“Come my little ponies, I have a surprise. I think that you guys are old enough to hear the more... How do I put this? Well the more grim side of how my mother and her friend became the queens of our beautiful land. A story about adventure and courage. As well as sacrifice and sadness, so heed my warning that this story can get extreme,” Galaxies Star (AKA- Galaxy) announced to the ponies that were spread around the classroom in Saddlewood Acres. One by one each of the ponies stopped and rushed over to Ms. Star.
“I love stories!” A young mare named Fire Heart exclaimed excitedly to her friends. “Especially from you, Princess Galaxy,” She spoke to her teacher with glee.
Galaxy smiled down at her students with pride and joy. Everypony gathered around the mare, even the student teacher sat at the edge of the group to hear the story.
“As all of you are quite aware of, I am Queen Sapphira Night's daughter and the rightful heir to the throne. But what you don’t know is that she lived in completely different universe for some time before her rise to power. She was sent to that different universe by a horrific tyrant by the name of King Volkan,” Galaxy stated as her student’s jaws dropped at what she had stated. Murmurs circulated around the room. Galaxy held up her hoof and the room fell silent again.
“Sapphira wasn't always an Alicorn with pegasi wings, a unicorn horn. But the thing that had transported her to this other dimension actually gave her wings and a horn. The same thing happened to Queen Silver Dream as well, when she was sent through the portal with my mother. No one knows why or how it happened, not even Queen's themselves. Before the queens came to power, there were no ponies with wings or even horns for that matter. This is because our previous rulers, who was Volkan's great, great grandfather, had destroyed all pegasi and unicorns during his years of power because he thought they were impure creatures.” Galaxy explained. Everypony gasped at this statement.
“We are going to go back 20 years, when Sapphire was just a filly, a lot younger than all of you” Pointed her hoof to the ponies. After the students had gone silent again, Galaxy closed her eyes, unfurling her wings unconsciously and focused her magic through her horn. A huge burst of light exploded from her horn as the room darkened and the classroom disappeared to leave everypony in smaller room.
“This is how my mother told me her story. This type of magic can only be performed by an alicorn. This magic was used back in the day to teach and plan battles in the other world that Sapphira and Silver visited; it’s like a 3-D hologram," Galaxy explained
"King Volkan ruled over our country until Sapphira and Silver dethroned him. He and his scientists had been the ones responsible for Silver's and Sapphira's disappearance from this world for some time.” Galaxy said. With a flick of her glowing horn, the room faded to a lab setting, where two ponies in white coats sat fixing something on a big metal hoop.
“Volkan ruled over our fair land of Amaia for many years with his queen, Nightshade and his second in command, Poison Apple before Sapphira returned and destroyed him.”
“I trust that you are almost done with the machine?” King Volkan asked as he walked into the room.
“Yes, sire. We are making the final adjustments right now and we should be able to start it up,” One scientist said, still focusing on tightening a bolt.
Volkan’s lips curled up into a sinister grin. “Excellent,” He replied as he circled the large machine. “If my great, great grandfather, King Lucious was able to conquer this world, then imagine what I can do in other worlds,” He continued, mostly to himself.
The scene stopped suddenly and faded into a bright and warm room with a fire crackling lively in the fireplace. There were only three ponies in the room; a mare lying down on a blanket with a regal black mane and tail, medium purple coat and a writing quill cutie mark on her flank. There was also a stallion standing next to her with a grey coat, royal blue mane and a shooting star for a cutie mark. Finally, curled up next to the mare on the floor, there was a small bundle of blankets where a little head poked out. The little newborn yawned and woke up revealing beautiful sapphire eyes that was filled with curiosity and wonder.
“What shall we name her, Midnight?” The stallion, who must have been the father, asked in a quiet voice as not to startle the sleeping filly.
“She has those beautiful sapphire eyes,” The mare named Midnight said thoughtfully looking up at her husband. Then she smiled and asked, “What about Sapphira Night?”
“That sounds perfect,” He agreed as he bent his down towards Midnight, nuzzling her cheek.
The scene shifted again where the students and Galaxy were in an empty classroom. “Hey this is our school!” a filly named Joy exclaimed.
“Yup. This is where Sapphira went to school when she was your age,” Galaxy stated. “Now, most parts of the story are in Sapphira’s point of view with the narration from her as well.”
The school bell rang. Ponies filed into the room, sitting in their appropriate seats. The teacher finally came in along with a dark purple filly with sapphire blue eyes.
“Good morning students!” The teacher greeted her class joyfully.
“Good morning Ms. Scarlett,” the students tiredly replied some even accompanied by a yawn.
“Class, we have a new student today. Her name is Sapphira Night and I want all of you to make her feel welcome here. Understood?” Ms. Scarlett said. The fillies and colts nodded lazily.
(Sapphira's POV)
“You can go sit down in the back Ms. Night. Welcome to Saddlewood School.” Ms. Scarlett said nudging me forward.
I made my way slowly to the back of the room. As I walked to my seat my ears picked up something other than the rustling of papers.
‘Look at that mangled coat. She looks like she just rolled out of bed with that rat’s nest of a mane,” one filly whispered to her snickering friend. I continued down the aisle with more whispered insults thrown my way but it didn't bother me because mom had said that ponies say mean things when they are jealous.
Even though mother taught me to be confident in myself, I was still shy. So I didn't speak up the entire class. I just quietly took notes, like I was told.
The day went by slow, the clock aimlessly ticked on until the final bell rung, signaling the end of class. I hopped out of my seat and trotted out to the front yard.
“Hey,” somepony greeted me from behind, making me jump. I turned around to see a smiling blue colt. “Sorry to scare you but my name is Coda and I wanted to say welcome to town,” He said brightly.
“Thanks,” I answered with a warm smile. “My name is Sapphira Night. Well, you probably already knew that from this morning’s introduction,” I added nervously.
Coda chuckled. “You’re pretty cool Sapphira. Hey, I was just about to go to the Cookie Jar would you like to tag along?” He asked.
“That would be awesome but can we stop at my house so I can tell my parents where we are going?” I asked as we walked down the road.
“Yeah, no problem,” He neighed and we both laughed.
We talked about ourselves all the way to my house and the walked into the living room, dropping our saddle bags by the door.
“Mom, Dad, I’m home!” I hollered,
“I’m in the office, sweetie.” Mom shouted. Coda and I trotted to the office where Mom was sitting at a desk flipping through old tattered books. Midnight looked up at Coda and I with a grin as she pushed her book aside.
“Wow a friend on the first day? Impressive,” Mom said. “When my family moved when I was your age, I didn't make a single friend until the 3rd week of school,” She stated with a laugh. “So who might this be?"
“Mom, this is Coda," I answered.
Mom extended a hoof over the desk and Coda shook it. "Nice to meet you, Coda,"
"Nice to meet you too, Mrs. Night," Coda replied, letting his hoof go back down after he released Mom's hoof.
"Please, call me Midnight," Mom settled back into her chair. Coda nodded with a smile
" So, Coda invited me to go to the Cookie Jar Bakery with him. Can I go?” I asked.
“I don’t see anything wrong with that, but I want you home before sunset because…" Mom paused, a shadow creeping across her face and her smile falling for a split second. 'just make sure you come home in time for dinner," Mom's smile returned as quickly as it had left.
“Don’t worry Mrs. Midnight, my parents own the shop. They can bring her back before dinner.” Coda said cheerfully.
“That sounds great! Then don’t let me keep you, run along,” Mom said as we turned to leave the office. “Have fun.”
Coda and I galloped along the dusty gravel trail leading into the small town square. When we reached center of town, we found a hoard of worried looking ponies, anxiously talking among themselves.
“What’s going on?” I asked Coda as they slowed to a trot at the edge of the crowd.
“I don’t know.” He stretched his neck his head to look over the throng of pony heads. Coda finally called me over when he found a spot to see. Standing in the middle of all the commotion was a small stage with a gray unicorn stallion on the make-shift stage, looking at a clipboard and using his magic to hold up a bull horn.
“WELCOME, ALL CITIZENS OF SADDLEWOOD!” The stallion announced. “WE HAVE COME HERE ALL THE WAY FROM VOLKAN CASTLE TO BRING YOU THE LATEST NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT; COMPLIMENT FROM KING VOLKAN HIMSELF!” The stallion shouted for everypony to hear.
Excited and nervous chatter spread through the town like wild fire. I turned to look at Coda but he had moved further into the crowd of ponies. I started to trot towards Coda only to be snapped backwards, landing on my haunches with a thud. I looked around to see somepony in a black cloak with my tail underneath his hooves. The pony's hood lifted up, revealing glowing eyes, his smiled showing off his sharp fangs. I gasped. Scrambling to get up, I tried to scream but before I could get any noise out the creepy pony picked me up and tossed me into a burlap bag.