Chapter one
Same Old
Twilight Sparkle stood in a vast expanse of nothing. The only thing she saw beside blackness was the shimmer of moonlight on water at her hooves. At least, it would have been at her hooves were she actually physically there. Her body was nowhere to be found. Ordinarily, this would have alarmed her, but in her state of half-conscious drowsiness, she paid it no mind. Above, the moon shined brightly in the sky, closer than she had ever seen it. It was as if it were watching over her.
She found herself staring into it like she would into the eyes of a pony. And it spoke.
"Twilight Sparkle." An echoing whisper that made the sky ripple like the waves. "Look to me when you dream and you shall not forget yourself." She could hardly acknowledge the strange talking moon. She could hardly think. She was trying to remember something but she didn't know what. The sound of waves soothed her and urged her toward her unknown goal. "Remember Twilight. Here, you are alive. Here, you are yourself once again. In my care." Twilight felt the crash of small waves at her nonexistent hooves. The light of the moon became brighter as the water rose around her and became mist.
She could feel herself floating through the clouds that were once a great ocean, now an unfocused memory keeping her afloat. The moon was gone with the sky. Nothing existed but the mist of the clouds. She looked into the clouds and saw things. She saw a throne room with enormous glass windows. The throne at the end of the room was empty. It was not just empty, it burned with a deliberate lack of something. Something was supposed to be here and she needed to know what. Sound faded in and out. Beautiful ball music and the sound of many ponies having a good time, then the laughter of two mares as the music faded out.
"Twilight." A soft voice. A loving voice that she knew from somewhere. She wanted so desperately to remember the voices owner. "Twilight…." She felt her heart ache for some reason beyond her subdued mind. "Why have you forgotten me twilight?" She could feel dream tears coming on. She wanted to cry until she drowned in her tears.
The room became dark as all sound stopped. The throne became the only source of light, illuminating the throne room. It was deathly silent for what seemed an eternity. Then a flash of white illuminated the room from far away. And another followed it, and then another, and another until they began to light up the entire room. As the closest of them all flashed before her eyes, it all became dark once again. Calm was restored, if only for a moment. Twilight could almost see a pony sitting on the throne.
Suddenly, the glass windows of the throne room exploded and sent microscopic shards of glass spilling onto the floor like a silent, sparkling ocean. Then the noise came. It was like the sound of a never ending parade of balloons popping right next to her ears in rapid succession and millions of creatures screaming their death cries from all around her. The room was soon engulfed in fire and chaos that burned Twilight from the inside out.
She willed herself to escape, to be run. She heard voices through the screams and roar of the fire. Cries for help, orders being shouted at who she assumed were troops, the sound of metal being warped, and sonic booms of supersonic flight. Beyond that were other voices. Voices that seemed to be talking to her.
"Maybe someday we can be friends when this has all blown over."
" We have no way of knowing how this is going to go. This is pseudo science at best."
" Oh Twilight, Darling. Wake up."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twilight opened her eyes quickly and was greeted by the warm smile of her friend and colleague, Rarity.
"Oh my goodness, I thought you were never going to wake up." The perfectly groomed unicorn said in a tone halfway between whining and warmly greeting a friend. Twilight sat up in her bed and yawned. She waited for the feeling of having forgotten something to subside. Everypony felt as if they had forgotten something when they woke up. It was a strange natural occurrence that nopony really could explain nor did they care to.
Twilight got out of bed and looked around her room. It was a modest living quarters with walls of whitestone, a common material found in the mountains. Her bed sat in the middle of the room between the door to the hallway and the large window on the wall opposite. She walked over to her desk, which was place in front of the window. Her workspace was impeccably clean and organized, just the way she liked. Outside, the sun illuminated the earth below as it continued to rise from the east. The fields and forests of Equestria sprawled for miles into the distance. The view from her mountain home made Twilight smile every morning.
As Twilight walked down the hall, She couldn't help but get that familiar feeling of not quite being at home in this place. That feeling seemed to be one she alone felt. She was more of a wood house pony. She liked wood better than the cold stone of the mountains. This place could also have used some more books. Sometimes Twilight thought of retiring early and going to live out in the country where it would just be her and her books.
The kitchen appeared as the hall ended, housing a table sprouting straight out of the polished white floor, a surrounding counter with cupboards galore, and a single white and purple unicorn. Rarity sat at the table sipping tea from a petite cup she held with her magic and reading an article in the Canterlot Times. Twilight took a seat at the table and took a cup of coffee that Rarity had made for her.
"Good morning Rarity. Thanks for waking me up."
"Well what are friends for, dear?" Rarity chirped. "Besides, how would it reflect on the unicorns if our arch chancellor were late to a meeting?" At this Twilight let slip a groan. It was going to be another long day in the Canterlot Council. She remembered when she began her campaign to become an arch chancellor.
Since she was born her parents had groomed her to be a politician. She had attended the Starswirl The Bearded college for gifted unicorns in Canterlot and graduated with a doctorate in planning and finances. It was at college that she had met Rarity. It took a few months for Twilight to warm up to the idea of interaction with another pony but after spending a night locked in the college library with Rarity after studying to late, they really became close.
After graduating she served as the head of finances on the mayor of Manhattans staff for five years and only last year took the opportunity of the council elections to run for the spot of unicorn arch chancellor. The campaign was long and hard, she had faced off against a cunning politician from Ponyville named Pokey Peirce . She might not have won had word not gotten out about Peirce being convicted on charges of pony slaughter in his young adulthood.
In those five years, Rarity had attained the position of chief of commerce on the council. The mares were overjoyed to not only see each other again, but to be living down the street from each other.
"So what does your day look like Twilight?" Rarity asked as she nonchalantly sipped her tea. Twilight peered into the living room through the doorway. A grandfather clock ticked away on the wall.
"Well I have a meeting at 8:45." The clock read 8:27 "Which is in fifteen minutes, I gotta go Rarity, sorry, bye!" Twilight said while downing her coffee ( still hot, she wasn't going to be tasting things for a while) and rushing out the door.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twilight Breathed a sigh of relief as she entered the Council building. The lobby was as busy as ever with politicians and diplomats running to and fro across the dazzlingly polished marble floor to get to a meeting in any of the many gathering rooms and offices in the building. Twilight flashed her I.D. to a silver armored guardspony at the reception desk as she walked by. As twilight trotted toward the decorated double doors of the Council room she gave a quick smile and wave to her friend Fluttershy who was across the room talking to a young dragon diplomat.' What was that dragon's name? Thorn or Spike or something.' Twilight had only met him when she was talking with Fluttershy. Fluttershy was the first pony she had met at the council who was not a complete snob. (not that all of them were complete snobs, just most of them.) It really was amazing that Fluttershy had joined the council. She was so kind and quite. She actually listened to ponies and helped them. She made a great head of diplomacy.
When she arrived at the entrance to the council room she noticed that the normal guard, her friend Rainbow Dash, captain of the high guard, was not there. When one got to thinking about it, the captain of the high guard should have been commanding her troops instead of standing outside the council room, hoping to overhear the newest assignment for the military. There were many who believed Rainbow Dash to be an incompetent captain, but they also shared in the lack of knowledge of her success as the police chief of Philydephia. In her place was the second in command, Scootaloo. Scootaloo had only joined the Guard seven months ago and had already established herself as a pony not to be messed with. Being one of the few flightless pegusi in existence, she had had her feathers removed from her wings and replaced with two steel blades. Scootaloo never disclosed the name of the medical practitioner she had, most likely, bribed to perform the surgery. Her cutiemark was a depiction of a winged sword that always struck Twilight as a little ironic. Despite her intimidating look, Twilight knew her to be a friendly pony.
"Good morning Scootaloo." Scootaloo seemed to brighten like a light bulb being turned on. Not many ponies talked to Scootaloo, besides Twilight.
"Good morning arch chancellor." Scootaloo said while saluting.
"Please Scootaloo just call me Twilight." Scootaloo gave her an apologetic smile. "So where is Rainbow Dash today? I thought it was just her thing to stand at the door and eavesdrop." Scootaloo looked like she had been caught doing something illegal.
"She was called in for an emergency meeting at the station. Something about riots in Phillydelphia. I'm here because it's being brought before the council sometime today."
"Oh." Twilight uttered. She felt very uninformed for a moment. 'They're probably going to announce it at the meeting.' she thought.
"Well thanks for the chat Scootaloo but I've got to go." Scootaloo opened the door and saluted without a word. As she stepped into the council room she thought about what Scootaloo had said. 'Troubling, very troubling'
The council room was a grand circular chamber built out of white marble. great stripes of green crawled along the marble material like glassy vines. There were three podiums to seat the arch chancellors and surrounding them were the seats for the regular chancellors, nine for each race. The podiums were evenly spaced between each other. Light came in from the skylight constructed of a special crystal that enhanced all light that shined through it. Twilight silently took her place at her podium and looked at the other arch chancellors while she waited for the meeting to start.
The arch chancellor for the pegusi was a grey mare named Ditzy Doo. Ditsy had an eye condition that caused them to move erratically and never quite sync. This had led many of her political opponents to believe she was much less mentally capable than she actually was and so they mistakenly underestimated her. Twilight hoped she never made that mistake.
The arch chancellor of the earth ponies was, for lack of a better word, eccentric. It was really a wonder that Pinkamina Diane Pie had made it in politics let alone become an arch chancellor. But Twilight had to admit that Pinkie was beyond likeable and her out of the box thinking made her a valuable asset to the council, even if she did tend to get carried away.
What little noise was being made in the room was halted by Ditzy's tapping on her podium. "This meeting of the council of the Equestrian Republic has now been brought to order. Our f-"
"Our first order of business is to continue the discussion on the rising price of frosting in the coastal regions of the Republic." Pinkie said, interrupting Ditzy. Ditzy breathed in and out deeply before continuing
.
"Actually arch chancellor Pie, our first priority is to discuss the ongoing battle against the terrorist group; The Diamond Dogs." Almost everyone in the room let out an audible groan. The Diamond Dogs were a nuisance that seemed inextinguishable. They lived almost entirely underground and were masters of guerilla warfare. Their only motive for the destruction of museums and the killing of innocents was to gather gems. For two years, the Diamonds Dogs and the ponies had been at war, if you could call it a war.
Twilight sighed and steeled herself for another meeting that accomplished nothing. At least she knew Dash would interrupt the futile conversation with the news of the riots. That would certainly add some variety to her day.