//------------------------------// // The Inheritance of the Sun // Story: The Untold Past of the Royal Family // by PrinceoftheEclipse //------------------------------// As Celestia slowly walked into the Canterlot archives with Luna and Twilight following her, she took a deep breath and then slowly breathed it out. At first she was a little worried to talk about her past, but strangely as she read the first book; she felt a little relief. Thanks to Twilight, her past seems to be able to unravel. First Luna, then Discord, and now Eclipse, this made all the more happy that she made Twilight her student. As she came to the “special” tile in the floor, Celestia’s horn started to glow as she slowly lifted the tile out of the ground. As she descended down the stairs, torches began to light themselves with a red golden flame as she walked past them. Then when Luna walked past; the flames’ color slowly changed into a magical blue flame, similar to the shade of her mane. Twilight was in more awe than she was when she first discovered this place. As they entered into the library, the torches instantly burst into flames. The torches were lit in a certain pattern; they went golden then dark blue and repeated across the entire room. The library seemed to know the very presence of the two princesses. Twilight’s mouth was wide open, dumbstruck more than she had ever been. She was able to see everything in the library; from the sun and moon designs in the tiles of the floor, to the four alicorn theme on the walls (Celestia, Luna, Eclipse, and Queen Lauren). She then looked back at the princesses; both were standing in from of what seemed to be a sealed door. The door was gigantic, about five times the height of Celestia. On the front of the door seemed to be familiar, it was the dragon Celestia said Eclipse transformed into. It was exactly as Twilight imagined; black scales, red spikes, three horns, and flames within its eyes. The only difference was that the dragon’s face seemed more loving than what she thought. All the dragons she had encountered, except for Spike, were either rude or ferocious. This one seemed to be more on the “Spike” side. As she examined the door, she noticed the dragon’s tail circled around a certain seal that kept the door locked. The seal was the shape of a sun, but with a crescent moon covering half of the sun’s rays. That wasn’t the only thing about the seal, a crimson red dragon circled around the solar eclipse. Right next to the seal were two special keyholes, both seemed to glow brighter the closer the princesses got to them. Both Celestia and Luna inserted their horns into the two key holes, as soon as they stepped back from the door the outline of the dragon’s outline started to glow slowly climbing toward the dragon’s eyes. When the magical glow finally lit at the dragon’s eyes, the door split in two and both ends swung open. Inside was what seemed to be an author’s office. That is if an office was as a big as a throne room and golden bookshelves behind the desk. The desk alone was incredible; it was made of the finest oak wood with a phoenix carved into the front. The ink on the top of the desk seamed enough to make any treasure hunter drool; the ink container was pure silver, with liquid gold ink, and a bright red phoenix feather resting in it. Strangely looking like it had been used recently. Celestia started walking toward the book shelf, looking for a specific book. Twilight was so busy admiring the beautiful office; she didn’t even notice both Luna and Celestia trying to get her attention. Luna immediately knew what to do in this situation; she promised to only do for emergencies, but this was exceptional. “TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Princess Luna called in her Canterlot voice. Twilight jumped at the sudden shout from the princess. “Oh sorry princess, I got a little distracted, did you find the next book?” she asked. “I did, this one actually happens to be one of my favorites,” Celestia replied. “Which one is it sister?” Luna asked curiously. “You’ll find out when I read it,” Celestia said grinning. As Luna saw her sister’s grin on her face, she started to think of ideas of why this would be one of her favorites. Celestia walked to the desk to set the book down for her to read. Twilight and Luna sat in front of the desk ready to listen. This book was titled: “The Inheritance of the Sun.” As Celestia started her way towards the court room for her daily magic lesson from her mother, she couldn’t help but feel excitement. Tomorrow was a very special day for her, and she couldn’t wait very much longer. She had planned it out almost perfectly; she was just so excited, for tomorrow was her birthday. The more she thought about it, the wider the smile on her face grew. When she came into the court room, she spotted her mother and; nopony. Where was Luna, where was Eclipse who usually sat and watched their lessons? “Mother, where art the others, am I too early?” Celestia asked. “No, in fact thou are right on time. I told Luna to go play with Eclipse today, I have a special personal lesson for you,” Queen Faust replied. If Celestia’s smile could get any wider, she would have broken Pinkie’s future record. Personal lessons only meant for her and right before her birthday no less. Could this get any better? “I want thee to levitate these heavy orbs of light as high as you can. And I want you to keep doing this until it gets too easy for you.” All Celestia’s hopes for this lesson were just crushed at the end of her mother’s sentence. Levitating orbs of light; that was all she was going to get out of this lesson? She had learned levitation a long time ago, but she didn’t question her mother. The Queen always had a reason behind her teachings. So as her mother left the room, she began by trying to levitate the largest orb. It would not budge. No matter how hard she tried, the orb would not move. It was just way too heavy for her, so she tried the second biggest; same result. She soon came to the conclusion that she should start with the smallest first then work her way up. As Celestia began on the smallest orb of light (which was about the size of her hoof) she finally felt the orb begin to lift off the ground. She sprouted a huge smile on her face, she was so happy with herself she jumped up with victory. The second she began to jump, the orb immediately dropped back to the floor. Celestia’s face was beginning to show some frustration, but she raised a hoof, took a deep breath, and then slowly let it out while extending her hoof. She decided to try again, this time with complete concentration and control. Surprisingly, the she was able to lift the orb with very little effort. She then remembered what her mother said, “Levitate these heavy orbs of light as high as you can.” She realized she had only raised it to her own height; she needed to go higher, all the way to the ceiling. She practiced and practiced, when she was able to get one to the ceiling, she moved on to the one that was bigger than the last. Eventually she came upon her old enemy; the biggest one of the set. This morning she was cocky, but this time she was ready. Her horn began to glow, and so did the orb. She slowly began to lift the orb off the ground; it was extremely heavy, but not as heavy as before. She had exercised her magic and her strength, she could do this. Before she knew it, the largest orb of light was bouncing off the ceiling trying to go higher. Celestia had finally finished the task her mother had given her. “Well done, Celestia,” a familiar voice said behind her. In surprise, she quickly turned around to find her mother, her sister, and her brother. “Very nice job, you did better than I thought you would. I am now more than excited for tomorrow,” the queen said. Celestia grew a huge smile on her face; her birthday was going to be super special day, she was excited, her siblings looked excited, even her mother was excited. She took a quick look at the window to see how much longer till tomorrow. The sun had already set, in fact it was 11:30 pm; time for bed. Celestia rushed to her bed so quick it would give Rainbow Dash a run for her money. She was soon followed by her brother, Eclipse, and Luna just stood there with a pouty face pointed toward her mother. Queen Lauren looked down and smiled at her, “You need to go to bed too, Luna.” As Celestia slowly got out, eyes still shut she walked herself to the royal dining room. Expecting breakfast she sat down at the closest chair to her. As she sat down, she drowsily opened her eyes and saw; barely anything. The sun had not come up, but neither the moon nor the stars were in the sky. The sky was skill dark as night, but above that Celestia’s first question was, “Where is my family?” She raced back to her sister’s bedroom, quickly opening the door to find her sister sitting in front of one of the windows staring at the sky. Luna turned around with a worried expression on her face. Both had no idea of what was going on, and where was their mother. She was supposed to lift up the sun this morning. Did she accidently sleep in, or did she not come back from one of her nightly walks? But all of sudden Luna remembered something, “Hey where is Eclipse? Is he still sleeping?” Both quickly galloped to their mother’s room to find one of the beds empty. Eclipse was just barely getting out of his tiny bed, tiny flames escaping his mouth as he yawned. “Eclipse, do you know where Mama is?” Luna asked. Eclipse looked up at his mother’s bed to find it empty. He looked back at his sisters and shook his head. Where had she gone? Not only that, it seemed that no butler or maid were in the castle either. Thoughts were going through Celestia’s head like crazy. Was this all for her birth day, a sun rise surprise party? “I think everypony is waiting to do a surprise party somewhere,” Celestia told them. They quickly split up to cover more ground; Luna and Eclipse took the West side while Celestia took the East. They checked every room, every closet, and every drawer (you never know). Celestia thought for a second she thought she heard breathing, but with no one else around her she thought she was hearing herself. They all came back to their mother’s bedroom, disappointed in their efforts. “If the sun isn’t raised soon, all our subjects will start to panic,” Celestia said. “What do thy suggest we do then?” Luna argued. “I...I...Uhh,” Celestia didn’t quite have an answer. “Well?!” Luna yelled. (Sigh) “I’m going to have to raise the sun instead.” Luna’s mouth flew wide open, only their mother could do that. And she never taught either of them how to do it. Or did she? Wait, Celestia’s private lesson. That’s what it was, it was meant for her to learn how to raise the sun. Well it’s time to see if it did any good. They all quickly galloped outside to the East side of the castle’s courtyard. Celestia stood still, with both her eyes closed. Focusing, trying to find a hold on the sun. At first all she could feel was the heat coming off the sun, not the source. There! She found what seemed like a really, really big orb of light. She quickly tried to lift it, no affect, not even an inch. She had almost forgotten to stay focused and calm while lifting giant orbs of light. She slowly breathed in then breathed out, now she was determined to lift this. It was heavy, heavier than anything she had ever lifted before. She began to lift herself up with her wings, slowly flying above the castle. Her eyes still closed, she had no idea if the sun had even moved an inch. She was probably moving an inch every few minutes. Her siblings quietly watched her as she slowly rose higher into the sky. As soon as she was a couple feet above the castle, she slowly let go of the sun while she descended down to the ground. As she slowly looked up with her eyes open, she saw the sun in all its glory high in the sky. And for some reason, it seemed to be shining brighter than ever. With a sigh of relief, she let herself collapse on the ground (boy, that thing was heavy). “Tia, that was amazing!” Luna yelled while rushing to her sister “Yay, Tia,” Eclipse yelled, hugging Celestia’s leg. Celestia grew a small smile on her face, proud of her accomplishment. She had just lifted the sun, and on her birthday no less. Wait a sec, was this what made her mother so excited yesterday? And just at that moment, “SURPRISE!!” tons of ponies yelled behind her. Even in her exhaustion, she quickly turned around to find her mother and all the castle staff with balloons, a giant cake, and giant smiles on their faces. The queen rushed to her first born and quickly embraced her in a death hug. As soon as she hugged her, she lifted her up as high as she could. “Celestia I am so proud of you, I knew you could do it!” “Mother, where were you guys? We looked everywhere in the castle and you were nowhere to be found.” “Oh, sorry about that sweetie, I wanted to make it a surprise party for you. I also purposely didn’t raise the sun; I wanted to see you do it. That’s what the lesson yesterday was all about; I wanted your birthday to be special and for you to learn a little about leadership.” Celestia looked up happily at the queen. She couldn’t believe her mother would do all of this for her. When she looked at her mom, she saw her looking a little bit behind her. The queen soon smiled with even more pride. “It seems I have even more to be proud of today,” Queen Lauren said pointing at Celestia’s flank. Celestia quickly looked where she was pointing. There on her flank, a yellow and orange sun glowed. Celestia’s smile grew even wider; she couldn’t hold it anymore, “My cutie mark, yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!” As Celestia started celebrating, in a cave not so far away from their castle a young draconiqus began to wake. He could sense a new source of power coming from the direction of the castle. And this one felt like nothing he felt before, this one was a lot more powerful and it scared him. “I then started jumping up and down all around the castle. During the party, I was so happy I ate almost the entire cake by myself. At the end of the day, I went to my bed happier than I had ever been before,” Celestia said as she finished the book. Twilight had a huge smile on her face. That was always a story she wanted to hear, the story of her mentor’s cutie mark. That’s one thing to check off her super long mental list, now the next thing to do was to learn how snowflakes got their shape (hint). As she was checking off her mental list, Princess Luna spoke up. “So that’s why you love this volume so much, it’s when you go your cutie mark,” Luna said. “Well, that’s not the only reason,” Celestia replied. “What! There’s another reason,” Twilight blurted out. “I also love this, because I found out I couldn’t have raised the sun without some help,” the sun princess replied. “Someone helped you raise it, who?” Luna asked. “Eclipse did, his magic may have not been very strong at the time, but it was enough to help me put the sun into the sky.” It took Twilight a while to take that one in. She had help raising the sun? Just how powerful was Prince Eclipse? “I always thought of that as his birthday present to me that year,” Celestia said with a soft smile. “Where’s the next book? What happened next? Come on, the suspense is killing me,” Twilight said with eyes full of excitement. Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna smiled, they too were happy to start reading these after so many years. And they thought it was kind of funny that Twilight asked a question so quick, she didn’t stop and think. The books were all just on the bookshelf behind the desk. “It’s the next one the left Twilight,” Celestia said. Twilight quickly rushed to find the next book, scanning the shelf until she found her topic. As she lifted the book off the shelf, a growl came from her stomach. Twilight blushed with embarrassment, “He he, I guess I am a bit hungry.” Celestia giggled, she too felt hunger gnawing at her. “How about we go upstairs and get something to eat, we can continue up there,” Celestia said. As they made their way up the stairs out of the secret library, Twilight examined the book’s cover. The first one had the 3 alicorns, the second had Celestia’s sun, but this one had something that just made Twilight squeal with joy. The cover had the hat of Starswirl The Bearded.