It has been an hour since Princess Twilight had contacted the alicorn sisters. Despite it being sundown, the sisters wasted no time coming to Canterlot to help in any way they could. Twilight and her friends were gathered in a meeting room with the sisters being given the explanation of what is happening.
"So what you are saying is Discord was aware that time itself was in danger, and only now has he informed us, via third party," Luna said, trying to clear things up. "If we are to believe that mysterious pony, then that is the case. Luna, do you remember the days before your transformation into nightmare moon? He suggested that this crisis is the work of shadows, so any information on them would be helpful." Twilight asked.
"It was very long ago; my memories of those days are hazy. To be honest, It's hard to recollect long after we turned Discord to stone." Meanwhile, Celestia was busy examining the time shard. If she applied magic to it, she could view the battle between the pony of shadows and the protectors of Equestria. She carefully levitated it down onto the table. "I should have interrogated Discord further on that walk to the train station. He mentioned the future and I didn't think much of it at the time."
"It ain't your fault, how were any of us supposed to know? That Discord is always actin' strange, which I suppose makes sense given the circumstances." Applejack responded. Spike would be sitting with his arms crossed as he spoke up. "You know he hears everything we say, right? I think he's just avoiding us because he knows he's in trouble." Celestia would take a deep breath and stand up from her seat, walking to an empty space in the room. "Discord, if you show up now, We promise that we won't get angry at you."
No response.
Fluttershy spoke up. "Why don't we just go to the chaos realm and talk to him there?"
“If he is avoiding us now then it is hard to say if we would get much from him by showing up at his house. Even then we shouldn't bank on him knowing much if he asked us to find out how to stop this crisis." Rarity said, putting her detective skills to work.
"You have a point there," Luna spoke. "Did September give you any advice on where to start looking for a resolution?" Rainbow was the first to answer. "He said that we should talk to the oldest ponies we know. No offense but you two are kind of old."
“What he actually said was to find help from creatures who have lived long ago, we tried contacting Star Swirl as well, but it seems he was already asleep." Twilight corrected.
Celestia would turn around to face the group. "I have many memories I could tell, but it's hard to say which ones pertain to the situation. I suggest we look through our archives to see if any reveals the shadows' involvement throughout history." Twilight couldn't stop herself from getting excited, it was visible all across her face.
Rainbow rolled her eyes and looked at Pinkie. "How come every drastic event has to be met with a book diving session?" Pinkie Responded, "Honestly I always just skim for pictures, I mean there is like a bazillion books, how would we ever find what we need by actually reading everything?" She said as she bounced on towards the Canterlot Library. Rainbow just pondered on why she never thought of that herself.
It was late in the night as most of the group was sleeping on makeshift beds made in the restricted section of the Canterlot Library. Towers of books from the Star Swirl wing were teleported into neat piles so they wouldn't have to split up. After a good few hours of searching, Celestia and Twilight had lightened up a little bit as they enjoyed spending some time with each other.
"Remember the old days when we used to have an entire dark magic archive, and I had to tell you there was a monster behind those doors just to keep you from going inside?" Celestia said to Twilight as she glossed one book after another from a tower next to her, this caused Twilight to bust out laughing as if they were all here for a fun reading sleepover.
"It would have likely sped up our search if we kept it, when Luna was restored we had to spend two whole days separating the real from the superstition and moving them here." Twilight was laying opposite to Celestia browsing through her own stack of books. "You know I wouldn't have minded coming over to help out, you won't find a better book-sorter than myself." Celestia giggled as she responded. "I sent you a letter, but Spike wrote back saying you were too busy dealing with a time-related disaster that day. We all know how that turned out."
Twilight snorted and pressed her hoof against her face with a big smile across it. Applejack would then approach them, happy to see they loosened up. "Try not to stay up too long havin' fun, odds are Star Swirl will send us on some crazy adventure tomorrow."
“We'll try," Celestia responded. "I remember it being hard to get little Twilight asleep when she had books all around her." Applejack chuckled some and turned around. "Your beds are over there next to you, I'm going to turn in for the night. Goodnight girls."
They both told her goodnight and carried on talking and book skimming. "I remember Luna being difficult to get to sleep as well, she slowly became nocturnal as time went on. Isn't that right, sister?" Celestia called out to Luna, who was sleeping with a book over her head. "Not so much anymore, since she got good at dream duty in her sleep," Twilight responded with a smirk across her face. She closed a book and stretched a little, turning to Celestia eager to bring up a topic.
"You know, I've been an alicorn for a few years now, and I never did learn much about alicorns themselves," Twilight said, looking at Celestia with big starry eyes. Celestia looked over at her former student. "It seems someone is expecting a story." "I mean we have to know absolutely everything we can if we want to stop the shadows." Twilight added, trying to make reason of her statement.
"I believe you are just curious, Twilight." Celestia smiled over at her and closed a book, sliding it away. "Fine, come over here and I'll tell you the tale. You won't find this in any book here, I assure you." The purple alicorn excitedly rose to her hooves and scurried over to join Celestia on the simple bed made from sheets on the floor. Twilight leaned in close eager to hear the never before told story.
"My sister and I were not born alicorns, Luna was an earth pony and myself a unicorn. This was likely because of our unicorn mother and earth pony father. Our family lived alone in a sturdy house out in the woods. I believe sometime after Luna's birth, the never-ending windigo winter began. They must have concluded that Luna and I wouldn't survive the journey to a town, so they made-do with what they had.”
"With the farming expertise of our father and the magical prowess of our mother, we were able to survive fairly well. Though one day, a starving manticore paid us a visit." Celestia stayed quiet for a minute as Twilight nuzzled against her former teacher and rested a hoof on her shoulder. "Our parents knew it would chase down all four of us if we fled together. They gave us all the supplies they had and sent us out the back door, while the two of them faced the manticore."
Twilight would have tears in her eyes from the story. "I'm sorry that happened to you." Celestia quietly shook her head. "No one is to blame, if ponykind had gotten along in the first place then there wouldn't have been an eternal winter. I can never remember our parents' names, just their faces, and their undying love."
"Of course, that is not where the story ends. My sister and I trekked through the snow for days, if my mother hadn't thought me fire magic then I fear we wouldn't be here today. Eventually, we ran out of food, and a harsh blizzard came as the sun went down that night. We found shelter in a cave, though it was so cold that I couldn't get a single flame to start. Luna asked what we were going to do, all I could do was hug her and tell her that everything would be ok. I was almost certain we would not wake up in the morning, but something tremendous happened overnight."
"We were chosen."
Twilight was confused, she poked her head out to look at her face better. "What do you mean you were chosen?"
“We woke up in the morning, each with a pair of wings and Luna now bearing a horn. I couldn't explain it, even today, I don't understand what exactly happened. A few hours after we woke up, some mysterious alicorns in robes found us and told us to follow them, so we did. They lead us to a castle they named Canterlot, which this castle is named after."
"The years with those alicorns were strange, to say the least. They wouldn't tell us their names, we simply addressed them as sir or ma'am. They thought us about the tree of harmony, spells, as well as what it meant to be an alicorn. They didn't grasp well that luna was still young, so she didn't pick up on much other than flying tricks and the Canterlot voice. I, however, learned a great deal, I even impressed Star Swirl when he took us in later down the line."
"One day, the eternal winter simply vanished, the alicorns said the believed that it was a sign, and they sent us out into the world. As you know, Star Swirl found us and had us become the rulers of Equestria." Celestia could tell by the look on Twilight's face that she had a million questions about the story. This made her face curl into a smile. "Why don't you narrow the questions down to three, and then you have to go to bed."
Twilight thought as she listed the questions in her head by importance, and finally spoke up. "What does it mean to be an alicorn?"
“What they believed was some are chosen by the spirit of harmony to be alicorns, which uphold all that it stands for, represented by the elements. I assume they believed their role was to pass on their knowledge to us while hiding themselves away from the rest of the world. While the role of my sister and I was to defend ponykind and preserve harmony. "
Twilight nodded slowly, and then asked her next question. "Did you ever visit them again?"
"Only once, When Luna became nightmare moon and was banished, I had no one left to turn to. I returned for guidance, but there was only one alicorn left. What she did was teach me a spell that could transform worthy ponies into alicorns, and told me to be the very best ruler I could be, for a bright future was on the horizon. She even decided to tell me her name as a last request."
Twilight curiously loomed in. "What was her name?" She asked, until suddenly realizing her mistake and covering her mouth, followed by a pout. "Gotcha," Celestia said, pointing her hoof at her and winking. "Her name was Gusty the Great."
Twilight was overjoyed at the mass amount of history given in one night. "You have to write a novel about this, Celestia! The world has to know!" Celestia chuckled a little. "I suppose I have the free time now that I'm no longer a princess. For tonight though, you need sleep."
Twilight gave a little sigh as she curled up on the blankets and rested her head on her pillow. Celestia would give her a nuzzle. "I have complete faith in you Twilight, I shall see you in the morning."
"Goodnight." The purple alicorn said softly, as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.