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// Prologue: Rising Sun 
// Story: The Celestial Twilight 
// by Night Sparkle Production 
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Princess Twilight Sparkle sat on one of the balconies of the Castle of Friendship. It was still nighttime, Luna’s moon still high in the sky along with all the stars. The crisp morning air was chilly against the Alicorns skin, and Twilight shivered slightly as she continued to watch the horizon, waiting for one of her favorite moments of the day.

Like clockwork, the moon slowly started to descend out of the sky until it went down over the horizon, and not a few seconds later the sun began its ascent into the sky, painting the sky with vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows as it rose from beyond the horizon. Twilight, watching this from the balcony, gave a small sigh.

“It always is a beautiful sight to see,” She thought to herself as she felt the morning light washing over her. Every morning, ever since she had gotten her wings, she had made sure to be outside in time to watch the moon set and the sun rise.

As Twilight stood and turned to enter the castle, she once more felt something deep within her stir as she thought about Celestia raising the sun. A blush colored her cheeks as she tried to push down the emotions she was feeling, but knowing from past experience that it wasn’t as simple as that. Ever since the day of her coronation, Twilight had kept feeling this strange warmth in her chest whenever she thought of her former mentor and now fellow princess.

“Is this what it feels like, having a crush on somepony?” She though to herself as she walked through the hallways of the castle. “I wouldn’t know the slightest thing about that, and I doubt I could learn anything about it from books…” She paused mid-stride, thinking, before shrugging to herself as she started towards the library. “Well, I may as well try to see if there’s anything in a book about this.”

As she reached the library, however, she stopped as another idea came to her. One that, now that it had revealed itself to her, made Twilight feel slightly annoyed with herself for not coming up with in the first place.

“Cadance!” Twilight thought, a smile crossing her face. She could just send a message to Cadance and ask her about it. With a content smile, the Alicorn trotted into the library and levitated a scroll, inkwell, and quill over to a table as she sat down, dipping the quill into the inkwell and beginning to write:

Cadance,
I’ve been having this strange feeling whenever I think of somepony in particular for a while now, and I wanted to ask you about it. When you have a crush on somepony, does it feel like a warm tingling in your chest whenever you think about them? I wish I had more to say on the matter, but I don’t… please write back to me as soon as you get this letter. I’d really like to know what it is I’m experiencing.
Twilight.

With a sigh, Twilight set the quill in the inkwell as she rolled the scroll up, tying a purple ribbon around it before she focused and with a flash teleported it away to the Crystal Empire, knowing that Cadance would likely get it sometime soon eventually. With the matter of writing the letter taken care of, she turned her attention to the shelves of book, smiling slightly.

“And now, to do some research on my own,” She thought as she started looking for a book that could possibly explain what she was feeling.



"Are you kidding me!" Twilight yelled in frustration as she threw yet another book into a pile on the floor. "Not a single one of these books has had anything useful!"

With a frustrated growl, Twilight levitated yet another book off the shelf, not even glancing at the title as she flipped it open. After reading a few lines in her head, though, she blinked once, before she started to read it aloud softly to herself.

“Something I’ve learned about love in the most part is that it is a complex thing, and is hard to pin down or describe.” Twilight read. “It’s one of the reasons why I like making the romances in my novels so mysterious, due to how well it reflects real life romances. But from what I’ve learned talking to other ponies in order to make my novels believable is that almost, if not always, they can tell when they have feelings towards somepony else due to this warm feeling they get in their heart and chest.”

Twilight was stunned at what she was reading: so she did have a crush! And it was on… she felt her cheeks flush with heat as she realized that every time she had that feeling, it was when she was thinking of Princess Celestia.

“So I have a crush on my former mentor, who also happens to be much older than me,” Twilight thought dryly. “That’s just great.” She closed the book and glanced at the cover, reading the title and author aloud.

“The Life of an Author; A Personal Memoir of Star Seeker,” She read. “By Star Seeker.”

"Maybe I should go try and talk to him," Twilight thought as she flipped to the pages in the book where Star Seeker described his living situations.

"The main reason I like living where I do is because of its isolated location," She read aloud. "My house is perfectly located far away from the general hubbub of Manehatten. I even have my own observatory connected to my house, so that I can study the night sky."

"Hmmm..." Twilight thought for a few minutes, before she smiled. "Well, looks like I have a little trip to go on."

Twilight trotted out of the library, bursting into a run as she raced to her room. There, she quickly levitated her saddlebags out and loaded them with several scrolls, a quill and inkwell, and finally Star Seeker's book. With that done, she set them on her back, before trotting out of her room.

"Maybe I should bring Starlight with me?" Twilight thought, glancing in the direction of Starlight's room. "It'd be nice to have somepony with me... but is that really the best idea, based on why I'm going to talk to him?"