//------------------------------// // Destiny's Calling // Story: The Book of Prophecy // by TheBlox //------------------------------// I can still hear their voices. It’s been a long, long time, but I still do. When I hear them, I hear their laughter, and I feel their kindness. I remember their loyalty, generosity and their honesty. Every day I hear their voices, and I am reminded of the magic of our friendship, and how powerful it was. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “Twilight Sparkle,” a gentle voice called to her. Distracted from her journaling, she lifted her quill off her paper, and she looked ahead of her into the mirror on the back of her wooden desk. Looking at her reflection in the mirror with gold trim, she made eye contact with herself, looking deeply into her own mysterious violet eyes. Her lavender wings and coat, and her dark striped mane were beautifully groomed and styled, as if for a very important occasion. Turning around to the voice that spoke her name, there at the open door of her throne room entered a white alicorn, with dancing rainbow hair that glistened brightly like the morning sky, and the mark on her flank that resembled the sun. The tiara upon her head signified her role as Princess, and the royal golden shoes worn on her hooves clinked with each step into the room. “Oh, hello, Celestia,” Twilight said quietly and closed her journal. The cover of her personal book was the same shade of purple as her coat, and on the face of the book was a magenta six-cornered star, with five white sparks surrounding it—her cutie mark. With a short sigh, she turned back to her mentor. Celestia briefly looked into Twilight’s eyes, then trailed her eyes to her student’s tiara that was sitting on the edge of her desktop. She exhaled through her nostrils and looked back to Twilight, expressing her concerns for the lonely, younger Princess. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Since the last of my friends passed away, I don’t wear my tiara as often as Celestia would appreciate I did. But without my friends, I don’t always feel like I am worthy to wear it. Since their passing, the gems on their necklaces that represented their elements became one with my Tiara of Magic, from then on making it become known as the Tiara of Harmony. I am no longer the bearer of Magic, but the holder of all of the elements. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “Twilight,” Celestia murmured to the seemingly saddened mare. Trotting closer to her, she tilted her head, and her ears folded back. “You know, today is a pretty big day for you. You should be wearing your tiara.” The younger alicorn shrugged, and turned to eye the crown of gold sitting on her desk. The light reflected off of the six gems on the front of the tiara, producing a brilliant effect of sparkling colours. “I don’t know,” she muttered. “I know that today is the one-hundredth anniversary of my Coronation, but I don’t feel I should be celebrating it without the five ponies who stood along side me to get me to this point. And I don’t feel right wearing my tiara.” “Come now, Twilight. You know they would want you to.” “Maybe,” Twilight sighed and turned back to Celestia. “But still, it just doesn’t feel right. How can I rule a kingdom in the name of friendship when I don’t have any friends?” Celestia shrugged and tried to grin to ease the troubled mare’s tension. “Well, I’m your friend, am I not?” Looking into Celestia’s violet eyes, Twilight let out a long and impatient sigh. “Our friendship is different.” She lifted a hoof. “You’re my teacher.” The elder exhaled through her nostrils, and her eyes wandered as she nodded her head. “Listen, I understand your pain, Twilight,” she solemnly said, and she stepped up closer to the younger mare and put a wing over her shoulder to express her concerns. “I’ve been around quite a bit longer than yourself. Trust me, I know.” Twilight winced in response, and her eyes wandered. “You often say, that every life has a reason for its existence.” “Right?” Celestia lifted her wing off Twilight’s shoulder and stepped back, awaiting Twilight to add to her point. “So, then why must they end?” the student questioned, “Why must everypony around us die over time?” Celestia looked down into Twilight’s eyes and exhaled deeply. She searched for an answer, but had a hard time finding one. By the look on the student’s face, Celestia could see that Twilight was about to pop the question that she often brought up. “Why did you turn me into a Princess?” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Celestia often goes on talking about how one day I will take her place and rule all of Equestria on my own. I mean, that doesn’t make sense. She can’t die, so why would she need somepony else to replace her? I can understand her job must have gotten old, but does she have to rest all of her responsibilities on me alone? I need answers. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “Among all other ponies in Equestria, why did you choose me to suffer through immortality?” Twilight continued questioning her mentor in a more serious tone. “You know what it’s like yourself to live forever. And you’ve admitted it to me countless times that it’s a hard, long and agonizing life to live like that. So, why did you put the burdens of living forever on me, too? Why is it that—” “Twilight,” Celestia interrupted her student during her ramble of questions, lifting a hoof to halt her rant. “It was your destiny to become a Princess. You know that.” Twilight felt something switch inside of her, and her left eye twitched when she heard Celestia’s response. Having heard that same, pointless reason, time and time again, she had enough. She needed to know. “Why is this my destiny?” she rambled on, “What do you possibly need me for?” She pointed a hoof at her mentor. “You can do anything! You don’t need me! Day and night, you raise and lower the sun. You rule thousands upon thousands of equines, and you make it all look so easy! And here, all I can do is sit around and observe you.” Putting her hoof down, she leaned forward. “But I can’t be like you, Celestia! I could never do the things you do, even if you train me for a thousand years, how could I ever take your place? And why?” she asked again, then raised her voice. “Because what if I don’t want to?!” Celestia found it difficult to respond. There was a long moment of silence, and while Twilight’s expression grew more serious, it was evident that Celestia at this point was trying to resist from crying. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Why me? Why couldn’t she have chosen a different pony? What is so important about me that she had to take my old, normal life away, and turn me into an alicorn like her? I don’t know as much as she does, but I do know, that reversing what she did to me cannot be done. I am doomed to stay this way for eternity, and that is what hurts the most. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Saddened by Twilight’s emotions, Celestia lowered her head, and her ears fell back. It was like she wanted to say something to her, but painfully kept it to herself. Seeing that she was hurt, Twilight raised a brow and trotted up close to Celestia. “Look, I’m sorry, but I can’t escape the way I feel about all this.” “I know,” Celestia murmured, and she looked back up to Twilight, tears dripping from her eyes and down her cheeks. “And I’m sorry, too.” Twilight’s ears fell back in response to Celestia’s apology and cries. She tilted her head in question. “I know that you would have preferred to be asked whether or not you wanted to become a Princess,” her mentor exclaimed, “However, there are reasons behind what I did. Reasons I’ve been afraid to tell you since the very beginning.” The younger mare blinked, and she lifted her head. “Reasons? What kind of reasons?” There was a quiet moment between them. It was clear that Celestia was very hesitant to tell her what she was about to say. After that moment to collect her words, Celestia let out an anxious sigh, and she began her explanation. “Understand, Twilight, that there is a great purpose for your eternal existence. For if you did not become the Princess of Harmony, Equestria would cease to exist.” She stood tall as she explained herself. “On the day of your first coronation when I turned you into an alicorn, I did not ask you whether or not you wanted to become a Princess, for if I did, you would have declined. For the fate of Equestria, I had no choice.” “Celestia, what do you mean you had no choice?” Twilight squinted at the crying goddess. Exhaling deeply through her nostrils, Celestia lowered her head. “I had always feared this day of prophecy,” she murmured quietly, “The day you would learn this truth; the day of your one-hundredth coronation; the day… you begin the fulfilment of your true destiny as the Princess of Harmony.” “Day of prophecy?” The younger alicorn was beginning to feel uneasy about what Celestia was talking about. “Whose prophecy? What destiny?” “I had always hoped this day wouldn’t come so soon,” Celestia said, and she gestured to the contents on Twilight’s desk. “I need to show you something. I want you to bring your tiara; it is important.” “Uh… but what about the coronation ceremony?” Twilight looked to her balcony, acknowledging the many ponies waiting for her to come out and make a speech. “It can wait.” Twilight was first struck as confused, and she didn’t know what to think. “Uhm… Well, alright.” She turned to her desk, and eyed the golden tiara on her desktop. Feeling nervous, she trotted to her desk like she was told, and with her levitation magic, she picked the crown up. Levitating it close to her, she looked at it for a long moment, and rather than placing it on her head, she held it under her wing. Celestia sighed when she did this, but didn’t say anything against it. Twilight then looked down to her journal, and she picked that up as well. She held it under her other wing and turned back to her mentor. “Where are we going?” “In time, you will see,” Celestia solemnly replied, and she turned to exit the throne room. Twilight wasn’t certain what to think about this, but she followed along, and together they wandered the castle halls. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ What is my destiny? A long time ago, I thought I knew. But now I’m not so sure. Sometimes I hardly even know who I am anymore. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Trotting beside Celestia through the castle, Twilight kept her ears anxiously low. There was a lot of silence, but Twilight could tell from Celestia’s eyes that there wasn’t much that she could really say to her. What she was about to show her, she could tell was going to be big, and possibly very secret. “Where are we going? Is anypony else going to be there?” the nervous alicorn asked. Celestia shook her head. “Everypony is at the coronation, expecting you to be there.” Twilight turned her neck to glance behind her. “Are you sure this can’t wait, Celestia?” “They can’t know where you are,” Celestia exclaimed. “That’s why they are there.” “Wait…” Twilight looked back up to her. “You’re using the ceremony as a distraction to keep everypony else away?” Celestia nodded. “This is for you, and for you alone.” Moving on, she then made a turn to their right down a corridor in the hallway. Twilight acknowledged the turn they took, and she began to feel uneasy. This route through the castle only lead to one door at the end—a door that she was told was forbidden, even for herself. “Why are you taking me to the Door of Prophecy…?” she questioned her mentor. The elder Princess remained silent until they approached the tall stone doorway. The markings on the door were similar to the designs on the vault where Celestia kept the Elements of Harmony hidden many years ago. The same type of door with a round keyhole in the center, which would open only to Celestia when her horn was inserted as the key. Side by side, the two alicorns stood before the Door of Prophecy. Celestia turned to looked down to Twilight, who then looked up at her in response. “Nopony knows what is behind this door, Twilight,” she murmured and looked back up at the tall stone slab. “Not even myself.” Twilight raised a brow at that, and she grew more curious about it. “The last time this door had been opened was a thousand years ago,” Celestia added. “One hundred years after I banished my sister, during the days when we were still building Canterlot.” She winced and looked back down to her anxious student. “Many have attempted to open this door over the years due to the untold mysteries within, some even going to great lengths as to break it down. But she built this door to be impassible, and indestructible.” Twilight blinked. “She?” Celestia briefly paused before she nodded. “My mother,” she revealed. “Your mother?” the younger alicorn questioned her, surprised that she would bring the subject up. “Celestia, you’ve never really said anything about her.” “She was very mysterious,” her mentor exclaimed. “She was always so busy ensuring our world was at a balanced state, while she had Luna and I to lead the ponies together.” She gestured to the ancient door. “This door was the last thing she has ever created. And when she finished it, I was the last pony she spoke to… when she entered through it, and locked it behind her.” Twilight raised a brow at Celestia’s little tale. “One thousand years ago to this day, she locked herself behind this door. And she told me, that there was only one pony who would be able to open it again.” She solemnly looked down to Twilight. “She said, that the pony of prophecy would become one with the Elements of Harmony, and she would become my closest friend.” Twilight’s ears perked in response to that. “And she also told me, that I would know simply by instinct, who the pony of prophecy is.” Mixed thoughts rushed through Twilight as she tried to take in what Celestia was telling her. “So… you’re suggesting that you believe I am this pony your mother spoke to you about?” She squinted and tilted her head. “Doesn’t it even occur to you that her prophecy could be wrong? You can’t just look into the future and know exactly how it’s going to happen; she couldn’t have just chosen me when I didn’t even exist yet!” In response to Twilight’s rant, Celestia just softly snickered, and she shook her head. “Oh, Twilight Sparkle… You always seem to believe you know the answer if there is no explanation.” “What?” The student just winced in response. “My mother has done greater things than anypony would ever know.” She had a proud grin on her face, which then slowly faded to a saddened expression. Her ears folded back, and she leaned down to Twilight. “Celestia?” A gentle sob, and Celestia wrapped a wing around her. Twilight was confused by her embrace, and she felt worried that there was more to this than what Celestia had explained. “Twilight Sparkle, I am going to miss you,” she whimpered. “Wait… what?” Twilight’s eyes opened up wide, and she pulled away from her embrace. Looking into the crying eyes of her mentor, she lowered her ears, and felt her heart racing. She was frightened; Celestia wouldn’t joke around like this. “W-what do you mean you’ll miss me?” There was a short pause, and Celestia’s silent weeping could be heard echoing in the hall. “This is your destiny,” she said in a fluttering voice, crying with mixed emotions—both happy and sad. “I know you don’t believe you are destined to be the Princess that you are, but I need you to know now… I am so very proud of you, and who you have become. I’ve always been proud.” She turned to face the door, and she gestured to it. “I cannot say how I know you are the pony of my mother’s prophecy, but it your destiny to walk through this door.” She turned back to Twilight and nodded. “Use your horn—it will open to you alone. You shall see.” Twilight nibbled her bottom lip. She was now more nervous than ever. Turning to the Door of Prophecy, she just stared at it. So many mixed thoughts were rushing through her mind, and she was seemingly frozen at her hooves. What if the door opened? What if she was this pony of prophecy that Celestia was talking about? The possibilities were frightening to Twilight, but she felt she needed to know for sure. She gulped a lump of air, and very slowly stepped up to it. Celestia watched her, and after a brief hesitation, Twilight stuck her horn into the keyhole of the stone slab. Almost instantly, there was a bright flash of light that emanated from the keyhole, and a pattern of illuminated lines lit up the face of the door, brightening the vicinity with glistening colours. Twilight was quick to step away from the door, watching it in awe. Her eyes widened as the castle floors began to rumble, and then after moments of nervous waiting, the door very slowly moved upward. Celestia watched the door open as memories flashed through her mind from a thousand years ago, when her mother first opened it. Slowly rising into the ceiling, the stone slab gradually revealed the room of mystery beyond it. When the slab was fully opened, it stopped with a loud, heavy thud that echoed through the castle halls, and then the bright spectrum lights faded. Twilight’s eyes were wide from all the commotion. On the other side of the door, there was a short hall with a red carpet extending down to the end. On either side of the hall of white stone were decorated drapes of lavender and magenta. At the end of the hall was a marble stand, and there was a book placed on top. Her eyes were wide with overwhelming curiosity and nervousness. Biting her bottom lip, she slowly stepped onward. Walking through the doorway that she was disallowed to enter until this day made her feel a wave of forbidden shivers rushing down her spine. “I cannot say what journey lies ahead of you,” the sun goddess sighed uneasily. Twilight turned to her in question before she kept going. “All I can tell you, is that all of the reasons why I had to turn you into an alicorn, are in that book.” The nervous student turned back to the book on the pedestal, and she stepped closer to it. She felt her heart skipping beats the closer she approached it. She was only a few feet from it now, and she seemed to be pacing slower as she pressed forward. And when she was close enough to get a good look at the book’s cover, she felt her heart leaping with fright. Tears filled her eyes, and she let out a weep of horror. “What?? What is this??” she whimpered hysterically. The book on the pedestal was purple, and it had her very own cutie mark on the face of the cover. From under her wing, she lifted her own personal journal up that she brought with her in an aura of magic. She held her journal up close to the one on the stand, and her jaw hung open. She was absolutely terrified at this point. “This… this can’t be the same book!” The similarities between the two books were too accurate. She had to keep eyeing them both side by side before she could believe it. The only obvious difference between this book and her own was that the one on the pedestal appeared to look far, far older. Its colour was clearly faded, and the pages appeared to be dull and crumpled from age, but every detail that she herself designed on the front cover was there. She turned to Celestia, scared, and the elder on the other side of the door could only return a very sad, guilty expression. Her mentor could express no words for the way she felt. With their final glances at each other, Celestia lowered her head, and bowed respectfully to Twilight. From the look on her face, Twilight could sense that her teacher was hiding something she couldn’t bear to tell her. “Ce…Celestia?” Then in that distant moment of silence from each other, the stone door fell back down from the ceiling, slamming shut with a loud and frightening thud. Sealed off from her mentor, Twilight panicked and galloped to the sealed doorway, dropping her journal and her tiara to the floor when she did. “Celestia!!!” Ramming herself into the door, she slammed it a few times with her hooves. “No, no!!!” Backing away from the door, she made the desperate attempt to cast a spell at it from her horn. The blast of magic exploded on contact with the sealed slab of stone. To her misfortune, nothing happened; not even a scratch nor a dent. In a panic, she made the attempt to teleport to the other side. However, her teleportation spell wouldn’t even ignite in this room; she could sense a spell barrier within the enchanted walls that prevented it. “Nooo…” Twilight broke into a sob, and she lowered to her haunches on the red carpet, looking up at the door before her. She didn’t have to ask anypony what exactly had just happened, but she knew; if the door was impassible and indestructible like Celestia said it was, she was trapped here. The room was now darkened with the doorway sealing her off from Celestia. There was only one source of light in this room, and it was being cast from behind her. Her ears twitched, and she slowly stood up as she turned around, gritting her teeth from the trauma. The source of light appeared to be coming from a glowing stone of light on the ceiling, that cast its spotlight down upon the mysterious book on the pedestal. “Celestia…” she murmured to herself in an agonizing voice. “W-what do I do?” Nervously chewing on her bottom lip, she stared at the book placed on the marble stand. Taking a breath to try and calm herself, she slowly approached it. She couldn’t help but feel frightened at the book that resembled so identically to her personal journal. What could possibly be inside? Standing over the book beneath the spotlight, she stared down at it with immense hesitation. Taking in a breath, she decided she should read it; she needed to. Lifting her hoof, she placed it upon the book, and very slowly flipped it to the first page. Her ears folded back when she uncovered the first page, and she let out a whimper. “Oh, goddess…” It was an exact duplicate of her journal that she had only started writing in this morning. On the inside of the front cover of the book, it had her name on it in her very own handwriting. “But, this… this doesn’t make sense.” However, she acknowledged that her first log of the book was torn out. Currently in her own journal, she had only written the one entry that fit on the first page. In place of the missing page, she could see more writing—an entry that she didn’t write herself, but the handwriting style was significantly her own. This entry in the ancient journal that she began to read appeared to be a message. And it sank in hard when she realized it was a message written just for her. She grit her teeth and silently whimpered when she read it to herself. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Hello, Twilight Sparkle. I understand that you are quite afraid right now… Sitting beneath a dim spotlight, locked in a room, alone, with nothing in it but this ancient book, your custom personal journal, and the Tiara of Harmony. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Twilight briefly paused to turn and looked down upon her journal and tiara that were carelessly dropped on the floor earlier. She grit her teeth from nervousness and turned back to continue reading in the book on the pedestal. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Look up, ahead of you, Twilight. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ She blinked a few times, and did as the book directed. Looking in front of her, she witnessed herself in the face of a mirror on the wall. She could see the fear in her own crying eyes reflecting back at her. And the longer she looked at herself, the sicker she felt to think she could call herself a Princess. With a heavy sigh, she looked back down to the book. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I understand you see yourself as a broken purpose. A pony who believes she has no destiny. You see nothing in that mirror. You’re no longer honest with yourself, unable to hear the joyful laughter, and you try to forget the kindness from those who generously offered their loyal friendship to you so long ago. You try to let it go, because of all the hurt, and the sufferings of being immortal, knowing you cannot die and meet them again in an afterlife. And so you refuse to wear your tiara that now contain their elements they have passed on to you, because it haunts you, day and night, as a memory you wish you could forget. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Twilight could feel her tears running down her cheeks as she read her life story summed up into just a few sentences. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ You are more important than you realize. You are the Princess of Harmony; Pony of Prophecy. There is a reason you had to become an alicorn. If you did not become the Princess that you are; if you did not immortally step through that door… Equestria would forever cease to exist. There would be no magic, no life, no earth nor sky… Your true destiny must be fulfilled, or nopony will have ever seen the light. Sadly I cannot say what it is your tasks ahead may be, for it is something you must discover on your own. When you are ready to accept the heavy responsibilities that lie ahead, you may turn this journal to the next page. But before you do, you must know this… Your mission will be hard; it will be lonely; and it will be long. You will find moments in your life where you will feel it is impossible to go on. But one thing is for certain… In the end, you shall succeed in discovering what your purpose is, and understand what the gift of life truly means. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ There was a powerful hesitation. Twilight could feel herself sweat from reading those last few words on the first page of this mysterious journal. She thought for a moment that she could walk away from this book, and think about returning to it later. However, that would be nearly pointless. She was trapped here until a decision was made, and even then, would she still be stuck in this room? How was this journal going to help her? Prepared or not, Twilight was curious what was written for her on the following page. She wasn’t sure what sorts of responsibilities the book was referring to. She could feel a great resistance in herself from turning the page. After all that has happened thus far, she feared that the book could be enchanted. “Oh, Celestia, why did you leave me in here…?” she murmured to herself as she turned her head to face the sealed doorway. Chewing her bottom lip, she nervously turned back to the book beneath the spotlight, and stared at those last two paragraphs. Taking in a deep breath, she placed her hoof upon the book, and prepared herself to flip it to the next page. Gritting her teeth from the suspense on what she may possibly read on the following page, she turned it over. The moment the next page was exposed, a blinding light flashed up at her from the paper. “AH!!” She stepped away from the enchanted book, frightened. She watched in both awe and fear as the book rose up from the pedestal. “W-what’s going on??” She watched as the pages of the book—one by one, from front to back—magically tore out of the journal and spun around in the air, creating a funnel of blinding paper. Lightning cast from the twister of ancient literature, and an illusion of her cutie mark appeared in the center, which shined bright as day. Then a powerful wind suddenly began to drag her, pulling her helplessly toward the whitehole. “What?! Ah!! Celestia, help me!!” Twilight screamed as loud as she could, scraping her hooves at the rug in the attempt to keep herself from being thrown into the twister. She watched as both her personal journal and her Tiara of Harmony that were left lying on the floor hurtled toward the vortex of clashing lightning. They were both sucked in, and vanished in thunderous flashes of light. “No!! No, no no!!” The wind proved to be too powerful, and she slipped, being hurled like a feather straight into the twister. “NOOOOO!!! AAAH!!” Then, in an explosion of blinding light when she came in contact with the center of the whitehole, she disappeared in a flash, and the spinning pages of the ancient book imploded into the center of the vortex. The room was left empty and dark, with a cloud of rippling sparkles of dust that slowly descent back to the floor.