//------------------------------// // I wonder where the other five are // Story: Tempora mutantur // by Tallow and Port //------------------------------// Warmth was the first thing that greeted Twilights senses as she reawakened to the world. It was not unlike the feeling of a mothers warm embrace; holding her close and protected in its practically infinite amount of love. “... kle... ght Sparkle... wake up my little twilight Sparkle...” That didn’t sound like her mother. And yet, she felt drawn to this being with a voice like warm honey. She yawned, stretching out like a cat before blinking her eyes open to see what was goi-... The alicorn; because, no, she didn’t need to check, she could feel her wings and horn just fine, found herself gawking at the sight in front of her. She was perched atop a nest of rich purple mulberry silk with a giant female alicorn sprawled out beside her with a huge, incredibly detailed in design, room encompassing them. Wait-ALICORN?! Twilight stared up at the mare beside her: a silk smooth coat of deep forest green; an ethereal, eternally undulating, wine red mane and tail scattered with golden streaks and filled with glimmering blue nebulas; silver eyes and the picture of a pair of wings cradling six tiny different coloured stars as a cutie mark. And definitely in possession of a horn and two wings. The older mare giggled at her, leaning down to nuzzle Twilight happily “rise, my daughter, see the world you have just arrived in.” “D-dauher?” Twilight attempted to repeat, confusion clouding her face as she failed to talk properly. “Oh my! You are a smart one!” Her apparent mother laughed “do not worry, my child, your vocal cords shall strengthen to full use fast enough.” There was a tiny knock at the door the now very confused little pony finally noticed, and her... ‘mothers’ horn glowed a soft, snow white as she opened the door to let in yet another alicorn. This one, twilight noted, was slightly bigger than her ‘mother’, and was definitely male. She could only assume it was her new-she mentally grimaced-‘father’. He had a light brown coat, pretty blue eyes and a golden mane and tail with streaks of cream white in it, green nebulas forever glinting in the masses of undulating ethereally hair; His cutie mark seemed to be a shield protecting six little multicoloured stars. “Is it safe to come in?” He called, eyes focused on the floor nervously. “Yes, my dear, it is safe. Now why don’t you come in and greet your first daughter?” The stallion walked in, eyes slowly widening with joy as he took in the newly re-filly-fied alicorn before freezing in alarm “wait, our FIRST daughter? You can’t seriously be suggesting that we go through that magical depletion a SECOND time, Emerald Glimmer!” The newly discovered Emerald Glimmer smiled pleadingly “it only took so much magic because we were creating an alicorn, Smoky Skies, what if we just create some normal ponies and ascend them afterwards?” Smokey Skies stared at his mate in astonishment “why didn’t we think of that when we created Twilight, here?” “I, ah, DIDN’T think of it” Emerald chuckled in embarrassment. Twilight had had enough of this conversation, she knew she’d messed up the spell, but she had no idea how this scene related to how the spell backfired! Yes, two alicorns now seemed to be her parents, but how did that relate to-. Oh. OH! ‘Why, The first alicorns to exist, of course!’ Sweet Celestia, why had it taken so long for her to think of that? Of course she’d end up in a place like this if she’d been looking for ALICORNS! But did that mean the spell had actually worked? She debunked the thought, if it had worked, she wouldn’t be able to interact with these two like she was right now. Now she wondered, were-ARE these the first alicorns to have existed? And what’s this about ‘creating’ foals with magic to the point of depletion? That’s not how the birthing process worked as far as she knew! She didn’t question how she could understand the old ponish these two were talking as if it were still the modern day, though it was rather strange as she tuned back into the conversation. “It would still take at least a week to gather enough magic to create these other five children you wish for, Emerald” Smokey was saying, sounding mildly exasperated. “I know, but it would be worth it, I swear, I mean, don’t you think that the stars on our flank might represent these children? The purple star DID shine as we finished making Twilight, here” Emerald countered as she pulled said alicorn up to her side, the silk nest rippling around them as they moved. “Now let’s allow our new daughter to rest for a bit, I think she deserves it.” :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Twilight had been here for three days so far, and the experience was both nerve wracking and awe inspiring. Granted, she couldn’t really TALK yet, being only a filly, but at least she could walk, read and was permitted to wander the castle grounds almost as much as she wanted to. Speaking of which-. The palace was huge, far bigger than the Canterlot palace and the old castle of the two sisters combined, filled with floor to ceiling arched windows covered in intricate glass designs so that when the sunlight streamed in, the halls would be filled with golden light depicting great scenes of battle and peace alike. Holding many great libraries, it was, to her delight, filled with many tomes that looked fairly new; but Twilight remembered as being battered and barely held together in her own time; which only solidified her thought that this was very early on in the existence of ponies. Most of the castle was painted in various shades of cream; but some of the more populated areas, as well as the public areas of the place, had swaths of purple and gold to liven things up. It also held many gardens of exotic and strange plants and animals Twilight had never seen, despite the fairly arid climate of this new-well, old-land for her to explore. A gentle breeze brushed through the sheets of organdy cloth that hung from the rafters, apparently being placed there as some strange old fashioned building design fashion thing. Twilight shook her head, she’d never fully understand what made something beautiful, that was up to Rarity, even if she... wasn’t here right now. She trotted up and sprawled out on a bench beside an open window overlooking the city that her parents palace resided in. Watching the many common folk ponies going about their day as the sun slowly sunk closer to the horizon. It was weird to think that the sun and moon moved on their own in this time period, but twilight knew that the only reason Celestia and Luna had started to move the celestial bodies was because of Discord meddling with the cycle and causing it to weaken over the skies of Equestria in the days of chaos that were yet to come in this time. If they hadn’t moved them, the land would have been stuck in either a never ending night, day or in between and the rest of the world would’ve suffered the opposite in more or less varying degrees of bad, though Luna decided to forget about that for a time-which Twilight was wondering if she’d need to help fix this time around-well, if she survived that long. She sighed, resting her head on her hooves as she prepared to take an afternoon nap before her... mother sent a maid to bring her to dinner.