The next day, the incident at Astral’s Estate was all but forgotten. The mob of ponies from the day before were completely absent as they returned to their day-to-day lives. This excepted a certain studious purple alicorn, who took the whole night for a research project.
Twilight Sparkle was holed up in her tree of a library, frantically flipping through all her books for something like the twelfth time. She looked even more dishevelled than the day she broke down over her friendship letters, and that is an astounding feat. She sat on a virtual mountain of books, muttering mild obscenities to herself as each one failed to yield what she sought.
“Twilight,” Spike cried “It’s been something like eight hours already!”
The new princess paid him no heed. She didn’t need to. All she needed to do was fix her mistake…
Somehow
“No, No NO!” Twilight shouted, screaming her frustration into the air “This all doesn’t make any sense!”
Each book she looked at had even littler information regarding the mare from last night. Her only clue was a solid gold knife, etched with ancient words on each side. All she gathered was that the first two lines:
“Mater Lumen, Pater Noctus,”
“Mother Light, Father Night,” Was some kind of signature. Probably of the maker, or whoever owned it at the time. The other side:
“Veritas et Honora,”
Meant ‘Truth and Honour’ in the same ancient tongue. The only other times she’s heard those words were in Verity’s own name. In fact, her entire name roughly spelt out the Elements of Harmony:
“Veritas Fidelis Numen Laetitia Bonita Venia Lumen Honora,”
Translated to modern Equish, it means:
“Truth, Faith, Force, Joy, Goodness, Forgiveness, Light, Honour,”
Maybe there was some special meaning to her name. Perhaps it is a reflection of Verity’s royal status. Maybe it was a spell of some kind…
Any further thought was blocked as her front door violently slammed open. In a split second, a blur of pink obscured her vision. Pinkie Pie happily bounced up and down in front of her like a soda with suicidal thoughts.
“Hiya Twilight!” she grinned
“Pinkie!” Twilight returned, finally having the strength to put down the books “You’re feeling all better!”
“Sure am! A new store just opened up!”
“Wait, what?”
“A new store! You know, the places where you can buy goods…”
“Yes , yes, I know what a store is Pinkie,” Twilight rebutted “But what do you mean? Why does that make you happy?”
“Well, it’s not really new, more of like old, but new at the same time! It was closed for a really really really really long time! Now it’s open again!”
“What’s it called?” Twilight asked exasperatedly, having no idea where the ecstatic pink pony was going with this. Pinkie was random during the best of times, and the worst. She was happy about virtually anything in Ponyville, but the pony Twi most expected to be excited about a new store was Rarity.
“Astral Star’s Emporium of Magical Artefacts!” she announced, throwing confetti and streamers to accentuate the point.
“Wait… What?”
“You know, a place where they buy and sell magical artefacts?” Pinkie explained slowly, throwing a worried glance “Are you alright Twilight? You’re slower than usual. Maybe you should get out more…”
A new store opened by Astral Star? Not only was it weird, but completely impossible. How could Astral open a store when he was clearly going to Canterlot awaiting imprisonment? Murderers weren’t treated very well in Equestria, most were executed immediately before Celestia and Luna came in. Opening a store straight after this kind of sentence was not really first on the to-do list for any Equestrian convict. Heaving a sigh, she decided to press for answers.
“Pinkie, you are making less sense than usual,” she stated simply “Astral’s gone to prison remember?”
“Well duh! Of course he is, silly!” the pink party pony giggled
“Then how did he open the store?”
“I didn’t say he opened the store,”
“Then who did?”
“His sister of course!”
Twilight froze for a second.
“You mean Verity?”
“Nope, his other sister!”
The new princess rubbed her temples. Dealing with Pinkie gave her frequent headaches, and the lack of sleep was doing her little favours.
“What other sister?” she asked, with forced patience
“She’s really cool! Looks a lot like him too! A little loco-coco, but great fun too!”
“I mean, who is this mare?” Twi’s patience was seriously thinning now
“I dunno,”
Finally, it snapped.
With a loud, frustrated groan she catapulted all her books across the room, burying an unfortunate Spike.
“You know what?” Twilight growled “Fine, you win. Let’s just go,”
“Okie dokie lokie!”
Pinkie resumed her happy bouncing and bounded right out the library door, Twilight dejectedly following suit.
“You know I got to clean all this!” Spike shouted after them, gesturing wildly to the library’s new carpet.
Heaving a sigh of his own, he began to clean up. He had little trouble despite his complaints. It’s not like this was the first time she threw all the books on the floor.
The store was a five minutes’ walk away from the library, just down the road. It sat on a corner near the town hall, sticking out like a bat in the day time. It was a wonder Twilight didn’t notice it earlier. It was a deep blue store, with angular yet elegant design, accented with large but minor violet gems. A myriad of strange jewel-encrusted magical attire stood behind the display windows, two nestled either side of the door.
Entering the store, it looked like Luna joined the gypsies and decided to take up arts and crafts. The ceiling was a splendid replication of the night sky, accurate to every star and constellation during the winter solstice. Little paper dragons and birds flew lazily across the fake sky of their own accord. There was a large aisle down the middle to the register, wearing a beautiful tapestry of The Crystal Empire on the rug. Either side stood three large shelves, with one more on the wall for each side. Every single one was full of beads, bracelets, tiaras, necklaces, horseshoes and more. Some of the more dangerous or lethal looking artefacts were hung behind the register, where a young pegasus mare now sat, regarding them eagerly.
The mare was midnight blue, similar to the façade of the store. She had a long mane and tail and intelligent blue eyes, just like Astral’s. Unlike Astral, she had a aura about her akin to eternal joy. Not unlike a certain pink party pony. The apparent owner of the store trotted from behind the register to greet them.
“Hello and welcome to Astral’s Emporium!” she greeted happily “Pinkie, it’s great to see you again! How’s your latest purchase working for you?”
“Work’s like a charm!” Pinkie replied haughtily, throwing in a wink for good measure
“Oh hehe,” the mare giggled “Clever one aren’t you?”
She turned away from the ecstatic pink mare and immediately noticed the awkward face of Twilight Sparkle.
“Oh, where are my manners?” she said hastily “My name’s Aurae from Canterlot, proud owner of this store. Would you do me the honour of your name, young mare?”
“My name’s Twilight Sparkle,” the new princess replied with a nod of her head “It’s a pleasure to meet you,”
“Ah, I know you!” Aurae said knowingly “You were that little filly back in kindergarten who just couldn’t put down a good book. I’m an avid reader myself, but even I could give it a rest from time to time,”
Twilight blushed from the reminder. Looking back on her fillyhood, a lot of it was cringe worthy, or happy, but never in between.
“Uh, yeah,” she replied sheepishly “Anyway, I’m here to ask you a couple questions,”
“Shoot,” Aurae nodded, taking a comfortable position behind the counter
“Is it true that you are Astral’s sister?”
“Well…” Aurae rolled her head “It’s a little complicated. I guess you can call us family, but we’re a lot closer than that. Heh, I could even be his daughter if we weren’t the same age. I guess the most accurate description would be ‘brain child’ but that doesn’t really make sense either since…”
“Hold on, what?” Twilight was positively buzzing by now
“The way he described it was ‘organic magical emotional construct and blah blah blah. Apparently, I was the product of several spell misfires and failures. The final one gave me a body, and an independent consciousness. Before that I was just a couple random thoughts going around his head,” Aurae explained, gesturing wildly at the insanity of her own claims
“Anyway, do you know what happened to him?”
“Yep, he went to prison in Canterlot,” she stated plainly
“Wait, you aren’t troubled by this at all,”
Aurae pondered for a moment
“I guess I should, but it’s really not in my nature. Sadness isn’t really an emotion I can feel, since Astral’s mind was divided into three a long time ago, and I got the happy side. My sister got the ‘meh’ side and we don’t really talk about the third one…”
“Why not?”
“Let’s just say that at the rate things are going between the Princesses and my brother, father or whatever, you’ll see it soon,”
Aurae paused
“That reminds me, I really have to get to Canterlot. I would’ve gone last night, but some pony bought out the last of my Sigil Wings so…”
Twi’s eyes widened in recognition
“Wait,” she interrupted “Sigil Wings?”
“Yep,” Aurae acknowledged “A really sleek, black pair of mechanical wings Astral invented. Powered by Equestria’s ambient magical field, it could run forever! Nopony has ever bought any before though, that’s why I had only one in stock. The rest is over at the mansion…”
Her eyes narrowed
“THE MANSION!” she squealed, bolting straight into the distance.
*=_/)|*|(\_=*
Twilight flew back towards the ruins of Astral’s Estate, trying in vain to keep up with the blue blur that was Aurae.
The royal siege took a huge toll on the place. The front half of the mansion disappeared in a huge sink hole, revealing the interior of the underground lab, and all the remaining rooms. Wooden and stone debris littered the whole property, the odd magical artefact here and there to add interest. The giant hole where the harmonizer should be, pulsed an eerie, magenta light.
Twilight approached the edge of the crater. The whole thing radiated intense heat. Standing next to it felt like sitting inside an oven. Disobeying her instincts, she leaned toward the gaping earth, and peered into its depths.
She was roughly shoved backwards just before she took a glimpse. Aurae stood before her, a concerned expression on her face.
“What did you see?” she asked worriedly
“Just the light,” Twi answered “Why?”
“The raw, untamed magic down there would most likely kill you,” the blue Pegasus explained with a shrug, looking down the abyss “Down there is so much knowledge that it would burn away your mind to contain it all,”
“So, how are you looking at it right now?”
“Oh Twilight, I was never alive! Not properly anyway,”
“What do you mean by…?”
“Oh come on now princess, there are more pressing matters to deal with than understanding some ancient magic. For now, you’ll just have to ‘deal with it’ as ponies say these days,” Aurae scoffed, waving her hoof “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll have to make a trip to Canterlot to see my sister,”
With that, she strolled off the hill, and down towards Ponyville, Twilight hastily catching up.
“Sister?”
“Of course, you know, a sibling who’s a girl? You’re remarkably slow today Miss Sparkle, as Pinkie has previously noted,”
“Heh, sorry about that,” Twi blushed “I guess this is a lot to take in in so little time,”
Aurae comforted the new princess with a hoof on her shoulder, slowing down so that they walked beside each other.
“No worries dear, it’s taken its toll on all of us,” she sighed “Some, more than others,”