Through the Mist

by puddingskinmcgee


Chapter 1: Curious

Twilight Sparkle sat at her study, as she did every night, contemplating the great mysteries of the universe. Though it happened to be her favorite time of day, the one she was so aptly named after, she found herself unable to focus on her work. Right now she was supposed to be reviewing some equations regarding thermodynamics, ensuring that the results were consistent. Though she trusted her colleagues on this theory, and it wasn't exactly her area of expertise, she would be a hypocrite if she didn't aid in peer review.
But tonight, she just couldn't get into it. In fact, the past few weeks felt a little off. A few weird dreams here and there, dwelling on things that were unrelated to her work, a few strange encounters and events that weren't odd enough to worry about, but odd enough to note. Though she wasn't any stranger to a vague sense of malaise, she could almost always focus on her work to keep her grounded, but lately things seemed to be falling apart somewhat.
Not that anything in her actual life was changing, but she just felt less focused, less motivated. Maybe she was finally getting burned out on work like Shining Armor kept warning her about, and just needed some time off. She stared at the numbers in front of her, trying to get her brain to work, but after 10 minutes of her pencil only being used for doodling in the margins, she finally decided to push herself away and take a break. That was another strange thing; usually, she couldn't step away until she had the satisfaction of a job well done, but right now she would rather just take a coffee break. And she didn't even like coffee.
Instead, she decided to just open up the window and turn on the radio. Maybe later she would go out and get something to eat, or maybe she just wanted to visit her family. For some reason, she couldn't stand the thought of being alone at the moment, something that had never bothered her much before.
She walked over to the radio and flicked it on, it still being tuned to the channel she listened to while she was preparing for her work in the morning. It was mostly a station with discussions about recent events, somewhere between news and entertainment, a good thing to listen to while doing other things.
"-elebration. As ponies begin to prepare for it, we've already been seeing more noise and conduct complaints, so I don't necessarily think this is uncalled for." said a pony from the radio. It was somepony Twilight had never heard before.
"I still have to question if this is all excessive, though." said another voice, "It's supposed to be a celebration, and surrounding it with guards seems to undermine the entire point of the event."
Twilight clambered onto her lounge chair, laying back and listening to the radio. She was fairly certain they were talking about the extra guards that were being posted for the Summer Sun Celebration, due to her brother's concerns that such an important event could cause unfortunate conduct.
"Well, it's not like they're actually going to stop anyone from celebrating, but someone has to make sure ponies don't go overboard with the fireworks. Remember two years ago, on Brook Street? Those mail ponies sure were miffed!"
Twilight pulled a book off of the small shelf next to her chair, one of the few "light reads" she had. Daring Do and the Castle of Coatl, something far below Twilight's reading level but a worthy installment in a beloved series. Though she had read this particular book at least three times already, it was good to read when she didn't want to actually focus on reading.
Her eyes skimmed across the words on the pages as she half-listened to the radio. It would seem that ponies weren't exactly happy with the increase in guard, but Twilight would have to agree with their presence. Equestria was changing in strange ways these days, and what was once a humble observance seemed to be gearing more towards a rambunctious festival this year. Though, Twilight supposed, the fact that it was the one-thousandth Summer Sun Celebration was reason for extra celebration.
She didn't have any plans this year. Her family had invited her to stay over and watch the sunrise, of course, but she didn't even know if she was going to take them up on it. So many of her colleagues were going to parties, mostly with each other, but Twilight was never invited to any of it. She wasn't honestly sure if she should feel upset about it, as she never made the effort to talk to any of them or try to express interest, anyway. She had always used the excuse of her important work for her isolation, but lately that felt weaker and weaker.
She had just reached the part where Daring Do receives a mysterious tip that one of the cities' artifacts, an ancient and mysterious key, will be stolen later that night. Twilight knew what happened next by heart; Daring Do would try to intervene with the theft, but it would turn out that no heist was actually being performed. The guards show up, thinking that Daring was the thief all along, which ended with her narrow escape and wanted status in the town. In Twilight's opinion, it was one of the best openings to a Daring Do book, as it kept the reader guessing just as much as Daring Do herself.
"Of course, there's been no shortage of hokey claims for the one-thousandth Summer Sun Celebration." the radio personnel continued, "Like we talked about last week, lots of ponies have been claiming prophecies of all sorts, so maybe we'll all end up biting our tongues when ragnarok comes around!"
Both radio ponies gave a hearty laugh at the idea. Twilight groaned, got up, and turned the radio off. The last thing she wanted right now was to hear about prophecies and doomsday scenarios. She suddenly didn't feel so interested in reading, either.
Frustrated and bored, she paced around for a few moments before stopping by the window and leaning against the frame. It was a perfectly ideal summer night, the air just cool enough to provide reprieve from the long days. The sky was clear, and Twilight felt lucky enough to have a good view of it. It could be hard to catch for those who lived closer to the center of Canterlot, because of the light pollution, but those who lived further away from the central city had a great view from the mountainside.
The moon was shining as brightly as ever, and would be in its full phase for the night of the Summer Sun Celebration, which only added fuel to the celebratory and speculative fire. Twilight wondered if anypony had any theories about the Mare in the Moon. She had done enough studying around Equestria's greatest rulers, Celestia and Luna, to know of the folklore and stories surrounding it. Though many ponies held their own degrees of worship and reverence of the two historical figures, one of the most consistent beliefs told of the two great princesses who could control the sun and moon and watched over us all, even from the afterlife. It wasn't something that modern science was particularly apt to believe, but many common ponies still hailed it true. Surely there were plenty of wild theories connecting them to the Celebration.
As Twilight rested her head on her hooves, contemplating the state of things, she noticed something odd. As a pony who had spent most of her life studying the stars and cosmos, she had become fairly familiar with star charts and the night sky, which would be the only reason she noticed such a minuscule difference. She wondered if she was seeing things, or if perhaps her memory was simply faltering, when she saw one extra star in the sky. More curious, was the longer she peered at it, it seemed to actually be slowly travelling downwards.
Instantly forgetting her contemplations, Twilight rushed upstairs into her observatory to view this strange light more closely. She set up one of her lighter-duty telescopes as quickly as possible and aimed it at the phenomena, which appeared to have moved further down. As soon as she got a focus on it, she was only more perplexed.
It was a bright magenta light, so bright that it appeared almost white. There was no doubt that it was moving, and it seemed to be gaining momentum by the second. The way it moved ruled out the possibility of any normal shooting star or meteor, and, as she watched it, it seemed to be much closer than any meteor should be. In fact, it appeared to be moving fairly close to the city itself.
Twilight had never worked so quickly. She pulled out every chart and diagram she had in order to try to calculate its size, speed, and trajectory, constantly moving between her notes and the telescope. From what she could gather in a few minutes the object wasn't large enough to cause any damage outside of its crash course and wasn't losing mass, was gaining speed exponentially, and would most likely crash west of Canterlot, into the mountainside. A speed-search through her textbooks didn't give her any more insight into what the objects could actually be.
Twilight felt silly admitting it to herself, but she felt a pull towards this strange star, as if some great knowledge would be revealed to her if she could only see it closer. Watching it fall ever faster towards the ground filled her with conviction, casting her doubts aside and replacing them with a childlike wonder. This is what she needed. Adventure, some daring and intrigue! How long had she sat holed up in her study, thinking of theoreticals and practicalities? When was the last time she had really went out and experienced the world?
She knew it was risky, and she knew it was stupid, but she packed up as quickly as she could and headed out towards where the star should land. She didn't know why, but she couldn't help but feel like there was magic in the air tonight.


During her treck, Twilight kept looking back to the star. It would seem that her assumptions were correct, and it would likely crash before she could get to it. Once the initial exhilaration wore off, she began to feel more self-conscious of running off in the middle of the night in search of a magic star, but by the time she boarded the tram she felt as if she might as well see this through.
By the time she was able to exit the city, she realized that the strange object in the sky had fallen far enough and gained enough momentum to crash into the woods any second. She wondered if anyone else noticed this, or if it was just her. It was possible that someone who wasn't looking could miss it, as by now it was moving so fast that one might assume it was shooting star if they didn't pay attention.
By the time she reached the edge of the western forest on the mountainside, she witnessed the star crash straight down. It thankfully didn't create an explosion or seem to harm the area, but she would be lying if she said the impact didn't nearly cause her to turn tail and run.
However, she was able to steel her nerves long enough to go in. Whatever wildlife was around had surely been repelled by the impact, and the area was suffused with a strange, shimmering mist. Twilight was worried that the mysterious object might be expelling something dangerous to her health, but by the time she was in the thick of the forest, she felt too close to her goal to stop now.
Twilight pushed through the silence and mist, towards the area she thought the crash was at. It was only a few minutes of trekking through the forest with no other interesting events until she neared her goal. The mist grew thicker, moonlight illuminating an area just beyond the trees. Twilight was finding it hard to see past the shining fog, which was growing thicker and unnaturally bright the further in she went.
Her heart leapt and hooves became heavy when she heard a rustling sound somewhere close by. She stopped dead in her tracks, her heart hammering in her chest as she listened harder. Somewhere just in front of her, beyond the mist, something was moving.
Silhouetted by the mist, a figure rose up. Easily pony in shape, though, as its head rose up, Twilight could see a single, long horn protruding from the forehead. The creature didn't seem to notice her, but Twilight remained rooted to the spot, locked there both by curiosity and fear. Slowly standing upright the creature then seemed to raise two grand wings attached to its back, high above its horned head. Then, in a swift motion, the creature swept its wings down, dissipating the mist and becoming visible for Twilight to witness in its full glory.
There, standing tall in front of Twilight, was a horned, winged version of herself.