Legacy of the Pegasi
Chapter 2: Histories and Mysteries
Twilight Sparkle meandered through her library home, dusting shelves and replacing several books that had all of a sudden seemed out of place. Using her magic to levitate several old tomes, the unicorn frowned slightly. All history books, hmm. So where should I put these...
A lavender unicorn, Twilight had been sent to Ponyville to study under orders from her mentor Princess Celestia, who believed her student could use more “social interaction”. The result was not only the defeat of Nightmare Moon upon her return after one thousand years, but securing the friendship of five others who had become her best friends. In the time since they had gone on various adventures both large and small. Today, however, was not shaping up to be one of those days.
“Aha!” Twilight exclaimed out loud. She spied an open space in the history section of the library. Her magic deftly placed the books snugly along the others, completing the row, section, and as a result the rest of the library.
“There. All done! I've successfully re-shelved the entire library under a completely new and innovative system!” The purple unicorn forced a smile, trying to take pride in her accomplishment. It quickly faded. “Oh, who am I kidding”, she said despondently, seating herself in the center of the library floor. “I'm bored out of my skull.” Twilight risked a quick glance to the clock overhead. “And its not even noon.” She groaned, raising a hoof to her face in frustration.
The lavender unicorn glanced out the windowing chuckling to herself. “I suppose its pretty bad when Ponyville's resident bookworm and study-nut is actually looking for a little action. Rainbow must be rubbing off on me.”
Twilight rose, walking over to the window. In fact, I'd actually welcome a little commotion around here, the mare half joked mentally.
As if on cue, Twilight caught the telltale sign of a rainbow trail in the sky. However, unlike the cyan mare's controlled and impressive stunt flying, Twilight made out an increasingly erratic and haphazard flight pattern. “Rainbow? What the hay is going on up there?” Twilight wondered out loud. As the librarian was still watching, Rainbow suddenly took a nose-dive, picking up a tremendous amount of speed. She was heading right for the library.
Oh, buck. Twilight thought at the last second as Rainbow Dash crashed through the window. Both unicorn and pegasus tumbled throughout the library, toppling several shelves and splaying books all over the room. Both ponies found themselves buried under a pile of books.
I take it back. I like boring. Boring is fun.
A groan came from behind Twilight as she dug herself out of the mountain of books. Turning around, she eyed a tuft of the pegasus' rainbow colored mane. “Rainbow, are you alright?”
“Ugh. Yeah, never been better.” Came back a sarcastic reply as Rainbow Dash staggered to her hooves.
“Are you sure? Outside the fact that you failed to use the door, again, you looked like you were having a hard time out there.”
Dash sighed, sitting down next to the unicorn. “Yeah, yeah I'm fine.” The cyan mare said in a stressed and tired voice. “I've just been having a rough couple days. Trouble sleeping. No biggie.”
It was only then that Twilight took a good look at her friend. Dash had wrinkles and bags that hung under her eyes. Her mane was knotted and disheveled, and she even seemed to have difficulty concentrating, let alone flying. It looked more like she hadn't slept in weeks.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Twilight gave Dash a concerned look. While upset about the state of the library, her foremost concern was for the well being of her friend.
“Nah, I got this.” Dash flashed a cocky, if not tired grin. “But I do need help with something else.”
Twilight perked up slightly. At least she had something to do now. “Of course. What is it?”
“Well, the Wonderbolts' next show is here in Ponyville in a couple of days, and I was wondering if you had any books on advanced stunts?” Rainbow looked at her friend hopefully.
“Oh.” She had been expecting something else. While Rainbow Dash had read all the Daring Do books cover to cover, she hadn't taken up anything else. And as far as stunt flying went, she had preferred to create her own moves rather than copy others.
“I'm just looking for some inspiration, I really want to knock em' dead with some new stuff.”
“I know I've got something here, but I'd think Cloudsdale would have a better selection.” Twilight stated, wading through the sea of books.
“Its cool, I'll take whatever you have.” Rainbow responded, leaning up against the now empty history bookcase that she had crashed into earlier.
A lone book dropped from the top shelf, flipping open as it landed next to the cyan mare. Startled somewhat, she stared down at the book. The first thing that caught her eye was a picture of pegasi. But they weren't anything Rainbow had seen recently. In fact, the three foremost displayed in the picture were garbed in ancient armor. Well that's weird, she thought casually, trying to ignore the tug in the back of her mind. She glanced at the top of the page for the title.
Pegasi: A History.
Ah, should've figured. Rainbow thought, brushing the book aside. History had never been her favorite subject in school. Scratch that. School had never been her favorite subject, outside of flying. Yet, in this particular instance she found herself drawn to the book, specifically the picture. Pulling the dusty history in front of herself, Dash gave the page a second look. Again, she immediately looked to the three pegasi. For some reason the more she looked at the picture, the greater the nag in the back of her head. The three seemed to be in Cloudsdale, when it had still been a military outpost. In the center was obviously the leader, flanked by two lesser, but still impressive pegasi. Why do they seem familiar? Rainbow thought, reading the caption below.
“Commander Hurricane and his Lieutenant's Lightning Streak and Ice Wing at Cloudsdale after the unification of Equestria.”
Huh, so thats why. Rainbow thought. Yet the uncomfortable feeling in her mind remained. She looked back to the photo. The three were posed among others, and stared off into the distance, almost as if they were, staring at me? An involuntary shudder ran down Dash's spine. The more she looked at the photo the greater sense of foreboding seemed to surround her. It felt very much like the stress she had felt throughout the past weeks. Okay, this is weird. Dash thought, trying to pull away. But her curiosity got the better of her. Commander Hurricane and his Lieutenants maintained their intent stare. While the pegasi around them were in celebration, the three were not so jubilant. Rather, they seemed to have a sense of grim urgency as they bored into the cyan mare. It was almost as if they were trying to tell her something. Like at any moment they would call out-.
“Rainbow?”
Dash jumped slightly at the sound of Twilight's voice, quickly sliding the book aside. She could feel her heart racing, but did her best to hide it. A little too late however, the librarian caught sight of the open book.
“Oh Rainbow, I didn't know you liked reading history!” Twilight exclaimed, peering at the book. "I've always been so interested in reading up on Earth pony and pegasi history, but you know all they had at Canterlot were unicorn books, and well my magic studies took all the rest of my time...” Twilight continued to ramble, though Rainbow seemed to take no notice.
Sound seemed to drown out as her eyes strayed back to the picture. Her eyes widened, darting to the pony on the left. Did that picture, that pegasi, just... move? It had barely been there, just a fleeting second, but Lightning Streak's wings had twitched ever so slightly. That or I'm nuts.
A faint whisper touched her ear. Beware. Rainbow Dash twisted around in fright. No pony was there. In fact she was alone. “Twilight?” Rainbow called out, a tinge of fear in her voice. The library had suddenly gone dark, as if it were the dead of night and Ponyville abandoned.
It will return... the ghostlike yet not unfriendly voice called out again, stronger this time.
“Oh buck, what the hay is going on!” Rainbow darted around the room trying to find an explanation. This is gotta be one of Twilight's spells gone haywire, she thought in vain trying to reassure herself.
Please. The voice called out from the book, pleading.
Rainbow froze. This wasn't a threat. The cyan mare felt at a slight tug at the Loyalty within her. But there was something else also, something greater within that compelled her to return to the picture.
Returning to the book, Rainbow dared herself to once again look at the picture. She nearly gasped out loud.
Lightning Streak looked directly at her, a mixture of concern, determination and urgency upon her face. She could hear the voice within her head as Lightning's eyes quivered ever so slightly.
You must prepare. Find... the others.
“For what? Who?” Rainbow called out fruitlessly.
He will return. The pegasus Lieutenant echoed forebodingly into Rainbow's mind. The storms will return.
“The wha-.” Rainbow started to question, just as images of a colossal storm over Cloudsdale flashed through her mind. A pang of sorrow wracked through her as the images began to overwhelm her. The Twin Storms. Rainbow dropped to the ground, her strength leaving her. Her vision began to fade, the last image she saw was the comforting smile of Lightning Streak.
Find her. Find him.
“Rainbow? Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow's eyes opened slowly. She was on the floor. What in the hay was that? She thought, groaning as she slowly raised herself up.
“Are you okay?” Twilight stood beside her groggy friend.
Rainbow brought a hoof to her head. “Yeah, I-” The cyan mare cut her response short as she glanced below her. The picture looked back up at her. Moving frantically she slammed the book shut, sliding it away from the two ponies.
Twilight gave her friend an awkward look.
Looking up, Rainbow did her best to recover, giving her friend an exaggerated smile. “So, uh, so what exactly happened?” Dash asked as innocently as she could.
Though still somewhat dumbfounded, Twilight decided to ignore the pegasus' curious behavior. “Well, you sort of just dozed off, sitting there. Next thing I know, you're on the ground, passed out.”
“For that long? You could have woken me up Twilight, I've got a busy day ahead.”
“Rainbow, you were only out for a few seconds.”
A lost and confused look came to Dash's face. “All that, in just a few seconds?” Okay, this is really weirding me out.
“All what?”
Rainbow snapped back to the lavender mare. “Uh, nothing. Just a dream. Hey! Did you get the book?” Rainbow said quickly, hoping to stave off any of Twilight's questions.
“Uh, yeah.” Twilight eyed Rainbow warily, but it quickly faded. “It was buried all the way in the back. Figures; no one's checked it out in ages.”
“Awesome!” Rainbow pulled the book from Twilight's magic and placed it in her saddlebag. “Thanks Twilight. I gotta go, the Wonderbolts always show up a few days early before shows, so I've go no time to waste!”
The cyan mare turned to leave, but stopped at the sound of Twilight's voice.
“Wait, Rainbow.”
Rainbow turned, a somewhat annoyed look on her face. “Yeah?”
Twilight placed a hoof on her friend's back. “Try to get some sleep. Seriously.”
Rainbow sighed in defeat. “Okay, okay. But later. The Wonderbolts wait for nothing!” Dash flashed cocky grin.
“Fine, fine. I'll see you later Rainbow, and good luck.”
Rainbow whipped out a final goofy salute, making her way to the door. About to take off, she gave a sidelong glance at the book, which now rested in the corner of the library. I'll deal with that later, she thought, shivering slightly. Her mind now (mostly) content, Rainbow Dash leaped into the air with renewed vigor, and out into the sky.
Twilight watched as Dash became just a speck against the sky. She frowned slightly. So what was all that about? She thought, trotting over the old history book. Opening the book, she found the page that Rainbow had been looking at earlier. The picture before her displayed a crowd of pegasi in celebration, with three armored pegasi in the center. They had their hooves in the air and smiles on their faces, clearly sharing in the festivities.
“Huh. Wonder what had Rainbow acting so weird.” She thought aloud.
Peering closing, Twilight took notice of the pegasus to the left of Commander Hurricane. That must have been it, she thought in affirmation. Rainbow looks a lot like Lightning Streak.
Her curiosity sated, Twilight returned the book to its proper place at the top of the shelf. It was only then that she remembered the state of the library. “Well, I asked for this.” Twilight said to herself flatly, as she began to pickup the library.