//------------------------------// // Chapter 50 A Spark from the Past // Story: Super Stallion // by PioneerofImagination //------------------------------// After the defeat of the Storm King Super Stallion had been on the lookout for the other rogues who have an annoying habit of escaping and finding a great place to hide.  "Any luck?" Celestia asked when Super Stallion got home. "Not a trace of them. Who knows, maybe they left the continent," Super Stallion answered. He changed back into Squeaky Clean and made his way over to where Princess Celestia was to give her a hug and a kiss.  "What was that for?" She asked. "Do I need a reason?" Squeaky replied which made Celestia giggle who after all this time still admired her husband's wit and sense of humor. "No I suppose you don't," Celestia replied as she gave Squeaky a hug and a kiss in return. "Try not to worry about not finding them. I'm sure they'll show up sooner or later." "I'm sure that they will but that's kind of what worries me." "What do you mean?"  "I've gotten a bad feeling or 2 about bad things to come but the 1 I've been having lately, well to put it simply it's worse than all the others combined and doubled." "Wow." "Maybe I should look around for a little longer," Squeaky was about to have it but Celestia grabbed the sphere out of his hoof. "Now, now, nothing good will come from stressing yourself out besides you and Swift Sweep have a few royal duties to get to, and the toilets."  "Right, I suppose now is as good a time to do that as any." Squeaky then made his way out and met up with Swift Sweep.  "Hi there best buddy who is Squeaky Clean and only Squeaky Clean," Swift Sweep said before giving him a very unsubtle wink as 2 guards noticed his unusual behavior. "Did he get hit on the head again or something?" One of the guards asked the other who shrugged. "Yes Swift Sweep he's Super Stallion," Princess Luna said who came with her husband. "You don't have to keep acting that way." "Sorry it's just so cool." "I understand that," Squeaky said. "Believe me I actually still have moments where I get amazed that I'm a superhero. But you can't keep doing that somepony might put 2 and 2 together." "Don't worry too much about that, not a lot of ponies take me all that seriously anyway, well I mean until I became a prince." "Well all the same you should be a bit more careful," Twilight said who came along with Luna and Swift as well. "And you can't tell anypony about it, no one got it?" Squeaky asked. "Don't worry I won't tell a soul I promise," Swift Sweep said as he pretended to zip his mouth closed but then did a series of rather bizarre gestures.  "What are you doing? Doing a 1 pony play?" Squeaky asked, confused by his friend's bizarre action.  "No, I'm zipping my mouth closed then locking it with a key then digging a hole. Then put the key in the hole then filled up the hole. Then built a house on top of the hole then moved into the house," Swift Sweep answered leaving the other ponies very confused. "Are you by any chance friends with Pinkie Pie?" Twilight asked. "No, why?" Swift Sweep asked.  "Oh yes everyone loves a callback," Discord said before he appeared out of thin air as he usually did.  "Discord, what are you doing here?" Twilight asked. "Well at first I was looking around to see what improvements I could make to the castle since soon it's going to be mine." Discord flew next to Twilight and hugged her a bit "Oh I'm sorry Twilight I meant ours. But as I did that sun butt herself saw me and gave me something to share with you." Discord snapped his fingers and a newspaper appeared.  "Oh thanks Discord," Swift Sweep said as he grabbed hold of the newspaper. "I didn't get a chance to read the comics today. I was too busy getting this for Luna." Swift Sweep then got out an action figure and gave it to Princess Luna.  "What is this?" Luna asked. "It's a toy," Swift Sweep answered. "Why did you get this for me exactly?"  "Just because," he answered. "Ah I see, another one of those."  "It's not the comics Swift Sweep though I am rather fond of the orange cat, it's the front page." Swift Sweep then looked at the front page and as it turned out somepony made the discovery of a lifetime.  With the defeat of the late Storm King some ponies went beyond the borders of Equestria for one reason or another. For Prof. Fossil it was so she could follow an ancient map Swirl the Bearded himself helped decipher. He came across her on his travels across the land and thanks to him she made it to a place she thought only existed in the land of make believe, the Isle of the Ancients.  The land where some of the first creatures to ever be recorded in history came from. Such as the monstrous Grogar and also according to legend, the very first alicorn. When Prof. Fossil came to the Isle it wasn't long before she had more than enough to report back which would soon bring the attention of just about everypony or rather every creature. Squeaky brought this news to Celestia who along with Twilight and her sister arranged to go there with quite a few other ponies.  "THIS IS SO UTTERLY AMAZING!" Twilight said so excitedly when she and quite a few others were about to go there. "Yes Twilight I'm rather excited myself," Celestia replied. "Star Swirl would tell me about this place a lot when I was a filly. It's truly quite incredible that we're actually going there." "I KNOW I KNOW," Twilight said as she bounced around a bit like she was Pinkie Pie. "I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER BEEN THIS EXCITED I THINK, I THINK I'M GOING TO-" Suddenly Twilight exploded into confetti to the utter shock of Celestia, Stone Wall, Luna, and Squeaky. Fortunately she quickly returned to her original form perfectly fine and quite a bit calmer as well.  "Oh of course chaos magic," Stone Wall said. "She learned from the best," Discord said. "Yes unfortunately she did," Squeaky replied.  "I don't blame you for being excited but try to get it all out of your system by the time we get there," Stone Wall requested. "Being royalty you'll need to set an example of professionalism especially when you are around other ponies." "Right," Twilight replied. "And let's try to keep the chaos magic under control too shall we," Stone Wall added. "If that ain't an oxymoron I don't know what is," Discord said. Eventually the airship arrived at the Isle of the Ancients and Stone Wall wanted to tell Princess Celestia they arrived but saw she was napping while Squeaky was making sure their kids were doing all right. "Princess it's time to wake up, we're here," Stone Wall said in a bit of a whisper as he wanted to gently wake her. "No no," Celestia said in her sleep, sounding a bit like a young filly. "Come on you can finish your nap on the way back let's get going," Stone Wall replied when suddenly she grabbed him or at least was going to if Stone Wall didn't jump back.  "Please don't go please," Celestia said, still in her sleep and crying a little bit.  "It's the dream again," Stone Wall said. "The dream?" Squeaky asked as he stepped away from his children to see if his wife is all right.  "Once in a blue moon Princess Celestia had a dream about her mother." "Her mother?"  "When she gets like that there's only one way to wake her up, aside from a bucket of water. Princess I'm making a chocolate cheesecake." Hearing that Celestia jumped right out of her bed super excited and looked around like a puppy looking for a ball. Squeaky, his kids, and even Stone Wall couldn't help but laugh. "What's so funny?" Celestia asked. "You are," Stone Wall and Squeaky answered together and kept laughing.  "Oh I see," Celestia answered as she went to see how her children were doing. “I must have had that dream again.” After that she got ready to head out with Prince Squeaky who could tell just from the look on her face that there was something on her mind.  "Do you want to talk about it?" Squeaky asked. "It's just that, I thought I was done with the dream or it was done with me. Until today, I hadn't had it in years." "Did you ask Luna if she could do something about it?" "Well it's not exactly a nightmare so I don't think she can help with it in fact if she did try to help it might affect her as well."  "So what happens in this dream?" "It's about my mother." "It is? You never talk about your parents."  "I never knew them, nopony did, at least nopony that wrote it all down." "You never knew them at all?" "No, Star Swirl found Luna and I when we were just foals and took us in.”  "So what does your mother do in the dream?"  "She holds me close to her chest," Celestia answered. "...And?"  "That's about it, sometimes I only see her chest as she holds Luna and I so tightly other times I see her face. But no matter what in the end she places me on the ground next to Luna and flies away. I've never told anypony about this dream other than Stone Wall, I wonder why I had it today of all days." Squeaky then hugged his wife sensing that she really really needed it. "Thank you Squeaky." "Anytime." After setting the babies down for a nap with a few guards around them, they headed out to meet the others. They saw a few other ponies that came from other airships such as Tempest Shadow and her group of other former trouble makers. Seeing her, Stone Wall came over to see her right away but also made sure that Twilight was nearby.  "You're kind of the last pony in the world I expected to see here," Stone Wall said to his sister. "Yeah in all honesty I wasn't all that interested in coming but Ruby practically begged us," Tempest replied. "Wow these were made before Equestria was founded but they only look like they were made several hundred years ago," Ruby said as he continued to admire the statues. While he was doing that Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance walked by with their precious child Flurry Heart who upon seeing Stone Wall flew over to him right away and grabbed him by the head.  "Uncle Stone Wall," she said as she continued to hold him until Stone Wall pulled her off him. "Looks like you need to keep your guard a bit more Stone Wall," Shining Armor said in a playful manner. "Who said I dropped it? I'm not going to counterattack a baby but I might be forced to teach her a little discipline if her parents won't."  "Oh come on she can't help it if she loves you so much," Cadance said.  "Cadance Shining Armor Flurry Heart, what are you 3 doing here?" Twilight asked as she hugged her brother and sister in-law then kissed her niece several times.  "As if we were going to miss something like this, you aren't the only one that has a thing for history," Shining Armor answered. "It's like all those times we pretended to hunt monsters, it's something we both like. Remember taking down serpents that are bigger than they probably should be page 79 on the monster-pedia?" "Actually it's page 80," Stone Wall replied to the surprise of the others. "What? You and Princess Twilight weren't the only ones that liked to play pretend. Squeaky was so imaginative when we were colts. He had us go on so many adventures I had to memorize the entire book just to keep up." "The whole book?" Twilight asked. "I'll buy that you were more playful when you were younger but come on, the whole book." Suddenly to everypony's surprise he pulled out the said book and offered it to Twilight. "I usually take it with me when I go on a long trip. Go ahead and test me.”  "All right then," Twilight then took the book and started to quiz Stone Wall who answered every question given. As she walked off to join the others with Stone Wall Shining Armor watched as he felt rather on the side bench.  "Uh Twily?" Shining asked. Eventually Twilight and Stone Wall found the royal pony sisters and their husbands who weren't far away from Prof. Fossil and Star Swirl the Bearded who were being interviewed by other ponies. "Yes yes it is quite the accomplishment," Prof. Fossil said while trying not to sound too full of herself. "But as much as it would be great to, I can't take all the credit. After all, finding something this great would of course take the help of somepony as incredible as Star Swirl the Bearded." "Oh come now no need to acknowledge me," Star Swirl replied who was standing right next to her. "This was your discovery. I just helped you put the pieces together. Though it was rather strange that I didn't discover this sooner." "What do you mean?" One of the ponies surrounding him and Prof. Fossil asked.  "Well in my younger days, which was quite a while ago, I actually traveled to this isle here. Well first I found something 2 certain someponies but when I brought them back a while later I went back and searched this isle but I found only trees." "That's because that's all you were supposed to see," a voice that came out of nowhere answered, confusing the ponies. "Who said that?" One of the other ponies around Star Swirl and Prof. Fossil as they continued to look around. "It's like the voice came out of nowhere," Clover the Clever said as she recently walked over to Star Swirl. "Weird that's usually my thing," Discord said. Suddenly a pony came right out of the ground, shocking and amazing everypony. "I am so glad that I brought my camera," yet another pony that was with Star Swirl the Bearded and Prof. Fossil said. "Wait a minute, isn't that Pony Ivy?" Squeaky asked.  "At a time I was indeed," he answered the prince. "Before that I was known as Briar Hooffield but now I go by Plant Thing," he announced to the others who didn't know how to reply. "Uh Plant Thing?" Swift Sweep said, breaking the silence.  "I know I know I wanted to go with something simple and I know it doesn't scream creativity but I like it and I really feel like it fits me," Plant Thing replied. "Uh okay so what were you doing in the ground? Do you hibernate now?" Squeaky asked. "No I have become one with nature and as I was saying, Star Swirl the Bearded when you came here all that time ago you were indeed in the Isle of the Ancients. But a powerful spell was cast to hide anything but trees." "Wait, you mean like some sort of powerful ancient illusion spell?" Twilight asked.  "Yes," Plant Thing answered. "But how did you figure it out?" Star Swirl asked. "I didn't when I became one with nature I traveled around being at one with the green and it brought me here and told me of the spell that long kept the secret of this small island. While not a unicorn mind you, my newly strengthened connection to nature is what allowed me to remove the spell and bring this isle out in the open once again. But I had a little help on how to do that not only from the green but an ancient voice, the one who cast this spell." "Amazing," Prof. Fossil said. "But what about the voice?" "It's still here and it wants to talk to some of you but only a few." Plant Thing then pointed to Stone Wall, Princess Luna, Prince Swift Sweep, Princess Celestia, Prince Squeaky Clean, Princess Twilight, Star Swirl the Bearded, and Discord. "It only wants to talk to those 8 and the voice or rather the creature behind it can be found in the ruins in the very center of the Isle of the Ancients. Now if you'll excuse me I wish to return to the green." Plant Thing then returned back underground from whence he came. "Whence? Are you kidding me?" Discord asked to seemingly nopony. "Wait come back," Prof. Fossil said as she ran over to where Plant Thing disappeared and even dug at the ground a little. "He's gone and there were so many questions he probably could have answered." After Plant Thing left the 8 went to see what was waiting for them while the other ponies decided to explore the other parts of the Isle hoping to find something exciting as well.  The 8 had made it to the center of the isle and a ball of light appeared in front of them which took the form of a tall white alicorn with a long red mane and tail.  "Mo-Mother?" Celestia said as she approached the figure. "Yes Celestia, Luna, it is I. Your mother." Hearing that the royal pony sisters ran right at the alicorn and gave her the biggest hug they could. She returned the hugs with one of her own to the daughters who never knew her. "Mother I, I have so many questions," Celestia said on the verge of tearing up. "I'm sure you do, which I don't blame you for, but my time is short," she replied which made her daughters break the hug out of shock.  "You mean you're dying?" Luna asked and then suddenly her body became transparent before becoming solid again. "I'm afraid that ship sailed eons ago," she answered.  "You're a ghost," Star Swirl said. "Oh she is?" Swift Sweep asked. "I thought she was doing some weird magic trick or something." "Did you hit your head recently or something?" Celestia and Luna's mother asked. "No actually, funny, I get asked that a lot." "I, see," she replied. "And yes Star Swirl I am a ghost and my time is short.” The mother then used her magic to change the landscape around her. "This is what this isle was like in my time here, a small tribe of ponies. In my youth I was a very curious pony that wanted to know how just about everything worked." "How unlike anypony I know," Celestia said. "1 day when I was a unicorn I decided to do an experiment with 2 friends, an earth pony and a pegasus. I took a sample of their essence as well as their own kind of magic and combined it into mine making me the first ever alicorn. But before I could have used this new found power of mine we were attacked." "Attacked?" Celestia and Luna asked together.  "Was it Discord?" Celestia asked. "Oh sure, blame me," Discord said. "Honestly, that's just rude."  "Along with a small tribe of ponies that lived on the Isle of the Ancients there was also a tribe of sheep who were treated as the lower class. They started out as our servants but over time despite my efforts they were treated more and more like slaves until 1 day a ram by the name of Grogar couldn't take anymore of the mistreatment."  "Wait Grogar?" Squeaky asked. "The father of monsters, I thought he was just a legend." "The same was said about this place and Nightmare Moon," Stone Wall said.  "He used magic that he acquired and took revenge on our kind. I tried to stop him but I underestimated his power and he got away. So I set out on his trail when I arrived at the Crystal Empire where I met your father." "Our father?" Luna and Celestia asked once again together.  "Was he a knight?" Luna asked. "Was he a wise and great wizard?" Celestia asked. "He was a stable colt of the Crystal castle and funny enough he himself was not a Crystal Pony. I know it might not sound all that charming but he cared so much for me and would do all he could to just make me happy. I couldn't help but return his affection. Even if he wasn't all that bright and at first was so smitten with me he could hardly form a sentence around me, but we fell in love. After our wedding and you 2 were born I learned Grogar was cruelly ruling over the land just beyond the Crystal Empire so I set a plan in motion with a powerful unicorn known as Gusty the Great. However I underestimated him again and he defeated me by using his powerful Bewitching Bell and dealt me a fatal blow." "Was that how you died?" Twilight asked. "No but my injuries were great; however my fight with Grogar did manage to tire him out but even then Gusty only managed to take the bell and force Grogar to retreat. After that she and her warriors fought off the monsters Grogar created and the rest as they say is history. I sensed my time was near so I needed to find somepony who could care for my foals. I feared it would take more time than I had but I sensed a traveler coming to the Isle and I found you," the mother said as she pointed to Star Swirl the Bearded. "I always wondered why and how those foals ended up there," Star Swirl said. "It was because-" "I put them there," she finished for him. "I could tell you were a noble soul and would take good care of them the best you could." Suddenly her body became transparent once again. "After making sure they would be okay I used the last of my magic to place my own soul in these ruins and cast the illusion spell to hide the ruins of the place that was once my home." "But why go through all that?" Discord asked. "While Grogar was defeated I knew 1 day he would return. I hide my soul away in the place I called home and at times came out of my dormant state to search for the one that I could help stop Grogar once and for all."  "Why didn't you come to us? We could have helped you somehow?" Celestia asked.  "It wasn't your destiny to stop him, I could just sense it. That falls to another in his group one that is a superhero as it's called," the mother answered. "Oh you gotta be kidding me, another pony that figures out my secret, and it's a ghost of all things." "Fear not Squeaky I will be taking my secret to the grave for now that I've finally found the one, I can give you this." The mother then made a sphere of pure magic and it flew over to Squeaky and into his bag to enter his sphere. "A part of my magic, but it will only work once so it will only work when you absolutely need it." "Convenient," Discord said. The mother then started to flap her wings and took to the sky.  "Grogar's return is near so do all you to prepare." "Wait, I have so many more questions," Twilight said. "So do I," Star Swirl said. The mother then used her magic to summon a buried box and opened it to show a book she wrote about her life and flung it to the 2. Celestia and Luna flew up trying to catch up to the mother they never knew. "Wait, don't go!" Luna cried out in tears. "Please don't leave us!" Celestia cried out also in tears.  "I will never leave you my dear daughters. I will always be with you," she answered, and with that vanished from the mortal plains.  Seeing that Luna and Celestia dropped back to the group slowly and their husbands approached them to see they were still in tears. "Are you alright Celestia?" Squeaky and Swift asked. "No, but I will be," they answered. After that they met up with others such as Prince Blueblood who had an announcement.  "Tempest and I are getting married," he said. "Wow, just drop it right on them." "But it's true we've fallen in love in our time together. I wish to marry her auntie. She makes me so happy." "I see," Celestia replied that her nephew was acting this way.  "Yes please give your blessings with this and allow me to marry her at the castle. I want to make her wedding fit for a princess, which is what she's going to become upon marrying me." "I can tell you're quite passionate about this, very well you have my blessings for both your requests." "Wow Blueblood finding a special somepony, I never thought I'd see the day," Cadance said.  "No kidding," Shining Armor said. “So Twily what did you all see in the center?" Shining Armor asked. "Sorry but Stone Wall and I have to talk with his sister and soon to be brother in law about their wedding," Twilight answered, wishing not to discuss meeting Celestia's mother in front of her as she was still dealing with it. Or talk about how she knew Squeaky's secret as enough ponies knew it already.  "Right we should get to work right away," Stone Wall said, catching on to what Twilight was doing and walk off with her." "Oh okay, later then," Shining Armor said, feeling left out again.  ***  Being told that the ancient threat of Grogar will return, the princesses wanted to increase the castle security to prepare. That and it’s been invaded far too many times. Shining Armor was put in charge of finding better ways to make the castle safer and to test the new security measures he asked his sister Twilight Sparkle and her friends to try and break in and take the sibling crown. Something the 2 playfully battled for when they were young and this time, it was winner take all.  "I must admit that your ideas to upgrade the castle defenses are quite creative," Stone Wall said. "Though the geese might be a bit much." After a while of patrolling something caught Stone Wall's attention numerous royal guards gathered together in order to listen to Applecore. "What are you all doing, you're abandoning your posts?!" Stone Wall asked in frustration. "Well we can't hear her songs from over there," a guard answered.  "What?!" Stone Wall asked frustrated.  "Oh give us a break captain so we move to a different spot so what? It's not like we get entertainment like this everyday, we're bored." "YOU MORONS ABANDON YOUR POSTS AND RISK INTRUDERS SNEAKING IN BECAUSE YOU'RE BORED!" Stone Wall screamed at the top of his lungs, scarring every single guard. "IF YOU DON'T GET BACK IN POSITION THIS INSTANT! YOU'LL HAVE A LOT MORE TO WORRY ABOUT THAN BOREDOM!!!" Hearing that every single guard went straight back to their posts to calm the wrath of their terrifying captain leaving Applecore without an audience. "Jumping Geronimare they get dumber and dumber everyday." "I don't suppose you want to hear something," Applecore suggested. "Beat it," Stone Wall ordered and she decided to listen to not get on his bad side. Eventually Twilight was able to get the crown thanks to Luna and Spike that came for another visit. While Celestia and Luna agreed to work together to improve the security Shining Armor told Stone Wall how he failed. "Let me guess, you thought you won and got so caught up you didn't notice she took the crown." "How did you know?" "Because you are so predictable," Stone Wall answered. "I know everything that's gonna come out of your mouth." "No you don't," Stone Wall and Shining Armor said at the same time to the latter's shock. "That was a coincidence, not it off. Pickles and calms. Onomatapoeia." "I'm an idiot," Shining Armor said alone. Stone Wall shook his head. "I'm so disappointed, you're a prince, a captain, and a father now. But you're still an arrogant brat, aren't you." Stone Wall then left to inspect the party Pinkie Pie made then collected all the food and would pass it out to the members of the guard or store in the mess hall.  "Thanks for the slices of cake captain," a certain unicorn mare guard said to him.  "I'm not going to let you all abandon your posts but I'm not going to let food go to waste either. I'm tough but I'm fair." "Uh speaking of food," she said with a blush that rather surprised Stone Wall. "There's this restaurant I go to once in a blue moon. Its food is to die for."  "I see." "Our shifts are almost over. If you're interested I could take you there sometime." "Sorry," Stone Wall replied as he saw that Sapphire Shores was waving him over while holding a picnic basket. "But I already have plans."  "Oh I see," she said as Stone Wall made his way over to the pony of pop. "It was worth a try."