In one of the highest towers of Canterlot Castle, there was a room where few ever trod. It was a private chamber, filled with trinkets and baubles whose purpose escaped the understanding of many. It was a place where no mere mortal would enter of their own volition, at least without supervision.
A small but bright light flickered on, illuminating the room as a tall, white alicorn stepped inside. As she closed the door behind her with a rear hoof, she twisted her neck to relax the hints of kinks in it and fired up her impressive horn, bathing the walls in a gentle white light. A satisfied smile graced her complexion as the ornate regalia floated off of her body. This wasn't the place for that. Here she could be alone.
A large notebook sat on a nearby desk. Upon seeing it, Princess Celestia picked it up and turned to a middle page. The pages were inscribed with a series of symbols and runes, each signifying a numeric value or mathematical sentence that, when coupled with the extensive scrawls, detailed specific properties of magical fields and flow dynamics. To the normal pony – and even to the most intelligent ones – it would all look like a mess of letter-and-number shaped babbling. It seemed as understandable as a splotch of spilled ink.
Princess Celestia was no normal pony. She had powers beyond the understanding of her subjects. As such, she felt that it was her duty to try and expand all knowledge on magic, all in hope that she could better the lives of her subjects and friends.
And right at this moment, she was close to a breakthrough.
A second spell was cast by the alicorn, and the room around her faded away, rushing by in an oblong blur of color. The dark blue expanse around her would be normal to the untrained eye – it just looked like the Equestrian night sky, after all – but to somepony like her, this was a whole new plane of perspective.
As she wandered further into what she had dubbed 'the Limbo', she began to sense the anomalies. Tears in the dimensional fabrics that made up her surroundings. This was far from an unusual feeling, as she had been here many times, and was familiar with them. In fact, it was for those that she had come here. Each one was notably different. The individual tears radiated their own magical aura. Beyond each of the individual rips was a different universe. Each one was unexplored and unique to the Equestrian viewpoint.
Celestia had discovered the Limbo quite by accident, but ever since she had, she felt that it would be a waste not to explore and study the phenomenon, and reap the intellectual rewards it could offer. If traveling to another realm proved beneficial, it would behoove her to attempt some exploration.
As she continued on her way, she began to sense the precise locations of a number of individual tears. She could not see what was beyond them without actually looking herself, but knowing the locations would help her find out. She let her magic flow through her, powering her presence's movement until it homed in by itself on the closest one. It would be just as good as any.
She stopped just in front of the event and reached out with her magic, attempting to penetrate a small dirty smudge that was almost invisible when viewed against the crispness of the dark and starry landscape. Slowly, the smudge became bigger and more noticeable, until a pinprick of light appeared in front of her.
She grinned to herself. She was getting better at this.
With the expenditure of more energy, the point became steadily larger. When it was twice the size of Celestia herself, she stopped. By then, the image was not merely light any longer. It was a full-blown picture. One of an entirely new world.
To describe what lay in front of her eyes would take more brainpower and a larger vernacular than she likely possessed at the moment. However, this did not faze her as she could always write down what she saw when she powered down to go back to Equestria.
She tentatively reached out a hoof to touch the barrier between worlds, but as soon as it made physical contact, her head was wracked with a jolt of pain. The image wobbled alarmingly even after the headache dulled. A ripple ran through the picture, threatening to erase the portal from existence. With a grunt, Celestia weaved her powers into a stabilizing frame around the edges of the portal. It stopped vibrating.
For now, it seemed that the immortal Princess of the Sun would have to demote herself to a mere spectator.
The prologue is the last chapter Gotta correct that!
EDIT: Forget it. It was because of the direct link on the update e-mail.
Well now where did this come from? A bit late to the party eh prologue?
Prologue is the last thing written in a 26 chapter story.
Oi, a prologue, eh? Good way to add a feel to the story. Prologues are something I am absolutely horrible at. I either write the events going on currently, or write nothing at all.
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It does sound like something he would do.
You cruel, cruel man. You bring up my hopes for a T.D. Misadventure and the crush them under your foot of inhumanity. Now I must weep in dispair until you have done that of which you have promised.
Smexy.
You know, I think the story really needed this. Better late than never I guess.
Loved how well you wrote this chapter, you are getting really good at this.
The Mirror Pool?
Oh this is gonna be interesting...
I consider this a really really short prequel.
2597838 Actually, I think you're thinking of an Epilogue.
Oh yeah, how silly of me. Nice prologue BronyWriter. I does help set everything up.
I was wanting to see the mirror pool or some other hilarious misadventure of TD but prolouges are good to
Prologue at the end = eprologue?
>sees update from bronywriter.
>prologue from nonbronyverse.
>commence read.
>MOAR
Well, that's pretty interesting. This does, however, take away the shock value when Celestia tells TD that his arrival is her fault.
Already read the story...
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*New prolouge*
Oh fuck the facts im going to read that as well
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ooooo
This be teh interestings turn of events here. Celestia, congratulations on buggering up worse than twilight on this one
You know what I think is pretty cool? I noticed your writing getting better and better as the chapters of this story passed.
ERMAHGERD!!! A Prolouge!!!
lol, prologue is last chapter! (Sort of. I know more's coming)
*...Just started and sees comments below and author's notes...* Should I have read a previous story/chapter or something?
2792842 you mean next chapter, he added this recently, after he added the rest of the story. And this is the first of the series.
Your hook succeeded.
How intredasting. Good idea, I'd say. Prologues are always good.
2598279 But then again this is a fair point. The intelligent reader could draw a connection between this chapter and TD's appearance. I wonder how that would change their reading experience...?
Time to delete my memory to find out! There is absolutely nothing wrong with this plan. Nothing at all...
I love this book. I am reading it for a third time as I wait for more chapters of 'TD The Alicorn Princess' and 'Diaries of a Madman' to come out.
This looks like the start to something wonderful.
This looks like it'll be interesting~
Nice work on this.
ehh not the best hook ever but good
Interesting hook. Will keep reading.
10/10 Would print every Chapter and Staple it then read it again X100000 times
Lose brownie point for bashing on Celestia.
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A-fucking-gain.
Decided to come back through and read this thing again, if for nothing else than to enjoy TD punching Tia in the face again.
I begin on another long journey. Another series, another saga, another time.
Forward!
And thats how the conversion beurou started.
Just got this story recommended to me, then I noticed it was a series. Well, once more unto the breach
Okay, I never read this despite seeing it many times, mostly due to being burned by the many "a-hole human in Equestria" stories.
But this chapter, while I understand it was written later than the start of the series, and that may mean that your writing has improved, it also shows a different tone than said fics. So this may be interesting and/or humorous instead of annoying or dull.
Welp, time to start this journey. I usually rate stories based on the first chapter, but since this wasn't actually written first, and it's a mini chapter, I'll reserve that for the chapter after this. So far I'm liking it, though.
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I got a heck of a lot better in writing both in general and with his character as I went along. My goal was never to have him be an a-hole HIE character, more of a guy freaked out and frustrated by his situation.
Woohoo! 4,400th person to like the story!