//------------------------------// // Preview of Chpt 8 // Story: The Untold Past of the Royal Family // by PrinceoftheEclipse //------------------------------// As the princesses were walking toward the Canterlot Archives, Twilight was trying to think about this special little filly Celestia mentioned. What filly in history had gotten her special talent thanks to snow falling? And Princess Elsa flying on her own, Twilight couldn’t wrap her head around that one. She was the only unicorn recorded in history to transform into an alicorn. But after many years of having Celestia as a mentor, she has learned that books only have some of the facts. She knew that her teacher would eventually tell her; if not, the books will. When they arrived at the secret office underneath the archives, Twilight let her eyes gaze in amazement for only a minute. Then she quickly went straight the bookshelf while the royal sisters went over to sit down. “Twilight, it’s the one with all the snowflakes on it,” Princess Celestia told her as she rested on one of the soft cushions in the room. The lavender alicorn nodded, and then began looking for the next book. When she pulled it from the shelf she saw it titled “Making Stars While Making Friends.” It was a dark blue book; the cover was an icy blue vase pouring out multiple snowflakes. Twilight then levitated the book toward Princess Celestia. “I believe it’s your turn to read Celestia,” Twilight said. Celestia shook her head, and then moved the book toward her sister. “I believe my sister is the one to read this specific book,” Celestia said with a comforting smile toward her sister. Princess Luna looked at her sister, then at the book. A stray tear had escaped her right eye and had begun to fall down her face. Luna then shook her head and passed it back to Celestia. “Nay, I believe you should read it sister. I do not believe that I can read this one without getting emotional,” the Night princess responded. Celestia was a little hesitant, but she understood how her sister felt and took the book. Twilight sat down next to Luna, ready to listen as Celestia began to open the book. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Luna woke up early yet again so she could lower the moon on time. Yet another reason why she wanted the night to last a bit longer, so she could at least get some more sleep. “Maybe I should learn to sleep in the day,” she thought. But unlike other days, she was actually a little happier. Today was the day where they went to Cloudsdale for the 100th spring sunrise. As she made it to the tower where she raises the moon, she saw her brother there waiting. “Eclipse, what are you doing here?” Luna asked. “I came to see you lower the moon. I want to see how you do it,” Eclipse exclaimed. For as long as he could remember, Luna had always been his role model. Luna smiled at her brother and proceeded toward her spot. Having her brother there to see her do her stuff; she had a feeling today was going to be a good day. Eclipse watched with eyes of amazement (or eye of amazement, his scarred eye is closed), watching every detail. When the moon was gone, Luna turned to go back to bed for a good 10 more minutes of sleep, but she was then interrupted by her brother. “Luna that was so incredible! How do you do it every day?” Prince Eclipse asked. Luna smiled and began to walk past him, but called back to him. “How bout I show you how someday soon,” Luna said to him. She had no idea how happy she just made her brother. Luna had always been Eclipse’s role model; he loved her determination and the beauty of night she creates. When Luna was gone, Eclipse knew Celestia would be there shortly so he decided to practice his gifts for a few minutes. He closed his eyes and began to think about his family and his friends and how much he wants to protect them. But his mind slowly shifted to his sister that he knew would be there soon. Eclipse’s body began to grow, his hooves became claws, his wings were more bat-like, and two horns grew from the back of his head. When he opened his eyes, he looked down and saw a fire red underbelly along with scales as black as night. He brought his claws to his eyes and he could feel the warmth of his eyes that were now pure flames. Spreading out his wings to see how big they really were. Looking from left to right, he was sure that it was easily a 25ft wing span. He then decided to experiment a little; he closed his eyes again and began to think frost, ice and snow. When he opened his eyes, nothing changed at all. Why not, what was different from last night and this morning? As he asked himself questions, he didn’t even notice Celestia standing 5 ft away from him. “Eclipse,” the sun princess said trying to get his attention. It worked; Eclipse turned his head toward his sister and gasped a little in surprise. “Celestia, I’m sorry am I in your way?” the big black and red dragon asked. “Oh no, I was just wondering what you were doing here?” Celestia asked in return. “Um…I’m just trying to practice a little. I’ve never understood what I could do. And now that I do, I want to be able to control it. Like you and Luna do with sun and moon.” Celestia smiled and nodded, and then she began to walk toward him. She then hugged his front right claw, “I love you brother, and I’m very proud of you,” she said to him. Eclipse smiled back, using left claw to hug Celestia back as best he could without crushing her. “Celestia,” Eclipse said. “Hm,” the white alicorn responded. “Do you mind if I watch you raise the sun?” “Are you going to stay in that form the whole time I do it?” “Yes actually, I told Elsa that she and her family that they could come with us to Cloudsdale today. They need to get there somehow, right?” Celestia giggled at his comment. “True, but how are they going to walk on the clouds? There are 3 Earth ponies and one unicorn, neither can walk on clouds.” “Ah, but don’t you remember the spell Starswirl taught us our first lesson? We can cast that spell that can help them walk on the clouds.” “Eclipse, then they’ll all have wings. You won’t need to fly them there.” “Wrong, we could use THAT spell, but I’m talking about the Cloud Walker spell. You know the one that doesn’t involve wings and only lasts about a day. That way they do not have to learn how to fly. Now can I watch you raise the sun or not?” Eclipse whined. Celestia mentally smacked herself in the face. Of course, she remembered that spell from their very first real lesson with the old unicorn. She blamed her ignorance on the earliness of the day. “Oh, of course you can. And I see you’ve already planned this whole thing out,” Celestia responded with a teasing like gaze. Eclipse blushed; making his night black scales a now more sunset-like color. Celestia then began to raise the sun, with her pink mane flowing in the cool winter breeze. The sun slowly began to rise and Eclipse watched with wonder in his flaming eyes. When the sun was in its proper place in the sky, Celestia then began to leave as Eclipse sat there just waiting for everypony to come back so they could make their way to Cloudsdale. Eclipse waited for a good 10 min when his mother came into view, then he could see the King and Queen of Arendelle behind her. Following them were the four princesses enjoying a little small talk about what Cloudsdale is like. “Now your Majesty, we are very honored by the invitation to come with you, but there is no way we can walk on the clouds,” King Jasper said to the alicorn Queen. “That is where I come in. There is a spell that will allow you to walk on the clouds. My son will be able to fly you there. Oh, there he is,” Queen Lauren said pointing to the black and red dragon that was her son. “Whoa, wait a second, I thought your son was an ice-like dragon,” Queen Maria said. “Surprisingly, he has two different forms. I hardly understand it myself, so I suggest just leave it be,” Lauren responded. The King and Queen of Arendelle looked at their daughters, they both nodded with overwhelming excitement. They looked back to the alicorn and nodded, “We’d be honored to accompany you,” they said with happiness in their voices. Queen Lauren smiled and her horn began to glow. She pointed her horn toward the four non alicorns’ hooves, causing them to glow with a little red aura. “Very well, looks like we are all prepared to go. Now if you would just get Eclipse’s back and we will be on our way,” Lauren instructed. Eclipse crouched down and flattened his wings so they could get on. Surprisingly the dragon’s scales were quite cool, especially for a fire dragon. Princess Anna took the front with Elsa behind her, then having their parents behind them. Each held onto the nearest spike for security. Eclipse chuckled, “Don’t worry; if anyone of you falls I will catch you,” the dragon said reassuring them. He then began to gently flap his wings, lifting them all off the ground. Queen Lauren soon followed him with her two daughters behind her. As they flew toward Cloudsdale, Elsa couldn’t help but feel at peace. She could see her sister just wanting to bounce up and down from how exciting it was to be flying on a dragon’s back. She looked behind her and saw her parents look in so much amazement, they almost let go of the spikes they were holding onto. Elsa loved every second of the ride. Being able to fly with Eclipse again was just magical. It was just a gentle flight with no bumps or crazy turns, with family all at the same time just made it incredible to her. Queen Lauren also couldn’t help but smile as she could see the joy radiating off the ponies on her son’s back. When they arrived in Cloudsdale, they were in awe. The entire city was made of clouds. Anna quickly tried to jump off and walk on the clouds. But Queen Maria quickly stopped her, they weren’t all that sure if the spell worked. Maria gently let one of her hooves step on the clouds. It was soft, but just as solid as a bed mattress. She then let the rest of her hooves touch and surely, she didn’t fall through them. She turned toward her family still on Eclipse’s back and nodded. “It’s safe, you can get off now,” she said reassuring them. Anna took no time at all to jump off and hop on the clouds. She literally looked like she was hopping on top of a bed. Elsa and Jasper could only giggle, then they decided join them on the clouds. They were all then guided, by the pegasi guards, toward the school where the young foals had prepared their projects for the spring sunrise. Eclipse quickly changed back into his alicorn body, that way he doesn’t scare anypony. When they arrived at the school they noticed all the foals, their parents and their teacher already there with their projects. Celestia and Luna began to walk toward them, but soon looked back to their mother. “Go on, it’s your day. We’ll be here watching” Lauren said with a comforting smile. They nodded with smiles of their own and proceeded toward the pegasi. They stood in front of the crowd, both were nervous, but Luna’s face actually showed how uncomfortable she was. Celestia decided to begin this thing, “Thank you all very much for your hard work. After a long winter, it is wonderful to see so many young fillies and colts come up with such beautiful ideas to make the season shine. Now we can only choose one as the sentential symbol, but…” “WAIT!!” All heads turned to the back of the crowd to see a young filly and her mother pushing themselves to the front. The pegasus filly had a light blue coat, with a white and neon blue mane. Elsa looked in close and saw the fillies eyes were a light blue, but they were kind of foggy. Was the filly blind? “Forgive us the interruption, your highnesses,” the filly’s mother said apologizing. “It’s just that…” “I’ve been working so hard, please. I have a gift for the seasons too. And…” “Doubt that,” a pink pegasus filly commented. The three other young royal foals began to feel a little anger toward the rude pegasus. Celestia wasn’t too fond of this filly either, and felt somewhat protective of the light blue filly. So she put on a warm smile and asked, “May we see it?” The young pegasus walked up to them, she then lifted up her hoof to show a shape of some kind made completely out of snow. Her fellow students didn’t seem impressed. “You brought snow? “And just one little dot of it.” “Maybe she brought the wrong thing on the way here.” “Why would you bring snow the spring sunrise?” “It’s not snow, I made a star,” the blind pegasus objected. “A star? You can’t make stars; it doesn’t even look like one,” a young gray pegasus told her. “Maybe it doesn’t look like one, but it’s still a star! It’s a star for winter,” she shouted back at no pony in particular. Then her expression became sadder. “I can’t see what the stars look like up there. Just like I can’t see what spring looks like. But I can hear it all, and I heard the snow twinkling just like the stars do every night. So…they should be able to grant wishes too, shouldn’t they? Winter has been giving us a gift all this time. A…and we’ve just been ignoring it. Celebrating spring is good, but winter can’t be all bad if it gives us these. It may be cold and dark, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any good to it.” Luna was taken aback from the young filly’s words. This filly was describing Luna and her night, and she didn’t even know it. “Maybe…maybe winter is sad that everypony doesn’t like it. So maybe we need to make wishes on the winter snow, just as we wish on the night stars. Maybe then we can have a happy winter instead. We already have a happy spring, and summer, and fall, can’t winter be happy too?” the young filly asked. The parents and the teacher were on the verge of tears, they were touched by this young filly’s feeling toward winter. But she wasn’t finished. “Because winter, its important. Even if it seems useless, it can give us wonderful things,” she finished. Luna was complied to see this filly’s snowy star. “May we see your wishing snow?” Luna asked calmly. The little pegasus raised her arm as high as she could, and Luna grabbed it with her magic and carefully levitated so she and her sister could see. It was really when made, especially for a pony who can’t really see. Celestia smiled and turned back toward the filly. “Could you make us some more?” Celestia asked warmly.