The Sphere

by random reader

Royal Visit

Twilight Sparkle arrived in her palace feeling quite hungry by now. Unfortunately, Spike had not prepared anything for lunch while she was out. Digging into the pantry, Twilight decided to just have a simple grass sandwich and some water. If she was going to uncover the truth of this sphere, she had to be focused, and not weighed down by too much in her stomach.

After eating, Twilight was making her way back to her room, when she saw Spike walking down the hallway towards her.

“Spike, has Princess Celestia sent a reply to my letter yet?”

“No, nothing yet. Perhaps you should try again?” offered Spike “I could go get you some more parchment and another quill.”

“Thanks Spike, I think I will write another letter. Just be sure to-“

*Knock, knock*

“I’ll get the door, Spike. You just go get that parchment.”

As Spike went back upstairs to fetch the makings of a letter, Twilight went down to the front door to see who could be visiting. “At least whoever it is knows where the front door is located.” thought Twilight as she opened the door.

“Princess Celestia! I, uh, hello!” said Twilight, frantically running back into the entrance hall to make sure everything looked spick and span. “Oh no, the Princess is here, and I haven’t had time to prepare! I hope she doesn’t notice the mess.”

“Oh, uh, come in Princess Celestia, sorry about the mess. I didn’t think you would be coming here personally.”

“Oh, it’s quite alright Twilight. In fact, I’m surprised you can keep this place as clean as it is considering how big it is.”

“So, Princess, I take it you got my letter?” asked Twilight, a hint of trepidation in her voice.

“I most certainly did, Twilight, and if what you told me is true, then what you say has me at a loss. Tell me, did you perform any more tests on this “sphere” before I arrived?”

Twilight had to take a moment to steady her breathing. Princess Celestia at a loss? Usually she had at least some kind of idea or theory, if not a level of understanding, on more topics than Twilight had ever researched.

“Well, yes Princess. I’ve tried to levitate the sphere, I’ve tried to transfigure it, teleport it, and change its temperature. None of my spells had any effect whatsoever on it.”

“You said that this thing was in Whitetail Woods, correct?” asked Celestia. Twilight nodded. “Good, then we shall head there at once.”

Twilight’s vision was blinded by a white flash for a moment, and after blinking the stars away, she saw that Celestia had teleported them both right into the forest.

“Can you lead me to it from here?” asked Celestia. “Yes, I remember that it was just past those trees to my left.”

As Celestia and Twilight walked forward, Twilight felt her new found confidence in the Princess begin to ebb away a little. “What if she can’t affect this thing with magic either?” thought Twilight, but quickly shook that thought away. “No, Princess Celestia is the most powerful pony in Equestria. If anyone can figure this out, she can. I hope.”

As the pair reached the sphere, Twilight began to grow nervous again, just from looking at it. This thing just defied logic on every magical level. Like it didn’t even exist to magic, though it was clearly a physical thing to everything else physical.

“Here it is Princess. I’m not sure where it came from, it just seemed to appear there overnight.”

Celestia looked at the stone sphere, brow furrowed. “I can see what you mean about this sphere Twilight, it does indeed make one feel uneasy in its presence. But for now, I’m going to run a few of my own tests on it.”

Celestia lit her horn, and Twilight watched the pale yellow aura surround the sphere. Then, even though the aura rose upwards, the sphere did not.

“Most bizarre indeed. It is as if I am picking up nothing at all.”

Twilight let her head droop at the news. Not even Princess Celestia knew what this thing was. “So, you can’t figure out what this thing is then, Princess?”

“Twilight, that was but a single test. I am far from finished with this thing.” Celestia said, looking far more confident than Twilight felt at the moment.

Celestia then walked right up to the sphere, removed her golden shoe, and then ran her hoof all over it. “It is remarkably smooth, and as you said, seems to be made of granite. But there’s one test I bet you haven’t tried.” said Celestia.

Then Celestia reared up, and began pushing the stone. It was slightly sunken into the ground, but still, it began to roll easily. Then again, Celestia was much stronger than Twilight, and it was probably no problem at all to push it.

“It does seem to be as heavy as granite,” said Celestia, putting her hoof to her chin, “but now I’m going to try a more magical analysis.”

Celestia then closed her eyes and focused. Her horn began to glow, but Twilight could not see her aura enveloping anything. “What could she be up to?” thought Twilight as Celestia continued to focus.
*****

Celestia didn’t notice Twilight’s puzzlement at her actions, as she was busy probing the area with her senses to see if she could detect anything strange. As she spread her mind outwards, she sensed the ambient magic of Equestria, as it interacted with all manner of material things, even the air around them. But then she turned her attention to the sphere, and saw that the ambient magic was just, phasing through it, without touching anything at all. Then she spread her awareness along the surface of the sphere, trying to detect any sort of spell or anything that would cause this.

After finding nothing with her awareness spread out so far, she was about to give up when, she noticed there was a faint shimmer in the magical field coming from a place behind her. Turning around, Celestia probed the area where the sphere had appeared.

“Twilight, there seems to be a sort of spherical disruption to the space where the sphere was before I pushed it.”

Celestia saw that Twilight was suddenly smiling widely, as if it was suddenly Nightmare Night when she was a filly.

“So what does it mean, Princess? Have you found out what the sphere is yet?”

Celestia shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I have not. However, the magical field of Equestria seems to be a bit, disjointed in the area where the sphere appeared, and it is also in the exact shape of the sphere, even after it was moved.”
*****

So, Celestia still didn’t know what it was, but now Twilight finally had another piece of the puzzle to work with. But still…

“But you still can’t tell where this thing came from, or what it is?” asked Twilight, noticing that the Princess grinned a bit at her question.

“Well, I have an idea, but I’m not sure if it’s correct. After all, if it were correct, it would mean a great many theories that unicorn scholars have would have been proven, and a great many more would have been dis-proven.”

Author's Note:

Cliffhanger, lol. All will be explained next chapter, or at least most of it.

Comments

[Mare Serenitis]

Having read what there is of this so far, there's three words that spring instantly to mind:

Outside Context Problem

[random reader]

4894413
Well, as this is my first attempt at writing a fan fiction, could you please be a bit more elaborate in what you mean by that?

[GameHunter]

4894435 I believe they mean you're using the wrong words. I.e, you're using rouge instead of rogue. Rouge means red in french

You're also typing whether, where it should be weather.

[random reader]

4894815
Ok, fixed

[random reader]

4894901
Thanks for the tip. I know I'm a total newbie at this, and still have a lot to learn. Your feedback is most appreciated.

[Mare Serenitis]

4894435
A similar concept was the basis for an entirely unrelated story a fair while back.
And I'm rather curious how this is going to develop, as it's been pretty decent so far.

[random reader]

4895855
The thing is, I already know where I want this story to go, but I'm not sure how to get there without making it seem too rushed.

[Element of Power]

Late comment is late.