My Little Nightcolt

by nero_33

chapter 1: translation

Once again Art pushed the door to his home open, levitating his bag up to a hook where it normally hung, but missed it by a few inches. He would have gone back and placed it properly on the hook but instead he just walked over to his couch and plopped down in exhaustion.

“Seriously… The chief really needs to rethink his reporting crew. I have to correct half the stuff they bring me and turn the rest of it away. I didn’t even manage to get any of my own stuff done today much less the-.” He suddenly bolted upright. “The book that Celestia asked me to look into!”

He turned and looked over to the book bag he had failed to place properly and spotted the book lying halfway out of the bag. Art quickly jumped up and rushed over, pulling it from the bag and rushed to his desk, grabbing several documents and scrolls from different places with his magic as he went. In seconds he had papers and several other parchments lying across the desk, sprawled out on the floor, and even magically hung in the air. His quill worked across one paper then moving to another paper making notes of one symbol while comparing another one similar to it. Despite how exhausted he was just moments ago, he was now excited enough to continue for hours.

* * *

Art had lost all track of time by the time he had the seventh sheet of paper filled with scribbles and half written notes. Now he was on the 32nd sheet and had thrown several books to the side after finding them useless, replacing them with others. Finally the first sound that brought him from this world of paper and ink was a knock at his door, which received an annoyed look as he let all the papers fall to the ground.

“Always when I’m getting right into the middle of something…” he grumbled as he walked over.
Just as Art was about to open the door he realized that maybe it was Princess Celestia coming by to talk to him about more of the book and quickly removed the annoyed look on his face and straightened up before opening the door.

“Chief?” Art ask questioningly as he saw the maroon colored pegasus standing there.

“Art have you just been sitting around here?”
The unicorn shook his head turning back inside the house knowing the chief would follow him in. “No, I’ve been working on the book that Celestia ask me to look at; since when have I ever just sat around the house?”
The chief stepped inside but only enough to lean against the door frame. “Art, do you even know what time it is?”

Art shrugged as he sat back down at his desk. “It can’t be any later than-,” he said, glancing at his clock. His ears, mane, tail and mouth all dropped as he saw the time. It was already 12:00 which meant he’d worked straight through the night, and now was 6 hours late to work. “WHAT! It- it can’t be I’ve only been working on this for a few hours. I-I can’t already be that late for work!”

The unicorn ran upstairs to check his other clock. Sure enough it said the same thing. He had been working on the book since he had gotten home at 4 the previous day. It was now already 12 and he hadn’t even shown up to work!

“Chief! I’m so sorry; you know I don’t normally do this. I-I just got caught up in the book and all, I’ll come in tomorrow extra early I promise-!”

The chief cut him off as he sighed and raised his hoof to stop him. “Art… I know this isn’t like you; that’s why I’m not mad at you. But I am a little worried. You have never showed up late, and if you aren’t coming in you always call, so when you never showed up… well I figured I should check up on you.”

The pegasus looked over at the mess around the desk Art had been at; already he knew what it meant. Art’s desk had looked like this a few times at the office, and each time it meant that Art was completely enthralled with a project.

“I can see that you are already deep into this… So-.”

The chief was suddenly stopped by Art putting a hoof over his mouth and giving him a worried look.

“Chief it’s only happened this once; don’t fire me because of this.”

The chief laughed and moved Art’s hoof away. “Art, I was just gonna say. You have some days off that you haven’t taken, I was just gonna suggest you take them off to get this little project of your started.”

There was no holding in Art’s sigh of relief as he heard this from the chief.
“Besides, I said it before, you’re the best we got at the paper, where would we be without you?”

Art blushed a little hearing this come from his boss, and bit his lip. “Well… I guess you’re going to have to find out this week aren’t you…”

The chief shrugged his shoulders and nodded. “Yeah guess we will have to find out. So any idea how long this little project of yours is going to take you?”

Art thought about it for a moment and walked over to the desk looking through the papers; he was a little surprised as he saw what he had written down.

“To be honest… I was expecting this to be a month and a half worth of study, and another week of actual translating…”

When he said this the chief began to rethink his offer to let Art off for this project.

“However… I’m actually ahead of what I thought I would be… Working all night seems to have put me where I pictured I would be in a week or so.”

Hearing this, the chief let out the breath he had been holding in.

“This is great news; I should really let the princess know what I’ve managed.”

Immediately Art was searching through papers for a blank one to start a message to the princess when the chief laughed lightly and started to leave.

“Alright then Art, just take it easy. Get some rest too, I can see that you haven’t slept yet and since I know you I’m gonna stop by a few times to make sure you aren’t killing yourself with this work. I can’t risk losing my head transcript just because of some research.” He could already tell that Art hadn’t heard what he just said since he seemed to be off in his own world as he wrote to the princess. He shook his head and rolled his eyes before walking out to leave the unicorn to his work, shutting the door as he left.

* * *

Princess Celestia was returning to her study room when she saw one of the guards leaving the room.
“Your highness, I was just delivering your messages to your desk. We have already checked them and none of them appear tampered with or a danger to you.”

The Princess bowed to him and in return received a deep bow from him. “Thank you, you may return to your post.”

The Guard nodded as he stood back up and walked around the princess. As she walked into the study she gave a light sigh at the thought of having her personal messages checked for anything dangerous, however she knew that despite being the pony who raised the sun and moon, and adored by almost everypony around… there were still those few who did not like her rule.

“I suppose most of this will be from some of the high class ponies, or ponies complaining about not having a fair share of the economy here in Equestria…”

Despite most of her messages being just that, she did delight in hearing from a few who wished to thank her for her duties and for being the kind and generous pony that she was, and even a few letters from the ponies in her magic school; the most common of those were from her own personal student Twilight Sparkle, however she had her own way to send messages so those were often easier to get. The pile today was slightly smaller than most days but she went about sorting them into two stacks, one she looked forward to opening, then another she would probably just write on letter addressing them all and send it to them all. She worked her way through the letters, sorting them into her stacks until she finally came across one that she couldn’t leave to finish sorting through the rest. The letter was from Art, the pony she had tasked with translating the book she believed had a link to something special that may occur in a few weeks. When she saw his name she quickly pulled the paper open and began reading it.
Dear Princess,

I know I had my doubts as to when I could achieve any progress in translating the book in the desired time you ask, however I found myself enthralled in what I came across and lost track of time – and even lost track of the things I had uncovered. I know this has only been a day or two since you left, but already I am seeing several things that I believe you may need to know, along with a great deal more that I do not understand. I believe you may know more about what is being explained than I do. The chief editor has allowed me time off to get this finished so I have a lot more time to work on it than previously believed to. By the time you get this I will probably already have even more that leaves me confused, but it is still progress nonetheless. Below I have encased a few papers with some of the things I didn’t quite understand but I think you may want to know right away. I can’t thank you enough for allowing me this chance to look this over; it has really reminded me as to why I love working with the paper and why I find such things interesting. With luck I may have this book translated by the time you need it done.

Your Faithful Pony

Art

Celestia didn’t realize how much she was smiling until she placed the letter back on the desk, a light shake of her head and she returned to her casual look turning to the papers that had fallen with the message. Using little effort she lifted the papers and looked them over, reading out loud a few of the parts.

“…the waking nightmare walks Equestria unchallenged… Harmony no longer wielded… Lunar corruption… solar elements laid to waste… Everypony’s dreams become their nightmare…” Celestia quickly laid the paper back on her desk and walked over to her bookshelf, pulling out one of her books. “Then I will not be able to save you…”

A look of sorrow passed over the princess’s face as she looked into the books contents.

“I should have never let this come about… Now because of my inability to see how you felt about things I may never get to see you again…” Celestia gave a light sigh and returned the book to its place. “This is the price I must pay for my narrow sightedness…”

She returned to the papers again remembering the second paper that Art had sent with the translation. Slowly she lifted it up and started to look over it, certain that it contained nothing of any more use or any hope of lifting her spirits. As she started reading she began mouthing words as she went, slowly starting to speak out loud as she went.

“When harmony’s link is broken the bearers will no longer maintain its power… However they will find their place in a new bearer’s heart… Though once by unity harmony was maintained, now through friendship it will be regained… Its power as strong as the bearers’ numbers… One pony’s nightmare will return to a dream! This is it! We may be able to bring you home after all…”

Celestia brought up the papers, placing them together again and retrieved the same book from earlier, folding them as she placed them on the inside of the book and returned it to its place.

“Until this little pony finishes the translation I will have to wait… But if it is what I need to return you safely, then I can wait just a little while longer…”

Celestia tried to return to her work, going through messages again, but knew all day her mind would be on what Art had uncovered.

* * *

The desk had gone from a few stacks of papers here and there to an unorganized pile of papers; several hanging off the sides and several more already creating a new stack on the floor. The books he had been using were now discarded to the side, some half closed or still opened as they were thrown to the side. Many pages were now held up on the wall by nails instead of magic since there were far more than Art could handle with his. Art himself was still leaning over the book with one organized stack or papers next to it; these were the translations of the book and not the various notes that litter the room now. It had been a week since he had started – of course he had to stop to eat now and then, and to go to the town library to get more books that would help him on the translating, but those would only stop him for a few minutes. He had allowed himself to sleep once, but when he started again he lost track of where he had been. It took him a while to get back to the place he had been before, so he decided he could rest once this was all done. The chief had come by twice, and the last time he had warned him about getting some sleep, but Art just nodded and agreed to sleep as soon as he left just to satisfy him. Needless to say as soon as he left Art was full back into the book. Now there was another knock at the door followed by the chief opening the door and coming on in.

“Good grief Art… you didn’t do what I said before did you…”

Art was still hoping to pay him no attention until he felt a headbutt on his side and saw the chief pushing him away from the book.

“BED, NOW!”

Art grabbed the book with his magic pulling it along with him.

“Chief look how much I have left, I have fifty more pages to go through! If I go to sleep now I’m gonna lose my place and forget half of the stuff I have done!”

The chief slapped the book down with his hoof and stared Art down. “Look at you kid, you’re exhausted! I know this look from you and I always have to step in when you get like this! Kid you’re a great worker, dedicated and determined to finish things, but you need someone to keep you in line and remind you that you’re still mortal and you need sleep. Now you had better not tell me that you haven’t been eating ether!”

Art’s ears dropped and he looked down like a foal getting punished. “No… I have been eating… But I’m just so close…”

The chief put his head in Art’s face again and pushed him towards the stairs. “And it will be like that when your wake up. Now get to bed kid!”

Art sighed in defeat knowing this time the chief wasn’t going to leave until Art complied and stated making his way up the stairs. The chief watched him go up the stairs and head to his bedroom, then turned and looked at the papers and books thrown about the room, heading over to pick up a few when he heard Art call from above him.

“Chief… Please don’t touch anything…”

He rolled his eyes for a moment then looked up at the unicorn as he peered down at him from upstairs. “Fine, whatever…”

With that he went over to the door and made his way out, barely closing the door and looked back in to see if Art was already making his way back down stairs. After a moment more of silence and nothing else the chief went ahead and closed the door, heading back to the paper office. There was a light shimmer in the air at the stairs then Art’s magic faded as he came in to full view.

“Looks like that camouflage spell came in handy after all…”

An odd feeling made Art look over his shoulders up the stairs where he had been a few minutes ago, for a second he could swear he had seen a small black figure, about the size of a foal. He shook his head again and looked at the same place but saw nothing.

“Maybe the chief was right… I’m starting to see things now… then again…”

He walked back up the stairs turning the lights on and looked around for a moment, searching for anything that might look like the small figure he had imagined. Finally he gave up and made his way back down the stairs again. As he turned his head to look down he saw what looked like a lick of flame disappear around the corner of the stairs.

“Fire… NO! The book, my papers!”

He rushed the rest of the way down expecting to see something lit up with flames, but as he looked around he saw nothing except the flames from a few small candles. He sniffed the air thinking maybe he would smell something burning, but there was nothing that smelled anything like a fire; however there was a reminder that he had skipped a few baths these last few days. There was no sign of a fire, nor was there a smell, and the house itself was actually still quite cold, the way he liked it. He let out a light sigh and hung his head.

“Ok… So I am seeing things now… and I will admit, I’m starting to feel sleepy. I think I should take a bath… it has been a while, and it will help me wake up and stop me from seeing things.”

He took one last look around for any signs of a fire or anything similar, though apart from the candle flames, there was nothing. As a precaution, he whiffed out the lit candles with his magic and proceeded towards his bathroom for a shower.

* * *

Art walked from the bathroom rubbing his mane with his towel then tossed it into a basket as he walked out.

“Yeah, that defiantly helped me wake up, and now I doubt I will be seeing things ether.”

As he walked down the stairs he stopped at the bottom and looked over the mess around his desk; the shower had not only woken him up, it also made him realize just how much of a mess he’d made of the place.

“Wow, I was really out of it.”

He was never considered a messy pony, and usually had a clean house, but he wasn’t overly obsessed with being clean. He took a look over at the book, half covered with a few papers, then turned away from it. The chief was right. It had stayed like that when he woke up; it could probably last a little bit longer while he took some time to clean up. After some cleaning and a bit of organizing, Art stood back and looked at the desk that was now back to its usual look. Despite having taken a bath he still felt a little tired and let out a long yawn. He ignored it for now and sat back down deciding to get back to work and put off getting some rest until after a few more chapters. He spread out a few papers he had started before and placed five more in the air. He managed to return to work and soon began progressing through the chapter, however the closer to the end of the chapter he got the more he found his eyes starting to close. He tried several different attempts to stay awake; from simply shaking his head quickly, to hitting the back of his head with his hoof. Despite all this he soon succumbed to sleep as his head hit the desk slowly. He made one last attempt to stay awake as he barely opened his eyes just slightly, feeling that this time something wasn’t right. He barely noticed when the picture of he and his mother passed in front of him, or rather he moved past the picture.

“What the…”

He tried look around but became much more tired as he did. It was then that he recognized the feel of magic being used on him.

Somepony is using sleep magic!

He tried thinking of anypony he knew that might know any kind of magic that could put him to sleep, but a quiet voice in his head stopped him. I’m sorry… but you’re tired…

He felt like he knew the voice, but he knew he had never heard it before because it sounded like a young foal’s voice. He felt the strength of whatever was affecting him get stronger. Before his head finally fell once again, he caught a glimpse of a small black figure before he finally fell asleep.

* * *

When Art regained his senses he jumped up quickly expecting to have to fight somepony, but no pony was around. He wasn’t in his house any longer, he wasn’t even in Manehattan. He was once again looking at the black landscape and orange sunset of the dream he had become quite familiar with.

“This again…”

He looked around for the one thing that was out of place and soon spotted the Weeping Willow on a hill off in the distance. This time there was no crying sound to be heard. He sat down under one of the normal trees and looked off at the one odd tree sitting in the distance.

“What just happened? I don’t know any unicorn that is good enough to manage a sleep spell like that. Also what would they get from-?”

Suddenly his eyes grew wide as he thought about the only possible reason a unicorn would put him to sleep and carry him off.

“The book!” he jumped up and started rushing around, looking for some way to leave. “No! No! No! No! No! I have to get back, or wake up, or whatever I need to do. I have to keep them from getting that book!”

I’m sorry…

The voice echoed in his head and stopped him dead in this tracks. “You! You’re the pony who put me to sleep aren’t you!”

Art stomped his hooves on the ground and looked around for the faceless voice in his head. “You won’t get the book for long! The Princess has a spell on it that will bring it back to her!”

There was a silence for a moment that annoyed him the longer it went, then, finally:

I- I’m… not trying to take it.
Once again he looked around still trying to find something to put the voice to.

“Then what’s the meaning of forcing me to sleep and carrying me off?”

The silence didn’t last as long this time but there was something in the way the voice sounded that eased his anger a little.

I… I was just… trying to help.

It took him a while to realize the voice didn’t belong to some omnipotent creature, or even a mature unicorn, but had a small squeak to it, like a foal’s voice.

“Help? How are you helping? I’m in the middle of something important and you’re pulling me away from it! You’re defiantly not helping me so who are you helping?” Art sat for a while waiting for an answer but didn’t seem to be getting on this time. “Answer me!”

He slammed his hooves to the ground again, gritting his teeth in annoyance.

I’m sorry… This time the voice was much more timid, sounding almost hurt and injured, even on the verge of crying. You were tired… and you haven’t slept in days..

There was a light sniffle at the end of the words that Art recognized as the one he had heard under the Willow tree several times.

“Wait a minute… You’re-!”

I’m sorry! I wasn’t trying to make you mad. I’ll leave you alone!

Hearing this Art jumped up and reached out as if to catch whoever it was. “Wait! I’m not mad! I just thought that-…” He didn’t bother finishing because he knew whoever it was that he had been talking to was now gone. “Horse apples… first contact with the little guy and I ruin it… but still, what is it? He can be in the waking world as well as the dream world… and he managed a spell like that.” He slowly laid down on the dark grass sighing as he crossed his hooves and laid his head on them. “Guess I have some time to think about this for a while… doesn’t look like I’m gonna wake up for a while.”

* * *

Time passed but Art had no way of knowing how long he was really sleeping for until he felt a familiar comfy object beneath him. It was a welcome sight when one moment he was looking off at the Willow tree then turned away and found himself waking up in his bed. He pulled the covers back and sat on the edge of the bed for a moment yawning loudly. “What time is it?” He rolled his eyes at his own question. “Not like it would matter, I lost track of time during all the work, and cleaning, and… ponynapping, I guess you could call it.”

Thinking back to what happened in the dream he began to question if he should believe what was said.

“I’m going to check on the book… just to be sure.” he found himself slowly creeping down the stairs, half expecting somepony to be there. Sure enough nopony was standing there, and a big sigh of relief came when he saw the book still lying out on the desk. As he made his way over to it he found himself flipping through pages making sure there was no difference in the one he had looked over before he went to sleep. He didn’t find any as he made it to the page he had stopped on and put it back in place.

“Ok, so there wasn’t any dark sinister plot behind all this… but why would somepony do that just because they were worried about me.”

He thought about the chief who had come by moments before the sleep incident. “Well sure there’s the chief, but he’s a pegasus so he can’t do magic. There’s my mom… but that voice belonged to a foal, and she doesn’t know that kind of magic.”

He was going to have to wait for his answer until the day he finally met whoever the pony was behind the Willow tree. That was the only choice he had for now, that is, if he ever heard from that pony again. He pulled himself back up into the chair and was about to get started on translating again but as he looked at the stacks of paper, he began to realize just how much he had managed to get done in the time he had worked on the book.

“I’m… actually ahead of where I thought I would be…”

His mind drifted back to the chief when he had come over and forced him to bed like his mother would have when he was a colt.

“Guess I have overworked myself a little.”

He guessed he had probably slept thought the night as he looked at a calendar and figured how many days he had been gone from work. He saw that it was going on about 2 weeks now.

“By Celestia, the paper must be a mess by now without me,” he said as a joke to himself, knowing that wasn’t completely true but knew that a few mistakes would have slipped through. Finally, after a long while of sitting and looking at the book and going over things in his head, he sighed lightly and closed it. “I’ll be back later, for now I think I’ve lived in my little fantasy world for long enough. I had better write to the Princess first; she is probably wondering why she hasn’t heard anything about the translation in a while.”

He finished placing the last few notes in the desk and started the letter to the Princess, not noticing the small black figure sitting at the top of the stairway.

* * *

It had been a week since Art had finally come to his senses about the mad obsession with translating Celestia’s book, returning to work at the paper and working on the book in his spare time like Celestia had probably expected him to do in the first place. He figured out that he had slept for two days when the incident happened, because the chief had left his house that day and Art had returned to work two days later, even though he had thought it was only the next day. He hadn’t told the chief about the dream or being forced to sleep, partially because he wasn’t sure how to tell him an unseen foal used magic to put him to sleep then tuck him into bed because they were worried about him, but mostly because he wasn’t quite sure he believed it himself. Still Art had returned to a normal work process and still managed to finish the translation in time.

Art left the newspaper offices, giving a nod to the chief as he left and progressed onward to his house. He knew that most likely there was a letter from the Princess addressing his last one to her, informing her that he had finished and was doing a few last minute checks. Aside from being relieved that he had managed to finish the work, and on time, as well as without another odd encounter with the one from his dreams, Art had one thing on his mind and hoped that Celestia herself would be picking up the results and book herself. Usually when translating something a pony would understand what is going on in the book and why it had been written or what its purpose was, this time Art had not been able to comprehend what he had read and written down. For this reason he wanted desperately to know if she understood something he didn’t and maybe she would even let him in on why the book mentioned alicorns quite often, as well as nightmares, darkness, and a few other things dealing what the past of Equestria. But one thing had bothered him the most as he started to find references to the moon, lunar figures, and even odd mentions of a-.

Art’s train of thought was interrupted as he almost stepped out in front of a cart being pulled by an earth pony.

“Man, I have to stop daydreaming when I walk home… that’s the third time this week.”

The mare frowned at him for having to stop her heavy cart there, and Art could only give an apologetic smile to her and make his way around her and on home. He had expected to at least get to his mailbox before stopping in confusion, mostly if there was no letter from the Princess. Instead he found himself stopping as soon as he saw his house – and the royal carriage waiting outside it.

“I really wish she would let me know if she is just going to show up…” he said to himself as he made his way over to the two armored pegasi. “Um… greetings sirs. I take it the Princess is here to see me?”
The two of them looked to one another, seeming annoyed until the one on the left turned back to him and just nodded.

“O…k… I’ll just go see to her then…”

He waited to see if either one of them had anything to say while slowly walking on up to the door and making his way in. As he had expected, the regal alicorn was standing in front of his desk looking down at the book he had placed to the side.

“Good evening Princess,” Art said as he bowed low.

She turned to look at him. “Ah Art, I hope I am not intruding on anything.”

He stood back up and joined her at his desk, seeing that she had already looked over a few things. “Not at all, I was actually just returning from work, you haven’t had to wait too long I hope.”

Celestia shook her head, causing her sparkling, multi-colored, wavy mane to shift about. “Don’t worry about it, I found something to keep me preoccupied while I waited.”

He leaned in over the papers to see what she had already looked at and prepared for several questions about the papers. “Yes, well, I had expected a letter saying when you might arrive but I guess I should get use to these sudden appearances now.”

The princess let out a small laugh and smiled at him. “Let me apologize for that, I have just been quite exuberant ever since you told me you had the final bits translated, and the bits you have showed me didn’t make me any less excited.”

Art was seeing the Princess as a whole different pony after meeting her twice now. Of course she had her regal stature, and an intellectual air about her, but she also seemed to have a casual side to her, one he would never picture on a royal alicorn.

“I don’t know how much you have read so far but if you have any questions I’ll try to explain, but to be honest I have a few… well actually I have a lot of questions.”

As he said this, Celestia raised an eyebrow curiously.

“Hmm… it’s not very often that a translator doesn’t understand what he translates.”

Art felt a little embarrassed at having to admit that he didn’t know what he had translated, but he knew it would be best to be honest.

“Well, it’s like I mentioned before in the letters, there’s a lot about alicorns in it, things that well… I just don’t know about. Also it tends to mention things from foal’s tales and other bedtime tales.”

The princess nodded and turned to the books and several papers Art had scrawled his translations on.

“I see, unfortunately I haven’t read too much but if you will allow me to I would like to stay and read over more of it.”

Art’s mouth dropped as she said this and he realized that would make her a guest in his home.

“Oh. Well. I won’t object to that, I mean, I thought you would pick it up and bring it back to Canterlot.”

Celestia turned her attention back to the book, opening it with magic and brought a few papers to the book.

“Normally yes, however I think it would help if I had the translator here so I can ask questions if need be.”

From what the two of them had just said Art came to realize that neither of them might even know what the book was all about.

“Of course, I don’t mind at all. What about your… er… escorts?” he said nodding to the door where the two guards were probably still outside. Celestia smiled and walked over to the front door, opening it for a moment and leaned out to the guards, talking to them for a moment, Art heard a moment later the sound of the chariot taking off as Celestia came back in.

“That’s better.”

Art started to head into his kitchen before turning back to the princess as she went back to the desk and started reading the pages.

“Could I get you anything Princess?”

While turning another page she glanced back and nodded. “If you have any honey nectar juice that would be quite nice.”

Luckily, he did indeed have some and quickly brought her a glass then sat on his couch nearby, unsure as to what to do now as the Princess sat reading his own work in his house. For the moment all he could think to do was sit and wait for any question to answer from the princess. Page after page and Celestia still hadn’t turned to look at him or even looked away from the book or his notes; he wasn’t able to see her face and was getting curious as to how she was reacting to what she was reading. As time passed she seemed to be going through the pages faster until there were only a few pages left. She finally stopped and looked up at the ceiling, her wings extending out to block his view of her for a moment until she finally turned around and gave him a big smile.

“Art I can never thank you enough for doing this, what I have just read is something I have hoped to find since- well… for many years.”

Art quickly hopped up off the couch and moved towards her.

“I-I-I’m just glad I could help, but if you don’t mind me asking… since you seem to know what it’s talking about. What is it talking about?”

Celestia gave him a look telling Art that she was picking her words carefully. “Art, there are things in this book that haven’t been addressed in many years, mostly things we alicorns have decided best to leave forgotten.”
This confused Art but not about the book, or what was in it.

“There are… other alicorns?”

Celestia nodded and continued. “Yes, there are a few others, though when I say few I do mean few.”

This was a surprise to Art for as long as he had known their Princess was the only alicorn they had known.

“Then may I ask why you needed this finished by the end of this month, is something going to happen?”

He was sure there was nothing to worry about while he had been working on the book but when Celestia turned her eyes away from him he had a bit of fear creep up in the back of his mind.

“I cannot say… this knowledge however has made things less complicated and has helped me understand a bit more of what I am going to need to do soon.”

The way she said this didn’t help the small bit of fear that had now spread a little more. “Princess… I know I may be asking a lot, but I think since I helped here… I would like to know a little more about that’s going on, or what’s about to happen.”

Celestia closed her eyes for a moment seeming to think about what he had just ask, before finally sighing and returning her gaze to him. “I’m sorry Art, but I cannot give you that information right now.”

It took a lot of self-control to keep himself from demanding more but he knew this was the ruler of Equestria, and that if she was refusing to tell him something then he had no right to demand that she tell him even if he had spent the time he did in translating the book.

“However…”

Art’s hopes rose slightly when Celestia said this.

“I do believe without your assistance in this I would not know what I know now, there for I will agree that you should know what I can allow you to know.” She went over to a nearby window and looked out towards where the sun was placed in the sky. “You are familiar the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration.”

Art nodded and answered her question. “Yes, I did the article on the last one you had in Manehattan.”

Celestia nodded and smiled. “And you were quite generous with your depiction of the raising, however this year it is being held in a small town. Ponyville.”

Art had seen mention of the town a few times, mostly depicting it as a nice quite town, perfect for an older pony to retire to.

“I would like to answer all your questions there; perhaps there you will understand it better than if I told you here.”

Art’s habit of working with the paper urged him to get the information now, but he had to remind himself that this wasn’t for an article and that once again this was the Princess and he was not in the position to demand information from a pony like her. He finally sighed in defeat and nodded. “Ok, I’ll look forward to seeing you there then.”

Celestia bowed and Art returned a bow as she started to leave, carrying the book and papers out with her.

“I will get tickets with the train station for you to leave for Ponyville in two days but I would like to have you stop in Canterlot first and review a few things with the ponies I have had working on the other two books, perhaps you can show them what they were missing.”

Art nodded and followed her to the front door opening it for her. “Of course Princess, and if you wouldn’t mind I would like to take a look at the other two also.”

“I was hoping you would do just that, I also believe the lead pony of the research team has an offer for you. I would love to stay and continue speaking with you but it is getting late and it is almost time for me to set the sun lower, so I will bid you farewell for now.”

Just as she was about to step outside Art called out to her once more.

“Wait, I know you said you would tell me what you can in Ponyville… but I have to ask about one thing that caught my attention the most. Princess… you used to have a sister didn’t you?”

His question stopped her in her tracks but she hadn’t turned to look at him, leaving Art to wonder if he had asked the wrong thing. Finally she stepped out the door and unfurled her wings. “I’m sorry… but I do not wish to speak of that right now.”

Art’s ears lowered as he realized it was indeed a touchy subject he had feared it would be. “Oh… yes, I apologize.”

She lightly flapped her wings and left. Art slowly turned back into his house and closed the door as he crumbled to the floor. He wasn’t emotionally bothered by the talk he had had with the Princess, he was exhausted from trying to remain proper that whole time, trying to remember everything his mother had told him about standing straight, proper bowing, and speaking in the correct way.

“By Celestia! How am I going to manage being like that all day at the Castle?!”

Author's Note:

a big thanks to HeartShield my self appointed editor, he choose to edit the raw version of this before i looked it over for flaws and such myself and really put alot of work into correcting my mistakes. if u like this be sure to thank him for the effort he put into it and providing me with a cover for the story.Heartshield

Comments

[FatesWinds]

Even though you're having trouble putting the cover up
Thanks for the plug too Of course, I'm currently on hiatus for anyone looking at this. My computer is giving me troubles and due to that, random stuff with life, doing art for this guy and editing (along with writer's block. severe writer's block) Change the Heart will most likely be on hold for a month or two.
Don't be afraid to bug this chump about putting up new chapters though if it takes a long time, I don't want him to go on hiatus too just because I'm unable to do my job as editor (and he's threatening to not put up new ones until I get new chapters up too, so be extra sure to bug him to get his up for me )

[FatesWinds]

1906061 Plus you make it sound like you have hundreds of errors that I fix. Other than just a few bits of those words I'm trying to train you out of mixing up, and a capitalization bit here and there, your chapters are the way they end up on here. That's pretty much all I do, well, that and figure out where in the giant paragraphs you send me am I supposed to break it into different ones