” The gentleness had returned to Celestia's voice, but Twilight was happy that she had never willingly disobeyed the Princess in her life, she really didn't like the concept of performing in a ballet. ~A.S.X~ Twilight laid in bed that night and sighed, she had been up for well over thirty-six hours and still sleep evaded her. She was exhausted, but the previous day's events were driving her mad. Before now she had really never gone into thought about who she was interested in, so the concept of her being interested in mares was one that she really didn't understand. It made sense, but she felt uneasy about how easily it clicked into place. She had no idea what her parents would think. They weren’t bad ponies, in fact they were rather progressively minded, but still, a fear of rejection haunted her thoughts. Silently she sat up, and looked over to her baby dragon. She would hate to wake him at this hour, so silently she moved over to her desk and pulled out her stationary. With a sigh she wrote a letter to her Princess, after all, Her Princess hadn't seemed to be put off around her at all. Maybe she would have some advice? Dear Princess Celestia, Am I supposed to be so confused and worried about this? She paused as she contemplated what to say next, before returning to the letter; It makes sense, I think, but I don't think I wanted to find out about this; or at least not this way. Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight rolled up the letter and applied the adhesive seal before sticking it next to Spike's basket, hoping he would send it in the morning. ~A.S.XI~ The royal sister's sat quietly together in a gazebo in the Canterlot Gardens, both sharing a pot of tea in the quiet. “Sister, art thou sure we do not owe Lady Sparkle satisfaction? We are fairly certain we dishonored her in thy company and as such dealt a teen to her honour.” Luna looked at her sister pensively. She had slighted her savior’s honor, whether she meant to or not, so it was hard for her to grasp that Twilight Sparkle did not desire revenge. Celestia sipped her tea calmly and thought about how long it would take Luna to adjust. “Yes sister, I am certain Twilight does not wish to challenge you to a duel. Even if she did think you wronged her, she would forgive you regardless. So do not worry.” Celestia had placated Luna's fears, but she still felt as if she owed Twilight an apology of some sort. “If so sister, what would be a proper gift to give Lady Sparkle in truce? We fear, like with a kiss, that if we do not give a modern appropriation to her, then any gift we could offer could only make Lady Sparkle endear us. Not that we mind, she resembles Dus-... her... in both looks and bravery, but after being gone for long we are not sure if courting is proper.” Celestia lowered her cup and quietly thought, she smiled as a solution presented its self, and gently spoke, “How about this then, dearest sister. Twilight has been tasked with reporting to me the things she learns about the magic of friendship. Maybe I will share her finding with you, and as you gain a feel for the modern age, you can figure out a gift to present?” Luna's countenance slowly curled into a smile as her sister spoke, liking the idea greatly. “Sister, we would like that. If you are correct that Twilight does not wish ill of us, then we shall bid our time and wait for a proper gift!” Celestia smiled quietly and looked at her sister's smile, hoping she was making a right choice. Both her sister and her student were greatly anti-social and could use a chance to adapt. She thought back at how surprised she was to hear her student ask to stay in Ponyville, and smiled. Maybe after Luna adapted a little she could also send her sister away to the little hamlet to also learn a thing or two about friendship. It was then that a puff of green fire appeared before the Alabaster Princess. She smiled lightly and cooed, "Ah, speaking of Twilight Sparkle~" And so is written, Prologue I, Fugue of the Elements