The Forgotten City: The Journey of Twilight Sparkle
My name is Twilight Sparkle, Chief Librarian of Canterlot Royal Library, and Chronicler of the Tales of Harmony. Previous to this past month, I wasn’t called upon to wield the Elements of Harmony in nearly a decade.
I record the events so that they will not fade into the mists of time. I record them so the future rulers of Equestria, and the Celestial realm of the most Noble Alicorns may learn from our triumphs, and more importantly from our mistakes and consequently our sacrifices.
The story begins some thirteen years ago, just prior to the grand wedding at Canterlot castle of Princess Cadence and my brother Shining Armor. My mentor Princess Celestia asked that I journey to the far-off lands of the Gryphus to settle a dispute between the gryphons of the high northern mountains and the Pegasi of New Talos.
The gryphon’s specifically stated that they would tolerate no flying above their mountain cities, and only one pony was permitted to cross their realm by ground; so since I did not know the land, I was forced to take the journey on foot alone.
It was cold, hard and rough travel through some of the worst weather in Equestria. During my travels, I often wished for the company of a skilled Weather Pony; who could manipulate the winds or dispel the clouds. However, this far north of Cloudsdale that was very unlikely and if anything they’d likely only make the storms worse.
After all it’s where all used weather goes, a gentle push and the clouds are set to drift north and dissipate.
Twilight Sparkle put down her quill and closed her eyes remembering the past.
The freezing snow and ice of the mountain passes whipped my mane around, tugged at my tail and made it all but impossible to see without the use of magic. Not for the first time did I wish for the companionship of my friends.
“Thank Celestia for this cloak Rarity gave me. I would have frozen long since without it.” Twilight muttered to herself. Her horn glowed briefly, and the hood and cloak dragged itself up on her back and close around.
I plodded along through the ever deepening snow to my eventual destination, the pegasi ground colony of New Talos.
‘With luck, I’ll be there by nightfall,’ I muttered to myself watching the sun slide from the sky as the hours passed. Eventually I made my way through the snow packed mountain paths and the settlement finally came into sight.
A collection of low to the ground, domed structures very different to those in the more temperate southern regions of Equestria dotted the small section of the encampment. For some reason, the snow didn’t seem to accumulate inside the settlement’s bounds. From the moment I stepped into city, I felt why. A single fierce blast of wind and utter and total calm; the cold, still omnipresent but with no wind, no blinding snow. The overwhelming aura of heavy pegasus weather magic hung like a dense shroud over the community.
No sooner did I approach the largest of the structures; a full three stories tall then four large, heavily armored pegasi stormed out from the upper floors, assaulted with me with blasts of wind that nearly tossed me backward and out of the settlement before the lead one landed and spoke.
“Who are you, what are you doing here?” the older of the three said in a gruff manner. He was a smoky grey male who looked positively ancient. Solidly built, almost as large as Big Mac and looked as though he'd been left out in the sun too long. With a colored faded coat and heavily worn feathered wings. All in all, he looked as tough as old tree roots.
“I am Twilight Sparkle. My mentor Princess Celestia of Equestria sends her highest regards and accepts the request given for mediation by the Pegasi of New Talos and the Gryphons of Gryphus Reach…”
That was as far as I got, the leftmost pegasus lashed out, lunging forward in a single great hopping half-flight. Landing directly in front of me, broadside on spreading his wings with enough force to throw me to the ground hard; from my new position I caught sight of what I at first thought was a baby unicorn until she fluttered her wings nervously and tossed her mane. A tiny alicorn child with a pitch black coat and turquoise eyes, the filly, barely old enough be out alone cowered against the middle pegasus’ back hooves.
“We sent no request! We need no aid,” he said as more pegasi gathered to watch since my arrival. And without realizing it I had found myself completely surrounded by a very hostile crowd of highly agitated winged ponies.
The elder glanced around and shook his storm-colored mane, stamped his hooves loudly and with an obviously practiced voice shouted to be heard by everypony throughout the town, “Enough! Is this how you all welcome guests? Alone at the top of the world, forgotten by the rest of the all. You all have forgotten your manners.”
His words were gruff, but bore no hint or trace of hostility; even so, I couldn’t help but notice that he made no mention of the gryphons.
He pushed forward, brushing aside the other Pegasus, slipping out of the grasp of the black-coated filly. The pegasus who had wing-tossed me reached down and offered his hoof to help me to my feet. With a nod I accepted it and used my magic to straighten my cloak which had gotten horribly tangled.
“You must forgive us, as I said at the top of the world things are… difficult, and it causes some to lose what manners they were born with.”
“I... It is quite alright,” I said with a shaky glance at my surroundings. Keeping my eyes peeled, watching the crowd for trouble. I can remember they were still very hostile at this point, but at least they weren’t ready to tear me apart like before, especially since their apparent leader was still speaking with me.
“Walk with me, Miss Sparkle,” the elder Pegasi said in a deep tone, “we need to speak.” He turned to the growing crowd and raised his voice. “You all have your jobs do you not? Get to them!”
With that he turned and floated off to the edge of town, his wings keeping him aloft a few short feet above the ground. As old as he was he was fast and strong, I had to quicken my stride to keep up. I felt the watching eyes of the townsfolk observing me suspiciously from the building as we passed.
“We never requested assistance from the Royal Pony Sister, nor would we,” I opened my mouth to voice my objections but the old pony just kept right on speaking, “not since what happened with the ancient symbols of balance twenty years ago.”
I was intrigued. I knew of the symbols of balance; the Elements of Harmony, yes, but the symbols, no, and I said as much. The elder Pegasus stopped his stormy wings folded nervously to his side as he landed feet barely making a sound or stirring the snow as he touched down.
“How can you not know of them; I sense they—you are connected to them even now. Well, you are connected to their counterparts,” the elder paused for a moment eyeing me carefully, taking in every detail and I was being measured to the inch and weighed to the ounce. “I cannot tell you of them; it is part of the binding. Sufficed to say that one of them was here in Talos for a time, before they were returned to their respective guardians, an order from Orion himself.”
“Who in name of Celestia is Orion?” I asked, quickly becoming impatient with his slow and ponderous way of speaking.
“Orion, Lord of Equestria; Keeper of the Elements of Honesty, Kindness and Generosity; Lord of the Celestials; Ruler of Equestria. How can you not know of your own King?” Silence descended on us both for a long moment, the terrible void was broken only infrequently by the howling of barrier of wind that swirled around the town. Before the overwhelming oppressiveness grew unbearable I spoke again.
“Equestria doesn’t have a King, it has two Princesses. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna; I’ve never heard of this Lord Orion.” I replied confused.
“Celestia is the only Surviving child of Orion, Lord of the Stars and Nebula the Lady of the Heavens. It is good that you remember Lunestia fondly, few do. However she was lost to darkness and shadow a very long time ago. In any event, she is gone now, and soon enough Equestria will only one ruler, when the royals depart this world that they love for another that they do not.”
It dawned on me that this old Pegasus might not be entirely sane, ‘a few colors short of a full rainbow,’ as Dash would say. Carefully considering my words I told of the events of two years, at least briefly as the old one watched with a childlike sense of wonder plain on his face.
When he finally finished with his story I spoke the confusion thick and heavy in my voice, “I’ve never heard of Orion or Nebula, and as for Lunestia, I can only assume you must be referring to Luna, the younger of the two Pony Sisters. She is, as I stated, alive and well cleansed of the shadow, darkness banished forever.”
If the older pegasi had been flying he would have fallen from the sky, his wings were sagging along his sides as if his muscles could no longer hold them folded and locked. His brown eyes turned inward and far away, glazing over with a wistfully sad expression and a tear game to one liquid eye.
“If what you say is true—and I do not doubt it is—then our time nearly done and we can finally have peace,” he spoke his words in a whisper barely heard over the wind. They were so filled with sadness and a wistful childlike longing it made me feel the weight of all the long years the elderly pony had seen. “Starswirl spoke of this day before he left for the heavens.”
“But Starswirl is dead and gone, by nearly a thousand years. And he predates the founding of Equestria.” I said in shock, glancing at the back of the pegasus, noticing something odd happening to his main and tail.
The years seemed to slowly lift away from him as he stretched his wings the raggedy look vanished from him and the color that had been leached away by the snowscape seemed to return to his mane and tail. Faint wispy colors appearing; red, yellow, blue, purple, green, all the colors of the rainbow; still faded and not as well distinguished as Dash but still the only other pony to bear such markings that I had ever seen.
I stared back in mild interest, despite myself and my ever-growing unease about this old Pegasus I couldn’t help but ask about Starswirl and his connection with this place. So little was ever recorded about that ancient unicorn wizard. Even as I watched his coat began to fade again, flickering between solidity and insubstantiality.
“It was Starswirl who helped convince his people with the aid of his student, Clover the Clever to leave their hate-poisoned lands for a better. Though winter had finally began departing, the earth and sky were so fouled by mistrust and jealousy that nothing would grow. When they arrived back in Equestria, they found it was actually inhabited. Or at least part of it was; a grand castle in the middle of a wonderous forest.”
I watched, my attention totally focused on the story told by this pegasus, I remember later on that I was in some way of what was happening to the settlement. It too was vanishing, like the Pegasus himself.
“They called themselves the alicorns; celestial beings, guardians and that this was once their home. But the flavor of their magic was changing, evolving and those who dwelt in that castle were the very last of their kind in Equestria, fewer than a hundred. They welcomed us as kin and told us that so long as our three races, pegasi, unicorn and earth ponies remained at peace with each other, the land that had once been theirs was now ours.”
The whipping wind tore at my cloak and stung my skin, in fact it was the biting cold that finally broke my spellbound trance long enough to see the town was now nearly invisible and the ancient Pegasus was holding on to his form with only a sheer force of will.
“I have little time, listen well. I was born in sight of the castle. It was my home. I played in the warm dappled sunlight and slept protected by the loving night. Gifts granted by two of the most powerful Alicorns, Celestia and Lunestia. But shadows came to the land, tainted the forest and took our beloved night from us all. All but three of the Alicorns fled, Celestia and her parents. For months, they did everything they could to fight the darkness. And for months Lunestia fought the welling darkness in her heart, keeping inside the now ruined castle.”
The old pegasi’s eyes went starry, looking a million miles away and filled with tears. “Nearly a year later the native ponies built a new place to live at the base of a mountain overlooked by spectacular waterfalls. The remaining Celestial Alicorns were using their immense magic to construct a new city built right into the face of the cliff. As the sun began to set, and the moon rise, there was a flash from the Royal Castle in the woods. No pony paid it much heed until out of the night sky Lunestia flew, triumphal and radiant as any of us remembered.”
I opened my muzzle as if to speak again but the old pegasus raised one hoof and pressed it to my muzzle as if I was a young filly constantly interrupting with questions. A firm but gentle pressure, very much like Celestia used to do when I first became her student.
“Celestia saw her sister and bolted toward her with an aura so full of joy. It made the stars in the heaven's weep. ‘Sister Luna! Thank all the stars in the heaven and the—' is all Celestia had time for before faster than lightning Luna lashed out with all the power of the moon and heavens. Celestia was pelted with thousands of tiny stars and lightning bolts rained from the clear night sky striking the countryside as Luna laughed, her form twisting and distorting as she assumed the true form of the nightmare that had overtaken her.”
“With Celestia falling out of control from the sky, Orion and Nebula had to make a choice, a terrible choice. And so they did, as they dove to save their falling daughter. Nightmare Moon turned her attention on the new settlement by the mountain. The full disk of the moon flared blindingly bright, and the light went from cold and loving to cold and deadly. The spell was called Moonscalding. Every Stallion, mare and foal in the city died. Two hundred ponies instantly gone. Not a single building, tree or hair left of them… Not even ash. It was… the day I died.”
“That’s… Not possible, they would have told us… Ghosts aren’t real… you can’t be…” I stammered.
The old pegasi looked warmly at me, with a soft sad smile spreading across his pale face. “I never believed in ghosts either, but if you doubt my words, ask the sisters about it. About us, ask them about the Moonscalding of Talos. Ask them of me, Hailstorm, son of Hurricane. They must remember us if we are to have any peace. Go now child of the stars, the darkness returns, and our village I fear cannot shelter you from the night, or the coming storm.”
I turned from the village that was slowly but surely fading from existence. A Maniacal laughter filled the skies. A sound I remembered from my nightmares. High in the heavens she saw the shadowy form of Nightmare moon, streaking from the village like the black bolt of lightning was the tiny alicorn.
I couldn’t be sure but I thought I caught a single world contained in the little filly’s terrified scream as bright white light flashed from somewhere above Nightmare Moon and lanced where the city had been. When Twilight blinked away the tears from eyes there was nothing, no village, no foal, no Nightmare Moon.