"No way," Twilight Sparkle said. "You can't be telling me that King Sombra was involved in this whole plot, too."
"Indeed he was. When did you think I met all of them before? But King Sombra had a very different role to play in my history, compared to the other two. Very different," Celestia explained with a grim look on her face.
"Alright... Continue on, then."
~ ~
Upon Sombra's initial arrival, all the three of us could do was stare blankly and blink in silence. We might not have known anything about this new unicorn, but based on his appearance, voice, and stoic expression, none of us thought he was good news. After an awkward silence of Sombra simply standing like a soldier in front of the door, Discord stepped forward to introduce himself.
"Good day to you, sir!" he said in a dramatically polite voice. "Mr...Sombrero, was it?" Discord held out his hoof for the newcomer to shake.
Sombra stared down at him with a glare so intense that it even caused Discord to shake a bit and back away. "Sombra," he corrected with a voice that suggested imminent death for whoever dared call him that again.
Discord continued to back up, returning to his original place with Luna and I. "Right...Sombra...silly me..."
The three of us all looked at each other. Now what were we supposed to do? None of us wanted to speak now that such a menacing figure had entered the room. What was he doing here, anyway? What could the Princess want with a unicorn such as him? I chanced a glance at his cutie mark and where usually some kind of colorful symbol glistened, there lay what appeared to be a shadowy cloud of dust. Anything that mysterious could not signify any useful special talent, could it?
We silently looked around the room for a few minutes, and then Discord cleared his throat. "So...Celestia, as I was saying before we were interrupted," he improvised, "what do you think the Princess will do with us now that we've been accepted?" He winked.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe she'll teach us some really advanced magic...?"
"Yeah..." Luna added. "And maybe we will get to stay in the castle."
Sombra continued his statuesque stare at the door.
"Of course we'll get to stay in the castle! Where did you think we'd be staying? The dungeons?" Discord said, rolling his eyes.
"Technically, the dungeons are a part of the castle, so it is not as far-fetched of an idea as it seems," I pointed out.
Discord nodded, noting this fact. But the discussion still brought up a valid point that we weren't entirely comfortable discussing in the midst of Sombra the stranger. I suppose Discord was technically a stranger to us at the moment, but after all the time we spent anxiously awaiting the Princess' judgement, there was no doubt that we had come out of the experience as makeshift friends. We all had the common interest of wanting to learn from the Princess and, for the time being, it was enough to draw us together.
During the silence that soon followed as we ran out of topics we were confident enough to discuss, the door opened once more. We all braced ourselves for the possibility of a strange new student, but were relieved to just see the smiling face of Princess Aurora.
"Congratulations, my new students! You all have proved yourselves to be especially well-qualified to learn the secrets to ruling Equestria. As luck would have it - for me - you all have delightfully unique talents to contribute so, in the end, you might all have the opportunity to rule alongside me on the throne," Princess Aurora explained.
"Excuse me, Your Highness," I interrupted. "What do you mean by 'we might all have the opportunity'? Will you not be accepting all of us?"
The Princess smiled and walked further into the room. "Well, Celestia, that is for you all to decide. If you work hard enough through my program and prove yourselves worthy through further examination, then I see no reason why not to give all four of you a position in my castle." The Princess stared down particularly at me. "Did you really think this would be the first and final test?"
I opened my mouth, but thought better of responding. I had already interrupted the Princess once, and I didn't want to annoy her with too many questions.
"That's a good girl," she continued. She rose up her foreleg. "This is only the beginning! That first test was just to weed out the clearly unworthy. But I think each of you has the chance to succeed, provided that you are prepared for what follows."
Discord rose up his hoof like a good student in class. "...And what exactly will that be?"
The Princess' smile shifted, but what should have been perceived as a sweet, friendly smile became even more frightening than Sombra's death glare. "You will see. Very soon, I promise you will understand." Her smile shifted back to normal. "But enough talk of work. You all should be celebrating! Eat some cake! Get to know each other!" A guard opened the door for her to leave. "But I wouldn't recommend getting too friendly. From this moment on, you are trying to stand out in a very talented crowd. See you all tomorrow morning bright and early for your first lesson."
With a final snap of the door, she was gone, leaving us on our own to think about the trials ahead of us.
~ ~
After a very short, lackluster celebration, due to the strange feeling of anticipation brought upon us by the Princess' words, two of the palace guards came to escort us to our rooms in the castle. The may have been the same guards as before, but at the time, I honestly could not tell the difference between them, especially since they all seemed to be unicorns. If I think back on it, I bet Princess Aurora chose them to be like this on purpose: all nameless drone ponies proud to serve the Princess' every whim. To young me, I only noticed their intimidating nature.
Our bedrooms were located up a tall flight of twisting stairs, leading us to a large tower separated from one of the main hallways. Luna and I would be sharing one bedroom while Discord and Sombra took the other.
"It looks like the two of us are going to be roomies!" Discord said, attempting to break Sombra's expressionless face. "We are going to have so much fun. We can stay up all night and have a pillow fight and tell scary stories..." Sombra just stared at him. "C'mon, you've got to be the master of scary stories!" Sombra grunted, and pushed past Discord into the room. Discord turned to Luna and I. "I'm telling you fillies that you will be missing out. Our room is going to be the party room, I can assure you of that!"
I just chuckled. "No need to assure us! Sombra looks like quite the party pony."
We peered into the room and noticed that Sombra was somehow already asleep. "Aw, I wanted the window bed..." Discord complained, then returned to his 'gloating'. "Just you wait. You'll be begging to join our party, and I might not hear the door over the sound of us having such a wonderful time..."
Luna just laughed and walked inside our own room, deciding he didn't require a response.
"I don't know if my mother would -" I began, and then stopped. Our mother! How could Luna and I have forgotten her? Surely she must have been worried not hearing from us all day!
Thankfully, one of the guards was still waiting at the bottom of the tower stairs. "Excuse me," I said. "Is there any way I could inform our mother where we are? She's bound to get worried now that it is so late."
The guard nodded, and said in a deep voice that he would send one of his men to inform her that the Princess had accepted us. I told the guard the location of my great aunt's home, to which he saluted and cantered off to inform the rest of the guard. I sighed out of relief and wandered back up the stairs. Discord was still waiting outside, looking up at the stars.
"Don't you want to let your parents know where you are?" I asked, joining him to look at the stars.
"Oh, I wouldn't want to bother them..." he said with a chuckle that didn't sound genuine.
"Why not?"
"Well..." He thought for a moment, choosing his words carefully. "I would hate to disturb the whole 'rest in peace' deal. If I was dead, I surely wouldn't want to be woken up for something as silly as this..." He chuckled softly again, but his former joyful self was fading.
"Oh, I see," I said, my voice becoming low. "My father passed away, too. He died fighting during the Griffon War, when Luna and I were very little. All we have is our mother, and even she doesn't seem to be here all of the time, mentally at least. I think a part of her died along with our father, so Luna and I have been on our own for a while. When did yours...?"
"Kick the bucket? Bite the dust? I never understood the point of those expressions, or most expressions, really -" he started, then stopped when he saw my solemn face. "It happened long before any time I can remember. For as long as I have experienced conscious memories, I've been on my own, traveling from city to city. That's when I discovered chaos magic. Everything in my life wasn't going harmoniously, but at least by harnessing the chaos in my life, I could have a laugh."
I smiled at him, and for a moment, we stood there silently gazing up at the stars. That night, I finally saw what Luna had been talking about all along, describing the stars as the most dazzling sight in the land, bringing light to the darkness.
Discord cleared his throat, and then stepped towards his room. "Well, I better check on ol' Sombrero. He won't want to miss what I have planend for this evening!"
"You go do that," I said, happy for this change in mood. He turned away and closed the door, leaving me alone outside with the clear night sky. "You really are quite beautiful," I said to the stars. "Just watch over us, will you? If my feelings are correct, we have a lot of work ahead of us."
~ ~
After a night of peaceful sleep, I woke abruptly to a cold shiver on the back of my neck. Something was wrong. Someone was here that shouldn't be. I slowly creaked my head over to the side to see behind me, and saw a shadowy black figure looming over me.
"Augghh!" I called out gracefully as I leapt out of bed. Fine, it wasn't that graceful, but I did manage to free myself from the path of the intruder. My horn lit up and I shot a blast of light so bright that it would surely blind the stranger for at least a few moments, long enough for me to reposition myself.
When the light dimmed, I continued to point my horn in front of me, but crept forward to observe the stranger. To my surprise, I heard a male voice laughing as he rolled on the floor while covering his eyes.
"Brilliant, Celestia! Absolutely brilliant!" the voice said through his laughter, but it was still not a voice I recognized.
Even though he seemed to be comfortable, and somehow knew my name, I questioned him with a darker tone. "Who are you and what are you doing in my bedroom?" I demanded.
The stallion laughed a bit more, and then took a deep breath. "Who, me? My name's Stealth Spirit and I am here to assassinate you."
I jumped back even farther from him and began to charge up a spell. I don't even remember what I was planning on doing to him, but whatever it was, it wouldn't have been pleasant for him. "You what?"
He smiled and nodded. "That didn't come out right... I am here to pretend to assassinate you, to see how you would react. A little test from the Princess!"
I let the light fade from my horn. "Oh, I see. Did I pass?"
He nodded again.
"Good. Then get out of my room!"
He laughed hesitantly, gave me a small bow, and then dashed out of the room. I shook my head and lay back on my bed, unable to fall back asleep. That was quite the wake up call, I thought to myself.
The door opened once more, Stealth Spirit's face peaking in slightly. "Oh, and the Professor wants to see you and the others in the throne room in fifteen minutes. Toodles!" With that said, he disappeared once more.
Luna yawned in the background. "What's goin' on?" she said in the middle of a loud yawn.
I raised an eyebrow at her. "You didn't see anything that just happened?"
She shook her head. "I was just sleepin'... I did dream about someone shouting though..."
"That was no dream! Some random pony stood over my bed this morning and pretended to kill me, just to see how I would react!"
"Great... Now I'm going back to sleep..."
"No, you're not," I said, magically levitating the sheets from her bed above her. "We have to go meet some professor in the throne room in fifteen minutes!"
Luna grumbled, but slowly rolled out of bed.
We didn't have much of a chance to look over our rooms last night since we were so exhausted, but I was pleased with the arrangement. Our bags that we had brought to our great aunt's loomed mysteriously in the corner, perhaps retrieved when the guards told our mother of our acceptance. Luna and I each had our own vanity mirror as well, stocked with various beauty supplies and brushes for our mane and tail. We would have more time to explore later, but for now, we had to get ready to leave.
While Luna stood in front of her mirror and lethargically pulled a comb through her mane with magic, I stepped outside and knocked on the other door. After waiting a few moments, the door flew open, probably by magic.
"Celestia?" Discord said, rubbing his eyes while still in bed. "What are you doing here so early? Couldn't miss the sunrise or something?"
"I'm not awake by choice, trust me. I'll explain later," I said. "We have a meeting with some professor in the throne room in about ten minutes."
"Ten minutes?? That's all the warning we get?" Discord said, then jumped out of bed. "Well, I'm ready. What's taking you all so long?" Sombra merely grunted, but was up and ready quickly as well.
I laughed, and then returned to my room to run a brush through my mane and tail a few times. Luna was still sitting in the same spot, possibly asleep, while her magic brush did the work for her.
After ten minutes of making my mane look presentable, pushing Luna down the flights of stairs while she complained about it being too early, and getting lost after misinterpreting directions from the guard outside our door, we all made it on time to meet this professor. I recognized him as one of the judges from the previous day, the one I assumed to be a professor at the Canterlot School of Magic. He was a thin unicorn pony with a light grey coat and almond brown mane. He wore thin spectacles and a plaid tie, and his cutie mark had a picture of a scroll and glasses.
"Good morning, students. I am Professor Witsworth, but most refer to me simply as the Professor. As I will be your only Professor, the term the Professor is appropriate. Do I make myself clear?" the Professor explained.
"Perfectly clear, Mr. The Professor," Discord said, nodding fervently.
The Professor frowned, but continued with his introduction. "Since the Princess is a very busy mare and has many important obligations to attend to inside and outside the castle, I will be leading most of your magical studies. If I am pleased with your work, I will refer you to the Princess with a glowing review of your character and abilities. If at any time I am not, you will be expelled immediately from the premises."
I gulped. I wondered if Luna and I had made the right decision. Were we really up to something like this? We were just average unicorns, not star magical students! But the Princess chose you, and you recognized it as a sign that you are ready, my conscience reminded me.
"Lovely," the Professor finished. "Now that we have all of that out of the way, we will begin our first practice session. There are many basic talents that any skilled unicorn should know, especially any royal unicorn, and among the most important is the ability to transport yourself quickly. None of you are pegasi or alicorns, so flight is not an option at the moment. Any ideas?"
Three of us looked around the room, not wanting to speak up first. We had been so preoccupied with finding the throne room, that we didn't really have an opportunity to examine it. I had a chance to glance at some colorful stained-glass windows when my mind's wandering was interrupted.
"Shadows," Sombra grumbled, the only one not looking around aimlessly with the rest of us.
"Yes, that is one option. If my judgements are correct, and they usually are, I believe you and Miss Luna will be the most prepared for such magic."
Luna's eyes shot open. She had been drifting back to sleep for a few moments before, but now that she heard her name, she had a reason to be interested.
"Me?" Luna asked. "What do you think I am prepared to travel by shadow? I don't even know how to even start something like that."
"That is why I am here to teach you," the Professor said. "And to answer your first question, I think that someone with such a connection to the moon and the darkness would have a natural affinity to traveling in such a manner."
Luna nodded, and even managed to stay awake. She didn't bother asking why Sombra could travel this way as well, for none of us knew what his talent was anyway.
"As for you two," the Professor said, turning to Discord and I, "I don't see the unicorn of the sun and the unicorn of...what is your talent again?"
"Chaos, my dear Professor. Laughter, fun, the list goes on and on..."
Ignoring the rest of Discord's comment, he continued, "So how else might one travel using magic?"
I thought for a moment, trying to remember the magic of some of the more talented unicorns in our village or unicorns from the stories Luna and I read when we were little. I recalled that one pony could use her magic to appear and disappear whenever she wanted, but her miscalculations caused problems for her along the way, forming the conflict of the story. "Could we use...teleportation?"
The Professor gave me a small smile, possibly the first we had seen on him, regardless of how small it was. "Yes, teleportation magic! For those of us not gifted with the knowledge of darkness or wings, teleportation is the ideal form of transport."
Discord scoffed. "Teleportation magic? That's all you meant? I've been doing that for years!" His horn lit up as he tapped his hoof on the ground, causing him to disappear. A second later, he appeared above me in the air, soon landing on top of me.
I stood up and pushed him to the side. "It looks like you need more practice."
His eyes gleamed mischievously. "Are you sure it was an accident, Celestia?"
"That's enough!" the Professor said, frowning at Discord once again. "Either way, there is always room for improvement. I'll begin with giving these two instruction on how to control their shadow magic."
He turned to Luna and Sombra and gave them instructions on how to fully make use of their shadow magic. Apparently it worked the best in the night or in a shadowy forest, places where shadows already existed. In these locations, one could tap in to the magic of the shadows themselves and use their forms as a reference for transforming their body into a shadow. The Professor assured them that it would be far more difficult to transform in a brightly lit throne room, and explained that their assignment for that night would be to practice using actual shadows. So, while Luna and Sombra focused on examining the smaller shadows cast by the furniture in the room, the Professor turned to Discord and I.
"Now, while your magic will not work as a way to conceal yourself while traveling, it is a far more efficient way of traveling," the Professor explained. "Using teleportation, as the chaotic one attempted to demonstrate, you can simply disappear and appear wherever you need to be, within reason. You cannot appear anywhere that you have not seen before, nor can you appear any farther than your magical power will allow. Therefore, some have the ability to travel farther than others whereas others can only travel a few feet in another direction.
"To teleport correctly, the most important idea to keep in mind is focusing specifically on where you wish to end up. If you have not fully pictured yourself landing where you hope to appear, then your aim will be off. Again, our chaotic friend showed you this."
"What do you mean 'the chaotic friend's aim was off'? I told you, it wasn't a mistake! I can teleport," Discord insisted.
The Professor raised an eyebrow. "Fine then, if you're so sure, why don't you teleport to the other side of the throne room then?"
"Easy and as delicious as pie," he said. He closed his eyes, lit up his horn, and stomped his hoof, causing him to disappear. Sure enough, he appeared on the other side of the room. Not nearly to the door, however, but close enough to fit with the Professor's challenge. "See?"
The Professor blinked in surprise. "It seems I underestimated you a bit. You still have a little while to go in terms of magical power, but that is accurate enough to teleport you most places."
Discord smiled smugly, and then turned to me. "Let's see you beat that, Celestia."
I grinned back, perhaps appearing more confident than I should have been. "You're on."
I closed my eyes in a similar manner, picturing the other side of the room, and then lit up my horn and stomped my foot. When I opened my eyes, everything had disappeared and I was back near the door in my bedroom. "How did I get here?" I asked myself aloud. The bedroom was nearly a five minute walk from the other room, so how could I have miscalculated so much? I closed my eyes again, and pictured the other side of the throne room once more.
This time when I opened my eyes, I was on the other side of the room with Discord and the Professor eyeing me suspiciously. "Uh...ta dah?"
"That was quite a long time for you to reappear, Miss Celestia," the Professor said, asking implicitly for an explanation.
"Yeah...well...I might have first ended up near my bedroom door..." I said, my face turning slightly red.
Discord burst out laughing, but the Professor shushed him immediately. "Well, you did manage to appear here eventually. And if you were able to appear that far away, you clearly have enough magical power at your disposal," the Professor said, causing me to smile. "But you still could use a lot of practice." My smile dropped.
For the next few hours, Discord and I disappeared and reappeared at various locations around the throne room and other surrounding free rooms while Luna and Sombra practiced turning various parts of themselves into shadow. Luna was only able to get a few legs at a time to change, but by the end, Sombra could turn into a full shadow. The Professor praised his ability, but all I could think of was how much scarier Sombra would be even without seeing him. What if he ends up being like my intruder this morning? I thought to myself.
Finally, after an exhausting practice session, the Professor told us to continue practicing when we had time and that at our next magical lesson the following week, he expected to see improvement.
As we left the throne room, I knew at least three of us were looking forward to laying down in our beds and resting for the remainder of the night, but the Princess had other ideas. Outside of the doors stood two unicorn guards with a message for us. "The Princess requests your presence at a feast tonight in the Dining Hall. You will accompany me to dinner immediately." He turned around and started walking in the direction of the Dining Hall.
I heard Discord and Luna groan beside me, but all of my exhaustion faded away in anticipation of trying more Canterlot delicacies. If any of it was as delicious as the cake from yesterday, then surely we had nothing to worry about.