//------------------------------// // Ponyville // Story: Daughter of the Night // by PizzaculousPony //------------------------------// Twilight looked down, green hills adorned the landscape, a harsh contrast with the mountain were Canterlot stood. The chariot was being pulled by four royal guards. Next to her were a unicorn that, as she saw it, liked to play as Celestia’s pet and a baby dragon, who’s weakness could make a foal laugh. The town wasn’t far from Canterlot at all, they arrived in about 15 minutes. It was small and had dirt roads, the houses were small and the same save for three and the town hall. The three houses were a cloud house, hanging around the outskirts of town, a dessert looking house near the market place and a big building of to one side of the town hall. The guards slowed down and landed near a big oak tree that at first looked like a normal tree but then it resembled a house. The mares and the dragon got off, while Twilight took a look around town and spotted the Everfree, Sunset talked with the guards. "Thank you gentlecolts." The guards saluted before the head guard spoke up. "No problem miss Shimmer! We’ll get your stuff settled into the Library as requested by Princess Celestia and them we’ll head off to the town hall in case you need us." "Ok, thank you again and I hope you enjoy the celebration." Sunset waved goodbye at them before joining Twilight, who had spaced out and was trying to imagine her magic pool. Sunset waved a hoof in front of her face but she did not react. "Twilight?..." Sunset said in a low voice but to no avail. "Twilight?..." she said in a normal tone but still nothing. "Twilight!" She was now screaming at the mare’s face. Twilight was taken out of her daze without flinching, and gave to sign to be back to the world apart from her gaze switching over to Sunset. "What does thou require?" Twilight finally asked "I-I need your help, if we divide the list we’ll be done much more faster." Sunset replied shying away from the stare. "Very well, Spike could thou instruct us of our duties?" Twilight relented, she really wanted to see the old castle and what noble she would have to ki- convince to leave. "Okay so," Spike pulled out a check list and began reading. "Food, weather, decorations and music" "That’s it?" Asked Twilight. "We thought it would be more, seeing as this is the one thousandth... celebration..." The word 'celebration' did not seat well with her, especially seeing what it was celebrating. Her mouth formed into the most subtle of frowns that went unnoticed. "Well yes, but the Princesses have always liked simple things." Sunset retorted but Twilight ignored her. "Unimportant." Twilight took the checklist and once again read her options. "We shall take the weather and the decorations." "Okay then that leaves us with music and food, this shouldn’t take long!" Sunset said to Spike then turned over to look at Twilight. "We’ll meet at the Library later." "Of course." Twilight nodded and then headed on her way over to the town hall where the list said was the ceremony. On her way, without anyone else to talk to, she again started spacing out thinking. If Sunset Shimmer’s information is valid and Ponyville is in fact around...600 meters away from the beginning of the Everfree, and our castle was around another 600 meters inwards...That would mean that the castle is about 1.2 Kilometers away. That is inside my reach of teleportation and...Telekinetic Speech spells. She stopped for a moment as if remembering something. She looked over to the Everfree with curiosity. Could...Could Pyre be...? No he wouldn’t stay and wait for us would he? Twilight decided to test it, she and the princesses , except for Cadence, had a special connection with the Everfree through the three of harmony. Twilight could feel her connection with the stars growing stronger, and they were light years away, she figured her connection with the Everfree had to already be restored. She made her way and sat down on a bench that had shadow provided by a nearby tree. She closed her eyes and extended her awareness towards the Everfree. It weaved through the branches, gradually getting weaker but closer to the tree. It finally entered it’s cave and with the last bit of strength it hung onto the tree. The tree did it’s job and provided it’s connection with the forest to Twilight’s awareness. Twilight could now see every leaf, feel any animal and hear any water or streams running. She then got to work locating an specific bird. She searched around for a while until... "Huzzah!" She screamed as her awareness returned to her body. She lit up her horn, thankfully Pyre was close enough to the castle to be in her telekinetic speech spell. She sent up her spell and waited until she felt a connection. "Phaeton Pyre, my dearest friend, it is I, Twilight Capella Sparkle. We are currently to the north of our castle and wish very dearly to speak with thou after so long." There was a long silence, eventually, Twilight got out of his head. She was now thankful that Starswirl had her learn magic theory so she could combine spells. Suddenly a loud majestic screech was heard all over Ponyville. Twilight looked up, above the tree line of the Everfree, came down a red, orange and yellow bird. He left a trail of red sparks behind him. He looked around trying to locate his mistress that had called for him. She stepped away from the bench and came into view standing in the middle of the street. She extended her hoof it the air and waited. Soon enough the bird recognized her and flew towards her. Her flew in circles around her before settling in her raised for-hoof. She nuzzled him and he returned the favor. "It had been indeed a while hasn’t it Pyre?" The bird nodded and nuzzled her again. She giggled before moving her for-hoof over to her back. Pyre got the memo and hopped onto her back, making sure he didn’t hurt her with his un-honed claws. He then used his wings to poke at the her sides where her wings used to be. "It’s a long story but do not worry, we shall get them back soon if everything goes well. But for now thou must accompany us. Do not attack anypony who wrongs me unless told to, we must remain unrecognized as royalty for our plan to rid mother of the moon to succeed." Twilight also made sure to add a little reassuring nod. They walked together, well more like she walked and he just rode on her back, through the streets of Ponyville. They walked next to a mud puddle careful not to get her cloak dirty. Suddenly, a light blue blur flew by, her honed instinct kick into action and she created a shield around her and Phaeton. All the mud from the puddle sprung up and hit the shield, slowly coming down. Twilight undid the shield and the remaining mud fell to the ground revealing a light blue pegasus mare with a rainbow mane flying in front of them. "That was actually pretty awesome! You’ve gotta teach me how to do that sometime!" The pegasus spoke. "Very flattering but we’re afraid we must be on our way. Does thou know a certain...Rainbow Dash perhaps?" Twilight thought she already knew the answer. "Oh, you know about me?" She cockily put a hoof to her chest. "I’m not surprised, so tell me what have you heard about me?" "We heard thou was supposed to keep the sky cleared instead of laying around doing nothing." Twilight knew how to handle ponies like her pretty well. Rainbow Dash took it as the insult that it was and retorted the best way she could. "I’ll have you know that I can clear the sky in ten seconds flat." "Oh? We don’t believe you. Mind proving us wrong?" Twilight asked kindly trying to hide her loosing her patience. Rainbow dashed away throwing herself and bucking the clouds out of existence. She zigzagged from cloud to cloud kicking and punching. As promised ten seconds later every cloud in the sky was cleared. The pegasus flew back down proud of herself. "See? Ten seconds flat!" "Very good, We’re glad thou has actually done her job." Twilight started walking away. "Now, if thou excuse us we shall be on our way, we are very busy and will no longer inconvenience you." The pegasus flew over to her side. "You’re weird, I hope we can hang out sometime-. Whoa! What kind of bird is that?!" "He’s a phoenix." Twilight responded, she wanted to wrap a defensive wing around him but then she remembered she no-longer had them. She sighed and kept walking, the town hall was now a few steps away. She continued to walk, ignoring the pegasus eyeing her poor bird that was trying to resist the urge to wing-slap the pegasus. She entered the town hall. The decorations were going great, there were ribbons and flowers adorning the columns, tables with with drinks and beverages and more. There was a white unicorn with a purple mane who was changing ribbons. "No, no, no, oh Faust no, no-" "Pardon me, We’re here to-" "Just a moment darling, I’m in the zone." The white unicorn interrupted back. "No...Yes! Ah perfect." She adjusted the ribbon on one of the columns near the stage. "What were you saying-?" The mare looked over at Twilight and let out a gasp. "Darling?! What are you wearing?!" "Does thou mean my cloak? We have to admit it’s not my best-" Twilight was again interrupted by the unicorn. "Oh, no, no, no! This will not do!" The unicorn then grabbed Twilight with her magic, and galloped over to her boutique. She started measuring Twilight. Twilight was a pro at standing still for measurements, having to wear multiple gowns for any ceremonies she needed to attend to as a princess. "Um pardon but, what is this for?" Twilight asked. "For your new cloak of course!" The white unicorn answered as if it were common knowledge. "Thank you miss..." Twilight’s voice trailed off realizing she didn’t remember the mare’s name. "Oh! Where are my manners! My name is Rarity." "It’s a pleasure to meet you miss Rarity, Our name is Twilight Capella Sparkle. Well, we thank you miss Rarity, but we’re afraid we don’t have many bits to repay thy kindness." "It’s free of charge, besides I already finished the decorations." They continued to talk all the evening, Twilight was surprised that someone in that town had a sense of class, but of course didn’t express it. She actually felt more at home with Rarity but she still wished she could get some alone time. Eventually, Rarity got up, she looked towards Twilight and said. "Well we should get going, Pinky is throwing a party at the Library for the Celebration and you don’t want to be late." "Oh, why of course!" Twilight responded, she needed to go to the Library anyway. So she and her new self proclaimed friend walked over to the Library.