//------------------------------// // Prologue: Not this time. // Story: If then, What now? // by The P Co //------------------------------// -Canterlot, Equestria, 1000 AN- Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia, laid on her favorite reading spot, reading Ye Olde Myths ande Legendes. "And Celestia took over Luna's job, I know this story," she said, standing up and closing the book, levitating it into her saddlebags. She brought the Amulet of Chaotic Protection up to eye-level, since Discord, at this point in time, was still sealed away, the golden Mobius strip was now stone. She held it tightly, it would be useful. "Spirits of Harmony," she started, looking up at the sky. The memories of what had happened over the past three years stayed fresh in her mind, she could still here the ruffling of feathers, the laughter of her own voice with her friends, the glittering of the gems that were the Elements of Harmony, the gold of the regalia that Celestia wore and those that held the Elements. "You've tried this many times, and I've failed each and every time, but not this time." she started off on a slow trot, gradually speeding up. The wind started whipping past her as she galloped as fast as she could, wishing that she had spent some more time in PE, because she was already starting to run out of breath. First stop, the library. -A minute later- Twilight skidded to a halt, stopping in time to gently open the door and trot inside. "Hey Twilight, did you change your mind about going to Moondancer's birthday party?" Spike asked, just now finishing wrapping yellow ribbon around a red-wrapper present box. "No, now Spike, I need you to find a book, I'm going to say look for... Surprisingly Easy Spells of Great Usefulness, by... a paladin," Twilight instructed, levitating down several books and looking at the titles. "Um, okay," Spike agreed, somewhat confused by this sudden urgency, but nevertheless doing as commanded. "No, no, no, no no no no no, SPIKE, did you find it?" the lavender unicorn called out. "YEAH, it's over here!" the little purple dragon called down from on top of a precariously built ladder. Twilight grabbed the book while Spike still held onto it, though she took the care to gently set him down before opening the tiny book. "Let's see, magic stain, perfect, magic scan, excellent, Truthful Finder? amazing, these are very useful," she read, memorizing the aforementioned spells as well as a 'Bag of Holding', a 'Spellbook of Knowing', and an enchantment called 'Immutable' "I don't get it, why do you need them? Like, what makes you think paladins wrote up spells? What're they for?" Spike asked, a bit confused at this development. "Paladins, Spike, are a combination of the honor of a knight and the holiness of a cleric or a bishop. Knights are revered for their discipline, but still desire simpler methods, clerics and bishops are encouraged to use mortal ingenuity and holy ability to craft useful magics, together, they are known for creating things that are very simple, yet surprisingly useful," Twilight explained, preparing a teleportation. "So why do you need them?" Spike persisted, still a bit confused. "Well you see, Spike, magic stain and magic scan are literacy spells, I can use my magic to write and read words, the truth finder will direct me to occurrences of phrases and words, and it says here that there's this thing called a Bag of Holding, and as long as the item you wish to put into it can fit past the mouth, it will hold anything, and this thing called a Spellbook of Knowing works the same way, but with spells instead of items and 'fitting on a single page' rather than 'fitting past the mouth', now then Spike, stay here for a minute, I need to go get some more things before I enact my plan." Twilight cast the magic to make the bag and spellbook, She recorded the convenience spells and 'immutable' enchantment in the book, then teleported away. "I'll go with it, but I don't like it," Spike felt that the whole situation was... 'off'. As 'off' as Twilight would allow a situation to be. -Canterlot Castle, Royal Guard wing, Commanding Officers' Offices- Shining Armor wiped a bit of sweat from his brow, even with the window open, the room was hot and the summer didn't allow him to stay comfortable, at least his chair was made of a soft, breathable material. *CR-VASH* the magical sound of a teleportation was amplified by the silence of the room, from the flash of violet light came his little sister. "Twily! Hey, nice to see you," he greeted, immediately putting down his quill and walking around the desk to his sibling, anything to at least temporarily relieve himself of having to do paperwork. "Shiny, listen, I know we don't get to talk very often, but I have this thing, it's like an adventure, and I need your help," Twilight chose to be direct, something that she often felt could only be done with her brother. "Oh, I see, like a 'Knight and Mage' story, eh? Or is it just dangerous, either way I'll come with you." Shining nudged his little sister's side, though Twilight jumped at the touch. He really wanted to escape the paperwork. 'Funny,' she thought, 'At first, I thought I'd never get used to having wings, now I think it'll be hard to get used to not having them.' her sides felt naked, more naked than normal. "Do you still have that halberd? The one the blacksmith made you after you retrieved ivory mythril from that evil dragon's lair?" Twilight recalled his joyously telling her about that conquest, even a month after it happened. "Yeah, I didn't just throw it away," he joked, "So I'm guessing this is an adventure for the both of us?" he gave a little smile, hoping she'd say yes, as he really wanted to get away from all of this paperwork. "No, I need the halberd, if you'd give it to me?" she wasn't sure if he'd so easily let go of the treasure. "Oh, okay then, here." he telekinetically grabbed the doors of a miniature armory box, opening it to reveal a small set of weapons. Now, none of the weapons themselves were small, but the number of weapons was small, for an armory. Inside of the cage was the weapons that the Royal Blacksmith had made for him, he had Rarity-level luck in finding ores of rare metals, and was allowed to keep them because he was the head of the Royal Guard, his only military superior being the General. Inside the cage was, among a pair of mossy turquoise daggers, a blacker-than-black great axe, a pale gold-colored sword, and a rust-red hammer, an ivory colored halberd. The foot-wide concave axe-blade, eight inch long slightly curved scythe, and six inch spearhead were mounted on a two-inch thick fifty- inch long pole of merinta wood, famed for its above-average strength and excellent malleability. Another halberd was hung up next to it, but this one was a nice shade of red, red adamantium. Where as ivory mythril was light as a feather, hard as an elder dragon's scale, could be beaten like copper and polished like glass, conduct electricity like salt water, and be enchanted like mahogany, but it paled (even more than it already was) in comparison to red adamantium. Red adamantium was heavy as steel, but as hard as uru (this stuff Thor's hammer is made of), could be beaten like gold and polished like diamonds, conduct electricity like aluminum, and be enchanted like silverwood (the most magically receptive wood in the mage world). "Go on, take it, I have this new one." Shining ran a hoof over the red halberd and telekinetically floated the white one to his sister. Twilight took the weapon, enchanting it with the 'immutable' spell, which made it immune to any damage or inhibitors of a non-mechanical type, which meant acids, burning (which was still a threat with metal weapons), and magical breaking spells would do nothing. Satisfied with its state, she fit it into the Bag of Holding. "Thanks Shiny, I have to go soon, but I'll write to you, okay? And plus I'm only going to be in Ponyville, so you could visit me if you ever had a day off," she offered, hugging the stallion with every ounce of her strength. "Twily, you're acting kinda strange, is everything ok?" as a big brother, it was his right, nay, his duty, to know and put a stop to anything that troubled his little sister. "If I do things right..." she trailed off, looking at the floor, then back to her BBBFF's eyes, "Everything will be just fine," Twilight couldn't help but feel like she had ironically echoed herself, as that was exactly what she said the day she was crowned a princess. And look how that turned out... "Well, listen, if you have anything at all that's wrong, don't be afraid to tell me, I swear that I'll never make you feel bad or worse about your problems," he assured, putting a hoof to her chest in emphasis. Twilight looked down as his hoof, then back up to his eyes. "Pinkie Pie promise?" she requested, it was the only thing that felt right. "What? What's that?" Shining had a reason to be confused, he had never heard of this thing before. "You go like this: Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," the lavender mare recited as she went through the motions. "Okay then," the white stallion repeated the words and did the motions. Twilight smiled, it was a wide, bright, genuine smile, the first she had had in months prior to the current day. "Thanks, BBBFF," Twilight hugged her brother again and stepped back to teleport away. "What was that promise all about? Where'd you learn it?" Shining found the procedure a bit weird, to be honest. "A friend taught me it, maybe you'll meet her some day," the stripe-maned mare looked down, her mind was filling with fear, what if this added preparation backfired, and she ended up getting hurt, maybe even dying? The mage wanted her possibly-last-words to her brother to be better than 'maybe you'll meet her some day'. "Shiny, one last thing," she said, her horn still flared up with magic. "Yeah?" he replied, tilting his head. "I love you." not wanting to risk saying anything else, she teleported away. "Oooooookay then?" the knight was confused, was familial love not already implied to be true? Too bad for him, he had paperwork to get back to. -Meanwhile, with Spike- Spike stood there, twiddling his thumbs, waiting for Twilight to return. *KR-WHYOOM* the mare-in-question appeared in a bright flash of violet light. "Spike, take a letter," she commanded, levitating over a quill and parchment. "Okay, ready." Spike put the nib of the quill to the scroll. "Dear Princess Celestia, it has come to my attention that the Summer Sun Celebration is tomorrow, and I wish to look over the preparations in the chosen town this year, Ponyville, I am sure that you, being you, can make this official. I await your response, Twilight Sparkle," she dictated, looking as close to the sun as she could. "Alright, s'that all?" Spike still had the quill ready. "Yes, send it," she replied. Spike breathed a plume of green flame onto the rolled-up scroll, sending it to Celestia. Twilight looked straight at Spike, waiting for his response. In ten seconds flat, the little dragon belched up the response letter. "Ah, let's see," Twilight read the letter To my Faithful Student Okay, sure, do that, the guards in the airfield will fly you there, have fun, OH, and make some friends. Signed, Princess Celestia Twilight smiled, this was going to be easy. -A few minutes later- Twilight and Spike were sitting in the sky-carriage, waiting to arrive in Ponyville. "So Twilight, looks like you 'lucked out', the princess has you staying in a library," Spike resisted the urge to gag, for somebody who's lived with the most book-loving mare in all of Equestria for literally all of his life, he didn't like books. It was kinda odd, though, how Twilight had managed to take care of him at age five, he was sixteen at this point, the legal age of consent in Equestria. "Yeah, I knew that already, and the Golden Oaks library will be more than sufficient for my stay in Ponyville," Twilight assured. "How'd you know its name?" Spike didn't remember telling her that piece of information yet. "Oh, I've looked at a map of the town before, the only library there is the Golden Oaks," the lavender mare answered, pulling out a small piece of paper and magically staining it with a letter to the princess. "Oh, makes sense," the purple dragon accepted the rather flimsy answer, he didn't have any reason to not believe her, so why doubt it? Twilight was busy writing her letter, fixing words here and there, until she finally had down what she wanted to say. Another advantage of the magic stain spell, in addition to writing without limit and as fast as one can think the words, was that she could change the color of the words as well. Dear Celestia, Thanks for letting me do this, I know that this Summer Sun Celebration is very important. Very important, the fate of Equestria may even hang in the balance if the event doesn't go off without a hitch. Don't worry though, me and my future friends will be there to save the day if anything bad happens. By the way, I know something that only the oldest books would say... I know what you did to Luna. It was terrible, and you should be ashamed of yourself, the Elements of Harmony will not be treated like toys in the hooves of me and my friends, and I KNOW that you know that they can be used to purify a pony, not just banish them away. How irresponsible are you? I can understand why you would just send the plucky heroines in to save the day, rather than, oh I don't know, using some of the INFINITE DEITY SUN MAGIC to fix things? Luna is more competent than you are, and a lot more friendly too, you're the one who needs to make some friends, not me. I'm out of space on the paper, so I'll end this off here. Bye, Twilight And that was all she wrote.