Never Meant To Be

by Unknown

Chapter 6

Never Meant To Be

By Unknown

Chapter 6

Twilight paced around the library. She was replaying what she had seen in her mind over and over again, trying to piece something, anything together. It was no use. What she had seen wasn’t... natural. It didn’t even look real. But she knew it had to be; magic doesn’t lie, and she saw the letter that she had sent lying there in that mysterious forest, on top of a pile of dark red and brown leaves.

Twilight was taught to believe that every thing in the world had an answer. Throughout her life, she had encountered many obstacles that seemed impossible, or rather, seemed incredibly unlikely. But every time, she was able to find some sort of answer to the conundrum. Even magic, as mysterious as it was, had a scientific answer. It was something that came from the power within somepony, it was something that could be explained. However crazy it sounded, it all had an answer.

But this... this had no conceivable answer, at least no answer grounded in the science that Twilight had studied since she was little. Wherever that letter was sent, it was not in Equestria. It was not on their Earth. It didn’t even look like it was in their universe. The way the trees and leaves looked, all dark and... detailed? Does that even make any sense? She didn’t even know how to describe what she had saw to herself. Twilight only knew the world she lived in, so trying to explain another world, or whatever that place was, was similar to trying to explain a color to somepony who was colorblind: basically impossible.

It didn’t make sense.

Spike was sitting next to a large stack of books on the other side of the room. He flipped through one, set it down and began again on another book. Twilight had given him the task of trying to find a description that matched what Twilight had seen. Spike really didn’t understand what Twilight had explained to him, but he did his best with the picture that she described.

Twilight stopped her pacing. “Anything at all, Spike?”

Spike finished reading through the book he was holding, put it down, then sat up and stretched, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. “Not a thing. But then again, I really have no idea what I’m looking for at this point.” He looked at Twilight. “You say the world looked... complicated? In more detail?”

Twilight glanced down at the floor, knowing her descriptions were vague at best. “I really don’t know how to describe it, Spike. It looked so... different than anything I’ve ever seen.”

Twilight took a quick glance around the library. She hadn’t really thought about it before, but maybe the best way to describe what she had seen was to compare it to what she did know. She glanced at the wooden wall of the tree. It was smooth, just two shades of color with small, darker brown lines running towards the top of the old tree that housed the library. But the tree she had seen in her glimpse was so much different. It looked rough, darker, with seemingly thousands of different shades of colors. It had deep crevases that spanned the entire tree.

She looked at a scroll that was sitting on the ground. It was entirely one solid, tan color. The scroll that she had seen was, indeed, still tan, but there was an off-yellow look to it, and she could remember seeing the grains in the paper.

The more she thought about it, the more she realized that when describing this new... whatever it was, “more detail” made more and more sense. Yet, with that realization, something else came to her mind: she had no idea what to do about it.

“Spike?”

Spike looked at her, noticing her voice drop a tone. “Yes, Twi?”

Twilight set down the scroll she was holding and sighed. “This is bigger than either of us. I’ve stumbled upon something that, as far as I can tell, has never been seen before. Even with your help, we can’t handle this on our own.”

She started to lift all the books that were scattered around the library and proceeded to place them back onto their shelves. “These books hold so much information, centuries of facts written down for future generations to study and learn from. There must be millions of pages of knowledge that ponies much smarter than me have stored. But nothing in a single one of these books is going to explain what I saw.”

The last book sliding into place and her horn losing its aurora, she turned to face Spike. “We need to talk to Celestia. If anypony would know something about... whatever we have stumbled upon, it’d be her. And even if she doesn’t, there are many, many more books in the libraries at Canterlot.”

Twilight looked at Spike. It had already passed his normal bedtime, and the little dragon was usually asleep at this hour. His eyes beginning to droop, he asked “So, are we going to leave tonight?”

Twilight gave him a little smirk. “Think you can manage? I’m fine with traveling by myself.”

Spike roughly shook his head. “No way, Twilight! I’m not missing out on something this big! I’m coming with you.”

Twilight smiled softly at him. “Sounds good, number one assistant.” She walked towards the door and started to pull on her jacket. “Go get a pillow for both of us; we can sleep on the train.”

Ƹ

The late trains heading out of Ponyville rarely had many passengers. The particular train that Twilight and Spike rode on only had one other passenger who was seated a few rows behind the two. Spike had quickly made himself comfortable and was asleep in a heartbeat, his pillow and head leaning against Twilight’s back. Twilight tried her best to fall asleep, but her wandering mind kept her from shutting down. She kept playing the scene over and over in her mind, like a movie stuck on repeat.

Compared to what she had seen, the world around her seemed so... simple. And a lot more colorful. Everything seemed almost pastel compared to the dreary, dark forest where the letter had fallen. Her world was full of smooth, precise and curvy lines, while the other world was jagged and seemingly random. The more she thought about it, the more it just didn’t make any sense.

Eventually, Twilight grew tired of pondering the same question over and over again, and finally, with the sound of the train in the background, she fell asleep.

Her sleep was cut short, however, as the train arrived at Canterlot just an hour later. Twilight tried to open her eyes, but they refused. After a profuse amount of rubbing, her eyes finally succumed to being opened, and she glanced out the window. Celestia’s sun wasn’t quite out yet, but it was only a matter of minutes.

“Spike.” Twilight looked over at the dragon sleeping beside her, and gently tugged on his ear with her magic. “We’re here.”

The dragon mumbled something as he tried to sit up straight, though he quickly lost his balance and flopped back over onto Twilight.

Twilight chuckled, stood up and used her magic to levitate a once-again sleeping Spike onto her back.

Twilight stepped off the train and began the short walk towards the palace. Celestia was surely awake now, getting ready to raise her sun. Twilight was sure that the princess would make time for her with such interesting information.

Approaching the front gate, the guard standing at the tall doors noticed Twilight. “Twilight! I mean, uh, Miss Sparkle! What in Equestria are you doing here at this hour? Is everything ok?”

Twilight smiled at him. “Yes, everything is fine, thank you. I just need to speak with the princess right away.”

The guard saluted. “Of course, Miss Sparkle. She’s in her chamber, possibly sleeping, but if you’ve visiting at this hour, I’m sure whatever the reason is, it’s enough to wake her.” With that, he used his magic to open the doors to the palace.

“Thank you very much.” She nodded in his direction, and walked through the door.

She hadn’t been in the upper portion of the palace in quite a long time, but she still knew her way around quite well. She passed a few guards, who simply saluted her when she walked by. That first guard must have sent the word along that she was coming. It only took her a few moments to locate the princess's chamber. There were two guards stationed outside the door.

Twilight knocked softly. There was no response. One of the guards looked over at Twilight. “She is probably just waking up to raise the sun. Please, go in.”

Twilight nodded, and pushed open the door with her magic.

The room was dark, the only light source coming from the sun, which was now peaking over the mountain top. Celestia was standing in front of the window, her horn aglow and her eyes closed. She didn’t seem to notice Twilight enter, or rather, she did, but didn’t want to break her concentration. Twilight walked over to the bed and picked up Spike with her magic, laying him down onto the soft sheets. She then made her way to the princess, who was still standing peacefully in front of the window.

“Princess...?”

“I hear you Twilight Sparkle. Please, give me a minute.”

Twilight did as she was told, and went to sit down next to the sleeping dragon. Twilight watched in awe as she watched her princess, her mentor, perform the task that she’s done every single day of her life. It was quite a marvel, actually. The princess didn’t seem to be doing anything besides standing, but Twilight knew she was doing so much more. It was magical.

When the sun was completely revealed from behind the mountain tops, the princess finally turned around and looked at her pupil. “Twilight Sparkle. Of course I’m always happy to see you, but I must confess, I’m stumped as to why you’d visit at such a strange hour.”

Twilight got off the bed and walked closer to the Celestia. “I’m happy to see you as well, princess.” They embraced for a quick hug.

Celestia pointed towards a table towards the other end of the room and motioned for Twilight to sit. The two marched over, Twilight sitting down and Celestia using her magic to prepare some tea for the two. “Now, Twilight. What matter would cause you to travel throughout the night just to see me? Is something wrong?”

“No, princess, nothing is immediately wrong. It’s just... you remember when I sent you the letter with my own magic?”

The princess nodded. “Of course.”

“Well, I was practicing the magic again, trying to send you a second letter. I sent it, but I never heard a response from you. I assumed that I messed up the spell and it went somewhere else completely. So I used a magic origin spell that tracks-”

Celestia cut Twilight off. “Yes, my student, I am well aware of what the spell does. What did you find out?”

Twilight sighed. “I really haven’t a clue. All I know is that the letter didn’t make it to you. And it ended up... in a place which I’ve never seen in my entire life.”

The princess gave Twilight a puzzled look, and stood up from her position at the table.

“Show me.”

Comments

[Unknown]

Hey, got another chapter up! Sorry it took so long, I've been real busy the past few weeks.

First off, I did a little bit of editing to the old chapters, just fixing up a couple of grammatical errors here and there. Thanks to Bronymaster for those tweaks.

This newest chapters was edited by both TheEsperBrony and Bronymaster, so thanks to both of them.

I hope you enjoy the new chapter. If you like it, please pass it along to your friends who you think might like it as well. I'd be ever so appreciative.

[Iron Sides]

Y U HAVE CLIFFHANGERS? Good story man, keep up the good work!

[Master Lyra]

Yes! Yes!
I just love this story's slow progression! It makes it seem a lot more realistic!

[UnintentionalMishap]

Give me more

[Unknown]

739414

Yeah, I am very aware of how late I am with the new chapter. I recently moved, literally, across the country and have had very little time to write between unpacking and job hunting. But don't fret, I will finish it soon! Promise!

[Unknown]

Wow. Yeah. So, words. No words. No words to apologize for the long wait. I hope my new one shot will serve as a good enough apology, but I still feel bad. Life became insane. You know how it goes.

But. Get this. Chapter 7, the final chapter, is 60% done. The beginning is done, the ending is mapped out, all that's left is creating and writing the middle and writing the ending. I ain't making any promises, but I will finish this story. I will, darn it. I'm not naive enough to believe you people still care about this little story, but I'm finishing it for myself more than I am for anyone else.