Princess Celestia was a god among ponies. Regal and poised with her white fur and multicolored ethereal mane, she ruled over her subjects fair and just, granting the gift of sunlight to them and the land they loved.
Princess Luna was received likewise. The cosmic night was her domain, the moon and stars all hers to command. Although most creatures often slept through her nights -- something that had once angered her to such a point that she let a ghastly force overtake her body and soul -- some stayed up to appreciate them, or to take advantage of them for things like running errands.
Together, these two sisters ruled Equestria for millennia upon millennia. They had more wisdom and knowledge than any creature in existence, and most every creature knew it.
But the chains of commanding often have iron balls attached.
Most every creature knew about the stories of Twilight Sparkle and her five friends -- how they defeated villain after villain, how they always stuck together through thick and thin, and how they eventually became the co-rulers of Equestria following the princesses' retirement. Their reign was glorious, with harmony being maintained for years upon years.
That is, until every last ruler was erased from existence.
Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack all took their deaths with dignity and peace.
Twilight Sparkle, on the other hoof, had gone missing without a trace.
No one knew where she had gone. About as tall as Celestia, with her purple-and-pink ethereal mane, it was rather hard to miss her. Some had rumored that the stress and grief of losing all five of her friends had caused her to run away, while others had rumored that she was battling some inner demons of her own long before her friends passed away. No one could find Spike, either -- whether he was busy in another city of Equestria or Twilight had somehow taken him with her was a mystery.
Regardless, however, the creatures of Equestria still held hope that their Princess of Friendship was alive somewhere. As long as the sun and the moon rose and fell every day and every night, she had to be alive. It was that steady routine that the Equestrian citizens depended on, the steady routine that guided the search parties through the lands in repeated efforts to find their beloved leader.
With a grunt, the filly landed on the ground. As she rubbed her head and slowly stood up, her vision was met with a town that was void of life and void of color. Nothing but greys and blacks littered the shops around her, making her an outlier with her orange fur and purple mane.
"Hello?" she called out as she walked, hoping to find any sort of intelligent life nearby that could, perhaps, help her out as to what had happened to...what had her dad called it? "Canterlot"? Yeah, that had to be it.
The wind that blew was harsh and bitter, and the filly couldn't help but shiver from the cold. She looked around at the dim and dirty streets, littered with trash and looking about as run-down as houses on the shoreline in an area known for frequent hurricanes. It was very unlikely that she would find anypony here, but nevertheless, she pushed herself to keep going, to hold just a small sliver of hope that somepony, anypony, was walking around, waiting for their call to be answered.
About a half-hour later, she had made her way to a place that she had heard her dad call "Canterlot Castle". Like Canterlot itself, the building was desolate and void of life, but despite the many years that had passed, color still lined it from every wall to every corner, although it was mostly faded.
She could hear her hooves clicking along the floor as she walked through the corridors and rooms. Tapestries depicting all sorts of Equestrian events were littered on the floor, most of them nearly torn up, and as much as she wanted to look at them, she resolved to keep walking.
After all, something was calling her. She couldn't hear it, but she could certainly sense it.
As she made her way through the castle, she wished that she had taken her journal with her, to record notes to bring back to her dad. And speaking of her dad...she kind of missed him. She felt lonely here, just making her way through a place she knew had no inhabitants to speak of, deep down inside. If her dad were here, he could help guide her through this now-dulled place that was once a lively, bustling town.
The filly had made her way into the next room, a rather large room she had to assume was a bedroom of some kind, when a soft humming sound caught her attention. She flicked an ear, and then listened more closely to assure herself that she wasn't just hearing things.
Sure enough, the noise continued.
Her eyes shimmering, she got into a running position, but then stopped as she realized that the sound of her hooves clicking would only make it harder to find the sound's source. So, as excited as she was, she resorted to simply walking, although she couldn't stem the excitement bubbling up from within her.
She made her way down the hall and opened the door to another bedroom, and her eyes took in what had been the source of the humming.
Half of a beautiful, round amulet, adorned with half of a shimmering pink jewel and a picture of a sun, sitting on the floor.
"Ooh!" she exclaimed, trotting closer to the amulet and picking it up to examine it. For all of her dad's research, she didn't recognize this amulet, but she assumed that was because she had half of it.
So where was the other half?
Just as she was about to sit down and fiddle with it, the humming noise got louder, and the pink jewel shone brighter. Within seconds, the filly found herself suddenly yanked away, and she had to fight to keep her grip solid on the amulet that was pulling her and dragging her along the ground.
"Hey! W-where are we going?" she asked, as though expecting the amulet to answer.
No response.
All she could do was wait, she supposed, as the magical device moved her through the castle hallways. A bored look settled on her face as she watched the stained glass windows zoom their way past her.
The sound of singing caught her attention, and her ears perked up before the amulet took a hard right into another room. By this point, the filly was so bored with what was going on that she barely recognized the other living being in the room with her.
"Ba-da-da-boo-doo- oh! Ohhh my gosh, it's another pony!"
The amulet stopped humming and released itself from the filly's grasp, clattering on the floor. Feeling her leg start to grow sore, she shook it out in an effort to get the blood flowing back into it.
"And...and an Earth pony, too! Oh my gosh, this is so exciting! My name's Izzy Moonbow, what's your name?"
"Uh..." The filly blinked as she took in the sight of the other pony before her. An illustrious unicorn with a mane and tail that perfectly embodied the night sky, she had a broad smile on her face.
"M-my name's Sunny. Sunny Starscout." She picked up her half of the amulet. "Um, why are you here?"
"Oh! Funny story about that, actually. So I was exploring around Bridlewood -- that's my home -- and I fell into this really weird portal! So I started looking around for anypony to help, but there was no one, so I made my way to this really creepy castle where I found this amulet, and it dragged me all over the place until it led me here!"
Sunny blinked as she tried to fully absorb Izzy's story. The other filly talked so fast that it was hard to make out what she was saying. However...
"Hold on. Did you say you had an amulet?"
"Oh, no! I have an amulet! See?" Izzy picked up her half of the amulet that was beside her, holding it to Sunny for her to look at. It looked much like Sunny's side, only with an engraving of a moon instead of a sun. The Earth pony filly picked up her own half and then took Izzy's half.
"What are you doing?"
"Tryna...piece these together!" Sunny used her hooves to connect the amulet until it was made one whole piece again. "There!"
"But how is it gonna stay together?" Izzy mused. "Oh, oh, I know! Do you have some tape? Or some Ponilla Glue? Glue's much better than tape, in my opinion."
Before Sunny could even open her mouth to answer, a loud humming sound emanated from the amulet as it began to glow. Two tendrils of white magic emerged from the device and extended themselves towards the two fillies, causing them to float.
"W-what's happening?!" Sunny shrieked.
"I dunno, but this is super fun!" Izzy shrieked back, seeming to enjoy whatever this amulet was doing to her. Whatever enjoyment she was having, however, stopped right quick when her eyes began to glow an ethereal white.
"Izzy?!" Sunny called, but she too began to see white, her mind gripped in the thralls of the amulet's magic.
Slowly, the tendril surrounding Sunny split off into multiples and snaked around her, two of them wrapping around her stomach and swirling about like ice cream in a cone as they extended out to her sides. While in her magic-gripped state, she was just barely aware of a new sensation on her sides, but couldn't do a thing about it.
Another tendril then made its way up towards the filly's head, wrapping around it and swirling outwards from her forehead. She winced slightly as she felt another new sensation on her forehead...a sensation that felt a little itchy. But as much as she tried, the amulet's magic still had a vicehold on her and she couldn't comprehend what was happening.
Izzy's magic tendrils did the same thing, wrapping around her sides and creating a whole new sensation for her. She could feel something gripping onto her horn, followed by a huge surge of power that rocketed through her body. It was almost too much for her to bear, and she couldn't help but let out a scream.
The two fillies descended, the magic tendrils slowly releasing their grips on them as they slunk back to the amulet. With a shimmer, the amulet fell still and silent, as though waiting for its two latest "victims" to come back to the waking world.
Sunny groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. Surprisingly, she wasn't back at her dad's house or back in Maretime Bay -- she was still in Canterlot Castle. "What...happened..."
Izzy's eyes, on the other hoof, flew open as she leaped to her hooves. Her left eye became twitchy as her horn surged with magic, the swirls engraved on it lighting up in a bright mixture of blue and white.
"Izzy?" Sunny shook her head. "What's going on?"
"Idon'tknowwhat'sonmewhat'shappening?!" the other filly said, although it was hard for Sunny to understand what she was saying since she was speaking so fast.
A couple minutes passed before the swirls' lights died and Izzy's horn returned to normal. She blinked as her eyes scanned Sunny.
"Oh...my...gosh!"
"Oh...my...gosh."
Both ponies just stared at each other, trying to comprehend whether they were in some kind of twisted fantastical dream or if they were in the real world while gawking at their new appearances.
Izzy could see that Sunny now had a horn, a bright orange one that went well with her fur. In addition, she also had small purple wings, the same color as her mane and tail. It was quite a change for her, who had only met Sunny just a couple minutes ago when she was an Earth pony.
Sunny eyed Izzy, who still had her horn, but also had a new pair of small purple wings to go along with the faded purple ends of her mane and tail. She went around the room, hoping there was some kind of reflective surface that she could use to see herself.
"What are you doing? Why do I feel so weird?" Izzy swiveled her head around and tried to see what had happened to her sides, going around in circles.
"Got it! Izzy, c'mere!" Sunny called from the other side of the room. The other filly galloped after her, but stopped short when she saw what her new friend had called her over for.
Both of them were facing a mirror that was mostly intact, save for a rather large crack extending down the middle and stopping halfway.
"Wha...wha..." Izzy extended her new wings and softly flapped them a couple times. "I have wings?!"
"I'm an alicorn! Whoo-hoo!" Sunny jumped up and down with glee, flapping her own wings. "Wow, this is soooo cool! My dad always told me about alicorns but I didn't think they were actually real!"
"An alicorn?" The word felt foreign on Izzy's tongue. It felt almost like one of the four superstitious words of Bridlewood, but she was sure that none of her neighbors had ever heard of an "alicorn". Not even her parents had mentioned the word. But apparently, this filly...Sunny Starscout...she knew what an "alicorn" was. Maybe she could help her understand this.
"Um, Sunny, what's an alicorn?"
"Oh? You've never heard of them?"
Izzy shook her head.
"They're ponies that have a horn and wings. My dad told me that very few ponies in ancient Equestria were alicorns. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Twilight Sparkle, to name a few!" Sunny's eyes lit up. "They're super-duper powerful, too."
"So...does that mean you're Princess Sunny Starscout, and I'm Princess Izzy Moonbow?" Izzy sounded rather hesitant.
"You can just call me Princess Sunny. And I'll call you Princess Izzy! Okay?"
"Mm..." Izzy wasn't quite sure how to go about this. Her gaze drifted over to the magical amulet, now one whole piece again. She stared at it for a while, then went to pick it up. "Maybe you should have this."
"Huh?"
"Your dad's really smart. Maybe he can study this...thingie." Izzy placed the amulet in Sunny's hooves, then started to make her way out of the room, her head hanging low.
"Princess Izzy, wait! Let's walk home together!" Tucking the amulet inside hammerspace, Sunny galloped after her new friend, not wanting to be left alone in this desolate land even with her new horn and wings.
It was a rather long walk back. The two fillies decided to go through the same portal that Sunny had used and entered it, making their way back to the more lively Equestria, the Equestria they knew and loved, with nary a word spoken.
As Izzy helped Sunny out of the cave, she sighed.
"What's wrong, Princess Izzy?"
"I..." The alicorn filly looked to her left. "I'm gonna go home."
"But why? Can't we play some more?"
"No. I don't feel like playing anymore." She began walking away, her head still hanging low. "I'll see you around, maybe."
"Wait! Can we be friends?!" Sunny called after her.
Izzy stopped and turned, only giving a small, but sad, smile before continuing on her journey back to Bridlewood. Sunny watched her go, a soft sigh escaping her before she turned and went the opposite way, back towards her own home of Maretime Bay.