I was sitting in a nearby spa trying to relax my back end with a very apologetic Luna sitting on the other side of me. she was looking away from me as she spent the good part of the other day making me sing as she called it. I sighed as my voice was mostly gone after it. I could stare at her as she had a sheepish smile on her face. I rolled my eyes as I slowly walked out of the warm water. my hooves were still shaking when I had my full weight on them.
“Hey you know the rules” I glanced at Luna as she made her way towards me. I hung my head watching her move closer as her magic wrapped around me.
“Jr should be back today right?” I nodded as trains going to Hallow Shades were far in between. it's not a popular place so you have to wait for a special train to take you. I just hoped he didn’t get lost trying to get to the village. I walked out of the spring toward the main room I was stuck staying in since it was on the ground floor. As I entered the room I noticed Jr sitting with a scarf around his neck and a large trunk sitting beside him. this trunk was larger than him and he narrowed his eyes at me. I noticed Celestia and the few elements staring at the trunk.
“Your lucky I had help. Pumpkin spice heard what happened and packed a care package” I watched as he kicked the trunk causing the sides to fold up. small blue orbs ringing fell out holding different items while some were floating around. I could see my trunk sitting in the middle.
“I couldn’t open it to check if this is the one she said you locked with everything in it” I nodded as I got to my hooves slowly walking over panting a bit. I felt Luna pressing herself against my side glaring down at me. I sat in front of the trunk as Luna move to look at the orbs.
“You…wouldn’t” I hissed at him in a horse voice.
“What happened to your voice?” I pointed back at Luna with a smile on my muzzle.
“Okay since most ponies know about the past. I wouldn’t normally say this to keep a professional life but I am no longer a guard. So mom will you please let mother rest!” he shouted as Luna looked at him.
“Fine and it's been a long time since you called me that. I am shocked you haven’t called me that in private”
“I was on duty”
“Mom? Sister, you never told me you had children?” Celestia walked over to her sister as Luna shook her head.
“Jr here is Necro’s kid along with his other siblings. I was part of their parents’ lives both normal and love life, they started calling me mom and we never corrected them” I turned and looked at the trunk.
“Red isn’t here?” I whispered watching Jr shake his head “good” I opened my muzzle and bit hard on my leg causing it to bleed.
“MOTHER! don’t make yourself bleed” I rolled my eyes before using my bloody hoof I tapped the top of the trunk causing it to open. Once the trunk was open I wrapped it up in a scarf.
“Mother you always told us not to use blood magic” I could hear the room grow quiet.
“What…I have in here I needed to keep from my grandfather. Now help me get the items out and lay them around the room” I tied the scarf off around the bleeding hoof. I watched as Jr started laying the armor and the weapons out. My ears went out as I felt Discord popping into the room dragging ponies with him.
“I felt very powerful and old magic. Didn’t want to miss out on the fun” he smiled. I kept my hoof close to my body as I noticed the orbs slowly disappearing leaving the food and the clothes behind. I watched as Jr had cleared everything out leaving a tube and a boxed-shaped cloth at my hooves.
“Mother what is going on”
“Your mother came across some old very old libraries in my time. However, this book was given to me by a random pony while I was on the road. I was about sixty when my grandfather let me leave the village. The empire was never around when I left so I traveled. Meet a pony while traveling and they gave me this book.” I placed my hoof down and opened the tube pulling out a few pieces of parchment. I laid them out before pulling the cloth showing a book made from two pieces of tree bark with parchment in between. I opened the book revealing a story on the front page. I flipped through the pages before placing the two pages back in. once they were in images of alicorns and wording appeared.
“This book holds information on all the alicorns of old. Even my grandfather with notes that I made. This is an old magic that can trigger any pony hell this triggered Discord” I pushed it towards Jr.
“That book how did you get that book!” Discord growled as his fur fluffed up.
“Like I said somepony gave it to me” I was panting as I shook my head. I felt dizzy as I leaned against the trunk.
“Mother?”
“The magic in these items are strong. if you haven’t used your magic to touch them then you're fine. I did so I am affected by them since my horn is cracked. My magic wants to connect to them again as magic fuels them” I was huffing again feeling as if I was in a desert, a dry desert. I looked over at Jr as he was scared looking at the items.
“What is old and what is new”
“The book is the old magic she talking about. And no magic doesn’t fuel it. the book is made to drain magic. This is a trap set up for alicorns, it was created when one went astray. Yes, it have information on it from other alicorns but you need to be careful about this.”
“If it drains magic then why is Silver affected?”
“Like she said her magic connected with it so it only knows her magic. it wants to take her magic as it has a bit of alicorn magic in it. This was probably enchanted to drain her grandfather. it was given to her because she is the only one he visits.” I watched as discord walked over picking it up in his claws.
“Discord no!” Fluttershy shouted.
“It’s fine as long as I don’t use magic while handling it. Besides my magic as I am right now will destroy it. The rest of the items I have not seen before.”
“Because she hid her armor in here. The blue and silver pile is her old knight commander armor. the little medallion next to it is my father’s. The pastel set sitting beside it is her Crystal empire armor” I nodded along as I slipped away from Discord over to the pillows collapsing on them. I was panting heavily as I forced myself up to feel the cold air from the open window.
“Princess, can a book have that kind of enchantment on it?”
“It can Twilight. I would not recommend or even suggest a pony doing that as it can kill the pony who is holding it.”
“Then how can Lily hold it without dying?”
“She is a star Twilight. She has enough magic to power Canterlot for years. From what Void told me she has about thirty thousand years left in her”
“THIRTY THOUSAND!” my ears went up as Rainbow shouted, “How!”
“Stars can live a long time. Some can die at a young age it's hard to kill them, but their power will not die for fifty to sixty thousand years later. it depends on how the star is formed by Selene and Solis”
“Mother are you”
“Just let me rest right now. Being near that book drains me of my energy badly. It's why I keep it in a trunk sealed by blood” I crashed on the pillows again as this was something I hated the feeling. That damn book has been nothing but a curse since it was handed to me.
“Oh keep the damn book” I hissed as I forced myself to lay on the pile of pillows. I rested my head on the pillow watching them stare at the book. I closed my eyes and found myself sleeping for a short while. It was till I heard shouting.
“How the hell could she wear this! it's heavy” cracking an eye open I noticed Rainbow was trying to pick up the lunar armor while Rarity and the others were putting the Empire armor on their mankin.
“Darling this armor is lovely! I can’t believe this used to be armor” I could see her placing the pink and blue opal bracers strapping them down to the makain. they placed the light blue dress that had a high collar on it. Once the dress or fabric was down they strapped the breastplate on making sure the star was pointing up. Along the shoulders were pointing out and up. The back was smoothed along with the breastplate. The helmet was only a simple metal band with a diamond in the middle. I could see the jagged and sharp ends pointed down at the hoof while the top was rounded smooth.
“Most of the weapons back then weren’t made properly. The armor on the other hoof was so we made modifications to the bracers. This is mainly in case you are stuck in melee combat The crystal empire was stronger in magic so the gem in the middle created the helmet. It created a shield strong enough that even a dragon couldn’t pierce it. It’s why headstones were mostly popular back then since only the head ever made it. But this is it, a simple but effective piece of armor that was worn. Never did see much combat with it since the empress ever used me as a spy” I spoke up.
Turning my head I could see Rainbow Dash struggling with the fabric. She had the dark blue fabric showing a mixture of metal and fabric. Jr started with the simple silver metal bracers with black onyx and blue sapphires where the straps were. Once they were on he placed on a long sleeve faded black tunic before the long sleeve dark royal blue dress. This was another high collar but was edged with silver thread. The collar had two crescent moons on either side with silver buttons. he was busy flaring out the bell sleeves as I heard a thud.
“I give up” Rainbow fell on his back panting.
“you see Equestria was still coming around to having magic in their army ranks. After the loss of Starswirl, the guards weren’t so keen on having magic in the ranks. So the armor had to be up to date and made for hoof-to-hoof combat. There was no hiding in the back and taking the enemy out with a bow or magic. There is no helmet with that one as you are very rarely out in the front lines unless it's a true war. I saw a few but never in the front lines”
“Mother you were supposed to be asleep”
“I heard Rainbow Dash shouting. I didn’t expect anyone but me to pick up my armor.
“But how is it so heavy?”
“Multiple layers creating the weight and the durability.” I pushed myself up as I weakly moved over to the manikin. I sat down looking at the fabric and you could hear a clap of thunder. Fluttershy ran and hid as Rarity was fixing the skirt on the other armor.
“Darling what are you going to do with these sets?”
“The empire I will be giving to a museum. The knight commander armor I will be wearing to the fight. I just need to fix the holes now”
“I can fix them since your magic is still a no go” Rarity smiled as I nodded.
“Just this is a multi-layer fabric where each layer is its own weight and thickness so you will have to do one at a time” I could see her eyes lit up.
“I never worked with this kind of fabric i do love a challenge” I had Jr help me back to the pillows as I rolled onto my back as the door opened up.
“Good you're laying down. I need to check on your horn”