//------------------------------//
// Chapter 01 - the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters 
// Story: On Ashes 
// by Temp001 
//------------------------------//

 Chapter One – the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters / by Libritium

The next day the five friends gathered in Sparkle Library early in the morning and after a few greetings and final preparations and checks they all were ready to head to the Everfree forest. There were 6 ponies with big, full saddlebags and a dragon with a big bag on his back, all filled with items needed for a prolonged field trip.

“I also want to visit Zecora while we are at it,” said twilight as they were a couple of steps behind the entrance of forest. “I haven’t seen her for a while now and I would like to.”

“Sure Twilight,” Applejack replied. “But, we better not stay there for too long, it will be better if we reach the place before sunset.” 
-“Noted.”

The walk to Zecora’s hut was unusually quiet; all the ponies were still asleep so the only noises they heard for a while were yawns.

“So, how did it happened that you was the first pony to agree to this, Fluttershy?” Rainbow broke the silence first. All heads turned to Fluttershy as she blushed and turned hers away.

“I actually liked to see the Everfree forest and with Twilight there to protect us it sounded like a good opportunity,” She replied quietly.

“Alright, and you Twilight, you claim that you can defeat a hydra now?”

“Maybe, but I would rather distract it enough for you to run to safety, then just teleport away from it or… I could just teleport all of us to a safe place the moment we suspect danger.” She felt that her words comforted her friends.

“I don’t get it. Why do we have to walk to the castle when you can just teleport us there?” asked Rarity.

“I can’t. I need to see the place or to have a good memory of it in order to teleport to it. I didn’t really had the time to admire the scenery the first time we were there, so we have to walk.” Rarity murmured something to herself as they kept walking.

Soon they’ve reached Zecoras hut.

Now they just stood in front of the hut for a few seconds before Twilight approached the door and knocked on it.

No response.

She knocked again, harder.

Still, no response.

“Maybe she’s away, gatherin’ some ingredients.”

“So early?” asked Spike.

“I see my friends have come at last!” A voice behind them spoke. “Although, much time, since then has passed.”

Everypony turned around to see no else but Zecora the zebra standing behind them with a saddlebag full of plants, roots, flowers and other ingredients.

“I see a change in Twilight here,” she continued. “In a new form, you before me appear.” Twilight spread her wings.

“Congratulations Twilight, you’ve achieved - what many, to be impossible believed.” She walked past them and opened the door.

“I’m happy to welcome a princess in my home. Please enter, and tell me, why you had come.”  They all entered the familiar hut where nothing has changed since theirs last visits.

“We are headed to the ruins high in the mountains and decided to pass by and say hello,” Twilight answered her while Zecora was unpacking her things.

“What things you seek there, in an abandoned place? I doubt that something worthy you’ll face.” Zecora asked with a surprised expression.

“I’m sure we will, Zecora, how have you been all this time since our last meeting?” asked Twilight while hers friends started to roam the room in search of something interesting to distract themselves with.

“I’m here, still living in this oak.” She answered. “Nothing changed since we last spoke.” Zecora started to prepare her ingredients for the heated cauldron in the middle of the room.

Twilight didn’t want to disturb Zecora’s work so she started to head towards the exit.

“I’m glad that you are fine Zecora. Anyway, it was nice seeing you again but we better be off, we want to be there before sunset,” She said while motioning to her friends to follow her out.

“Goodbye,” Spike waved her as he followed Twilight out.

“Bye Zecora,” said Rainbow.

“Yea, it was good seeing you again!” bounced Pinkie Pie.

“See‘ya ‘round,” nodded Applejack while also exiting the hut.

“Bye,” Fluttershy whispered.

“Stay safe,” wished Rarity, exiting last.

“you too my pony folks, may luck be with you, in your works," she said poking her head out of the open door.

They departed Zecora’s hut and continued their journey to the top of the mountains where the castle was. It didn’t take them more than an hour to reach the river where they first encountered the sea serpent during their quest to acquire the Elements. Twilight and Rarity had a childish hope of meeting him again here; they both started to look around for him but saw nothing and continued to move on following the others to the other side of the river.

“Did you know Spike, that that was the exact same part of the Everfree River where we met the sea serpent the first time?” Rarity asked. Spike looked back at the river then back at Rarity shaking his head.

After some time they’ve reached the rope bridge which, to their surprise, was broken again.

“Not again!” Rainbow facehooved.

“Everypony stand still!” shouted Twilight. Her horn glowed with the familiar raspberry-purple color. 

*SPUH

In the next second, she and all of her friends appeared on the other side with a supporting familiar purple flash. As her friends recovered from the sudden unexpected forced teleportation Twilight glanced at the sun, judging from its position, she could tell that it’s approximately 11:15. It took us 4 and a half hour to reach the castle, she thought, including prolonging the road through Zecora’s hut, good timing!

“Shall we go in?” Twilight asked returning her look on the already recovered group.

“Can ‘ya warn us next time ‘ya pullin’ somethin’ like that?”

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to angry you,” Twilight answered. “Next time, I will notify you, Applejack.”

“Anyways, let’s take a break once we’re inside, I’m starving,” said Rainbow Dash already moving in without waiting for a response, they all followed her into the first room and started to unpack their things.

The place was just like Twilight remembered it; a roofless room made out of dark green-grey stone with only the frames of the windows remained. In the center stood a now empty pedestal where the Elements were and the half broken columns covered in twisted vines on the sides of the room. In the light of day and without the Elements, this place lost some of the charm it had on that fateful night when Twilight and her friends freed Princess Luna; now it looked like just another ruins of just another castle which Twilight already seen many of it in her books.

They all ate in silence, lost in memories. Spike was wondering around the room seeing it all for the first time, he stopped by the pedestal in the center. “So this is the place where you found the Elements of Harmony?”

“Yes it is!” answered Rainbow Dash before taking another bite from her sandwich.

“When the princesses lived here,” Twilight started, “they were using this room as a guest room; they didn’t have many visitors then because only few ponies knew they’ve existed, but the ones who knew - mostly the rulers of various races including the three pony races - could come to them if they had concerns or in a great need of their advice or help. During the first era which lasted until Discord’s Reign the princesses lived here; in the castle they’ve build by themselves in a neutral territory - the Everfree Forest, which never belonged to any nation during that era so it was for the best that the goddesses of this world would not favor one nation over the other by living among its people. From here they maintained this world in a relative peace, preventing a good amount of wars and conflicts or simply saving entire nations like the Crystal Empire from extinction or any other severe damage. It all lasted until Discord showed up. He took control over the united Equestria and degraded and distorted it beyond repair. The princesses tried to fight him directly but couldn’t win so they retreated to find a way to defeat him.”

By now all of her friends were listening to Twilight with curiosity. Twilight took out a bottle of water and an apple and took a bite from it. She knew that her friends wanted to hear the rest of story but first she finished that apple and took a few sips from the bottle. As she continued her story she pulled a few more apples and took bites from them between sentences. “At first, they ventured to the other races for help but got none; Discord took control over the sun and the night sky and kept it as was in exchange of inaction regarding Equestria from the other races, they didn’t wanted to waste lives fighting him over nothing plus they were scared and affected by him; he implanted fear, uncertainty and doubt in their hearts.

The only one who still was determined to fight Discord and was immune to him was the Dragon King – Hattic ‘the Ancient’ the grand-grand-grand-grand-father of the current dragon king. Legends say that his power was equal to those of the princesses, combined. He advised them to search for the Elements of Harmony and promised his help to defeat Discord once they’ll acquire them but when they’ve ventured to look for them Discord came and killed him, the battle drained much of Discord’s powers so when the princesses faced him later with the Elements of Harmony, he was defeated.”

By now, they’ll finish eating including Twilight and simply sat on the stone floor listening to her.

“After that, Celestia and Luna saw the damage Discord did to Equestria. They understood that the damage was too great to heal simply by time, even thousands of years, so they decided to take a personal intervention in its recovery and took control over us to prevent us from worsening ourselves and put us on the right course to recovery. It all lasted peacefully until the Nightmare Moon incident.”

Twilight paused. She knew how cruel was the real story of Nightmare Moon, her friends were used to the utopia Celestia created for them; they knew nor murder, nor torture, nor fear of death from other ponies. Celestia created a world where everypony was allowed to live a full life and stay naïve until the day they died of old age. Twilight on the other hoof read about the dark times when the world was not so “colorful and shiny”. Celestia locked that knowledge away, but Twilight, as her personal student, and later, as a princess, had access to it. Even when she mentioned Discord’s murder, she saw her friends all gasped in fear and disbelief, not believing such a thing as murder could exist in this world. Because of that reason she didn’t expand on what exactly Discord did to the ponies during his reign and decided to stop there.

“Anyway, we should probably start the search,” Twilight said.

“Ah don’t think that we’ll find somethin’ worthy here, in this room I mean,” said Applejack.

“You’re probably right,” said Twilight. “Let’s head to the throne room then.”

The seven gathered their things and took the only exit from the guest room that doesn’t lead them outside, from where they came. There were stairs going up that led them to the familiar tower.

Now, in the daylight and without its threat, the throne room comforted Twilight, it looked so peaceful and deserted. She let a sigh wishing that she could just sit here, without any disturbances, and watch as the sun sets through the glassless huge window on the back of the room behind the throne. She noticed to herself that this desire was too great and she promised herself that one day, she will do it.

“Are you alright?” asked Spike with a worried look.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just got lost in thoughts. That’s all,” she answered taking a breath and examining the room. Aside from the temptation the room looked exactly like she remembered it: broken like the previous but instead of the Elements’ stand on the far side of the room, there was a throne on a podium with a couple stairs leading to it. The purple-black-squared throne itself was decorated with stone pony heads.

Strange, the pony’s heads show affection toward ponies, though the princesses were known for their equal treating. Twilight shared her observation with her friends. “Sheesh Twilight, those are just pretty decors!” answered Pinkie.

“Or, it could be just a sign of acknowledgment of their origin,” suggested Rarity. “I guess you’re right,” said Twilight. She started to move around the room, examining different spots and distinctive features but quickly concentrated her attention on the throne. Her friends did the same; they all wandered around looking for something unusual but after a couple of minutes of relative silence Rainbow broke it. “There’s nothing here! Let’s move on!”

“I guess that this door on the wall near the throne leads to a hallway that leads to the bedchambers and other places,” said Twilight. ”Look, there is no reason for us to walk around as a group, let’s split up and rove the castle freely for a couple of hours, leave your things here, this will be our camp, for tonight at least.”

“And what do you want me to do in a broken and ruined castle?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“The armory, the garden, the kitchen and a few other places are still out there. Maybe you all will find something interesting in them.” Twilight knew that the chances are slim and that the time that passed probably already destroyed all of those rooms, if not, then definitely their content but it was better to check those places anyway if not for the goal then at least for the enjoyment.

The six dropped their things and one by one exited the room through the door, they looked curious to visit the places Twilight mentioned, as for Spike, he decided to stay with Twilight.

“Where are you planning to go?” he asked. “Oh, Spike. There is only one place in that castle that could interest me; can you guess what that is?”


“<Library>” Twilight managed to read after wiping out the dust off the plate near one of the doors of the hallway. She entered the room with Spike after her, it surprised her to see how well this room looked considering the time that passed since this place was abandoned and in comparison to the throne room. The bookshelves were disposed around the room and within it, leaving pocket-like passages to access a specific book quickly while still holding an impressive amount of them; each “pocket” had its own category and arranged in an alphabetic order, the far side of the room had a round table and a few chairs around it. Although, one thing made Twilight holler, it wasn’t the fact that the room, despite looking better than it should, was still wrecked: only a couple of bookshelves were still whole and the round table and its chairs had a good portion of the ceiling on them. No, it was the fact that this place, being a library lacked one of its crucial components: books.

All of Twilights hopes to find something interesting here were destroyed by the scene before her. Where are they? She wondered, this place was supposed to hold so much knowledge, secrets, information. She made a few steps into the room looking at what’s left of it desperately wishing to find something.

There, after she reached the end of the room she spotter a text carved into the wall left of the window near the table, though the text was hard to read because of the effects of time, she still managed to understand it’s meaning: “…con… of the Everfree Lib… repo-ned -o… Ca-t”

So, this library’s books are somewhere in Canterlot now as I understand it, probably in the castle’s library. Maybe among the ones I’ve read, she thought.

“Look, I found one!” said Spike enthusiastically. He picked up a brown book from below one of the shelves and gave it to Twilight. She took it in her magic wiping the dust from it and deciding that she’d take a closer look at it later she put it in the light saddlebag with some snacks and water that she took with her.

Now that she had nothing to keep her in the library, she decided to look into the princesses bedchambers, so she left the library and started searching for them. She found it in the end of the same corridor as the library, the two last doors were Princess Celestia’s and Princess Luna’s bedchambers located one against the other on the opposite sides of the hallway; The Left - Celestia’s and the right – Luna’s. She chose the left one first.

The ruins of a once beautiful bedroom were what Twilight saw when she opened the door; it was a rectangular room with a bookshelf, a table, a wardrobe and a set of drawers in each of the corners of the room, they all were reverse-roundly shaped so that it gave the room an oval-like look and it perfectly complemented the round bed on the opposite side from the entrance. There also was a pair of glass double doors on the right wall leading to a balcony facing south.

That was what that room should have looked like approximately one-thousand six-hundred years ago. Now, all of its beauty was gone, dissolved in the time.

Twilight released a sigh, closed the door and turned around to open Luna’s door.

To her surprise, half of the room was gone. The ceiling and the walls were destroyed; any furniture that could’ve been here was long gone. Nothing here hinted Twilight on what that room was used to look like, only a few straight carvings on the left wall suggested an entrance to balcony similar to what Celestia had. The rest was covered in plants and debris.

***

Twilight sat at the throne room with a melancholy expression and waited for her friends to return and hopefully, bring something interesting to brighten her. She returned earlier than she planned because she got slightly upset from the result of her own excursion and also because she wanted to examine the book that Spike found.

She pulled the book out of the saddlebag along with some vegetables and a bottle of water and examined it. It was a brown diary book with a distinctive lock that extends the back cover and wraps the front one with it, which keeps the book in a better shape throughout time. There was a symbol on the front cover: a golden eagle claw facing upward and six stars around it on a silver circle. I remember this symbol from somewhere, Twilight thought; it’s either the Griffon Royal Special Forces or the Griffon High Research University.

As she opened it, she realized that this book isn’t from the times of the princess’s rule but much later; the language was semi-modern and not ancient, the text on the pages was readable and the book itself looked too good to be untouched for over a thousand years.
On the front page:



                                                                                                             Top secret.

This is the research diary of Rock Ravenclaw, the head researcher of the Griffon High Research University of 3258 from PCS.

Subject: the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.

Location: the Everfree Forest.

Year: 7 years from Discord’s defeat or 3258 years from Princess’s Count Start.

Assignment description: my team and I were tasked to search the Everfree Castle a.k.a. the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters for any information regarding Discord’s incident or princess’s political interferences. The Sixth Royal Special Task Force provides safe passage through the Everfree Forest.



A secret mission from griffon government in the Everfree Forest, that’s strange, Twilight thought. But why is the diary here?

Before she flipped to the next page she heard someone canter behind the and door returned the empty bottle to the saddlebag awaiting her friend to enter. After a few seconds it opened and revealed Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

“Hey, sugarcube, I thought you’ll be gallopin’ all over the place lookin’ for somethin’ unusual,” Applejack said walking to her.

“Well, I had found something unusual but I’d first like to hear what you two found and where you’ve been,” she answered.

“We were at the kitchen and the ruins of the gardens! Did you know that the princesses had a magnificent garden near the palace?” Pinkie said enthusiastically.

“Yep, we tried to imagine how the kitchen and the gardens looked like, now those places are completely overgrown and wrecked,” said Applejack. “We ain’t found anything though.”

“So what’ve you found, Twilight?” asked Pinkie Pie gesturing to the book Twilight closed when they’ve entered.

“I’ll show you when the rest will show up. Now, let’s prepare ourselves for the night.”

They started to unpack their saddlebags and pull out some food and sleeping bags to sit on. After an hour or so, Rainbow Dash returned with a satisfied look on her face: “You were right Twilight, the armory and the towers were worth visiting, even if they’re destroyed and mostly empty,” she said and then she added with a lowered voice, “I still wasn’t able to find anything better than a few rusty pieces of metal. But still, it was interesting.”

“Glad you had a good time Rainbow,” Twilight replied. “You better unpack your things; we’re waiting for the others to join us so I’ll show you what I found.”

Rainbow joined to the waiting Pinkie and Applejack and in about another half hour of small talks about what they saw the last two ponies, Rarity and Fluttershy returned and told the others about the garden, princesses’ bedchambers and the outskirts of the palace while also unpacking their things and getting ready to end the day.

After everypony was ready, Twilight revealed the diary to them while explaining a bit about the Griffon High Research University. “This university is well founded and greatly respected among all the races. It’s even responsible for a number of discoveries in unicorn and pony magic.”

“So this place has already been cleared by those griffons!” said Rainbow with a disappointed voice.

“I’m sure that they’ve missed something.” Twilight tried to cheer her friends. “Yeah, they just couldn’t check everywhere!” Pinkie added.

“Do you have any idea why their leader would leave his diary here?” asked Rarity. “I guess he just lost it, Spike found it under a shelf in the library only thanks for him being shorter than a pony or a griffon.” Twilight answered.

“Hey!” He gave her an offended look.

“No offence, Spike.” He snorted but smiled and looked at her.

The room fell silent as Twilight opened the book on the first expedition’s day and read it aloud:



54th day of Spring:
We departure from Hippogriffia at eight in the morning local time and flew directly to the borders of the Everfree Forest stopping only once in Fortressburg to join the military escort and pick up supplies.

We reached the destination at two thirty, safely passing the Everfree forest and establishing camp in the guest hall. We began to plan our search scheme and hand out assignments and tasks each is responsible for.

From here I’m starting my description of the place, the palace looks simply magnificent from the outside, build on the highest mountain in the forest it provides the best view on the forest while protecting it. The guest hall is relatively large and mostly intact, beautifully decorated, there’s a pedestal in the far end of the room with six empty nests for spherical objects and a hallway leading to the throne room. Today me and my team managed to explore only the guest room, with no results; I’m planning to search the throne room tomorrow and maybe include another room in the search, if I’ll have enough time. 
We’re ceasing operation early today in order to get the needed rest from the way and the camp setup.



She raised her head from the book and looked at her friends; none of them interrupted her reading or asked her to stop so she moved to the next day:



55th day of Spring:
As was scheduled, I was scanning the throne room today, a big room built following the design of the guest room with two thrones on a stand at it’s center. After three hours of meaningless search and wasted time I gave up on this room and decided to move onward, to another one but then, one of my students, Diana Bluesky came to me and told me that she found a hidden tunnel in the gardens which lead to an underground cave system below the castle, I ordered my group to gather there. After examining it we realized that the tunnel wasn’t natural and that the princesses created it and used the caves on the other side of it but why? We’re planning to fully search the caves tomorrow engaging everyone in it to find the reason for its creation and perhaps find what we came here for.



“We’ve got to look at those caves tomorrow,” said Twilight closing the book and circling her friends with a look.

“I think that if there was somethin’ interestin’ down there, the griffons already took it,” Applejack protested. “Maybe, but it’s better than wandering an empty castle for another few days,” Rainbow Dash answered.

“I have to agree with Twilight even though a dirty underground cave disgusts me, if the princesses hid something here, it’ll be there,” said Rarity.

Twilight looked at Fluttershy, Pinkie and Spike; they gave her a nod as sign of agreement.

“It is set then!” she proclaimed putting the diary in her saddlebag and getting in her sleeping bag. The other followed her example and after a few minutes the only sounds in the room were Rainbow Dash’s snorts.