Discovering the Past

by Astral Star and Company

Chapter 3: Surprises

The door opened to reveal Charlene, Astral Star’s personal assistant. She was a charcoal black unicorn with a fiery orange and yellow, long, wavy mane and tail. Her eyes were of the same colour and her cutie mark was of a burning book. “Ah! There you are Miss Sunshine, Astral and I have been looking all over… for… you…” Her sentence slowly drifted off as she quickly realised who exactly was in the room.

“Huh, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. How are things?” she greeted folding her right hoof over her chest and giving a bow of respect as she said it.

“Quite well,” the solar princess replied “but, we have many questions for your master,”

“He is not my master,” Charlene replied scathingly “I may work for him, but he is more than my master, he is… my friend,”

“Sure he is, but we would like to have a word with him regardless,”

Charlene merely nodded and gestured for some pony to come inside, without taking her eyes off the regal white alicorn. The door opened a little wider to reveal the midnight blue unicorn that was Astral Star. Mane and tail neatly combed despite his recent arrival from Canterlot, and that smug, ever present grin was painted across his face, a grin not too different from the Doctor’s.

“Thank you Char, now then before we go into any detail, how about we have our present company go on a tour around the mansion?”

Present company started to whoop and talk excitedly as they followed Chest Nut outside the room into the main hall. “You too dear, I’ll see you shortly,”

Charlene nodded reluctantly and made her way out the door. Soon it was only the three princesses, Astral Star, Miss Sunshine and Honour Bound left in the room.

“Princesses? Would it be too much to ask to confer with brother and sister for a moment?” Astral asked

“Be my guest,” Celestia replied evenly

“Much appreciated, now huddle up!”

Miss Sunshine, Honour and Astral bunched up like hoof ball players before a match and began to converse quietly to one another.

“I don’t like this dear sister,” whispered Luna, her nervousness was easy to distinguish in her voice “I have not heard of any beings to which our informants have described,”

“What have you heard about them princess?” asked Twilight “It can’t have been too bad could it? After all, I’ve known them ever since you let me stay in Ponyville”,

“None of it is bad, my student,” replied Celestia, her calm and even tone reasserting itself “but none of it adds up. You see…”

“We have discovered a series of false identities and dead ends when we were looking through the Canterlot archives,” began Luna “When we asked the archivist to look into it, he found even more, some dating back to Equestria’s foundation,”

“Yes,” continued Celestia “and these identities, and the records of their deeds are very strange indeed, but there are similarities and patterns. For example, the false identities always come in threes, two stallions and a mare, posing as a family of every combination you can imagine. A single mother with two colts, a young couple and a colt, siblings, you get the idea,”

“Indeed, and the stories associated with these identities always contain extraordinary feats of magical power and strength. For one instance, a mare managed to petrify a Basilisk, with but a glare,”

Twilight giggled at this, and Celestia shared a smile with her student.

“As ironic it is, the story has persisted in much folklore, so the story is strongly considered true to an extent,”

“But that isn’t the strangest tale we’ve heard, legend has it that when angered, a stallion with emerald eyes would throw a glare to his assailants, causing them to flee in absolute terror,”

“That can’t be true, can it?” asked Twilight smiling a cheeky smile

“Tell that to my royal guards,”

Twilight then lost her playful grin as reality steeped in “Are they dangerous?”

“We hope not,” Luna replied grimly “for our sakes that is,”

*=_/)|*|(\_=*

Meanwhile in the group huddle.

“I’ll tell you this guys,” started Honour Bound “I don’t like it”

“That makes three of us,” whispered Sunshine “I don’t plan on going to jail anytime soon, and after we’ve stayed out of it for so long,”

“I agree,” responded Astral “but if we do not tell them what they want now, we won’t be keeping that streak for very long. Plus, escape is out of the question. Am I right in saying that none of you have used anything ‘extraordinary’ lately?”

His companions all nodded

“Good, we will not use those powers unless we require them, I haven’t use them in a while and who knows what will happen if we use them now. So, are we in agreement?”

Begrudgingly, they all nodded

“Very well!” he broke there huddle and turned towards the princesses.

“Now then, where do we start?” Astral inquired, climbing into a chair and gesturing for his siblings to do so as well.

“How about from the beginning?” replied Luna “What are you?”

“We are ponies,”

He was met by a glare from all princesses.

“Well fine, seeing as there is no point in keeping it up,” He gestured to Honour Bound who nodded readily.

He channelled energy into his horn, imagining his disguise burn away as he did so. His appearance earned frightened gasps from the royal trio, not because he was a changeling, they have seen his kind before, but because of how different he looked from the average one. His form as the average changeling was just another disguise to hide his true self, which was considerably a lot more frightening. He was half a head taller than Celestia, but just as slim. His horn was almost as long as his neck, and more crooked than normal. His eyes were a startling shade of emerald green rather than the light blue from the normal ones, but still lacked any pupils. His wings were very large, sporting a wingspan the width of the room and a second pair one foot shorter than the first. He turned his emerald eyes to the Princesses. Celestia and Luna were trying in vain to maintain their composure while Twilight Sparkle gaped in awe, subconsciously writing down notes at a furious pace. Honour merely smiled at their reaction, a fanged grin that any pony else would have seen as sinister, but not to his family. “Expecting something different?” He asked cheekily, his voice deep and authorative, accompanied by the low buzzing that came with changeling speech. He took their stunned silence as a yes and motioned for Astral to continue.

“Now, will there be anything else?” he grinned cheekily, Sunshine and Honour managing unsuccessfully to suppress their full blown laughter as the Princesses, who for the first time in a long while, were lost for words.

“So, um…” stammered Twilight, the newest revelation has taken her quite by surprise, it’s not every day you meet a changeling, let alone one as big as Honour Bound. “Are you all… Changelings?”

“Of course not,” Miss Sunshine snorted “but it is indeed as Celestia suspects, we are not, who we are before you, there is so much you do not see, and if you did, you would not really understand what we went through,”

She looked over to Luna and Celestia “They do,” she continued “but you don’t… just yet anyway,”

“Anyway, if you want to know what myself in my sister really look like, we will have to bring you over to the playing fields, it can be a bit cramped in here,”

Astral turned and made his way out the door, Miss Sunshine followed suit, then Honour Bound and after a short while, the three princesses followed cautiously behind.

The playing fields were a set of open spaces the size of a hoof ball stadium each, separated by a thin strip of trees. The hosts took their guests over to the centre field, where Astral’s family would play if they ever come to visit again.

“Now then,” started Astral “I’ll go next,” he merely took two paces back, and stared evenly straight at the two princesses,

Twilight has taken a position away from the regal sisters and was now busily making notes next to an amused Miss Sunshine. Before either Celestia or Luna could enquire, Astral dissolved into black fire. This fire turned into sphere of darkness, so deep that the light around it seemed to distort bend around it, and as the sphere grew, so did its effect on the surrounding light. The sphere almost began to touch Luna and Celestia, the latter had to lean back to avoid it messing with her eyesight but Luna seemed drawn to it. Through her eyes, inside she saw stars, galaxies and universes, and endless expanse in this ball of darkness, only the size of a carriage. A little world only she could see, but in her awestruck state, she could not see that Sunshine and Honour were well aware of this miniature multiverse as well. And just as it had appeared, it disappeared, the ball of darkness had dissipated, leaving a flabbergasted Luna, a relieved Celestia and an utterly fascinated Twilight Sparkle.

In its place however, stood Astral, but not quite him as they know him. He was a good head taller than Celestia, but just as slim. He had no mane and tail, and they couldn’t tell if his impossibly dark coat was hair, or he actually made of darkness, even his long, straight horn looked to be of the same material. The only exceptions to his dark coloration was his eyes and cutie mark, the former lacked pupils, but glowed a penetrating white, as if he was always staring at you, or into you. His cutie mark persisted, but now glowed a soft white, like the real moon and stars. The final exception to his apparent darkness were the folds of dark, purple vapour that came off his body, like steam. Twilight finally looked up from her notebook to realise that all the grass around Astral seemed to be dying, but instead of shrivelling up, it turned grey, then shrank, like they were monotoned then re-winded back to seedlings. Again, princesses were struck speechless. The power that exuded from the tall, dark unicorn gave them a great sense of foreboding and fear, quietly gnawing away on the souls of his observers. They were afraid to speak.

“Well? What do you think?”

He found his answer in a trio of terrified fillies bursting from the tree line and galloping across the playing fields, towards the mansion, as fast as their little legs could carry them.

“Well,” Miss Sunshine said, breaking the silence that followed the fillies breakdown across the field “Guess I’d better reveal myself so we can get back to the tour group and sort this out,” She turned to the Princesses “You might want to avert your eyes, it may get a bit bright,”

As she said it, she spread her wings, looked towards the sky, and closed her eyes. White light cascaded from the gem on her circlet, quickly spreading to her whole body, gently lifting her off the ground, without aid from her wings. As she rose, she grew. Despite being cocooned in white light, they saw her legs grow longer, her body bigger and at this point they had to shut their eyes from the heat and warmth flowing out of Sunshine as she transformed. The princesses now realised they had no idea what they were up against

*=_/)|*|(\_=*

Earlier…

“Do you think they’ll be okay,” asked a nervous Chest Nut, letting her normally passive face drop to convey worry for Miss Sunshine, Honour and Astral.

“They’ll be fine, this isn’t the worst thing they’ve been through you know,” replied Charlene calmly

“Yes, but do you really believe those stories? Those foalish stories of fighting Dragons, saving empires and befriending death?”

“Yes, I do, look around Chest Nut they are real, they told us themselves,”

“But we were foals,”

“And now we are not. I believe in them and what they do, so why shouldn’t you?”

“Well, they aren’t too different from the average pony,”

“That they are,” Charlene said, then added “and so much more,”

“Yes but those were in the stories, do you believe in all those foal’s tales they’ve been telling us?”

Charlene stopped and turned to face Chest Nut so suddenly, they bumped noses. “Yes, I do, Astral raised me, took care of me, and now I’m taking care of him. They’ve been through a lot, seen a lot, this very house is proof of all they’ve accomplished,”

“I know, but these are the Princesses we are talking about! The very ponies that can burn it all to the ground if they so choose,”

“Then let’s hope they don’t,” Charlene spoke with finality “Come along cousin! We have a tour to give!”

The tour was going quite nicely, as they quietly made their way through the softly lit halls, and the occasional room. The Doctor did not hold back with his questions which Charlene happily answered for him.

“How is this house lit? I can’t detect any kind of power system anywhere in this building,” exclaimed the Doctor brandishing his sonic screwdriver, a small silver cylinder with a glowing blue bulb at its tip, at his tour guide’s face. “There are no wires, no conduits, no tubes, not even a rune!”

“The mansion is powered using a battery situated deep beneath the ground,” Charlene answered patiently, this was only his eighty-something-th question now “It charges the surrounding grounds with a low level magical field, which the appliances are designed to draw from to gain power, constantly replenishing themselves. It’s a good source of low maintenance, emission free, entirely sustainable and reliable power supply,”

“Can I see this ‘battery’?”

“You’ll just have to wait for that part,”

Chest Nut breathed in deeply, putting her right hoof on her chest, and extended it outward as she slowly exhaled. A breathing exercise taught to her by Miss Sunshine to calm the nerves. It worked, and soon she was trotting along calmly.

“Hey, Miss Nut? What’s that?”

Chest Nut silently fumed at this form of address, it made her sound like a, well, nut. She forced a smile and turned towards the little filly who asked her. Her name was Apple Bloom, she made it to the first and third of Miss Sunshine’s day care services, so the brown mare was quite familiar with her. What she was also familiar with was Apple Bloom and her friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo's knack for breaking things and causing trouble during their ‘crusades’.

“Please, Miss Bloom, just Miss, or Chest Nut will do,”

“Yes Miss,”

“Good, now what would you like to know,”

“I was jus’ wonderin’ what this weird statue thing is,”

“That is a Weeping Angel Ms Bloom,” she replied tersely “Now please keep up with the rest of the group,”

“A WHAT?!?!”

The Doctor quickly leapt over to the back of the group and put himself between the stone statue and himself. The Weeping Angel was a statue of a Pegasus mare, with a long, curly mane and tail. It was also wearing a toga and a vacant expression, its head tilted to one side as if curious, but if one looked closely, they could see groove marks worn into the statue beneath the eyes, as if it had been crying, a lot.

“Okay everypony!” the Doctor said, his voice a mix of forced calm and restrained hatred, borne over years of dealing with this universal monstrosity. “Back away slowly, but keep your eyes on it! And whatever you do! Do! Not! Blink!”

Shrugged shoulders and eye rolls were given by their tour guides, and the only other pony who seemed to know what’s going on was Derpy, who huddled Sparkler and Dinky protectively in her wings. Doctor paused to look back at the rest of the company.

“What?” he inquired “This thing is dangerous! How’d it even get here?” !” he turned back to the Angel and gave a yelp as it seemed to have moved at least five metres closer to the group, frozen in a walking stance and its head still cocked to the side.

“It was brought here by Astral Star,” Charlene replied evenly “It provides additional security for the residents, keep things interesting and are pretty decorative aren’t they?”

“So they are safe?”

“Not even remotely if one were to jeopardise the safety of this mansion. They’ve been… domesticated, by their stay here,”

“Domesticated?!?!?!”

“The battery that keeps this mansion running also feeds the many Weeping Angels that patrol the grounds,”

“Many?!?!”

“The Weeping Angels, since being attached to this food source, lost their need, and eventually, ability to kill or transport ponies back in time,”

“I don’t even… ”

“Like when us pony folk started raising pets like my darlin’ Winona,” Applejack offered “Dogs like her are hard ta find in the wild now, and the ones we have treat us nicely as long as we take good care of them,”

“Guess it makes sense,” conceded the Doctor

“Come on Doc,” teased Derpy “Your just itching to go on another wild adventure, aren’t you?”

“Aw, you know me too well don’t you?”

“Well if you ask me, I think they can use a bit of TLC don’t you agree?” asked Rarity

“Good thing we don’t ask you then Miss Rarity,” replied Chest Nut

“Quite right,” continued Charlene “There are now close to 300 Weeping angels patrolling the grounds right now, it would be a pain trying to clean them all. Plus, the more they are fed, the better they’ll look anyway,” She paused “Now that I think about it, I’m surprised there aren’t any more around. I wonder where they went off too,”

“Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know!” exclaimed an ecstatic Pinkie Pie. Chest Nut took a moment to note the myriad of streamers, confetti and balloons that seem to have materialised as the party pony hopped, skipped and jumped her way down the hall. “Care to enlighten us, Miss Pie?” she asked impatiently.

“They’ve all gone to the big circles to see that big blob of darkness over there!”

Instantly, the Mane Six, Doo-Smith Family and their tour guides were all huddled over by a tall window, looking onto the mansion’s playing fields. There seemed to be close to 100 Weeping Angels on the open ground. Most followed the stepping stones to the centre field while some took shortcuts, including through the tennis court, cricket nets and the occasional one in the swimming pool. It was disconcerting watching these angels since they were so many, and the fact that they only moved while being unobserved. That is to say, they must feel quite frustrated right now, especially the one in the swimming pool, which could swim, but did not have enough time unnoticed to come out, only sinking to the bottom as its splashing drew new observers. They all seemed to be converging on the centre playing field which, unknown to them was where Honour, Sunshine and Astral were revealing themselves, so they dismissed the growing sphere of darkness as something they were simply drawn to.

What surprised them most however were the three little shapes that galloped across the field towards the shadowy ball. These three figures were none other than Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, who have managed to slip outside as the other ponies gazed over the grounds.