//------------------------------//
// The Contract of Faust Part 1 
// Story: Relics of the Past 
// by StardustSprinkle 
//------------------------------//

Gather around, my daughters, I have a story to tell. A long, long time ago, a girl was lost in the woods. She was hungry and scared. Then, she remembered a contract her mother gifted her. Her mother said: the contract will grant you what you wished for, at a price unknown. Out of desperation, she wrote her name down. It was then, she forget her mother, and her mother forget her. The girl returned home, without recognizing her own family. Her family received her, without recognizing their daughter. When the girl grew up, she left home, looking for her family without recognizing her weeping mother who spent year with her. Her family has been waiting in the same house, without recognizing their distraught daughter who spent year around them.  


"NO! NO! PLEASE, NOOOO!!!" 
"Celestia?"
"PLEASE, STOP! NO!!!NO!!!!"
"Celestia, wake up!"
"NO! NO!!!!PLEASE!!!!NO!!!!!!"
"Sorry, Celestia, but I have no other options..."
"AHHH!" 
"Sorry, dear sister," Luna sighed, tossing an empty bucket away: "I tried everything, but you wouldn't take up."
"Well, at least you didn't put any ice in this time around," Celestia pants heavily, her voice almost a whisper: "It happened again."
"I see," Luna lets out another sigh: "Remember anything this time around?"
"I..." Celestia jumps out of bed: "Saw a mare, an alicorn nonetheless."
"With red mane and white coat?" Luna asks.
"Yes," Celestia replies as the water on her body starts to vaporize: "And has a quill as her cutie mark."
"Tia, do we know her?"
"I...don't know," Celestia opens the blinds, allowing the pale moonlight to shine on her: "I don't think so, but why do I...we keep seeing her in our dreams?"
"I don't know," Luna's horn glows: "But perhaps she was a childhood friend?"
"I fear not," Celestia says as the moon sets: "Luna, do you have any recollections of our mother?"
"I...no," Luna replies as the sun rises: "But why?"
"Luna, there's something I need to tell you," Celestia shuts the blinds again: "You were cursed to die an untimely death."
"Wha..." Luna blinks several times in quick succession: "Surely thou jest?" 
"No," Celestia replies: "It was foretold at your birth, that you will die an untimely death, and harmony with die with you."
"Sister..." Luna cracks out a laugh: "HA! Is this the 'trolling' thing you are trying to do?"
"No," Celestia continues: "There was a way to...prevent, everything. So I did what I must. The result? You were banished to the moon for a thousand years and the elements were disabled until the return of Nightmare Moon."
"So, wait," Luna falls on her rumps: "I was supposed to die and the elements would have been destroyed too?"
"Yes," Celestia says, before turning to face a frozen Luna: "yes."
"But..." Luna inhales: "Why to tell now if the crisis is already reversed?"
"Luna, tell me," Celestia sits down next to Luna: "What was mother's cutie mark?"
"I...don't know."
"Her mane color? Her name? Anything?"
"I...no, I don't remember..." Luna gasped, her eyes widening in sudden comprehension: "You  mean the mare in our dreams, is she?"
"I don't know, Luna," Celestia wraps Luna in her wing: "But to save you, I had to sign a contract, one that mother gave me. Although I have no memory as to who our mother is, her warning still echoes in my head: You will pay an unknown price equal to that of your desire."
"Sister," Luna asks with a shaky voice: "Do you think...the eventual disappearance of magic has anything..."
"I doubt it," Celestia says: "The contract wiped out the memory of who mother is, but what else..."
"You said it!" Luna shouts: "A price equal to the desire! Without the elements, Equestrian would have fallen to either Discord or Tirek! A simple wipe of memory wouldn't suffice compared to the fate of Equestria and my life! Do you think..."
"No," Celestia froze at the suggestion: "I...No..."
"Celestia, if my life..."
"No," Although barely a whisper, the unusual coldness in Celestia's voice is enough to silence Luna: "No..."
"Tia? Oof!" Luna was pulled into a firm hug by Celestia's mighty forelegs."
"No..." As her eyes stare into the space, a single tear trickles down Celestia's face: "No..."