//------------------------------// // 1: Day One, Day Two, Day Red And Blue // Story: Rich Soil // by Moonbat //------------------------------// Day One Oh, I am so nervous. Teacher said I have to see her for a very special test tomorrow. She also asked me to stop calling her teacher, but she won't be reading my journal anytime soon, so I should be safe. She says she's proud of me and my studies are going well, but there's an important lesson I'm missing. What am I getting wrong? I thought I passed the basic levitation, transformation, and teleportation tests with flying colors! I guess I'll find out what the test is tomorrow, but the waiting is killing me. Well, the waiting is not literally killing me, that would be plain morbid. I just mean the waiting is really hard. I wonder if there's a spell to make time go faster. So it's getting late and I can't sleep and I started rambling again, oh horseapples! Maybe it won't be that bad, maybe the test is just some simple review of everything I've learned. Maybe this test is just putting it all together. Or, what if the test was just to make me realize that I shouldn't worry so much, that I should learn how to have more patience. Teacher would be waiting on our hill for me and I'd be all nervous and then she'd ask, "Now my student, are we ready to begin the test?" I'd puff out my chest and confidently (yeah right!) reply, "Whatever it is, I'm sure that I can handle it!" Teacher would then reply with a giggle and say, "Good! Then you've passed the test. Now then, my student, what have we learned about ourselves?" I'd get so angry, telling her how hard it was not knowing what the test was, but then I'd laugh with her. That would be just like Luna. Oh hey, I guess calling her by her name isn't so hard after all. Day Two Wings. I don't understand how some ponies can deal with these things. They've been getting more and more in my way. Last night I woke up freezing cold because my blanket was dangling at the end of that difficult digit. Oh well, if I keep them at my side and never use them, maybe I'll be able to get through one day without having them ruin my ability to get through doors. I still have no idea what to do about them rebelliously interrupting my sleep. I know, I should talk to Rainbow Dash, she seems to really know how to handle her wings, and I'm not unhappy to have them. I've just been under a lot of stress since the Princess asked me to stay in Canterlot. It seems she has a special assignment for me and I need to stay here while the rest of my friends go back to Ponyville. I'm sure it's nothing, and I did ask Princess Celestia what I needed to do to prepare, but she only laughed and said all I needed to do was bring myself. Surely there has to be some preparation, some work I can do before the assignment begins. Instead, Celestia insisted that I spend time with my friends. I'll bet it's an initiation. Some way that I have to prove I'm ready to be a princess. Who knows what it could be? Oh well, I guess I'll just have to learn what it is tomorrow. Huh, I don't feel so bad about it anymore. I've been through so many challenges and trials with my friends that I'm sure whatever it is, we'll be able to get through it together. I'll talk with them tonight and speak with Celestia tomorrow. Day Red and Blue Dawn was tired. He was walking through Canterlot gardens towards the woods and he was exhausted. Maybe it was that he hadn't found the right position to sleep in. Maybe he was tired because the summer night had made him too cold without a blanket, and too hot with a blanket. He stopped in his groggy walk and shook his head. That wasn't it. The real reason he couldn't sleep was because he had spent all night being anxious for the big new assignment that lay ahead of him, just past the gardens, just into the woods. The sleepless night hadn't been fruitful, either. Despite playing out at least twenty different possible assignments that wait for him, he hadn't been convinced that he had thought of all the possible assignments, nor was he confident that the real assignment lay in his current possibility profile. "Stupid Dawn, " he muttered to himself as he continued to trot, "If you'd just learn to take things easy, let things take their course." While he tried to convince himself, he knew that he wasn't that kind of pony. He loved nothing more than to discover, to understand, and this assignment was an unknown quantity. "Why, my student! It is unlike you to forgo a greeting to your teacher." Dawn yelped in surprise. Princess Luna approached him from the forest. How long she had been there, he couldn't say. He swore she had materialized from out of a tree, or perhaps she had perfected some invisibility spell. "Luna! I mean, Princess, I mean, Teacher!" Dawn fumbled for the right words. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there!" "Do not be alarmed, dear student, I am not offended. I am, however, concerned. You seem to be troubled." "I-I'm sorry. I just don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I can complete the task you have for me." "But you do not know what the task is. Are you not confident in your abilities?" "No, I mean yes, I am confident...about what I know, that is. This assignment is unknown. I honestly am not aware of whether or not my current skills will be able to accomplish it, or whether I'll be able to learn what I need to." Luna looked at him intently, discomfort grew on his face as she simply continued to look at him. After a moment that Dawn was convinced lasted a full year, Luna spoke. "Does this mean that you will not attempt to accomplish what I have for you?" Dawn swallowed hard, then shook his head firmly. "Whatever it is, I will give it everything I have. And, I'll do what I can to get what I don't. Have." Luna immediately softened and smiled. "Do not, dear student, ever be afraid of the unknown. For, what you do not know can be discovered," she came close and put a hoof on his shoulder. Her sister had recently told her that this could be very comforting for ponies. She was relieved to see that her sister seemed to be correct. "Furthermore, you are never alone in what you must accomplish. There is always help if you ask for it." Luna continued to walk through the forest, putting some distance between herself and Dawn "So, I don't have to do this alone?" Dawn called out after his teacher. Luna paused, turned her head toward him, and winked. "Just wait until you see what the assignment is," she called back. Dawn still couldn't decide if that was good or bad. ----------------------- Luna stopped for a moment, she seemed distracted. Dawn stopped trotting and took in his surroundings. The path they had been taking lead through the woods on the mountain had split and merged many times. He would be lost if his teacher weren't here. The morning air was unusually crisp for early summer. A unicorn's winter, he remembered. An old phrase for a cold front that would roll in after summer had already arrived. He was just starting to catch a glimpse of the breaking day when he realized the two of them had been stopped for a few minutes. "Teacher, I have to ask, are we lost?" "Oh? Not at all. It has been a long time since we've been here and I was just remembering the fun we used to have," Luna replied. She turned and seemed to be excited. "I'm sure we remember the way." Dawn hadn't heard his teacher refer to herself in the Royal sense for some time. He was starting to think his teacher was acting strange, but he got full confirmation when she suddenly giggled and galloped up a small path to the right. This small path was heading straight up the mountain. Dawn Lowered his head and struggled to keep up. The small path widened into an ancient road. Dawn took no notice of the roots and bushes that had made the path uneven and the stone walls and pillars that the forest greedily claimed as its own. As he was slowing down, feeling near his limit, he heard voices ahead and saw a blinding glow beyond the edge of the forest. The edge of the forest? He was sure that the forest covered the entire mountain, except for Canterlot Castle and the mountain's peak. But, as he continued onward, slowing to a canter, he saw the forest's edge. He couldn't see what was beyond the forest, however. He was exhausted, sweat was dripping into his eyes, and the morning sun showed no mercy to anypony foolish enough to trot haphazardly into its rays from the comfort of the forest canopy. He was stopped short and fell to his haunches as he trotted into Luna, who had stopped and was excitedly talking with somepony else that he couldn't see. Luna stopped abruptly in shock and she slowly turned her head. Dawn, realizing what had just happened, was too embarrassed to notice his surroundings. The clearing he was in had a white stone as its foundation. A brilliant white and gold-laced palace protruded from the mountain. While the forest had made some encroachments at the edges of this courtyard, but for the most part the clearing and its structure remained unspoiled. "Oh my, are you alright?" A warm, familiar voice called out from behind Luna's astonished expression. The radiant, smiling face that seemed to sprout over Luna's neck made Dawn flush with embarrassment. The amused look on her face made him want to dig through the stone floor and hide. "Princess Celestia!" Dawn moaned, slowly becoming aware that he wasn't alone. That was it, he thought, cart me off to magic kindergarten, I'm a failure! His assignment was going to be an automatic failure. At least in magic kindergarten he would only have to deal with the anger of his professors, not the present situation. In magic kindergarten, this single moment would only haunt him, unlike now, where he was actually aware of having run into the rump of one of two of the most powerful ponies in all of Equestria. Haunting was good, the present situation was too much. Celestia sighed, "And here I thought my subjects actually enjoyed speaking with their princess." "Now sister, you know I made mention of how easily Dawn gets flustered." Dawn's hind hooves settled under him as he sat down and covered his head with his forelegs. They even talked about him behind his back. "Now that's just cruel," an unfamiliar voice added its opinion. He heard the clopping of hooves as the ponies around him shifted their positions. "You must be Dawn, right? I've never seen the princesses be so mean." Dawn moved one of his forelegs and he looked up with one eye to see a mare offer him a hoof up. Dawn raised himself up and saw she had a purple coat and a darker purple mane with a few streaks of pink. More than that, she was a unicorn and had wings, she was an alicorn. Even more than that, she was beautiful. "I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle." She shook his hoof, still holding it from helping him up. "You can call me Twilight, though. I think being called a princess will never stop being awkward. But you have to see this, it's fascinating. Celestia calls it the palace of the sun." She trotted off, engrossed in the living history surrounding her. The faintest hint of a smile showed as Princess Luna looked at her sister and winked. Princess Celestia put a hoof to her muzzle to stifle a giggle. Twilight looked back, realizing nopony was following her. "Are you coming Dawn? You must be exhausted, Dawn! The rest of you is deep blue, but your face is turning purple! Did Luna fly here and leave you to walk your way up?" One of her wings unfolded itself to add emphasis to the fact that Princess Luna had wings and Dawn did not. Dawn fell forward this time, the knees on his forelegs kept him from falling down completely. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both broke out laughing.