Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Prince Shining Armor were sitting at a large round table in the middle of the room, clearly waiting for the two mares to arrive. Celestia signaled them with a motion of her head to take a seat. Twilight went to sit besides her brother, and Stella sat down next to Luna, who gave the mare a small, warm smile before she turned serious again.
“You are probably wondering why we summoned you here in such a rush.” Celestia began.
“Yes, Princess. We are wondering why you summoned us and, moreover, why you would use three ribbons on your notification. All we wanted was to visit Canterlot City Library and/or Canterlot Castle Archives, nothing more.” Twilight answered her former mentor. “But then again, I guess you have a good reason. It’s the same thing, it happened before.”
“You are quite right, Twilight Sparkle. We used three ribbons to make you come here as fast as you could. We have something we would like to show you, and your daughter as well.” Luna replied with a small sigh. She then used her magic to conjure up a torn scroll, old and withered, but still in a good shape. Twilight thought that must be the work of a preservation spell cast on the scroll.
“Dear Stella Dawn, please read the contents of this scroll out aloud, so everypony in this room knows it’s content.” Luna said while hovering the battered scroll to Stella.
Stella took the scroll into her hooves, then laid it down on the table. She cleared her throat and began reading:
“This record is to remain the only one in regards to its contents, as they are from a time that was disastrous to ponykind. If there was a copy made from this record, the copy and the original will burn in a flash instantly. Please refrain yourself from doing so, as some very historical information's have been stored on this scroll.
Be reminded, that any information revealed to outsiders not considered by either Princess Celestia Lumica, harbinger of the Sun, or Princess Luna Umbramin, solemn deity of the Moon, will destroy this record instantly.
This is something that happened way back in the past, even before the rule of the great alicorn sisters: The Discordian Era.
Records from that time vanished from history, and only a few, very carefully selected books had survived time’s demise, fires and other catastrophes. This text is one of these, and I hope someday it will be helpful.
Signed: Paper Trail”
Twilight, ever the studious pony she was, put her hoof against her chin in thought as soon as she heard the name. She closed her eyes to concentrate but whatever she tried to remember, it seemed it failed her today.
Though one thing she was able to remember: “I think I’ve heard that name before, but I can’t remember where...”
Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow, surprised by her former student, but it’s not like she didn’t expect it. She glanced over to her sister, who simply made a small nod, and then back to Twilight. Closing her eyes, she let out a small sign, before she spoke.
“Paper Trail is mostly known for historical events throughout his life, at least the time under our rule then. All events that took place, the peace treaty with Griffonia, Isla Minos and the dragons, the first stone we set for our castle in the Everfree Forest, all that was recorded primary by Trail.” Celestia spoke with a stern tone, it sounded more like a lecture than giving information.
Luna continued: “It was also Trail who suggested, that we should destroy any other historical records about that time. It seems he feared, that with that knowledge of what happened back then, we could be dethroned, threatened, or worse. But he was also a dear friend to us, so we heeded his plea. With a decree by our newly appointed throne, we asked that all historians gathered at our, well, it WAS a shed Tia, shed, and informed them of what we wanted them to do.”
It was here, that Celestia took over again:
“Of course, most of them were extremely furious, and a few ones actually understood what we were trying. They explained it to the rest the best they could: We wanted to avoid another discordian era. Only those who were near the site of the final battle knew where Discord stood, but what if somepony tried to free him again? We couldn’t risk that, and after some effort from both sides, we managed to strike a deal. Paper Trail, as the one who suggested the destruction, was to write a complete record, with EVERYTHING that happened until that day, to ensure at least a bit of history could be preserved. A week passed, and he wrote all of it on a single scroll.”
“Now, it was our turn to hold our side of the bargain. Combining our power, we casted a preserving spell on it, so it may never wither and crumble e away from age, and a copy-destruction spell, to prevent anyone to write down anything of that era. With that, peace finally returned to the land of Equestria.” Luna explained, ending their small history lesson on Paper Trail.
Stella heard enough to know he was a pony of great wisdom and foresight, enough to envy him a bit. But she pushed these thoughts aside, returning her focus back to the princesses. It was now that Shining Armor spoke the first time in this meeting.
“History lesson is good and all, but that doesn’t explain why you summoned us here. Whatever it is, it is related to my niece’s strange cutie mark, and the reason is hidden inside the Discordian Era, or am I wrong, your highness?” He asked bluntly, direct to the point, just like he was at the time of his wedding. Celestia couldn’t stop but admiring that treat of her nephew-in-law. She nodded in agreement and turned her head back to Stella and Twilight.
“There is one thing we haven’t told anypony, and I mean it, no one besides me and Luna knows about it, so you are the first ponies besides Luna and me to learn of it’s existence... and its fading into history and nothingness.” Celestia said.
What followed that statement was a stunned silence. Nopony inside the room dared to say something about what Celestia just revealed. Twilight’s head was working in overdrive, trying to comprehend the underlayed information in that explanation, Stella was seriously wondering what could be so dangerous that the princesses decided to let it be forgotten by time and history, and Shining Armor was contemplating what kind of threat it posed to him, his wife, his loved ones, and the ponies he swore to protect.
“Before our final battle against Discord” Celestia began the next part of her story, “and even before we found the Elements of Harmony, we traversed the land, in search for others of our kind, not just alicorns, any kind of pony would have suffice. As you know, alicorns can survive long periods without any sort of nutrients, as long as they stay connected to their power source. It was devastating. For weeks, maybe months, we’ve seen no trace of any civilisation whatsoever, no ruins, no graveyard, no bones.”
Luna showed a sad smile for the briefest of time, before she took over the line:
“We were all alone, except that we had ourselves as company. Whenever we were tired of walking around aimlessly, we searched for shelter and dimmed our power to an absolute minimum, to avoid being found by Discord. These days he hunted alicorns just for the fun of it, continually decimating our numbers. It was sheer luck we were able to survive so long. We had given up hope, but we still pressed on, staying still would mean to give up our live. And one day, we laid our eyes on something strange in the distance. All we could see were silhouettes, but for the first time, what felt to us like ages, we saw some kind of structure. A structure inside a vast forest. A sign of life.”
Celestia let out a small, dishearted sigh before she shared their tale further:
“With hope renewed in our hearts, we set out to meet whoever built these structures. But, as we approached it, it became clearer and clearer, that these structures, were mere pillars of stone standing tall, about ten to fifteen meters high.The closer we got, the more intense became the magic that flew through the air around us. Soon, we reached them and were impressed by their sheer presence there.
“We began to examine them. They were made of stone, that we had concluded already, they were round and all had three stripes indented around their base, a kind of wave was planted in the middle of the surface facing to the centre of the structure. Accompanying the wave were below it a square, and above it a triangle. That was all we could make out then. On the ground, around the pillars, were a small, almost not visible circle. We were confused, what were they representing, and who build them?”
Twilight decided to intervene here, before Luna went on:
“So, all this is about is a trio of strange stone pillars? That’s nothing I would deem dangerous enough to hide it away or destroy it. I mean, what could that do? Open a portal to a plane of crazy mad demons bent on world destruction and chaos?” She chuckled a bit from her own joke. But Celestia and Luna shared a brief glance, and Luna continued the story:
“Twilight Sparkle, you laugh at the thought of a stone circle being a portal, but in that era, magic was but something dangerous, without known boundaries. With Discord homing in on magic signatures representing alicorns, nopony dared to use magic. But I digress, we should now move to the time after we defeated Discord.
“After Discord was defeated, we went to the stone pillars again. Now that we weren’t under the threat of being discovered and killed, we could magically examine the place. And yes, it was a portal, a portal to a very dangerous realm. The realm of Niflheim, land of demons and monsters. Without us knowing, we opened it simply by using magic near it. The ground began to glow in the center, growing larger each second, until the whole area was one glowing place. We were thinking it was a trap laid out by Discord, when a few moments later the glow disappeared and just a circle in the perfect center between the stone pillars was left.”
“You see, these days, it was quite possible to fall into his traps, he blend them in into his mad world of chaos.” Celestia took over. It seemed like they practised who told what part of their story, but then it was still interesting.
“We approached the still glowing circle with extreme caution, we didn’t know what it was that time. As we drew closer and closer to it, a feeling of dread began to fill the air instead of magic like it did last time. Fearing the worst, we set up a barrier around the place, just to be sure that if there is something harmful in it, it wouldn’t escape easily. After being done, we returned our attention to the circle, and closed in once again, with the feeling of dread increased every step we took. When we were very close to it, the glow, formerly white, turned dark in an instant. We got startled, and jumped back in a measure to defend ourselves. Then, we looked in terror as a being rose from the dark circle. It was then that it striked us it was a portal, and the color didn’t leave any room for interpretion. The creature that emerged...”
Luna took this as her cue to show them an image, while Celestia took a deep breath:
“Was the same creature that you saw in your dreams, Stella.”
Three sets of jaws hit the table simultaneously, in perfect sync with each other.
Stella couldn’t believe the image Luna showed them, it matched the creature from her dream to almost one-hundred percent. It was also now the first time she ever got to see the head of it. The head... was very hard to describe. It was wearing a hood, which two horns coming out of the side of it’s head. So Luna and Celestia didn’t see the face/head either, but that was understandable. The princesses waited for that revalation to sink in, as it was something that was hard to stomach. They motioned the waiting maids and butlers in the corner to serve them some snacks and drinks.
The maids and butlers sprang into motion and rolled in tea wagons with water, tea and juice to drink, and sandwiches, cookies and muffins to eat. (Twilight was amazed that the insant the muffins appeared Derpy wasn’t crashing through the nearest wall or ceiling to get at least one muffin) Stella took a sandwich and apple juice, Twilight took the sandwich and some water, and Shining Armor took the muffins and some tea (a habit he developed in the time shortly after he moved in with Cadence in the Crystal Tower, they only had tea leafs, and he began to enjoy them throughoutly).
They ate their snacks in silence, their minds still concerned with the revalation from the princesses. Twilight was thinking about the meaning behind this, why this strange creature appeared in her daughter’s dreams without showing its complete image. Shining Armor was, simply put, stunned and dumbfolded (for the lack of a better word), and worried about his niece.
Stella... was unsure what to do with her newfound information. On one side it eased her to know she wasn’t going to be insane, on the other side it a shuddering thought she is or was connected to such a being, in whatever way it is or was.
The whole time all five ponies were quietly eating their food, and when they were finished, the maids and butlers put the glasses and cups on their tea wagons and left the room.
Luna and Celestia were unsure of how to continue. They could clearly see that their story rattled them rather deep. But it was important that Stella was told the complete story, and they couldn’t afford to back down now. Celestia cleared her throat, and spoke again:
“I know it’s hard to stomach, but our tale is not yet finished, there is one more thing we have to tell you, Stella. Please, listen to us as we lay out the rest of our encounter with the creature.”
“The creature that rose from the portal and the princesses that witnessed it stood across the meadow where the portal was located.
“At first, we dared to do nothing but stare at it, as it slowly ascended out of the black portal. The red eyes under its hood looked at us, menacingly and longing, as it wanted something it was about to get. For what felt like hours, we simply stared at each other.
“And then the creature attacked, it’s movements were faster than anything we knew or encountered before, it must have honed its agility to the highest degree. Before we could react, it hit us with its fist in our faces, sending us flying through the air, both of us, in an instant. We managed to do a barrel roll in the air and land on fours, but it didn’t gave us the opportunity to catch our breaths. Right when Luna landed it rushed towards her and delivered a kick into her sides, sending her straight into the trees. She coughed a bit of blood, otherwise she seemed fine. I charged up my magic and fired it in volleys, but with its unnatural agility it managed to dodge all of them. Coming to me fast, I put up a barrier as it clashed against it, giving a primal roar of displeasement.
“It was then when it charged its magic to perform a spell, one we never seen or heard before. We were worn out by it’s attacks already, so we knew it would be disastrous if that spell hits us. Luna and I managed to get together in time to put up a barrier that we hoped would save us. Just when we finished the barrier, it unleashed it.”
Luna shifted a bit before she resumed telling:
“It broke the barrier like it was nothing. The blast from the following explosion was enough to send us towards our other barrier and we almost fell unconscious from it. By the time we stood up the creature was already approaching us. In one last desperate attempt, both of us summoned our last bit of strenght and combined it into a powerful spell.
“While closing in, it charged another spell and fired it at us, which could dodge only by a hairs width. But we continued charging and, finally, it was ready. We released it and shot it towards the creature, who was in line with the portal. Its speed was its downfall, unable to change direction, it took the blast full force into its chest, sending it flying back towards the portal. When it hit the ground, it stood up, staggering, but mostly unharmed.
“And to our surprise, it went back into the portal, which closed after it vanished.”
Twilight, Stella and Shining Armor were shocked. The princesses, who were strong enough to defeat multiple enemies such as Discord and Sombra, were almost defeated by that mysterious creature? That was hard to believe, even when Queen Chrysalis obtained enough power to win a direct battle with Celestia, that such a being existed.
“What happened after the fight, princess?” Twilight began her questions. “You mentioned that you did something to make it disappear or something like that. Did you destroy the portal?”
“Mom, she also said that whatever they did, they made sure that it was forgotten by everypony. If they would have destroyed it, something of portal, or the site of their fight, would have remained. Yet nothing of that sort is known to us, even if it was in the Everfree Forest.” Stella corrected her mother, and in return earned 2 pairs of curious eyes on her, which belonged to the princesses.
“I know, you never said it was the Everfree, but from what you said, I deducted it to be the only place with such a massive amount of trees.” Stella answered in defense.
“Your daughter has the same observation skills you have, Twilight. I’m truly amazed she could find out where our fight was by just hearing small fragments of it.” Celestia said to Twilight which made Stella blush a little. She then continued: “And I’m certain you have your own thoughts about what happened afterwards. Would you like to share them with us?”
Stella closed her eyes in thought. Yes, she has a theory, but it was a laughable and silly theory in her opinion. But the princess asked her on her thoughts on this, so regardless how silly she thought it was, she would share it:
“Yes, I have one theory. First: It’s impossible to hide such a formation as the stone pillars naturally, so just leaving it to be grown with plants is out of question. Second: You said it faded into history and nothingness, so in regards to the history part, you hid it. So how do you hide something that big... perhaps by building something over it?”
Twilight, already having her own thoughts on this, added: “So if you build something over it, the building must be huge enough so the pillars weren’t seen anymore. And the only building inside the Everfree Forest I know of, is the old castle of the royal pony sisters, your old castle where Nightmare Moon was defeated, twice.”
With this out, Celestia and Luna finally smiled, a heartily and welcoming smile.
“Indeed, the stone pillars that form the portal are underneath Everfree Castle.” Luna confirmed their assumptions. “This was the only way to hide it away from the world, in a place nopony would expect. So with a bit of help and magic, we sank the ground and hid it inside a cavern.”
“Wait, did you just say cavern?” Stella shouted out and then realized she was in the presence of both the princesses and her mother. She sheepishly smiled and sat down again. “Excuse me, but that was just a surprise to me. You are the architects of that cavern?”
Celestia and Luna both nodded simultaneously and giggled over Stella’s outburst.
“You created it to seal of the place with the stone pillars, so much I get, but what about the doors, the pillar in the middle of the cavern, and the symbols on the doors, the middle pillar and on my cutie mark?” Stella asked repeatedly.
“I think this is enough information for today. I’m sure the three of you have a lot to think and talk about.” Celestia replied to her disappointment and added: “And I also don’t have to say it, but please keep this confidential, both the story about the discordian era as well as our fight. Have a nice evening, my little ponies.”
With that, Luna and Celestia stood up and left the room, and shortly after them Stella and her family left to. Once outside a guard escorted them back to the Sparkle suite, which all three entered. Inside, they sat down at the table, noone saying anything for a while. Only Stella asked:
“What the hay is going on here?”