//------------------------------//
// The Asking 
// Story: Twilight's Curiosity: War 
// by Mr Anomalous 
//------------------------------//


The Asking

Twilight  wandered down the path that lead to where she kept her hot air balloon, taking in the beauties of the early morning.
I'm kind of beginning to understand why Luna got all angry so long ago, the darkness is strangely beautiful...
She finished her thoughts when a dark shape came out from the darkness at her hooves. Using a simple light spell, Twilight lit up the area and pulled the tarp off of her hot air balloon, and, with a wave of her horn, it became inflated. With another wave of her horn, after she was inside the basket of course, the bonds the connected her to the ground were severed, and she began to ascend into the brisk morning air.

After a while, Twilight was beginning to feel bored, which was unlike her. She usually had things to think about, or a book! She couldn't believe that she, Twilight Sparkle, had actually forgotten to bring a book. It was an event to be recorded in history.
Finally, after about ten minutes (which was a while, without a book) the balloon breached the layer of clouds that blanketed the sky, and the Grand City of Canterlot was beginning to appear. 
The morning light cast a sheen over the already shiny and colorful rooftops of Canterlot, and was magnified, causing Twilight to look away for a while, until she got close enough to the mountain that the sun disappeared, and she was able to look again.
As she drew closer, typical Twilight paranoia began to nag at her.
This topic that she was about to discuss was an extremely sensitive one. She hardly ever heard it mentioned, hardly ever saw it wrote down, she could count the times that it had been mentioned easily, and each time, it was quickly snuffed out, or, on one occasion, Twilight saw a shouting match between two unicorns on the subject, not soon before she had moved to Ponyville, and that was the last time.
If it was such a sensitive subject with normal subjects of Equestria, then what would the reaction of the Powerful Ruler, who had always been attempting to get rid of the entire subject, be?
Would Celestia lock her away somewhere, for knowing to much? Perhaps, Twilight thought, as her eyes widened, she would be banished to the moon. Soon after this thought crossed the purple unicorn's mind, however, she began to admit to herself that she would be curious to see what Princess Luna had been doing there for a thousand years, when she was Nightmare Moon. Did she pace around the diameter, did she dig around, did she create sculptures from the dusty landscape with her magic?
After she realized that sculptures and pacing wasn't that exciting, Twilight's thoughts began to wander back to her concerns on what what Celestia's reaction might be towards her curiosity, singling out all of the hostile possibilities.
Finally, Twilight remembered that , every time she got paranoid about something involving Princess Celestia, everything turned out all right....but still...
Twilight's thoughts were finally interrupted when her balloon bumped against one of the towers, sending shudders all up the basket that she was riding in. Twilight's cheeks flared up in embarrassment when she noticed that many of the early ponies had seen her blunder, and she quickly steered her balloon towards the Royal Statue Garden, and set down uncomfortably close to Discord, and Twilight had to fight back bad memories.
Twilight shook her head and trotted towards the palaces door, where two of the guards let her through. Off to find Princess Celestia.

After checking the throne room and seeing that it was empty, Twilight Sparkle took to wandering the halls, in search of the powerful alicorn.
She passed a guard in the hallway, and decided to ask him. She turned around and said:
"Um...excuse me, sir?"
The large, armor-clad pegasus-stallion halted rigidly and offered only an ear cocked in her direction before saying:
"Yes, how may I help you?"
Twilight, intimidated by the large Guard, asked:
"Uh..I was just wondering where I might be able to find the Princess..."
"Which one?" The stallion had the entire side of his head turned towards her now, one eye seemingly glaring at her.
"Ur, Celestia, sir"
The powerful guard had decided that this was worth his entire attention, and completely turned around, and answered:
"I believe that Princess Celestia currently resides in her sleeping quarters, Her Highness was feeling a bit ill, so she has been retained there for the rest of the day."
Twilight asked, "Am...am I allowed to go in there?"
The guard shrugged and answered, "That is up to Her Majesty." and began to walk away.
Twilight called after him, saying, "Thanks, Mr..."
The Guard once again went rigid, with one ear cocked in Twilight's direction, and called back, "Broadhoof. Captain Broadhoof." And he left out of the end of the long corridor.

There was a knocking at the door of Princess Celestia's bedroom, and the Princess looked up from the letter that she was reading, from one of her subjects requesting to purchase a plot of land near the Everfree Forest, and said, in a rather weal voice, "Come in."

Upon hearing the Princess's response, Twilight smiled and pushed open on of the large double-doors with her head and looked inside. Princess Celestia lay near her fireplace, with a small stack of scrolls that lay to her left, a quill and ink in front of her, and a pile of two or three books towards her right, near the roaring fireplace.
The Princess did not look very well. Her muzzle was sore, and her eyes clogged with mucus.
Twilight greeted the Princess, with, " Hello Princess! Uh...are you sick? Can I help you? Can I-"
Twilight was cut off by the Princess with a wave of her hoof, "No, Twilight Sparkle, I am not ill to the point in which I require assistance from one of my students, however prized that she may be."
Twilight, somewhat humbled, then asked, "Oh, um...well, why can't you use your magic to heal yourself, it look like you just have a case of the common cold..."
"Twilight, as ruler of Equestria, I have access to a nearly infinite source of power, that could be used for many things, healing included, but this cold is just something that doesn't seem worth the effort, and besides, its nice to have a break from a large majority of my duties, even if it is just for one day," Celestia answered, a wink following soon afterwards.
Twilight giggled, but her mirth was soon destroyed as she remembered the entire purpose of her being here.
"Umm...Princess, you're probably wondering why I'm here..."
"Indeed I was, Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight's knees began to quiver, and sweat began to form on her brow, and she began to stutter.
"Uh..umm..w-well..."
The Princesses's almost-always hint of a smile was replaced by a concerned look.
"Twilight? Are you all right?"
Twilight swallowed her fear and said, "Yes, Princess, I am, I just have a question..."
"Yes?" the worried expression on Celestia's face was replaced by a look of amusement, which didn't help Twilight's nerves, and she began to studder yet again"
"P-p-princess, uh..."
A look of impatience overtook the Princess and she said:
"What it it Twilight, it can't be that bad, speak up."
Twilight finally managed, "Princess, what  exactly is...war...exactly?"
Celestia's face went dark, and Twilight braced herself, eyes screwed shut, for some pain, but nothing came. She looked up at the Princess's face and winced. Then the Princess spoke:
"We need to go see Luna, now."
Twilight was confused, then the Princess stood up and grabbed Twilight with her magic, carrying her outside her room.
Twilight, as you'd imagine, was getting a bit fearful at this point, I mean, the ruler of Equestrian was carrying her, quite hostile-ish, with a dark expression on her face.
They, or rather Celestia, found Luna on a balcony, with two of her bat-like guards, surveying the countryside.
Celestia spoke:
"Luna, sister, we have an urgent matter."
Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria, and raiser of the moon, turned with a smile on her face, which quickly disappeared.
"We need to talk."