//------------------------------// // Chapter one: a Unicorn and a Pegasus // Story: Ancient Elements // by Akataja //------------------------------// Celestia remembered the town she was born and raised. Sunspeek was a town built on a mountain, it was hard to reach without wings or magic. The entire top of the mountain was covered with buildings, made of glass and stone and some crystals. About 70% of the ponies were Unicorns, the rest of the citizens were Pegasus. The only Earthponys around there were some merchants. Celestia also remembered the day after her 18th birthday, she was all excited and run through the streets of Sunspeek, her destiny was the royal observatory of Queen Solar. Solar was a beautiful Alicornmare, all powerful and impressive, she had the power to move the sun and was the most skilled magician in this time, with even more knowledge than her husband king Arthemis or the royal first Wizzard Professor Starswirl. Celestia was always looking up to her, she was fascinated by her and the sun. Back then Celestia was just one of many magical students under Professor Starswirl, nothing special about her white fur and the pink mane, she not even had her cutie mark. She always tried to come out of her sisters' shadow. Luna was younger than Celestia, but the 14 years old filly was already a member of the MoonGuard, the air force of Equestria under the eyes of King Arthemis. Lulu was one of the fastest Pegasus in Sunspeek, a true wonder, even when she was just a Pegasus, the unicorns of the city respected her. Celestia had to be honest, she was a bit envy, her sister could go to the palace every day and see the royal couple whenever she wanted and she had her moon-shaped cutie mark since her 5th birthday when she was flying for the first time at the moon's light. But Celestia loved her sister like nopony else because she was any family she had. Their parents died soon after Lulu's birth and the two sisters had to stand for each other. Celestia was still envy, but she was also proud of her sister and a bit sad, she was so miserable as a big sister. But today should anything change, she was 18 now and wanted to show her whole class how much she learned about magic. The great hall was filled with Unicorns, including Professor Starswirl and Queen Solar. It was the day of the great final exam and Celestia was number eight this day, she was nervous to perform in front such a great crowd, she was never the best wizard but today she wanted to shine. That’s why she picked this difficult spell. She cleared her throat in front of anypony and spoke clear and loud “I will show you the spell... of the Suncrystal.” The word made the crowd gasp, this spell was very difficult and nothing for beginners and students. It was designed to create a little crystal, which included some suns power. “Are you sure about that, child?” asked Starswirl, he seemed very worried. “Yes I am, Sir Starswil, professor, Sir.” Answered the white unicorn. Celestia was always a little bit clumsy and not the so called star of her class, some ponies even thought that she came only so far, because Professor Starswirl has sexual preferences for white mares. Celestia knew about these rumors and wanted to prove they wrong. There was no chance that this could go wrong because her great role model Queen Solar was watching and it was the best chance to prove her worth. It was a shame that her sister was not here to watch her, but Lulu was part of King Arthemis personal guard, so she had no time. The only important thing now was for Celestia to succeed, so she concentrated and used the magic of her glowing horn, she wanted to ignore the nicknames the other student were shouting to her. “Clumlestia.” “Celoosia.” “Fake Unicorn.” That wasn’t fair, maybe she was bad at magic, but nopony worked harder than her, that was the reason that Professor Starswirl helped her through the exams because he knew that she was reading every book out of the library twice, because she used all her spare time on learning. Her knowledge about magic was average, but her practical skills were very low. But today it had to change, today was the day her hard work would pay off and her whole life would change in a magical matter. When she gathered her magic, the spell started to work and the suncrystal appeared slowly, anything worked fine and Celestia could already see her new life! For 15 seconds, after that, she lost control and the gathered magic exploded, she blew up the whole hall. The golden crystal broke and the flames came out with a huge explosion. Celestia transformed one of the oldest and most important buildings of Sunspeek into a smoking hole in the ground. Nopony was harmed, thanks to Solar's protection spell, but Celestia failed again. It was a big epic fail, far too much for an adult mare, it was the last drop, that made the barrel overflow. It was the end of the line and she was lost, the city rules were clear, a unicorn had to use its magic for the towns good and contribute, but Celestia was not able to do this. She had to go. She was a burden for the city and she blew up the queen's favorite workshop, she was not able to control her magic. There were only two possibilities: offering her horn and her magic, to find a job she could do without magic or leaving the town. Of curse, she could handle a hornless job, but she loved to do magic and she could not life without her magic. It was the one thing she inherited from her parents and whenever she tried a spell, she had the feeling of being home, the feeling that this was just the right thing to do. Normally the whole process could take years, but Celestia did not want to be a burden for the town, and so she left Sunspeek on her own. It was at sunset when she walked over the magical bridge and looked behind her, she could see the guards and Queen Solar, some students were there too. They said nothing, sure, they made a lot of fun of her, but none of them wanted to banish her from the city and into the wild. The moment she left the bridge and all of her hooves touched the ground outside of Sunspeek, the magical bridge vanished and a huge abyss separated her from her hometown. She was sad and wanted to cry, but maybe this was the best she could do, she doesn’t want to bring more shame on her families’ name or “LULU!” Celestia gasped when her sister flew out of the city and dashed next to her to the ground, she was that fast, that she drew a light blue shade behind her, the color of her mane. She was wearing the chest plate that any of the moonguards had to wear. “What are you doing Tia!?” gasped the dark unicorn “you get yourself banished just because a little fail?” “It was a big fail.” Said Celestia calm “Pffff, so what? Let me speak to King Arthemis and shove your flank back at home!” “No, Lulu!” Celestia yelled at her little sister, it was hard to fight the tears and stay calm at the same time. “What!?” Luna was really surprised. “Don’t you see it?” she wasn’t able to hold the tears any longer “I am the big sister! I should help you! Not this way around.... I am a total failure and just a burden to you.” “But... but you are my whole family... we are sisters... I love you, Tia.” “I know and I love you too.” She hugged her sister. Now booth sisters had to cry, Luna could feel her sisters fur on her body, she was all soft a warm and her breath was stroking over Lunas back, she could feel the warm air to the root of her sensitive wings and had to do a little flap with them while she was listening to her big sister's heart beat. She couldn’t remember her mother or father, but she was always thinking that a mother's love had to feel exactly like that. The dark Pegasus was never a big fan of showing emotions and talking about these things, so she could never talk about her sister, how much she loved her, what she means to her and that she was way more than just family, she was her best - and maybe only - friend. Luna was very popular, the youngest member of the moonguard, with the best grades at flyschool and she was a regular visitor at the royal couple's side. It looked like she had a lot of friends, but that wasn’t true. She had a lot of fans, but no friends. Her Sister Tia was the only person she could talk to, the only person she could trust. She wanted to beg her sister not to go, but she had too much pride, it was hard enough to cry in front of her. “So... so it is enough, right?” Luna asked and wiped a tear from her eye with her wing. “We stop that whole nonsense about you leaf.” “I am Sorry Lulu.” She wiped one of her tears away “but that is not possible... I have to find my way... iˋll be back, I promise.” She gave her sister a gentle kiss on her forehead “you have so many things here... the moonguard, your fans... the king needs you. When I come back, I will be a good citizen, like you and from this moment on, you will have the big sister you earned.” She turned around and lost a tear “and now go.” “But... Tia... I...” Luna did not know what to say. “NO!” Celestia stomped on the ground “Now go back! You have a life back there... me not.” Celestia did not look back when she stormed away. She could hear her sister's wings flapping away, she was alone. She was all alone now, no friends and no family, but this was how it should be, right? Of curse her heart hurt, tears were flowing and her whole body was shaking in fear. Where should she go? Bamm! Something hit her from the side while she was running. It was Luna, she dashed to her and hugged her sister tight. “Luna!?” Celestia was surprised “I can't come back.” She tried to hide her tearful face. “You don't have to.” Lulu let go of her and took a step back, so her sister could see she wasn't wearing her plate anymore “I will come with you.” “What? But Luna what about-“ Luna put her hoof on Celestia's mouth “without you, there is nothing for me in that town.” She said crying “I just want to be at your side! You are the only sister I need and I want!” Celestia hugged her sister, there was nothing she could say and there was nothing that needed to say. It was silent around the two of them, the two mares were lighted by the moon. It was the first time since her early fillyhood that Luna was so emotional and it was good, it was like she lost a heavyweight. She was surrounded by her sister's warmth and she could smell her light scent, it smelled a lot like paper and ink, Luna imagined the smell of her mother like that, because she was also reading a lot like Tia. Luna hugged her big sister with her wings and Celestia could smell that light scent of sweat and metal, lulu smelled a little big like her father and her strong wings had the same feeling like her dads. It was a nice moment for the mares. After a while, they walked the path for about an hour and took a rest at the edge of a deep forest. Luna collected some firewood and Celestia used a simple fire spell to ignite the campfire. They talked about what would happen next, Luna was known as a fearless all-star, but she was scared about the future. “Where should we go? Where can we go!?” asked the Pegasus filly and cuddled closer to her sister. “I don't know... there is an Earthponys-village just a few days from here.” She gently nuzzled Luna's ear. “But the Earthponies hate us! I see it every time when they came to trade.” “We could talk to them?” “I don’t think this could work... is there no other place? A place with unicorns? Or maybe one of the cloud city’s?” “I can’t walk on clouds... silly filly.” She whirled her sister's blue mane with her hoof and Luna giggled “And the next city of unicorns is far away... well... unless....” “Unless what?” Luna asked curiously, she did not know about any other city near to Sunspeek. “There is a legend.” “Another fairy tale from your books?” Luna sighed. “A legend!” “What’s the difference?” “A Legend is based on real happenings... I speak about a hidden village here in this wood.” “A hidden village of Ninjas???” Luna's wings spread, she loved any action novels and story’s about fighting and stuff, she was fascinated by story’s about GryphinNinjas “Jutsu of the hidden fire!” she put her hoof in front of her mouth and blew a little "ha! you see! Fireball Jutsu!" “Ehm.... no....” Celestia blushed a little, she knew these novels and loved them too, but she was way to old for this kind of games, or not? “meet...” Luna put down her hoof to cool down her chakra “don't tease the magical fox beast inside of me.” “It's a hidden village of banished unicorns!” Celestia had to fight the urge to talk about the novel, but it had too many pictures for a mare of her age... or not? “What? That sounds like something you just came up with it.” “I read about it! Queen Solar and King Arthemis had to banish a clan of Battleunicorn” “Battleunicorns!?” Luna interrupted her sister, her wings did a little flap “you mean unicorns that were trained to use the magic for the battlefields? Warlocks and Necromancer and such stuff!?” Celestia had to sigh “yes... but using magic in combat against a huge number of enemies is very difficult, the most unicorns need all the potential to make it and can't learn anything else. The Battleunicorns of Sunspeek were real mighty wizards with huge power, but they were also brutal and cold. Some of them grind they horns to blades, so they could impale the enemy in close combat. They were wearing plates made of iron and had long wild manes. They protected the city against monsters and ponies... But they were banished.” “Why? They sound real awesome! I want a blade shaped horn too! Or maybe a horn-shaped blade?” “They tried to conquer Sunspeek and kill the royal couple... but they had no chance against the combined force of moon and sun and they lost the great battle and were banished. This battle forged this great canyon around Sunspeek and thanks to the canyon the city had enough protection and Sunspeek did not need any Battleunicorn anymore. The legend says that they walked into this forest, the Everfreeforest.” “And nopony can find the village?” “It's hard so sense magic in there, the Everfreeforest has its very own magic.” Booth mares shrieked around when they heard something behind them and someone came out of the bushes. “It's simple when you are used to it.” spoke a deep voice. It was a stallion with a black long thick mane and dark gray fur. His green eyes were glowing in the fire's light and his plate armor seemed heavy and massive. He was wearing a helmet that looked like a crown and from his forehead sprout a horn, a blade-shaped horn! The two mares were back on their hooves with one jump and glared at him, Celestia's horn was glowing and Lunas Wings were spread and ready to take up the fight. “Who are you?” asked Celestia ready to use her magic, but unsure what would happen. The Stallion let out a charming giggle and smiled at the two mares “slow down lady's I won't harm you... at least not as long as you don't want it.” he winked at Luna and the dark Pegasus blushed “I came by and saw your fire... and I had to listen to your little story... it was so... enchanting. But I am so rude right now, please have mercy.” he bowed his head to the ground, the tip of his horn was nearly touching the grass “I am the third son of King Jupiter, my name is Prince Sombra.”