//------------------------------//
// The quest, part 1 
// Story: The Falling Sun 
// by Mushi 
//------------------------------//

well hello! If you reading it please understand, this is my first real fic and is
not my native language. 


But now, without
further ado, the fic, hope you like it.





The falling Sun. The quest part 1


In times of crisis, you have to do what you have to
do, not what you want to do.


Ponyville is not the same anymore, the food stopped
growing and ponies are poor and sad. Nopony knew why, since that was the first
big crisis in the town, they named it “THE Crisis”. 


Twilight was studying in her house, trying to find out
some way to help the city when she received a letter from Celestia: My Faithful
student, I need to talk to you, this is important. Please come to Canterlot as
soon as you can. Princess Celestia. With a bad feeling about it, Twilight warped
to the castle in the same moment.


-In the castle-


-Princess
Celestia, I’m here, what is the problem? Is it about THE Crisis? - Questioned
Twilight.


-Yes, my
little pony, but unfortunately this is even worse: This is a global crisis!-
Answered.


Twilight was shocked, the situation was even worse
than she could think. “But, why? Can we help?” she said. Celestia sat near to
Twilight and said “Listen, little pony, hundreds of years ago, my power was so
strong that even I couldn’t keep it under control, for the sake of everypony I
sealed part of it in a secret place and I destroyed all of my memories about
this place, son nopony would find it. But now I am getting old and my powers
are weaker and weaker...” Twilight didn’t like this history and interrupted
“No! It is a lie! You aren’t weak!” She didn’t want to keep hearing that
history, but she did, since it was the wish of her teacher “Please, listen, it
is important” Celestia said. “Since I am weak now, the dark energies are getting
strong, and they are causing this crisis”. Twilight couldn’t believe.


It was hard to Twilight but she really wanted to do
anything to help. “But, we can help, right?” “Yes little pony, that’s why I
called you here. But I need to know: you are not obliged to do what I'm going to
ask to do”. The little pony agreed.  “Look, I always knew about this day, that’s
why I created my school for gifted unicorns. I was trying to gather powerful
ponies to help me to find my powers when it was necessary. I mean, even weak,
my powers are helping to keep the darkness und control, so I can’t leave my
castle now, but I need my hidden powers…” “I understood, you’re going to ask me
if I want to look for your powers.” Twilight interrupted again. “Yes, but it
will be a hard and dangerous, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to”
“Princess, if it is for the sake of Equestria, I will face any danger! I accept
this task!” Twilight was really proud and happy because of her task, but just
until the image of her friends appears in her mind. It would be a dangerous
adventure and she would never put her friends in danger, plus, it would be a
long travel around the world, all by herself. Thinking about leaving her
friends made her sad, but she really wanted to help Equestria and didn’t want
to disappoint her teacher. Sad, but decided to help, she asked to the princess
“Princess,I will do it, but I  need you
to promise me just one thing: You can’t let my friends now about this quest
until I leave Ponyville, I don’t want put them in any danger” Celestia, seeing
both, sadness and determination in her apprentice’s eyes, agreed and twilight,
seeing both: pride of her student and sadness because of the situation in
Celestia’s eyes, tried not to seem sad.


That night, when everypony was asleep, Twilight, with
some tears in the eyes, wrote a farewell letter, put it in Spike’s bed and left
her house. Trying not to cry, she departed in her lonely, but important mission
to save Equestria. After crossing Ponyville’s entrance, she warped once more to
the castle to get her final instructions about the quest.


In the Castle, with nothing but her horn and memories
of her poor town, she went to meet Celestia. When they met, Celestia guided the
little pony to a balcony, where she started to talk.


-Well, Twilight. This quest will be hard, but not
complex: All you have to travel around the world and find my powers…


-But how? - Twilight asked.


-Your magic. It will react when you’re close to the
hideout of my powers. Probably, there will be a lot of dark energy there,
trying to take my magic, so all you have to do is look for a reaction point
with concentrated dark energy, or, at least, it’s all that I know about it.


Twilight was ready to depart, but Celestia wanted to
give her one thing. She gave her a light armor with part of Celestia’s cutie
mark in the flank, just for protection, not for fight, since unicorns are Spell
caster, not warriors. She liked it, the present almost made her forget about
the sadness of a long and lonely travel around the world. But there was no time
for thinking, just for action. “Good bye, teacher. You WILL be proud of me!”
“My faithful student, I AM proud of you!”. That was their last dialog in that
cold night, after, the unicorn started her quest.


Using her horn to light the dark streets she walked
and walked for hours in that night, but it was cold and she was drowsy, so she
spent the rest of the night sleeping in a bush near from the street. The real
quest was going to start in the next morning. 


When she woke up, the sun light was warm and she did
not want to get out of her “bed”, for some minutes, she thought she was still
in her house and don’t even remembered about the quest until she open her eyes
and see the street. Her hooves were hurting because of the hours walking in the
cold. Now, Twilight could see the extension of The Crisis, probably, her bush
bed was one of the only live things in that place. The sad image of all those dead
trees gave her determination to start walking once more.





Four hours later, four long hours later, a city appeared
at the horizon. Probably nopony there would be able to give any information
about Celestia’s power, but the unicorn was hungry and tired. The hope of
finding some food and a good place to rest was enough to make Twilight run
toward the city. It was getting bigger and bigger, but Twilight’s excitement
was about to end. In the entrance of the city, there was a welcome sign, but
with one more thing written in it:  We
love our city, but our memories will not feed us. We trusted on you, Celestia,
why did you forget about us?


All the ponies in the city were gone. An empty city is
not a nice thing to see. Twilight start to think about those ponies, trying to
survive, they had to leave their beloved city .And Ponyville? And if everypony
there have already abandoned the town?“No! It’s not time for thinking!” She
said shaking the head to make the images disappear. “Let’s just see if there is
something to eat and go away!” She crossed the entrance and saw some flowers
and leaves that looked edible and walked there to eat them. The flowers were
from a garden, a garden of a small school,
sat in the almost dead grass to rest the hooves while she was eating, she
couldn’t stop staring the school, at least until an idea hit her. Twilight
already knew the probably location of her teacher’s powers.


Forgetting about the pain in the hooves, the unicorn
ran to the school. Scanning all corners and corridors, she saw some classrooms,
toilets, but she just want see one thing: A library. Even loving books, Twilight
never was so happy about a small library with just three shelves of books. Too
excited to look every single book (or think properly), Twilight just bucked one
of the shelves, causing a domino effect and dropping all the books, of course,
she didn’t forget to say “sorry” to the books. Her levitation magic made the
books levitate, so she could see the tittles. Twilight was in a rush, reading
just the first word of the tittles and throwing them away. After about ten
books, she found what she was looking for “YES! A geography one!” and let all
the others books fall in the ground. Twilight
talked to herself while flipping through the book “The dark energies are
stronger now, but they always existed. Since they are stronger close to the
power, this place is always in crisis, even before the weakening of the
Princess, so it’s most likely a lifeless place, and what could be more lifeless
than a desert?”


She found some maps in that book. There were at least
two deserts in that map, Twilight marked them with a pencil that she had found
there. She took off the map of the book (begging its pardon, of course). Before
leaving, she used the pencil to write “Sorry about the mess” in one of the walls
of the library and walked away from that place. 


Out of the city, Twilight was so overexcited and
confident about her guess that she warped to closer to the first desert instead
of walking to there looking for magical reactions. The yellow vastness of that
desert scared Twilight, maybe, it would take some day or even one week to check
that place. But she was decided to finish the quest as fast as possible, so,
she gave her first steps there.





A lot of confidence is a dangerous thing; it made the
little unicorn get unadvisedly in a big desert without food or water. After
three day of walking, Twilight could barely stand. She was giving her weak and
clumsy steps motivated by the words “must find the power” that she was
insistently repeating, but the fatigue was stronger, her hooves failed and she
fell on hot the sand. Maybe, the hot sand in her face would have bothered her,
but she fainted as soon as she thought “So… that is it…” and there she stayed.


Twilight remained there, lying for some hours or maybe
an entire day. It was late when she woke up. Twilight opened on of her eyes to
look the sky and have some idea about what time was it. Up there, in the night
sky, she saw some familiar thing and, for one second, she could swear that it
was Rainbow Dash flying fast, like if she was running away. “Nonsense”, she
thought, and forced her weak body to stand and, for her surprise, somepony had
left behind a bottle of water and some hay in front of her “Could it be?”


The pony ate all the hay and drank all the water as a
wild and hungry mule. It wasn’t the best meal of her life, but it was the most
convenient of them, for sure. With the extra energy given by the food, Twilight
started walking again, but now she used her unicorn brain to think “No, it is
not working. I need to get out of here, eat something and come back with
supplies” And she warped to a random location, anywhere would be better than
that desert. She appeared in a square of a town but the teleport spent all of
her all its little remaining energy and she fainted again.


Twilight woke up kinda scared, it took some time to
remember what had happened in the last night and now she was in a simple, but comfortable
room, without her armor and there was food and juice in a table there. She
wanted to think about what she was doing there, but the food was calling her,
so she answered the calling. It wasn’t much food, but who cares? She ate and
ate and ate until someone open the door. “Oh! You’re awake!” said a gentle
looking mare at the door. Twilight looked the food and the mare, her face
blushed and she said “hum… sorry about the food…”looking the ground. “No no no
no, you can have it” Said the mare, walking toward Twilight “Oh my! Look at
your mane, look at you, it’s a total mess! Why don’t you have a shower?” asked.
Twilight really wanted to have a shower and enjoy the hospitability of that
pony, but sense of duty talked louder “Sorry, but I don’t have time… I’m on a
quest to…” “Yeah, your part of Celestia’s army, right?” The mare interrupted.
“Yes, kind, but how do you know?” twilight wanted to know, “Your armor, it has
part of her cutie mark in its flanks. You know, over here, our faith in
Celestia is strong and we always knew that she was doing something to deal with
those strange things that are happening. When I saw you armor, I could see that
she is really doing something. You’re helping us, so I HAD to help you.”


Talking to
someone after days walking alone was comforting, and the faith of those ponies
in her quest gave her motivation to get in the desert once more, she just need
to buy some supplies, take her armor and depart. As soon as the mare left the
room, Twilight finished her breakfast, left some bits in the table, made her
bed and got out of the room. There, waiting in the small living room, was that
gentle mare, she gladly walked toward the unicorn “C’mon, your armor is
outside.”


In a sunny spot, on a sheet outside of the house, lied
her armor and something more. Two little fillies were there, apparently doing
something that they shouldn’t. “Don’t dirty it! It is not yours!” Scolded the
mare, the fillies ran scared to where they thought
they were hidden, forgetting in the sheet, a cup whit some red paint and a
brush made of branches and fabric. The armor was impeccable shiny and clean,
whit just one “imperfection” there were some words written on it: good lu.
Twilight smiled. “See? Everypony here believes in you since you were sent by
Celestia.” As they saw that the unicorn wasn’t mad, fillies approached, and
they had a lot of questions “Are you going to save us?” “Is Celestia cool?” “Can
you do magic? Would you teach me?”  getting
closer and closer as they asked.


Twilight didn’t know what to do, she wanted to go to
the desert again bat didn’t want to disappoint the fillies, so she looks the
mare as if asking “what now?” and the mare helped “Look, you two, This girl
here can’t stay with you now because she’s much tired and need some rest, but she’s
going to spend the rest of the day with you, right?” and she blinked to the
unicorn that, after some time pondering agreed and said with a large smile “That’s
right! After the lunch, I will teach everything you want to know and I will even
perform some magic tricks for you. So, wait and call your friends!”  


The fillies became really happy and went back to their
houses, Twilight could hear they arguing to see who would invite more friends and
started to think about her friends in Ponyville, but was interrupted by the
mare “So, you may stay in my house this night, by the way, my name is Manneari”
“I am Twilight, Twilight Sparkle. Thank you…err… May I have that shower now?” “But
of course!” and Manneari showed Twilight the way to the bathroom.


After the lunch, as she had promised, she found the
fillies in the town’s square, where a small crowd had formed. She spent hours
and hours telling about the legends of Equestria and teaching them some easy
magic tricks. In that night, fillies, colts, mares and stallions went to the
square to see Twilight’s final act, an improvised magic show, the crowd loved
it. After thank her new fans and help to clean the mess after the show, she
went to bed. Twilight was not used to so many attentions, but she loved to put
smiles in the faces of those poor ponies. It was hard to stop thinking about
that funny day, but she knew she should sleep, because she had to keep with her
quest tomorrow and all of her energy would be necessary.





To be continued…