1.
Setting Out Among the Skies
"... and was preserved ever since," three voices spoke together.
The three young mares looked at one another and saw their own expressions mirrored in their sisters. Princess Luna had taken them all in, made them her students for their exceptional talent. They may not have been related by blood, but none of them cared. As far as they were concerned, Starlight Glimmer, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle were sisters.
In one way or another, each had impressed the Princess of the Moon enough to convince her that they held a talent worth nurturing.
And right now, each of them thought the same thing. Ultimately it was Starlight who gave voice to their shared thought, "Elements of Harmony? I could swear I've heard of those before."
"I know, right?" Sunset agreed, "I just can't put my hoof on where."
Twilight, the youngest of the three, jumped up from the dry grass. "I think I know! But I need to look it up. We need to get home!"
She galloped off. Sunset jumped up and made to follow her. Rolling her eyes, Starlight shook her head before raising her voice. "Girls!"
The other two turned around to look at her, speaking in unison, "What?!"
Rather than answer, Starlight lit her horn and vanished in a flash of blue.
Almost perfectly synchronous, Sunset and Twilight facehoofed, before following her in twin flashes of teal and magenta.
Materializing in the flat they shared above Princess Luna's School for Gifted Unicorns, the two looked at each other in exasperation.
"Why do we keep forgetting that we can teleport?"
"I don't know, Twilight. I don't know."
Twilight snickered quietly. "Then it's a good thing we have little Miss Triggerhappy over there to remind us, isn't it?"
Well used to their antics, their older sister simply rolled her eyes again and smiled. "You're welcome. Now what did you want to look up Twilight?"
"Oh, right. One moment." With purpose, Twilight trotted up to the bookshelf, looking over the titles. "Now let's see here ... Elements, Elements, Elements ... Spike!"
Having heard the commotion and already figured out what Twilight was looking for, Spike, the young drake Twilight had hatched over a decade ago in her entrance exam, was already perched atop a ladder leaning against a different bookshelf. "It's over here! Whoa!"
Twilight's magic had gripped the book from his claws, pulling him and the ladder over in the process. Before he could fall far, however, two strong talons gripped his arms, arresting his fall. He gave the phoenix a grateful smile as she softly set him down. "Thanks Philomena, you're the best."
Much like the three unicorns saw each other as sisters, their familiars did the same. Each of them had been hatched by their bonded magician during their own entrance exam.
Like Spike had been hatched by Twilight in her entrance exam fourteen years prior, Sunset's flames had hatched Philomena the year before. And the year before that, well ...
The ladder didn't clatter to the ground, but instead stopped moving before, slowly, tilting back upwards and leaning back against the shelf where it belonged. Starlight walked over to her own familiar, gently stroking the air next to the ladder.
In a shimmer of light, a large feline with spotted dark gray fur, six legs, one pair at the front and two at the back, and a tail that split in two near the tip appeared. Curling up under the unicorn's ministrations Ephemera laid down on the wooden floor.
Not even the princess herself had been quite sure what would hatch from the crystalline egg that had been the object of Starlight's entrance exam. Only when the creature had jumped on the teenage filly's back, curled up and become visible did the truth become apparent.
Ephemera was a prism wraith. A rare species of semi-physical beings that could manifest in a number of different forms, akin to many mundane animals but always with obvious differences, be they extra limbs, limbs with unusual forms or unusual colors of coat, scales or plumage.
No two prism wraiths appeared quite the same and this six-legged, feline form was exclusive to Ephemera. They also had the interesting ability to go invisible, but those familiar enough with them could see them anyway.
Unaware of the accident she nearly caused, Twilight floated the book in front of herself and opened it up. "Elements, Elements, E, E, E ... Aha! Elements of Harmony, see: Sunshadow?"
"The Sunshadow?" Spike chimed in from where he was stroking a claw over Philomena's feathers. "But that's just an old ponies' tale."
Twilight didn't pay him any mind. She was already looking through the book again. "Sun, Sun ... Aha! The Sunshadow, myth from the time before the sky. A powerful pony who wanted to destroy Equestria, defeated by the Elements of Harmony. Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape and she will return to set the sky ablaze!" She gasped. "Girls, do you know what that means?"
The other two mares' faces had grown progressively more worried as she read and they nodded. Sunset was the first to speak. "We need to warn the princess."
Starlight had already summoned a pen and some paper, writing in her elaborate cursive. "Our dearest teacher, our continuing studies of pony magic have led us to discover that we are on the precipice of disaster." She stopped and looked a bit undecided. "Uhh."
"For you see," Sunset easily continued, prompting Starlight to continue writing, "the mythical Sunshadow is, in fact, Daybreaker, and she's about to return to Equestria, and bring destruction!"
This time, Sunset stopped, unsure of how to continue. As one, both of them looked to Twilight, she might have been the youngest of their number, but she always had the easiest time expressing herself with words.
"Something must be done," Twilight easily continued, once more prompting Starlight to continue writing, "to make sure that this terrible prophecy does not come true. We await your quick response. Your faithful students, Twilight Sparkle,"
"Sunset Shimmer,"
"and Starlight Glimmer," Starlight finished and, with a flourish, added the two dots on the ‘I’s in her name. She quickly folded the paper in half twice, placed it in an envelope she magically grabbed from a nearby desk, and floated the finished letter over to Spike. "Would you?"
Spike wasn't entirely sure why the three mares were panicking over a fairy tale, but he knew better than to get in their way when they got like this. His own bonded magician was prone to panic, but, on the rare occasions when the other two joined in, it usually took the princess herself to calm them down. With a shrug, he grabbed the letter from Starlight's aura, took a deep breath and breathed a gout of flame over the letter, incinerating it and generating a plume of smoke that flew out of the open window and disappeared into the distance.
Still, he couldn't help but speak up. "I dunno girls, Princess Luna's a little busy preparing for the Sky Light Festival. And that's, like, the day after tomorrow."
"But that's just it, Spike," Sunset spoke up from where she was laying down on a cushion, Philomena perched on the flowing white cloth that covered her withers. "The day after tomorrow is the thousandth year of the Sky Light Festival."
"Exactly," Starlight added from where she was still cuddling with Ephemera. "It's imperative that the Princess is told right away."
"Well, if you say so. But I wouldn't hold my breath."
"Oh, I'm not worried." Twilight came over with a somewhat smug expression to sit down next to her sisters. The Princess trusts us completely. In all these years she's been our mentor she's never once doubted us."
With a sudden burp, Spike breathed out a cloud of fire and smoke that quickly formed into a letter bearing the royal seal.
"See?" Twilight pointed a hoof at the letter before taking it in her magic. "I knew she would want to take immediate action. Now let's see here." She broke the seal with practiced ease and took out the folded paper. Clearing her throat, she unfolded it and began to read the missive, "My dearest, most faithful students. You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely."
Both Starlight and Sunset were subtly preening under the praise, gaining eye-rolls from both Philomena and Ephemera.
"...But you simply must stop reading those dusty old books." Spike joined the other two familiars, rolling his eyes as well, when Twilight stared at the letter in disbelief and the other two mares gasped.
Still stunned, Twilight continued reading, "My dear students, there is more to a young mare's life than studying. I know the three of you are basically sisters, but I want you to have more than that. Make some friends.
"To that end I'm sending the three of you to supervise the preparations for the Sky Light Festival in the location for this year's official celebration: Ponyville."
Looking into the envelope again, Twilight perked up slightly as she saw a second piece of paper folded up inside. "Oh! A checklist."
Despite their worries being far from quelled, Starlight and Sunset couldn't help but chuckle. There was something endearing about Twilight's enthusiasm for checklists. The two of them got up, using a bit of magic to pull their clothes back into position.
They all knew the stories of the time before ponies had fled to the sky. Of the days when ponies used to not wear clothing most of the time. These days it was different. The colorful coats of most ponies simply didn't reflect the harsh sunlight of the day well enough, nor did they do much to shield them from the bitter cold of the nights high up in the sky.
By now the clothes had become a cultural statement and, while their long, flowing shapes had remained largely unchanged, the colorful patterns that decorated the fabric were as varied as one could imagine.
Moving to stand beside Twilight, Sunset looked into the envelope as well, finding another sheet of paper. "Oh look, it says we're to stay at a place called the Golden Oaks Library. If push comes to shove we can always continue our research there."
Starlight nodded. "We'll do that. Take care of the preparations and then go to the library to keep researching. Come on then."
With a nod, the three of them left the apartment, followed by Philomena. Spike simply hitched a ride on Twilight's back while Ephemera faded from view again.
Before long, the group reached the Royal District Airship Harbor. Following the migration of the Capital, Canterlot had been massively expanded and, in the process, split into four districts, each on separate platforms arrayed around the mountains at different elevations. The Royal District, housing the Palace, the Royal Guard and Royal Navy Headquarters and Princess Luna's school, was the topmost district. Then followed the Upper District, mostly inhabited by the old nobility, the Middle District, housing most of the business in the capital, and the Lower District, housing mostly commoners.
Across the entire range of elevations, built into the crystal caves in the mountain itself, lay the Midnight District. Known mostly only to the inhabitants of the city, it housed the majority of Equestria's nocturnal thestral population. Their sensitive eyes especially suffered in the harsh sunlight.
They turned onto a small pier to the side of the main harbor, the Royal Pier. Only two airships were docked there. Princess Luna's personal yacht, the Selene, and the one they were here for, the Lumiere. A spark of Starlight's magic, sent into the gem beside the airship's port side access hatch, gained them entry into the luxurious vessel.
When Luna had taken them in, her main intent had been to teach them how to harness their magical talents, but she had also given them a complete education beyond that. And, in modern Equestria, no education was complete if it didn't teach how to handle airships, especially for unicorns and earth ponies.
All three of them could easily fly the yacht, though Twilight was, without a doubt, the most skilled helmsmare. One might not expect it when first looking at her, but Starlight was a talented machinist. Sunset, finally, could do either thing reasonably well, but mainly rounded out the group by taking care of everything else that needed doing on an airship. On longer voyages, for example when the three followed the princess on a diplomatic mission, she mainly acted as the ship's chef.
She also had an unexpected talent at handling hazardous substances, a skill Starlight liked to call upon whenever maintenance to the ship's levitation network was in order. Neither the water flowing through the pipes, nor the mythril within it that carried the anti-gravity spell keeping the ship aloft were particularly dangerous, but, to ensure that the latter remained evenly distributed within the former, the pipes also contained a rather potent solvent that was highly corrosive.
With no odd jobs around the ship to take care of, Sunset followed Twilight to the upper deck, while Starlight headed to the rear of the ship to handle the thaumo-electric drive core. Once they arrived, Sunset went up to the railing at the bow, while Twilight headed to the helm, located beneath a sun-roof near the stern.
A spark from her horn into a crystal at the far left of the helm console brought the illusory control interface to life. It only took a moment for the diagnostic display to light up all-green, showing that Starlight had reached her destination as well and found the ship ready for take off.
Sitting down behind the console, Twilight tapped a few buttons, releasing the docking clamps that held the ship in place. Her right forehoof found the throttle and pushed it forward and, with gentle motions of the helm, she guided the Lumiere out of the harbor and set a course for the small group of floating islands that held the settlement of Ponyville.