//------------------------------// // Starlit Scriptures // Story: Her Sunlit Lineage // by Graglithan The Greater //------------------------------// Twilight was in the closest she could be too literal heaven. The smell of dusty books and aged newspapers permeated the air of the Canterlot Library's archive room. They did so thoroughly that it felt like the ink was lining her lungs with each breath. The only reason she wasn't going catatonic with joy from being there was the fact that she and Rarity had other priorities distracting them. Folding an old article from roughly ten years ago, Rarity sighed. "Nothing in this one. Have you had any luck?" "No." Twilight frowned and grabbed another paper, scanning over the articles on the front page. "There has to be something with Celestia referenced in these! I pulled every paper that had anything to do with Canterlot High that's in here!" "There's just no way that every single trace of someone can just vanish." Rarity hummed in thought as she pursed her lips. "This is turning into quite the mystery. Perhaps I should have stopped and gotten my Noir outfit before starting our search." Twilight blinked in surprise before looking over with a raised eyebrow. "You have a Noir outfit?" "Darling, our search?" Rarity deflected casually as she went back to the newspapers. "Right." Twilight turned back to her own set of papers and hummed. The two sat in silence for a little while longer before they both let out a long sigh. "This is another dead end, isn't it?" "It appears so." Rarity tossed her newspaper down and frowned. "This is becoming less of a mystery and more of an annoyance." She looked over at the rest of the archive and hummed. "Perhaps we should focus less time on Celestia, and more on this Sunny Days character instead? After all, if the search on Celestia is proving less than fruitful, it would be wiser to focus our efforts elsewhere." "I guess..." Twilight muttered as she pouted and slumped. Sighing, Rarity put a hand on Twilight's shoulder and gave her a smile. "Now, don't be like that, dear. I'm sure what we need will practically fall right in our laps." The two of them jumped as a hefty tome slammed into the table, followed by a pair of pink hands belonging to a very exhausted looking Starlight. "Hey, girls, how you been?" Twilight blinked in surprise before smiling. "Hey, Starlight. We've... been better." Starlight raised an eyebrow at the newspapers littering the table and winced a bit when she noticed that she'd knocked a few to the floor. "Er... sorry." Twilight and Rarity shared a glance before the latter waved a hand dismissively. "Oh darling, it had nothing to do with the papers scattering. If anything, we were about ready to put them all away." "Well, that's a small relief." Starlight chuckled as she took a seat across from Twilight. "So what are you two up to?" "Trying to figure out Celestia's age." Twilight groaned and rubbed her temples. "A task that is proving to be monumentally more complicated by the second." Starlight's mouth opened, and Twilight held up a finger. "Did Sunset ask you to do this?" Starlight deadpanned with a raised eyebrow. Twilight blushed a bit as her head landed on the table. "So, she came to you too."  "I didn't realize she'd asked more than just us." Rarity looked a little hurt before she perked up and smiled a bit. "Did you find anything, though?" Starlight sighed and shook her head with a shrug. "Well, I'd like to say that I'd be some help, but I came up just as dry." Pursing her lips a bit in thought, Rarity looked towards the book that Starlight had dropped onto the table. "Then, what brings you here, darling? Surely you have other plans for today as well." "Research for my dad." Starlight patted the cover of the book and smirked. "He needed some help getting information for his thesis, and asked me to find anything I could from the public library on the topic." Twilight perked up, and her eyes sparkled. "Thesis research?" Rarity's eyes rolled with a small smirk sitting on her face. Twilight didn't even notice as she leaned forward with her hands clasped together. "What's the subject? Is it something I could help with?" Starlight spun the book around for her to see, and Twilight's face fell. "'Lost Legends by Obscure Text'? What would need this?" "My dad has a Masters in History and Folklore. He needed a bit more on a specific legend to help him go over the finer details. All he had was old tomes that, unfortunately, didn't fare well over time. This," Starlight patted the book and smiled, "supposedly has a bit more info on it, if the librarian is to be believed." "You can always trust Dusty Pages." Twilight steely replied making both Starlight and Rarity lean back a bit in shock. It wasn't long after she realized just what kind of tone she used, and returned to blushing. "S-sorry. I just... Dusty's one of the best librarians here. Though, I did hear she was planning on retiring soon." Starlight waved a hand and felt a bead of sweat trail down her cheek. "I-It's no big deal." She turned the book back around and opened up the cover, looking through the contents. "Anyways, I gave up on the Celestia search sometime yesterday. It was clear to me she really didn't want anyone to know how old she is." A chuckle slipped past her lips as she found what she was looking for and started flipping pages. "My bets somewhere in her 50s to 60s." Rarity let out an indignant gasp. "Starlight! Making bets on a woman's age! That's simply scandalous!" The was a pause before she leaned in with a whisper. "60s to 70s, take it, or leave it." "Deal." Starlight gave Rarity a quick handshake, then glanced at Twilight for a second before smiling. "But if we're both wrong, Twilight gets the money." "Can you please not involve me?" Twilight pouted and sighed. "We still need to see if we can find anything about Sunny Days." "Wait, Sunny Days?" Starlight frowned as she flipped back to the front of the book. "That's odd." "What is?" Twilight looked at the book curiously, followed shortly after by Rarity. "I could have sworn I saw something involving that name somewhere in here." Finger gliding down the page, Starlight's eyes scanned each word before she came to a stop. "Yep, 'The Lost Kingdom of Stellaris.'" She rolled her eyes a bit and shook her head. "I read this one before. There was a character named Sunny Days in here. It didn't even focus on her as much as her sister, but it's in here." Rarity and Twilight shared a glance before turning back to Starlight. "Really? Hm, I guess whoever Sunset wrote to us about must have had parents who really liked folklore." Starlight winced as she sucked a breath in. "I wouldn't go that far. I talked with dad about that kind of stuff once, and he got kinda... intense. Something about not wanting to curse a child by tempting fate." Twilight's brow furrowed as she hummed in thought. "I don't know why but... part of me wants to look into that legend. Even if it's only loosely related, we might get a hint at what kind of person we're looking for." Pushing over the book, Starlight shrugged. "Knock yourself out. I'm gonna go upstairs and see if there's a second copy in the back that I can check out. This one was from the reference section." Giving a quick wave as Starlight left, Rarity and Twilight both turned to the book as the latter flipped through the pages to the relevant story. "Okay, let's see here. Long ago, in a faraway land, there was once a kingdom known as Stellaris. Though young, the nation thrived under the rule of Lord Stellar, and Queen Nova. Crops were plentiful, guards maintained order, and peace swept through the very homes of their citizens.  Despite this peace, however, the king feared the unknown. Anything new, he shunned outright, going as far as to outlaw that which his dislike alone could not halt. The only novelties he welcomed were the births of his daughters, the older, Sunny Days, and the younger, Starry Nights."  Twilight paused her reading and shared a glance with Rarity. "Is it just me, or does this sound oddly similar to some of those movies Pinkie made us watch?" Rarity shrugged a bit as a blush crossed her cheeks. "To be fair, I think you and Sunset were the only ones awake by that point."  Twilight giggled a bit and turned back to the book. "It was upon the birth of the younger daughter, that a seer came to the castle. While the king wanted nothing of her magic, the queen insisted on hearing out the elder. The seer spoke of the kingdom's end. She spoke of the sun's fall to the magic of the moon, and the ruin that would follow. The fearful king's mind jumped straight to his daughters, and in anger, had the seer removed from the castle.  Thus began the fall of the kingdom. As the princesses grew older, the king's paranoia coiled around his soul. Desperate to ensure the seer's words never came true, he did all in his power to ensure that his eldest was as powerful as she could be. The elder sister was pampered by the best caretakers, tutored by the greatest scholars, and courted by the noblest princes. The younger sister was left to her own devices, only receiving the scraps of what was left behind. Magic was soon after outlawed, and any found using the craft would be executed. There was a problem, however, with the king's plan. His oldest, growing tired of her pampering, longed for something to change. Often, she would sneak away for hours, cause trouble, and remain unpunished due to the fear of her father's retribution falling upon those who caught her. It was at those times that her sister was faced with the punishment for deeds she had not even done, pushing her heart into cold darkness. Time passed, leading to jealousy and resentment that grew within the younger sister's heart every passing day, until one day she had enough. Luring her sister into the garden, the young Starry Nights argued with her sister. Years of pent up emotions flooded out of her and it was then, in the anger and pain, that the magic lying dormant inside the young princess broke free and granted her heart's wish, banishing her sister to lands unknown. But it was not joy that filled the young princess's heart in the aftermath, but the hollow ache of loss and the fear of their father's wrath. Knowing what her father would do, the young princess fled the kingdom with the aid of their tutor. With both his daughters missing, the king ordered his armies to scour the land to find his oldest and kill his youngest.  Tried as she might, her attempts to make amends with her actions were unanswered. For fortune did not favor the youngest princess. Though taught how to control herself by the wise scholar, the king's men found them, the tutor fell in his attempt to protect her, and the knights chased her to the seaside. With no options, and the weight of guilt clouding her mind, she turned her body to stone as she cast herself into the watery depths.  With both princesses lost, the queen's heart fell into despair, and the kingdom soon followed, descending into a bloody civil war that left only ruin in its wake. There is hope, however, within the heart of the people, that one day, the princess will return, and their kingdom will be restored." Twilight and Rarity looked to the next page, where their jaws dropped. Splayed across the page, was a drawing of the two princesses. The first one at the moment she turned herself to stone and fell into the sea. The other, as she was being banished into the base of a statue. The detail that caught their attention the most, however, was the coloration of both princesses. "Hey, doesn't the princess in the book..." "Look like Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna?" Rarity finished as she stared in shock. Twilight stood up and closed the book before heading for the stairs. "Okay, normally, I would just chalk this up to coincidence, but ever since I figured out magic is a thing, I'm a lot more open to possibilities."  Rarity caught up with her and put a hand on her wrist. "Now Twilight, while I agree with that train of thought to a point, I must also remind you that this is a legend well over a thousand years old. Coincidence is still very much on the table." "But then why else would they keep hiding how old they are!?" Twilight threw her hands up into the air, nearly losing the book. Sighing, Rarity shook her head and had her hands on her hips. "Twilight, darling, you sound like a conspiracy theorist. Last I checked magic didn't turn people immortal on a whim." Twilight pouted a bit before pointing in what could have been the general direction of CHS. "Well... Equestria's Celestia and Luna are over a thousand years old!" "And on that side, they're all-powerful to the point they can move the sun and moon at their leisure," Rarity added with crossed arms and a tapping foot. "Last I checked, our principals don't do that. If anything, they complain about it when they think we can't hear them." "But so far, it's the only thing that's made some sort of sense!" Twilight groaned and rubbed her face in exasperation. "It would explain why they keep dodging the question. If they're over a thousand years old, they might be doing everything to hide their immortality to live normal lives." "Twilight." Rarity's tone made her flinch before Twilight felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I thought we agreed we would put Celestia's age problem on hold. All we've found is an obscure legend from who knows how long ago that likely has had several details changed as it was passed along. That isn't enough evidence to come to a solid conclusion, and you're stressing yourself out again. Let's just see if there are any records you can find on anyone named Sunny Days for now, okay?" Sighing, Twilight rubbed her arm and looked down. "You're right... I'm working myself up over nothing." "Not nothing, a problem you promised a friend to solve." Rarity gave a smile and pulled Twilight into a hug, which was quickly returned. "It's just that you need to step back for a moment to give yourself a break." The two both jumped a bit as their phones went off. They shared a glance before pulling them out and frowning. "Rainbow? What could-" Rarity gasped and put a hand to her mouth in shock. "Oh, dear." RD: big prob!  RD: house got broke into! RD: magic stuff is missing! Twilight gulped a bit and shared a scared glance with Rarity. "I think things just went from bad to catastrophic." The two of them wasted no time leaving the Library.