//------------------------------// // Interlude: Journal of the Descendants // Story: Prism Star and the Nightmare Winter // by CherryRush //------------------------------// Editor's Note: The following is a series of excerpts from the journal kept by Princess Prism Star, Prince Midnight Shine, and the other Elements of Harmony during the events of the year 2650. It is my hope that understanding their turbulent childhood will help us to understand the two young royals who have become a shining example to us all. With Prince Midnight's permission, I have assembled a number of entries for reproduction that will shed light on how they came to realize their power, and how they and their friends built their relationship into the Elements of Harmony that we know now. In the original journal, entries were clearly delineated by the unique writing style of each creature, from Prism Star's flowing calligraphy to Midnight Shine's frantic scrawling. It was even common for some entries to be in languages other than Ponish - Talon was fond of Draconic runes, while Shimmerwing frequently used the pictographic Changeling script known to outsider scholars as 'Morphic' to conceal certain thoughts from the other Elements. To avoid confusion in this reproduction, I have appended the name of the author and the date of writing at the beginning of each entry, and where appropriate I have added translation notes in square brackets. Quillkeeper, Royal Librarian 20 Reaping, 2550 ****** Prism Star - 10 Blooming, 2501 I've finally convinced my friends to do this journal with me, and I couldn't be happier about it. Midnight and I read the Journal of Friendship for our history class with Miss Oakroot, and ever since I've been trying to get them to do a journal with me, just like it. It's not even really that I want to preserve our accomplishments in friendship like Princess Twilight, but I barely get to talk to them anymore and I'm hoping that we'll be able to read what each others are doing and it'll make us closer. I guess I'll start the journal off by talking about my doctors. I'm glad I'm still alive, but I wish it didn't involve so much prodding, or so much medicine. Every day after classes, I've had to get Midnight to wheel me to the infirmary so a doctor can pull off my splint and poke all over my leg until it feels like it's going to fall off again, the whole time asking "Does it hurt when I touch you here?" like the answer isn't obvious! And then they make me drink this gross white potion they say is for the pain, but it makes me feel like somepony's pressing down on my head and I can't do even a little bit of magic for hours afterward! And they always keep telling me how brave I am in this super annoying way, like they all think I'm five or something - I turn nine in a month! I just feel so done with all of it, and I'll be glad to be out of this chair and able to explore the House of Harmony without Midnight pushing me around. All I want to do is learn more about this place, but Midnight doesn't seem to care at all! He just goes on about how we're not allowed to wander around, like that's ever stopped anypony who wanted to wander around. I thought being friends with a street pony would be fun, but he's just obsessed with following the rules. Thanks for listening to me, journal. I feel a lot better now. Midnight Shine - 12 Blooming, 2501 Prism Star is driving me crazy. I don't think I've ever seen a pony complain about so much! The doctors, our classes, her medicine, me. I know she's just hurting, but I really just wish she'd shut up. And when she's not complaining, she's drunk or something off of that pain potion they're giving her. She gets these constant giggling fits and starts going on for AGES on the dumbest things when I'm trying to study, and sometimes she'll just put her hooves all over me and start threatening to put her tongue in my mouth. Her tongue! That's the grossest thing I've ever heard! One time she even started trying to touch my colt parts, and I had to put her down with a sleeping spell. Prism is completely out of control, and the worst part is she claims after that she has no idea what I'm talking about, like she doesn't remember any of it! If she keeps this up I'm going to go straight to Shimmer and see how she likes it then. P.S. I read what you wrote about me, Prism, and I know you're going to read this. Just because I don't want to get in trouble doesn't make me 'obsessed' with following the rules, it makes me a good pony. These ponies have only given us three rules - go to class, don't leave the House of Harmony without Shimmer or Sour Apple, and don't wander off. And you want to break one of just THREE rules! These ponies saved your life, the least you could do is listen to them. Prism Star - 16 Blooming, 2501 So today I learned where foals come from. That was something that happened. Shimmer sat me down after reading me and Midnight's journal entries and started explaining to me how a stallion and a mare make a foal, and I can now say with complete certainty that I never want to touch Midnight Shine again. Or any other colt for that matter. Even Sour Apple's big bear hugs feel weird now. How anypony would ever want to do those things is a mystery to me, and I think the less I talk about it from now on, the better. She also got the doctors to take me off of those potions and start giving me more traditional pills. I'm really not sure if it's better or worse - I'm shaking all the time now, and my horn keeps acting up. I feel like I need my potions so badly, but Shimmer won't even give me the time of day! Then again, maybe it's for the best if Midnight was right about how I was acting. My memory's really fuzzy, but if I really embarrassed myself like that, then I never want to take a potion like that again. Shimmerwing - 19 Blooming, 2501 These past few days have been completely exhausting trying to take care of Prism. Ever since we took her off of the potions and started giving her normal aspirin for her leg, she's been more whiny and clingy than I've ever seen, and she's started practically begging for the potions again. The apothecary tells me that she's going through withdrawal, and we need to let her ride it out so she won't get addicted, but it still hurts to see her like this. It's times like this that I wish Thunderbolt was here, if only so that he could be the bad guy and I could remain the cool big sister. I even had to give her "the talk" about how ponies reproduce so she'd stop touching on Midnight! [The remainder of the entry is translated from Morphic.] I'm a little worried I might have traumatized her, considering the way she's started acting around males, but then again, I can't help but think that it's a little weird myself. The whole thing makes me glad that queens are the only changelings who can lay eggs. At least a pony mare only has a few foals at most- the idea of laying entire broods is pretty disturbing to me. Moving on from that wonderful thought, I think I might have an idea about my shape-shifting. I wonder if maybe I've gotten some kind of mental block around it - if I can shift from Shimmer to Shimmerwing and back, then it's clearly not an actual physical issue. Maybe if I can get some actual information on changelings, or even better, something written by my people, then I can figure it out. But when I ask the librarian here, he just looks at me like I'm crazy. I might have to start looking at other ways to get what I want... Talon - 20 Blooming, 2501 I'm not touching the entries above with a flagpole, so I guess instead I'll talk about work. Getting into a Las Pegasus act has to be the best idea I've ever had- most ponies are terrified of dragons, but these crazy mares will pay me to light things on fire so they can fly through and over and around them! I got another offer from somepony who wanted me to fake fight these weirdos in tights and masks, and he offered me even more bits, but that whole thing just felt wrong to me so I turned him down. I don't think I've ever turned down more bits before, and the worst part was the reason I did it: it didn't feel honest passing myself off as the "Terror of the Badlands". Stormy must be rubbing off on me if I'm actually having qualms about being respectable. The best part about this new job is all the gossip! Who would have thought that show-ponies knew so much? I've already found ten potential friendship problems for Prism, and if the rumors I've heard about Daft Pone are true, I might be able to do something to cheer Southern Storm up while I'm at it. Prism Star - 20 Blooming, 2501 Celestial Magic is so, so much more boring than I thought it would be. I thought I was going to be learning how to raise the sun and use solar magic, but so far it's nothing but geometry and the 'history of celestial magic'. It turns out the only way to make Professor Floating Point's arcane math more boring is to combine it with Professor Lemon Drop's history lessons. Midnight Shine - 20 Blooming, 2501 I'm just going to add here that Prism Star is completely right about Celestial Magic, and this is coming from a pony who LIKES complicated math. And is way better at it than Prism. Also, Solar Flare said he knew Prism's mom, but his only stories were about her at work. I'm honestly almost as disappointed as Prism... I guess maybe I thought hearing about her mom would help me imagine what my own parents were like. Sour Apple - 21 Blooming, 2501 I tried talking to Shimmer again about my training, and she just shook her head again and said, "I'm thinking about it". I'm starting to wish she'd just give me a flat "no" instead of endless maybes. She did, however, ask me the strangest question - she asked me if I thought a morally wrong action could be justified if we did it for Prism and Midnight. I'm a little worried she's getting my bad habits. And if that's not weird enough, Southern Storm suddenly popped in yesterday and just TOLD me and Mid that he'd scheduled makeovers for us. I mean, seriously? I swear the world's turning upside down when TALON is becoming our moral center and stallions are getting makeovers. The next thing you know, cats are going to start marrying dogs. Southern Storm - 22 Blooming, 2501 Why the hay does everypony suddenly decide to go on vacation in Blooming of all moons? I've been getting booked for so many shows that I barely have any time to spend with my new friends, let alone prepare for the annual Cloudsdale Day party in Summer Sun or look for friendship problems. I'm going to have to make sure I clear the schedule completely for the 28th so I can make sure Sour Apple and Midnight Shine don't skive off of their salon appointments. P.S. I've heard the same rumours too, Talon. The keyboardist is indeed gay and single, but he's also five years older than me, and Cloudrunner from Pony of Shadows said he got arrested for hitting his last coltfriend. Stop trying to get me a date. P.P.S. Those cats can marry whomever they want. Shimmerwing - 22 Blooming, 2501 So the first of Talon's potential leads didn't pan out. It turns out that Gigawatt and Iced Lightning were not actually fueding over their costume similarities, and it was just a promotional stunt. Talon of all ponies should know by now that wrestling is as fake as a wooden bit, and I'm a little disappointed that she didn't do her research. [She switches to Morphic here.] My instincts to search elsewhere proved fruitful, however. There's a rare book store just off of the Strip, and I think they may have a copy of Principles of Thorax- I can't believe one is even in Equestria, let alone in the same city as me! The owner's a miserable old curmudgeon, though, and the hard part is going to be getting him to part with it. Prism Star - 26 Blooming, 2501 Finally out of the wheelchair! I really couldn't be more happy, a healer actually had to restrain me with her magic because my first instinct was to run around in circles. It doesn't hurt, and I'm not even craving the potions anymore! I feel as good as new and it's amazing. The only bad thing is that it didn't seem to quite heal right, so I've got this big scar all around my leg where they put it back on. My ear scarred, too- it's pretty ugly, and itchy too, but Shimmer helped me find a new thing to do with my mane to sort of flip most of it over the left and hide my ear. But those scars are the only real bad thing, and as Shimmer and Sour Apple have reminded me many, many times, I'm pretty lucky that's the only lasting damage after hurting myself like that. Midnight Shine - 27 Blooming, 2501 I'm happy for her, but I kind of wish Prism was still in her wheelchair. The day after she's out, they brought in an ex-Wonderbolt and a retired cop, and now instead of sitting with Prism and reading while she gets looked at by the doctors in the infirmary, I've got another class added to my schedule - "combat training". Our first day, Lancing Ray actually made us fight each other! It's not like I've ever learned any combat magic, and neither has Prism, but he broke out a bunch of dodgeballs and made us start throwing them at each other with magic until we were both ready to collapse. And then, once we were tired and sweaty, he sat us down and made us take notes just like the other teachers while he taught us about energy bolts. This whole thing is getting so crazy. I'm just glad we have tomorrow off, even if Southern Storm is going to drag me and Sour to some spa. Sour Apple - 28 Blooming, 2501 Today Mid and I had our 'makeover' from Stormy, and I have to say that it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I thought the spa ponies would be fussing over us all day, but we actually spent a lot of the day soaking in the most amazing hot tub and just talking (Storm said the water had some kind of chemical in it that was supposed to make our coats and manes softer but I don't know about that). I can't remember the last time I spent this much time hanging out with friends - before all of this stuff happened I was always going from one job or hustle to the next to feed myself and Midnight, and now I spend so much time exercising or trying to learn how to fight or trying to help ponies with their friendship problems that I never have time to just relax. Stormy spent the time after the soak teaching us how to play blackjack while our coats and manes dried, and I got WAY more respect for him when Mid caught him using some math trick to try and cheat, even if it kind of made my head hurt when they tried to explain it. That pony can play some cards. The only thing I have a problem with is that Southern Storm just CHOSE how the spa ponies would do our manes and tails without asking us first - even if Shimmer says we both look amazing, and Prism has started blushing a little every time Midnight talks to her. Mid and Prism both act disgusted when I suggest that there's something there, but I personally can't wait until those two go through puberty and I get to say "I told you so". [Sour Apple has drawn a small smiling face in the margin here.] Speaking of Shimmer, she actually came to me when she got back and told me that she'd agree to train me if I help her with a pony's friendship! Apparently there's this bookstore off the Strip, owned by this old stallion who's just a [censored by the Royal Library] and Shimmer says that she thinks if we help him make some friends, he'll let her borrow this really old book she wants to read. Shimmerwing - 2 Rainfalls, 2501 Sour and I tried our little friendship side mission. I have to say that it was a complete disaster, and it doesn't do much for my confidence that we can solve a problem so bad that the map called six ponies. We tried everything to try and make that pony happy. I mean everything. We tried to help him make new friends, we tried to find his ex, we tried to get his children to talk to him... Mid had lent us his copy of the Friendship Journal and we read that thing cover to cover and back again trying to find some lesson that would help us. Nothing. I wonder if maybe some ponies just don't want to be happy. It wasn't a complete disaster, though... Somehow, Sour Apple got his hooves on the Principles of Thorax and he gave it to me after we got back to Stormy's place. But how? I think he must have a future as a stage magician, because we didn't once get separated and yet he somehow managed to steal the most valuable item in the store without me knowing. I feel bad that he stole it on my behalf, to be completely honest, but I'm not going to let a little guilt keep me from doing whatever it takes to protect Prism. With any luck, it'll all turn out okay and I can get Sour to put it back when I'm done. But whatever he had to do to get it, he got it, and so I went and got permission to start training him as a Protector - not hard, considering he'd already pretty much adopted Midnight as his little brother. Maybe beating Sour like a red-maned stepfoal in the sparring rooms will get some of my frustration out. Southern Storm - 3 Rainfalls, 2501 [This entry has been written in Morphic, but in the voice of Southern Storm. My belief is that it was dictated to Shimmer in order to hide its contents from Prism Star.] Despite the fact that this entry is written in Shimmer's weird code, this is actually Southern Storm. I feel pretty guilty that I haven't really written in this journal, and I haven't been hanging around my new friends much, so I guess I'll write this even though nopony but Shimmer can read it. There's two reasons I've been away. The first is that I'm recording a new album, so I've been spending a lot of time in the studio working on that. But the more important thing is that I've actually been preparing a surprise party for Prism - her birthday is in just a week, and Shimmer mentioned that she didn't normally do much, considering that Prism didn't really have friends in Ponyville. Well, now she's got five friends, and so she's going to get an actual birthday party this year. I've already ordered a cake, chocolate and cherry just like Shimmer says is her favorite, and I've already got games lined up that I know my friends will love, not to mention karaoke because Shimmer and I both think she'd simply die if she got a chance to sing with me. I think in a few days, when I'm all finished with track eight, I'll take the next day off with Shimmer and Sour Apple to get everything ready. (Talon is completely out, because she can't keep a secret very well - half the ponies working the show circuit know she's friends with sun-touched and moon-touched unicorns by now, and I think we're all very lucky that she doesn't know exactly where the House of Harmony is.) Talon - 4 Rainfalls, 2501 This time, I've got a real friendship problem for certain - the ponies who run the Weather Museum are at each other's throats! I have no idea why, but this has to be at least a 3-pony problem. I probably shouldn't act so excited that ponies are having a problem, but I can't help it! [Talon begins using Draconic runes.] I know he said not to try and get him a date, but I think I've finally found the perfect pony for Stormy after running back and forth all over Las Pegasus - his friend Cloudrunner, the bassist from Pony of Shadows! I know it sounds crazy, but they're perfect for each other, and I have no idea why neither of them can see it. I talked with Cloudrunner's bandmates, and they all actually agree with me that there's no reason the two of them shouldn't be together. The really hard part is going to get them on a date with each other, and more importantly, to give it a chance to succeed. Prism Star - 11 Rainfalls, 2501 I finally figured out why everypony's barely been talking to me for a week - they were all planning me the most amazing birthday party! Today was the most fun I've ever had - we played almost every game I can think of, there was a chocolate cake with cherry jam, and I got to get up on stage and sing with Stormy! Apparently I'm very bad at it, though, but nopony made fun of me, which is amazing. Shimmer also did a prank that practically scared my horn off - she got a mist machine from somewhere and made it seem like Nightmare Winter was attacking, and then she came down in costume on a line of some kind - I kind of overreacted and shot her down with my horn blasts, and that was honestly even scarier than the prank itself, but with how relieved we all were that she was alright, I don't think I've ever laughed so hard. The ridiculous costume made it even better. It was so bad that I couldn't believe I fell for it at first! Stormy said it was one of the best parties he's hosted in a long while - he told me that the wards on his mansion are going to be charged with love energy for months. And if the Cloudsdale Day party is as good as he says it'll be, it might be another year before he has to worry about windigos. I'm actually really glad he told me about those wards. I've been pretty worried about him and White Wind out there beyond the shield, so it's a huge relief to actually know what's keeping them safe. Midnight Shine - 12 Rainfalls, 2501 We finally learned to channel celestial energy today! It felt... it felt good, I have to say. And it wasn't nearly as hard as Solar Flare made it sound. He made it seem like it would take hours of preparation and meditation before we'd be ready to call on the sun and moon, but it wasn't like that. Prism and I have been putting off this entry for hours trying to figure out how we'd describe it, but I think... it was like it was always there. Prism tells me that sunfire was like spending your entire life locked in a fridge, then busting out to end up at the warmest, brightest fireplace ever, but then looking back and realizing that nopony had actually bothered to lock the fridge and you could have done it the whole time. As for me, I'd already had a taste of moonlight from that night Luna visited me, but this time it felt different - not scary or dangerous at all. I wonder if that's because I chose it this time, rather than having it forced into me. It's something I have to think about - in the meantime, I also wonder if that's what's been keeping me from dreamwalking properly. It might be that I need to use lunar energy to properly access the dream realm. Prism Star - 13 Rainfalls, 2501 I learned the downside of celestial energy in combat training today. Me and Mid both tried to use it when we fought, but Lancing Ray had to stop the duel in less than a minute. It turned out that sunfire was a lot harder to control than I thought it would be, and I'll just say that we're all pretty lucky that Lancing Ray is so good at putting out fires. He told me that I should probably never use fire magic for fighting again because of how unpredictable it is, but he also said that the hard-light constructs I'd been using before were actually really good. Lancing Ray gave me a book on ancient pony weapons, and he said that I might do really well by picking one thing to use when I fight and practicing with it until making and controlling the construct was as natural as breathing. It was actually a pretty interesting read, if a bit disturbing to see all the ways that ponies have figured out to hurt and maim each other. Unlike Midnight, I can actually stay awake in history class, and it's a little bit cool to see the things ponies used in the wars before Equestria was founded. I eventually decided to settle on a 'hoplon', a sort of round shield that ancient unicorn warriors used. It looks like you could use it really well for both attack and defense with telekinesis, and it doesn't have any scary spikes or sharp edges that could kill somepony. Southern Storm - 15 Rainfalls, 2501 I can't believe Talon. I just can't believe her. What is wrong with that dragon?! I've told her to stay out of my love life, but what does she do? She sets me up a blind date- a BLIND DATE! With Cloudrunner! I think she's gone completely crazy! It's not like we didn't try. It was so awkward, but we did try. The restaurant was nice, Cloudrunner DID look fantastic, and for a bit we actually seemed to be doing well - he'd suggested that we try to act like we didn't really know each other, and that did help with the awkwardness. But I just felt like I kept putting my hoof in my mouth and saying something stupid, and then I just couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't take the awkward conversation with somepony who I normally talk with so easily, I couldn't take the way he was looking at me or how cute he was in that jacket with his bangs spiked up. I don't know why but I just got scared and ran, in front of everypony! I feel like the dumbest stallion in Equestria right now, and now that I'm writing all this out I think I'm realizing that I'm mad at myself more than I'm mad at Talon. She tried to do something nice for me, and not only did I completely blow it, but then I got mad at HER and blamed her for everything! I really hope she reads this, so she knows how sorry I am. Sour Apple - 17 Rainfalls, 2501 I'm getting worried about Stormy. Ever since that date Talon put him up to, he hasn't come out of his bedroom and Shimmer says she can hear him crying every time she's tried to go knock on the door. I'm hardly the pony to go to for advice on this stuff, but this can't be healthy. If he stays in there much longer I'm getting Midnight and Prism to blast down his door. Midnight Shine - 18 Rainfalls, 2501 This might be the most tired I've ever been doing a journal entry. I stayed up extra late after Prism went to bed, and I went to try dreamwalking again. We've all been really worried about Stormy, so I decided to wait until he'd probably be asleep and check on his dreams. Thankfully, lunar energy is as good for staying awake as that gross 'coffee' stuff Prism got me to drink a couple weeks ago. It took me a few tries. I actually accessed the dream realm on the first try but I just got so freaked out and overwhelmed that the spell collapsed on me. The second try I got lost somehow, and I ended up in the dream of some random pony who was dreaming about doing some really... really weird and kind of disturbing things with cake. I talked to her a little and I think I convinced her that she might want to talk about it with a professional - I wish I could help but I have no idea how to handle a dream like that. I just left as quickly as I could and that time I did manage to get into Stormy's dream. I'm not going to say what his dream entailed, because I think I should probably avoid spreading ponies' secrets, but we actually had a really good talk. I think there was a lot more there to it than just messing up a date, but all I can really hope is that we were able to get through some of his problems. Prism Star - 21 Rainfalls, 2501 I got my cutie mark! I GOT MY CUTIE MARK! Shimmer was right about everything, and... Princess Twilight? I nearly died in combat training and then somehow I ended up in some weird white room and PRINCESS TWILIGHT was there! She told me I was at some kind of crossroads, and she taught me how to use her friendship magic to save myself, and then when I came back to the real world I knew exactly how to remodulate my shield to protect me from Midnight's weird spell! Even better than getting my cutie mark was the fact that my best friend got out of it okay, but I guess I'm still a little confused at what it all means. I guess ever since all this started, I thought I'd get my cutie mark in something related to the sun, but I think somehow my cutie mark is about friendship instead. The rainbow on my mark has only six colors, and while everything happened pretty fast, I think those might have been the same six colors I used in my shield- and if that's true, then that's my own orange magic color and then a color that represents each of my new friends. But I guess now I have all the time in the world to think about what it all means, don't I?