Two weeks had past since Spike ran to Apple Jack for help, Rainbow dash dragged Twilight out her basement, and Celestia agreed to their impromptu quest to search for a lost race.
Now, after getting their things in order, the six friends where now boarding a train that was bound for Canterlot.
After getting in their cabin the six friends settled in for the long ride to the capital city. Spike wanted to come but was turned away by Twilight as she thought that such a journey was no place for a baby dragon. Instead he was tasked with watching over the library while she was gone.
The train ride was relatively quiet, as they mostly chose to keep to themselves instead of indulging in conversation. All in all the trip was made in comforting silence until a butter yellow mare asked the reading purple alicorn princess a question.
I don’t want to bother you, but what do we do if we find them? The humans I mean.” The Fluttershy said in a soft voice.
Twilight looked up from her book to consider the question. In truth she had been thinking about this too. You couldn’t just walk up to possible scared lost race and say ‘hi’.
“Well I want too set up connections with them first, to show them that they have nothing to fear from us. Then I would like learn a bit about their history if they have records about it.” The Twilight answered in a relaxed tone.
This answer got her a confused looks from not only Fluttershy but the rest of her friends on the train.
Finally Rainbow Dash spoke up, “Twi what do you mean by ‘show them that they have nothing to fear from us’?”
Twilight slightly raised her voice so that all of them could hear. “We have to assume that they haven’t seen a pony in the same amount of time we haven’t seen a human. So I don’t want to startle them. If we set up a common ground it should allow us to communicate with them without bringing any of us out of our comfort zones.” She finished confidant in how the future series of events will play out. This confidence however was quickly shut down with the next question that Fluttershy asked.
“What if they don’t want to talk to us?”
“What?’ Twilight asked whipping her head to look in the direction of the timid pegasus. ‘what do you mean ‘if they don’t want to talk to us’?”
The pegasus’s long pink half covered her face as she continued her apprehensive questioning. “Well it’s just, if I had hid from and hadn’t seen somepony for years I wouldn’t just go up to that pony…’ She stopped in horror when she saw that Twilight was staring at her, and had shocked realization plastered on her face. ‘Eep! I’m sorry it’s just that I was thinking about this for a while now and I didn’t know if you had a plan for this but I didn’t want to bother you because that would be rude and…"
“Fluttershy stop! When, when did you think about this? How long were you thinking about this?” Twilight said in exasperation, her eyes wide as if seeing the world around her for the first time.
“A couple of days ago while I was making sure my animal friends would be fine without me when I left,’ The yellow mare squeaked out, as she saw Twilight’s ears and wings droop at the information. ‘Sorry!”
“Sugar cube, what’s wrong?” Apple Jack said in concern for her friend who continued to sink in her chair.
“I never thought about it like that. What if they still think that we are like what we were in the past,’ Twilight had gotten out of her seat and now was pacing up and down the length of their train car. ‘Oh Celestia, how did I not think about this?”
“Twilight dear, I’m sure a small setback such as this would not be too big of a problem.” Rarity said to the panicking mare trying to calm her down.
“Your right it wouldn’t have been a big problem if it was a small setback but this is not a small setback! All of mission B.N.L.L.F.H could be in danger?” Twilight exclaimed as she continued to pace.
“Um, mission what now?”
“Mission B.N.L.L.F.H otherwise known as mission Began a New Long Lasting Friendship with the Humans. All of it could be compromised now! How could this be? I went through one hundred and ninety nine of possible situations and outcomes that could have occurred when we meet them. Why did I never think of the possibility that they wouldn’t want to see us? Do you know what this means?” The purple alicorn said looking at her staring friends.
“You’re going to spend the rest of the train ride panicking about a small chance of something happening?” Rainbow Dash said.
“Rainbow this is a major concern! This means they could react to us finding them in at least fifty more ways. I have to write every new outcome down and the best course of action to take to counteract it.” With that the alicorn princess disappeared in bright flash of light to expand on her notes. In her haste she left her what she was reading behind.
The five mares she left behind watched the spot where their friend once stood with mild concern.
“Well, that went well. Do you think she’s going to lock her self up again?” Rarity said addressing the mares around her.
“I reckon dat she will,’ Apple Jack said adjusting the stetson on her head. ‘but I dun think she ought to go after ‘er.”
“Huh? Why not? She will be a sad and lonely if we don’t.” Pinkie Pie said with exasperation, she then pulled balloons out from somewhere. “Girls I think this is the time for an emergency party.”
“Now Pinkie, hold on, ‘ah think its best dat Twilight goes on with her studying fo’ now.”
“A.J how could you say that? You know how she can get when she’s in egg head mode.”
“Ah know dat Dash, but ‘ah think it would better for everypony if Twilight isn’t unprepared for what we might face. This might be a good thing.” The apple farmer said.
“But Apple Jack, she looked so worried. I should have never asked her that stupid question.” Fluttershy said looking at the floor of their now one mare emptier train car.
“Now Fluttershy dear don’t think like that as, Apple Jack said this could be a good thing,’ the fashion designer put a comforting hoof on the yellow mares shoulder, ‘your question just might save us later on.”
Reassured that she didn’t end up unintentionally causing Twilight harm the pegasus stood a little taller. She was about to thank Rarity for calming her but she was stopped by Rainbow Dash uneasy exclamation.
“Um guys I think you should see this.” The Rainbow mane mare was standing beside the book that Twilight dropped in her departure.
The five mares stood in a silent semi-circle around the old tome that had a strong but fading preservation spell woven through it.
“Is that what ‘ah think it is?”
“Oh it’s that horrible book that Twilight told us not to read, what is that horrid thing doing here?” Rarity stated looking at the faded covering on the closed book.
“I think Twilight was reading it, she must have dropped it when she went to study or whatever it is that she does.” Rainbow Dash said as she went to touch the old tome.
“Rainbow Dash! What do ya’ think your doing?” Apple Jack said to the slowly advancing mare.
“Come on A.J a little peak wouldn’t hurt. It would only take a second.” The rainbow haired mare had her hoof lightly hovering above the old cover. As she about to put her hoof on the cover she was quickly dragged off her feet and away from the book.
Turning around she found that Apple Jack had her tail firmly between her teeth, and was currently giving her an angry glare.
Dropping her tail Apple Jack continued to glare at the cyan pegasus, “Rainbow ‘ah know that ya’ don’t want to get on Twilight’s bad side by doin’ something a hecka dumb as this.”
“I know that A.J! I just want to see what is making Twilight act like this,’ Rainbow Dash turned her magenta eyes to Apple Jack’s green, ‘don’t tell me that you’re not even a little curious. You and I both know that Twilight didn’t tell us about every thing that is in that book.”
At this statement everypony turned their gaze to the downed book that was sitting on the ground innocently. This tome was the reason that they were on a train to Canterlot right now to see princess Celestia about the possibility of a lost race still existing somewhere. The old book was also the reason that Twilight was probably sitting with her luggage writing page after page of notes about possible outcomes first contact could take. Now that notorious book was in the reach of the five ponies, and all they had to do to find out why Twilight was so shaken up by it, was to open it.
“I don’t think we should do it.”
The four mares were pulled out of their musings by a strong and determined voice. Eyes widening they stared into the serious face of Fluttershy. Once the yellow mare saw that they were looking at her, she slightly deflated.
“Um, it’s just that I don’t think we should go behind her back like this. It doesn’t seem like a very kind thing to do. There has to be a reason that she didn’t tell us everything.”
With a loud sigh from Pinkie Pie the four mares sheepishly walked away from the old tome.
“Your right that was a pretty dishonest thing we were about to do there. Twilight shouldn’t have to worry about us sneaking a peak on top of everything else.”
“A.J’s…,’ Rainbow Dash said with a little uneasy pause ‘right we should just leave the stupid book alone.”
With that they went back to their seats and sat in uncomfortable silence, all of them wondering why their alicorn friend continued to keep the secrets of the old tome hidden from them.
Zachery hated how fast the two weeks of his vacation went by went by.
Now the black hair eighteen year old man found himself running drills with the other members of his small three member squad. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, as his flight skills was one of the reasons he and his squad was put on the top of the list for the temporary transfer program. Dissimulare’s limited air space also meant that there was no room for improvement for him which, to the higher ups, was thought as a huge waste of potential. So after many months of constant training he was the close to being one of the best flyers in both Dissimulare and Aria. No, Zachery did not have any problems with the any of the normal drills.
What he had a problem with was the man who was supervising the disorganized chaos of a drill that the squads where now flying.
The shiny bald head of the Drill Instructor at the Basic Military Training base of Phera shone up at him, as Zachery continued to hurriedly dodge the rapid and powerful magical assault that came simultaneously from the ground and air.
‘How the hell is this regulation?’ Zachery thought as he barely dodged a lighting blot that came way to close to head, ‘And how the hell I’m I supposed to keep this up with my feathers?’
The only problem that Zachery had with his huge black wings was, well, that they were huge. Sure they where powerful allowing him to fly longer and steadier then most, but they forced him to take larger and slower corners and displace more air on each down beat. This was very counteractive in drill whose only purpose was to test how fast and smoothly one can react in a closed airspace.
He tried to get the drill instructor to let him use his green insect like wings as they allowed him the quickness that the drill demanded. However the vengeful instructor only glowered at him with eyes darken eyes. Then the instructor repeated that the drill will be done on feathered wings, and that using anything else who be seen as disloyalty to the divisons. He then sternly marched away from Zachery, leaving behind the ever lingering smell of candy corn.
Now Zachery was desperately trying to dodge the rapidly fired magic blasts from the mages running on the platform below him and flying in the air around him. While struggling not to veer of course and smash into his squad mates or any of the other squads who where taking the drill with them. So far he was doing pretty good and was beginning to think that he would be able to properly finish the insane drill then rub his success in Mc Kinly’s face.
Sadly, as Zachery soon found out, tempting fate only leaves one cursing at the sky.
He dodged the heated blast of fire, however he did not account for the heat considerably changing the air pressure around him. Extending his wings fully on instinct to stop his sudden fall he ended up clothes-lining both his squad mates and a private who got to close to their spinning free fall.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if they where the only ones to fall, but their combined sudden shout of shock distracted the squads running the drill around them. Of course the mages attacked in this moment of confusion, bringing down many of the squads in a mess of tangled limbs, smoking feathers and outraged screams.
As his squad plus one innocent bystander fell to the platform below, one thought came to his mind before he was about to painfully land on hard uneven brick.
‘I hate drill instructor Mc Kinly.’
Zachery found himself angrily stabbing his lunch that evening in air base one. He was so into the re-killing of his food, he didn’t notice the two people who had joined his table and were now watching his cruel brutality against his cut of chicken.
Then one of them coughed.
Startled Zachery looked up from his dismantled lunch into the dancing stormy grey eyes of the woman in front of him.
“So,’ she started short reddish brown swaying with a small incline of her head, ‘what did that chicken do to you?”
Looking at the mush that could be vaguely called a cut of chicken Zachery drop his fork wearily and slumped in his chair.
He glanced up at her through long messy black hair, “Do you know what I hate?”
“Is it that Drill Instructor Mc Kinly still has it out for you?” She said, taking the olives that were offered to her by the medium length brown haired man beside her.
“Or,’ the brown haired man said as he took a bit out of his now olive-less sandwich, ‘is it the fact that when ever you screw up they dub it as an incident?”
This new bit of information caused Zachery to quickly sit up, slightly shaking the table in the process.
“What!’ he stared wide eyed into bored hazel, ‘They named this?”
“Congratulations Zachery. You are now the sole cause of the incident of the Phera flight drill. What is it now five incidents, one occurrence and two happenings? I have to say I’m deeply impressed, when you screw up you really do go all out.” He yawned as finished his observation.
“Shut up Alec.” With both elbows on the table Zachery began to rub away the headache he was getting.
“Aww don’t be like, at least Mitch isn’t here to place his fist through your face.” The redhead said in between bites.
“Yeah, that’s good I guess. At least he wasn’t there to see that incident.” Zachery said as he thought about the constantly angry muscle bound blonde. Mitch had it out for him ever since he out flew him in front of his group.
This, to Zachery made no sense because Mitch was the one to issue the challenge.
At first Zachery played the part of aggressor because he loved how absolutely red Mitch’s face got when he was angry. However, this changed when Mitch threw a punch at his head and missed. He could still hear the thud of Mitch’s fist breaking through drywall and bending the metal support beam in the weight room. Thankfully Kim was there to punch Mitch in the back of the head, ending the fight before it went out of hand.
Now Zachery avoids any confrontation with him, but every time he screw’s up the blonde brute took it as a personal offence thinking that Zachery did things like that to rub his talent in the blondes face. Therefore Mitch took Zachery’s screw ups as an excuse to rub his fist in Zachery’s face.
Zachery sat back into his chair, and smiled brightly at the crimson head woman in front of him.
“Thanks Kim, I needed that. It’s good to know that everything isn’t out to get me.” Oblivious to Kim’s suddenly stained smile and Alec’s raised eye brow he began to eat his freshly mashed chicken and rice.
After he was done he gently put down his fork, crossed hands under his chin and smiled up at them. Then with a pleasant voice he spoke, “Who did I piss off, and why do they want my head.”
Kim and Alec gave shared a look for a moment, the red head then turned back to Zachery who still had on his sham of a happy smile.
“It’s not who per say more like which group. You know we forgive you for knocking us outta the sky, the other squads, not so much.” Kim said taking a large drink from her glass.
At this Zachery finally realized how quiet the usually boisterous mess hall was. Stealing himself he looked away from their table only to look into the glares of the many squads situated around them. The stares went from mildly amused to down right murderous.
“Why are they angry at me? I’m not the one who knocked them out the sky with magic.” Zachery said his voice now just hovering over a whisper.
Alec not bothering to lower his voice replied. “It’s because the free fall you put us in distracted them, causing them to fall,’ he paused to poke at a grey mass on his plate that was supposed to be mashed potatoes, ‘You were the cause of the domino effect that started it all, therefore you are the focal point of their anger.” Tired of poking the grey matter he pushed his plate to the side giving it to Kim.
Sighing Zachery ran one of his hands through his hair in agitation. He didn’t want to admit it but the Alec was right. When he screwed up he always manages to do it epic proportions. He briefly thought back to all the unpleasant incidents he had cause in both Dissimulare and Aria. He had long ago come to the conclusion that he was filled with bad luck, this was idea reinforce with each unfortunate event he caused to happen. He frowned into his cup. The higher ups had suggested that it would be better for him to train away from the other squads and just take solo missions.
He at first brushed off the snide comments the others made about him someday killing someone, maybe drop an untraceable trick on one or two of the more offensive ones. Though, now and again, he found himself thinking back to the offer, and wondering if it would be better to quit his squad to join the top powers. Even though he knew that Kim and Alec didn’t care about how many times he screwed up, he couldn’t but think if they wanted him out of the squad and were only humouring him.
“Zach, you mope too much yah know.”
Slightly jumping from the sudden calling of his name, Zachery looked at the red head that was currently wolfing down the sickly grey mash on Alec’s plate.
“What?”
“I said you mope too much. So what if half the base is out for your blood. You still have more skill and a better sense of humour then all of them combined. You're also probably the only one in the top power group who doesn’t have a stick firmly placed up their ass.’ Finished with the food she started to stack their empty plates. ‘So stop doubting your self before you end up like every other stuck up higher up in this base.”u
Zachery stared at scarlet haired woman in front of him. He always knew Kim had a certain distaste for most of the higher ups in their base. Even though he still couldn’t believe how blatant she was when talking about it.
Looking into indifferent grey, Zachery couldn’t help but crack a small smile at how relax her behavior was.
“You know you can get into trouble for speaking out like that.”
“It’s not like the higher ups are going to come down here to tell me to stop. The flight down would tousle their feathers too much.”
“This, this right here is why they put you in my squad. They wouldn’t put some innocent soft spoken woman with me, so they put whatever the hell you are in.” He said with a somewhat false smile on his face, gauging her reaction to his statement.
“Zach you have it wrong, those idiot’s were smart enough not to put some easy going ‘do some thing only if you’re told’ guy with me. So they dropped the most stupid and impulsive guy they could find in my squad, and hoped we would kill each other.” She said in an offhanded manner, picking a piece of strangely hard potato out of her teeth.
As he watched the lone woman in his squad use her sharpened pinkie nail as an impromptu tooth pick, he came to a conclusion. The way how Kim and Alec treated him wasn’t acting, it was just the way they where.
Kim was a crude, rude, explosive excuse of a woman who would eat whatever was placed in front of her. While protecting her friends with her powerful talent for magic and fighting to the death to defend what she though was right.
Alec on the other hand was a calculated ass who would use his opponents mind and weakness against them to get his most favorable outcome. Also he cared about friends and family enough to never sugar coat whatever he felt he needed to say to them.
He was an unlucky idiot who never thought things past the ‘I want to’ phase of his plans and regularly got himself into situations he more the often could not get out of. He would also let himself be killed before he let any of his actions cause actual harm to any of the people he deemed as friends or family.
His squad was filled with people who were extremely talented but were too idiotic to cut ties with their friends even if the outcome meant a promotion.
It was a painfully accurate description that summed up his team in the most basic of terms.
It was also a description that he couldn’t be happier to be a part of.
Smirking with genuine joy Zachery retorted to Kim’s statement, “So even you have to agree that they did something right when they made our squad.” The answer he got back was a very unladylike snort and a small almost invisible smile.
“If you two are done mocking the chain of command, we really need to get ready to go.’ Alec then dispassionately looked at Zachery, ‘Don’t you want to get back to your favorite Drill instructor on time?”
A look of annoyance flash on Zachery’s face at being abruptly being reminded that the day wasn’t over quite yet, and he still had to go through evening exercises with drill instructor hates his guts. Then briefly surprising Alec he smiled brightly at the both of them.
“Well then, lets not keep the teams waiting I’m sure that they would just hate not to see us there to brighten their day.” He said voice lightly layered with sarcasm and sparks of mischief flying through his eyes. Kim let loose a smile that matched his in mischievousness, as Alec smirked changing his normally docile seeming face into something more playfully sadistic.
Just as they where about to go, Zachery open his mouth one last time. There was something that was still bothering him.
“Kim,’ he said getting the attention of the grey eye woman in his squad, ‘how did you know that I was sulking in the first place?”
“That’s easy,’ she said, stormy grey shining into flawed blue, ‘you stopped smiling.”
With that his squad and him put their plates away and began to jog their way to the designated meeting place, all of them absolutely sure that nothing could tear their little squad apart.
By the time Twilight and her friends got to Canterlot the sun was already high in the noon day sky.
They didn’t want to spend any more time getting to the castle, as none of them wanted to keep their Princess waiting. So after getting some movers to bring their stuff to the castle they made their way to gates at an easy trot.
They only hesitated at the large doors that singled the entrance to the day court for a second. Breaking out of her nervousness first Twilight covered the doors with the light purple hue of her magic and opened them wide to allow her friends and her to through.
Sitting upon a large pink and golden throne was their ruler, her bright eternal mane shifted around her as she looked down at them with kind pink eyes. Seeing that they all had bowed to her she spoke to them in a light airy voice, “Raise my little ponies, there is no need for such formalities between us.”
She walked down form her throne and walked up to Twilight. Gently she nuzzled her student, “Twilight it is good to see you well and I would love to take some time to catch up. However I feel that you want to get started on your task immediately.”
Twilight at this point realized how much she missed her mentor and how it was since they talked to each other face to face. She was temped to take the day off and just sit and chat about their lives and what they have been doing in their time apart, but… “I’m sorry Princess Celestia but I believe that the faster we get started is the faster we find the humans. It’s going to take some time to search through the Cantorlot Library and I don’t want to lose anymore time.”
“I understand,’ Celestia said with a soft smile on her face, ‘but I hope that you don’t mind if we walk and talk about your findings on our way to the library?”
Twilight smiled widely as she followed Celestia to the Library, animatedly telling her about her findings and where she believed the object of her research may have went.
Following behind the two princess’s Twilight’s friends began their own discussion.
“So how long do ya think this is going to take?’ Rainbow asked openly, ‘I mean reading in the library part.”
“Well Rainbow dear it could take days. I heard that the Royal Cantorlot Library has hundreds if not thousands of books, not to mention apparently Celestia herself never found a book in the library that mentions the humans.” Rarity replied.
“What!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in shock. When she had agreed to look for a lost race she had expected the journey to be filled with excitement. She had thought her and her friends would be fighting beasts, going through hidden caves and passageways, and unearthing old meeting places looking for clues to find them. She assumed the library part would take an hour or so, not days. Daring Do wouldn’t have done this.
“Oh pony feathers.” She muttered to herself.
“Now, now Rainbow Dash don’t be like that, think of all the opportunity we now have.” Rarity said almost giggly.
“Like what?”
“Like the shopping on the way here I saw the loveliest hat, there is so much more that I want to buy for our trip.”
“Um... Rarity. Don’t ya’ think ya’ brought enough stuff. The carrier charged us extra t’ carry your bags t’ the castle.” Applejack interrupted.
“A lady must always be prepared for anything that might befall her.” The white and purple unicorn retorted.
“Rarity’s right!” A pink bundle said as it bounced around them.
Seeing the quizzical looks she got from her friends she continued, “What if we need to have a party or cheer somepony up but we have nothing to do that with? Believe me funny faces can only get you so far and I couldn’t bring the party cannon because Twilight said that the might get the wrong idea but I don’t think so because who doesn’t like a good surprise? So I have to get many things from here to bring in case they want to have fun...”
“Um Pinkie I don’t want to interrupt, but how do you know what they would like to do?” Fluttershy said.
“Oh that’s easy everybody likes to have a friendly party.” Pinkie said with a large happy smile on her face.
Applejack stopped walking to look at Pinkie Pie bounce down the corridor beside them.
“Everybody?” The Apple farmer asked more then a little confused at the word her pink friend just used.
Pinkie Pie just giggled and continued to bounce down the hallway following after the retreating backs of the princess’s.
Rainbow Dash repeatedly slammed her head into a book.
It wasn’t just a book however.
It was one of the hundreds of books she had looked through in the past three days.
When Twilight told her that the Canterlot Library was very big she just scoffed it off. How big could a stupid library be?
Big.
Huge.
Massive.
Enormous.
Way too much of any of the above for them to be able look through all the books, records, documents in it to find one passage of information on humans.
As the cyan pegasus pick up another book, it dawned on her what the chances were of her finding the one book that neither the sun princess or the purple alicorn has read through. and it being the same book that had the information on humans they needed.
The chances of her being the one to find this elusive book were diminutive.
Minuscule.
Narrow.
Small.
Tiny.
Also to top off the ridiculousness that was her existence right now, she was beginning to act talk and act like Twilight. She had caught her self making a list to organize what books she had read, then listing that list in alphabetical order.
Groaning in anguish the rainbow maned pegasus checked the book off her list and put it back in place.
The cyan pegasus felt urgent need to smash her head against she was working through bookshelf…again. Sometimes a hard cover book wasn’t enough to bring her back into focus.
She was about to pick up the next book on the self closest to her, when the sweetest words ever fell on her ears.
“Girl’s it lunch, time to take a break!”
She let out a loud whoop of happiness. She put her book back on the self and ran to where the sound of her friend’s voice had come from.
Turning on last corner she saw the other ponies that were helping her search at the entrance of the library. She didn’t stop her hurried gallop until she was almost on them.
Slowing down to an easy trot she went up to a very annoyed looking purple alicorn princess.
“Sup Twilight, how’s it going?” Rainbow knew that the alicorn was in no doubt mad at her for running through the library, but she was hungry and needed to do something that was like her to do. If that meant she was also ruffling Twilight’s new found feathers, well what can you do?
Rainbow watched as her friend went a darker shade of purple and lift one of her fore legs in annoyance. She could just see Twilight going through her vast knowledge to prepare the perfect lecture for the situation. Figuring that one of the purple alicorn’s lectures could take forever. She walked past her steaming friend.
“Twilight relax,’ she said as she join the rest of her friends on the other side of the door, ‘I didn’t damage any of the books and nothings out of place. You know me better then that. So lets go eat I’m starving.”
After saying her piece the cyan pegasus flew into the air over the heads of her friends and made her way to the dinning hall. Smirking to herself at Rarity’s loud exclamation of ‘The nerve of that mare’ Rainbow continued on her way to the hall.
‘Yeah I still got it.’
The table in the royal dinning hall found it self seating six ponies more then it’s original two, much to the cringe of the cooking staff and the maids that had to tend to the extra mares needs.
A soft but lively swell of chatter rose over the inhabitants as they ate. They were all glad to get away form the monotonous task that they were put to, and more then happy to drag their lunch out a little longer then necessary. However one of the inhabitants of the table couldn’t fully bring her attention into the small talk her little ponies were making.
Princess Celestia watch over her ponies while keeping up the serene smile that she perfected over the hundreds of years she had ruled her realm.
The old tome that Twilight had given her to read brought her great distress. She read performed a small spell over the book to check it how authentic it was. Pleased that the book was in fact was not a fake made to deceive her student, the sun princess had eagerly opened to the first page.
How she wished that she had put a little more attention into her student’s warnings.
The book went into grotesque detail about the treatment her father’s once subjects went through. She would not have believed that information regarding the fossilized bones where true if she had not see such bones before. Now she berated herself for not double checking the outlandish claims for that one stallion many, many years ago. One of the lesser reasons she had not brought her full attention to his plight was that, to her she had lost her only sister but a few hundred years before. At that time she was less then interested in foolish ideas of dreamers. However the absolute main reason she disregard the information was because who it implied was the monstrous pony to organize the cruelly.
How was it possible for her father to do such things?
She knew her father. He was a kind and caring if not eccentric stallion who loved her sister and her dearly. A stubborn part of Celestia’s heart continued to deny that the stallion that had tucked both her sister and her in bed at night, and told her bedtime stories of many years past could be anything but the loving father she saw him as. This part of her screamed at her telling her that this was all a cruel farce and that somepony was trying to hurt her in way that couldn’t be repaired.
However her troubled mind went back to that brown and black maned stallion so many years ago who so desperately demanded a proper audience with her. Who came to the courts everyday his well kept mane gradually getting more and frayed each time he was turned away along with the hope in his eyes and his posture. To the ponies in his team that came to her when the stallion had stopped. To her student that had asked her if there was a possibility that she knew about ponykind's and her father’s past, worry in her eyes that her teacher knew and did nothing.
Finally her mind went to the horribly damaged old bones she had been shown at the base of the hopeful researchers that wanted her attention, the very same bones that she had disregarded as a well made fake. Leaving the pained faces of team and their captain that believed they had at last made headway into proving their point. The same tired and despairing team that had disbanded then went their separated ways. After they had lost hope of convincing their princess of the horrors of the land’s far forgotten past.
The two parts of her fought angrily against each other. Both sides were not willing to be quieted leaving her head in a swirling mess that would not, could not be sorted out.
The alabaster sun princess was so deep into her trouble thoughts, that she did not see that the dinning area had quieted to less then a whisper and that her loyal subjects were now watching their princess with concerned looks on their faces.
The newly minted purple alicorn princess watched with the other ponies in the dinning room as their princess stared into space. An abnormally deep frown decorated her usually kindly smiling face.
Twilight knew that she had to do something to release the tensions in the room and bring her mentor out of…whatever she was in.
“Princess Celestia?” She called out timidly to her monarch but was rewarded with the unwavering blank stare that was on the princess’s face.
She tired again.
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight tried loudly calling her name hoping that this time her princess would hear her.
The same blank stare bore down on some far away place and time.
Twilight turned to look at her friends around the table for help knowing that their concerned was mirrored on her face.
Twilight was about to call out again hoping for better luck when at the corner of her eye she saw the cyan pegasus take in a large breath of air. Before Twilight could stop her the rainbow maned mare let loose a catastrophic shout.
“YO PRINCESS WAKE UP!”
Rainbow Dash’s loud yell bellowed through the hall rattling the cups and plates on the table, popping the eardrums of those who couldn’t cover up in time and breaking one sun princess out of her trance.
Celestia jumped up with a start whipping her head toward the intruding sound that pulled her violently out of her thoughts, only to see the slightly winded element of loyalty grinning up at her.
“Awesome, Twi she’s all yours.” Rainbow Dash said as she settled down back into her seat.
Twilight tore her eyes away from her crude friend to look at her the bewildered sun princess.
Figuring that the monarch wanted answers she spoke calmly to the princess, “Princess Celestia you were not responding to anything we said,’ Twilight face was covered in new type of concern, ‘If you don’t mind me asking, what is wrong?”
Celestia quickly schooled her features back into the motherly monarch posture she had always shown to her subjects.
With a smile that falsely advertised that everything was fine she replayed, “My dear student there is nothing wrong. I was just… lost in thought for a moment. I’m sorry but I seemed to have not been fully paying attention to the conversation, can you please repeat what said.”
The sun monarch continued smiling pleasant smile that had kept her in the favor of her subjects and at good terms with the other monarchs of the kingdoms that surrounded Equestria. The smile never failed her until she had heard the next words that had came from the apple farmer’s mouth.
“Now princess ah hope ya’ don take this the wrong way, but dats a load of horse apples.”
The reaction to Apple Jacks words were instantaneous as the room exploded after a breath of realization. Twilight and Rarity began shouting at the farmer for being so impolite to the princess, while the rest of her friends tried to get her attention. The poor maids and waiters that were waiting on them had stopped their movements and were now shooting looks between the elements, their princess and each other.
However the through all the commotion around her Apple Jack continued to stare flatly at the princess, while Celestia continued to smile pleasantly though not as wide as before.
Finally the Celestia relented under the truth seeking stare and let her own smile drop.
She was tired. So very tired. Of trying to keep up formalities to keep her ponies from worrying. Of trying to and failing to always do the right thing at all times. She was especially tired of the angry fight that continued to rage within her, between a young filly that stubbornly wanted to believe that her father could do no wrong and a rational older mare that demanded that the filly to see the error of her ways.
Celestia knew that she didn’t know the answer for every question no matter what her subjects believed. Most of the time she just went with her intuition when dealing with something new, this was of course because it was close to impossible to find advisors that were not yes ponies.
The sun princess lowered her head slightly falling into exhaustion putting the dinning hall in a state of suspended silence. She hadn’t sleep well after reading that old tome, also with trying to keep up day court as the nobles complained about mundane things that they expected her to fix with a wave of her horn. She was close to falling dead asleep on her feet.
On top of all that there was a question floating around in her head that she just couldn’t shake.
It twisted maliciously in her mind and wrapped its way between all the decisions she made in the past and present, mocking the accuracy and intentions behind every thing she did.
The worst part was that she had no one to confide in. To ask the answer to this question form her dear sister would be beyond heartless, and she could just hear what her advisors would say as she asked them.
She needed the counsel of a pony would was truthful enough to tell her what they really thought, but kind and loyal enough to not take advantaged of her weakness. Some pony sweet enough to try to find the best way to cheer her up would ask for nothing in return, and knew enough about her that they actually care about her and not her title. However there was nopony alive that she knew of that had all these traits.
As the sun princess thought about where she could find a pony such as this, sudden insight came upon her.
In that moment she wanted to plant her hoof into her face.
Could the answer to her question be really under her nose all this time?
She should put away some time read over some of her faithful student’s friendship letters again.
Making up her mind Celestia lifted her head and called out to the ponies currently in the dinning room.
“I would like it if everypony other then the elements of harmony to leave, there are some things we must discuss in private.”
Not wanting to stay around for the fireworks the staff in the room quickly departed leaving behind a somber princess and the nervous but determined elements.
Once the last attendant shut the door, the sun princess quickly casted a spell of silencing over the double doors of the hall, and any where a curious pony may put their ear to listen in.
Now that the sun princess had locked her ponies and herself in the room, she turned her attention to the elements.
Breathing in she steadied her trubelent mind for the task at hand.
“My little ponies I have a question for you,’ Celestia said while looking into the gazes of her most trusted subjects. ‘I want you to try to answer to the best of your ability; please do not fret as there is no wrong answer.”
Twilight panicked.
She wasn’t prepared for a test question!
She had no time to study before hand, what if she got the question wrong?
Yes, Celestia told them that there was no wrong answer to her question but she could just be saying that to make sure that they didn’t feel disappointed when they got it wrong.
Not to mention how sad the Princess has been acting lately.
It all started when she had shown her that book. The book! That had to what the question was about! Well she was prepared if that was true. She had read the old tome many times now and was on her way to memorizing it. There was no way she could fail!
But what about her friends?
Twilight glanced at her friends from the corner of her eye taking note of their uneasiness. If the question was on the book there was no way that they would get it right. They hadn’t even read the book once, and that was her fault.
She had told them to never read it and they hadn’t even when they were giving the chance to.
She remembered how she teleported in to their travel cable filled with horror at the thought of them reading the book. She found the tome on the ground, where she had dropped it in her hurried retreat.
The purple alicorn couldn’t have been more relieved to find out from Apple Jack that none of them had opened the book, but now she was wondering if she had done the right thing by not telling them. What if she was the reason that her friends fail the test?
Twilight stared down the sitting form of her teacher. If the question was on the book she was going to take full responsibility and let her teacher know she was the reason for their failure to answer correctly.
She was going to make this right even if she ended up failing.
She watched as her princess studied them, and braced her self for the question.
Nothing, no prep work, years of schooling or vast amount of study time could have prepared her for happened next.
The princess of the sun and co-ruler to the land of Equestria watched the shocked looks of her subjects.
Surprisingly Rarity was the one to speak first.
“I beg your pardon, but what?”
Celestia asked the question again this time with the tiniest bit of uncertainty breaking through.
“Am I a good princess?”
Twilight looked at her mentor in shocked confusion, “Celestia what do you mean a good princess?”
The alabaster alicorn answered back with conviction, “Have I done ordered anything or acted in anyway that made you think that I was acting on poor or malicious judgment.”
The semi-immortal alicorn watch carefully as her stared at her, faces clouded with distress.
“I see.” The princess of the sun slowly got up, her horn aglow with the bright golden glow of her magic.
“I sorry but I must go…” She calmly said as her elegant mane covered her face and unshed tears. The malicious thought warped around head on last time.
Like father like daughter.
“Princess wait!”
Celestia’s head shot up at the sudden outburst that came from six equally loud voices.
“I’m sorry Princess and I terrible sorry if I come off rude but where in Tartarus do you think your going!?”
Celestia watched in dumb shock at her student that was currently standing on the dinning table, wings extended and right hoof up as if she was on the verge of charging down the table and smacking her. Plates, cups and dishes were thrown on the ground making a mess on the floor that didn’t seem register with the orderly purple alicorn.
Twilight slammed her hoof on the table causing what was left standing to jump and shutter under the force. Celestia could only stare wide eyed as she watch the angry alicorn continue on with her rant.
“What in Equestria was that about? You start off by barely paying attention to us, then you zone out for at lest twenty minutes staring at absolutely nowhere! Scaring all of us because we think something terribly wrong happen to you and you wouldn’t wake up when every one in the room called out to you! Then when you do wake up you lie to the guards, staff and us, send everyone but us out the room to ask us some secret question worrying us further. Finally,’ Twilight’s voice seemed shake the very foundations of the dinning hall as she scolded her princess as if she were some misbehaving child ‘you ask us the most random, foalish question you can think of, shocking all of us, then go to leave us without giving us the chance to answer!?”
Celestia stared gaping at the ragged panting livid form of her closest student. Unsure whether to be more shocked at the strength of Twilight’s protest to her actions or at the unwavering intent gazes of the rest of the elements.
Twilight calmed down when she finally comprehend that she had been yelling at her mentor for the past couple of minutes. With a voice that was much calmer the pervious one she was using she continued.
“Princess Celestia I know that I am speaking for everyone here when I say that you are in no way a cruel princess and have never done anything that was solely for your own personal gain as long as we or anyone we know have known you.’ This statement was punctuated with the vigorous nods from her friends. Twilight voice went to a softer kinder octave, ‘Please Princess Celestia, tell us what is wrong.”
The Princess of the day’s barrier weakened under the worried scrutiny of the six elements, and relented.
“Very well Twilight I shall tell you what has taken the sleep from me.”
She went into the details of her question. Her fears of some day being like her father. Why she believed that she had not done all she could have as a princess. How she had coldly disregarded the plight of the one and only team of researchers that had told her that father’s bedside stories were not just stories but truth.
In the time that their princess was telling them her current fears the six ponies had converge around Celestia, paying close attention to what she had continued to tell them. Gently, they pushed the sun princess to continue releasing her pentad up worries to them.
Surrounded by her trusted subjects after many days of harassment by malicious self-hating thoughts, the Celestia finally began to slowly relax as each ugly thought was chased from her head.
The calming mood however was broken by a hyper active pink pony that began bouncing on spot and smiling largely to her self.
“Um, Pinkie Pie if you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing?” The butter yellow pegasus said as she watch her friend bounce up and down. The excited bouncing did not go unnoticed by the other ponies in the room and soon they were all watching the pink ponies display.
“Oh I’m just so so so happy that we can finally find the books we need to find the humans now and now can now leave *gasp* do you think I have time to go out to buy more things on last time the first time I went shopping I found this place where I’m sure I could find what I need unless they don’t have what I need which means I have to go some where else but what if I don’t have the time? Then I have to look really really hard and that could forever and…” Pinkie Pie’s ramblings were stopped by orange hoof that found its way to her mouth.
“Sugar cube, what do ya’ mean we can leave out now?” Apple Jack said removing her hoof from pinkie pies mouth allowing her to talk.
“Oh that’s easy A.J. Princess Celestia said she went to the base of the last researchers right. Well if the book that Twilight found was kept safe with magic, most of their other stuff must have been kept safe too!” Pinkie Pie finished her statement happily totally unaffected by the collective dumb stuck looks from other ponies in the room.
“Pinkie Pie you’re a genius!” Twilight said excitedly. She turned he wide eyes that were filled with a new shining to the slightly red rimmed ones of her mentor.
“Celestia, do you know where the base is?” The young alicorn was so excited the possibility of finding a new lead she forgot to place the honorific in front of her mentor’s name.
The older white alicorn close her eyes in thought for a moment trying to remember where she was taken all those years ago, only just remembering where the old base was because of the odd area it was placed.
“Yes I remember. It was in the middle of a large cave system I could bring you there if you want.” Celestia said with a kind smile on her face, finally her ponies were making headway into their quest.
Now if they could only pin point where they had to go, she would be happier letting them search by them selves…
“Wait just one minute!” Rainbow Dash shouted getting the attention of those around her, “Are you telling me that I read through like hundreds of books, in a stuffy old library, for three days, for no reason at all?”
Twilight looked a little sheepish at Rainbow Dash’s out burst, “I’m sorry Rainbow I guess I was a little off on that.” Her apology was met with the cyan pegasus irate snort.
“Yeah well whatever, I guess I should be just glad that I don’t have to go back to that library.” The rainbow maned pegasus said still slightly annoyed. “So when do we go?”
“Hmm I think we should go after lunch,’ The purple alicorn then looked at the mess she made at the table during her brief lapse in anger, ‘but before we do that we should clean up.” She said with a nervous laugh.
This observation brought her friends and princess back to the one sided yelling match that happened barely a half hour ago.
“Ah couldn’t believe it when ‘ah saw it ya’ really bite into the princess on that one Twi.”
“W-what.” The purple alicorn responded dumbly to the apple farmers claims.
“Yea Apple Jack was right I could feel that from where I was sitting.”
“B-b-but but.”
“Really Twilight dear was it necessary to be so cruel and to the princess no less!”
“I-I didn’t mean too…”
“You were so super duper scary wary and angry wangy to her.”
“W-wait I was just trying too…”
“It was rather mean.”
“P-please let me explain…!”
“My faithful student I’d have to say that in all my years I have never been yelled at quite like that before.”
“Princess!” Twilight looked into the faces of her friends and mentor worried to see disappointment, only to come face to face with the largest deviant smirks she had ever seen on her friends.
“What?”
“We’re just kidding with you Twi no need to get your feathers in a bunch.” Rainbow Dash said as she flew to the other end of the table to begin clean up.
Bewildered Twilight watch as the rest of her friends began to clean up the mess that she made.
Princess Celestia put a comforting wing around the confused from of her student.
“I believe that your friends were taking advantage of the situation as this is something that only happens once in a blue moon.” Celestia said with twinkling eyes.
“Princess I’m so sorry, I didn’t know what came over me.”
“There is no need to fret dear Twilight, sometimes even I need to be shown the error of my way.’ Celestia go up and started to walk in the direction of the double doors of the hall, ‘I believe that I still have many ponies to apologize to.”
With that the sun princess began her task of comforting her subjects, feeling that today was the start of something magnificent.