//------------------------------//
// Northen Lights 
// Story: Journal of the Stars 
// by Et-Luna-Et-Stellis 
//------------------------------//

Four Thousand Years Ago 

“It is unorthodox.”
“Yes, it is.” 
Aurora stared at the filly who had spoken. The mares surrounding her giggled. “How cute!” one exclaims. “Aw, isn’t she adorable?” 
Aurora turned to Celestia. “I didn’t ask your opinion,” she said coldly.  Celestia looked up at her big sister and grinned an almost toothless smile. “No, you didn’t.” She stuck her tongue out. The mares laughed. “What cheek!” A unicorn with a blue mane smiled. “She looks the spitting image of you, you’re so lucky, A!”  
Aurora forced her face into a smile and did a passable imitation of a laugh, “She’s quite the cutie! Tia, can I tell you something in secret? Outside?” The mares break into a series of giggles and chit chats. Aurora wondered how this was even slightly similar to a study group. 
Leaving the warm chamber full of cushions and golden streaming light, Aurora trotted calmly outside. Celestia followed her, tripping over her own hooves as she attempted to copy the regal strut of her older sister. 
When a safe distance away from the room, Aurora started to talk. The dimmed light in the corridor gave her face a slightly skeletal appearance. 
“What. Was. That?” Her narrowed eyes were inches away from the fillies eyes. 
“I-I-I’m sorry, Aurora, I just-” 
“Just what? JUST WHAT? I only allowed you to come with me because you promised not to do anything. You promised you’d shut up for ten minutes and I’d let you hang around for an hour or two, maybe longer. You know you’ve ruined your only chance, now, don’t you?” 
Tears gathered in the filly’s eyes. “I-I-I just wanted to help, I-” 
“I. Don’t. CARE. You didn’t keep your side of the bargain. Now, I won’t keep mine.” Aurora’s royal purple eyes met her twins lighter violet ones. They were one of the only differences between them. 
Aurora grinned cruelly; “Consider all of the east side of the building out of bounds.”
Celestia’s resistance crumpled; “B-but my bedroom is on the east side! As is the dining room and Mommy and Daddy’s room!” 
Aurora looked mockingly thoughtful; “I guess you’ll have to sleep and eat else where then.” 
Celestia’s legs gave up beneath her; tears flowed down her cheeks and and her sobs racked her body. “W-w-w-why?” She cried. 
Aurora crouched down beside her twin, looking into her wet eyes. 
“Because I just can’t trust you anymore, can I?” 
She stood up abruptly and walked back towards the warm room full of laughter and smiles. Fixing an innocent smile on her face, Aurora walked in and openly testified, “Celestia has forgotten to do some of her homework and she’s gone off to do it now.” 
The mares broke into chat again, discussing how Celestia is a model to all sisters and how Aurora should prize having her in the family. 
Aurora couldn’t disagree more.    
*************************************************************
It was sunset; if Celestia’s parents were home, she’d be in bed. But as they were away for some political reasons with the second set of twins, Celestia believed with all her heart that Aurora would make her sleep out of her bedroom for two weeks. 
And she did have homework to do, which she didn’t plan on handing in undone. 
She stealthily crept across the corridor leading to her bedroom; the door was unlocked and her sister was safely three floors below her, still studying with her friends. Letting out a deep breath, she opened the door of her room. 
It was rather dark and stuffy, in comparison to the corridor; its walls were white, as was the ceiling, the bed, and the drawn curtains. Without missing a beat, the filly grabbed her saddle bags and piled all her books, ink, quills and scrolls of parchment into them, until they were bulging fit to burst. They were heavy, almost too heavy for the filly to carry. Looking around for one more thing she could carry, she decided on a plush white blanket. 
The saddle bags now on her back and the blanket in her teeth, Celestia galloped as fast as she could away from the east side of the castle, into the unknown and unfriendly-looking west. The blanket dragged on the floor, occasionally sending Celestia stumbling; after a few minutes of galloping with a heavy load, she began to tire, and wonder where she could sleep. 
The observatory? Aurora visited it way too often. The throne room? On the east side. Celestia began to wonder where she could find a map of the whole castle… The Library! Without a second thought, Celestia half-wobbled half trotted to the place her Mommy visited on a regular basis when in the castle. 
By the time she had descended to the first floor of the building, the moon was already a pale spot in the sky, surrounded by shining stars. Tired but still determined, she opened the oak doors and tumbled in. The Library was huge. It’s shelves rose high along the walls, candles lighting every spot. And along with all those books, there was a wooden table, with a joining chairs. And even though Celestia wanted to find a map of the castle as soon as possible, she was tired, and her legs hurt. 
Shutting the door behind her, the tiny princess sat on a chair, sighing in relief; she put the saddle bags down beside her and tilted slightly on her chair to open them. 
With a noise like hundreds of galloping hooves and a wind strong enough to blow her mane off her shoulders, the lights of the candelabra in front of her extinguished. Jumping off the chair in shock, she turned around to see that the shelves behind her had moved aside to reveal a small room. 
She couldn’t believe her luck. She ran in to examine it. The room before her had a few small cushions scattered inside it; it had no windows, but a couple of candles stood amongst regular intervals. It was perfect. 
Celestia ran back out of the room with haste. She bit down on the strap between her saddle bags and dragged them into the room. Then she came back for the blanket. 
When safely inside with all her possessions, Tia wondered how she could possibly close the door to the room. If she couldn’t, anyone would be able to just walk in and see her. The filly looked around from her new room for a couple of minutes. Then she spotted it- the chair she had sat on was still tilted back, and one of it’s front legs was on a small metal arc. To close the room, she had to tilt the chair. But how to do so without being locked out? 
Magic. She had to push the chair back with magic. Celestia frowned slightly. She could hardly ever use magic, because she was still a filly. The most she could normally do was turn a page in a book, at the most levitate said book, assuming it was quite thin. She would have to see if she could produce enough push to get the chair back in place. 
Concentrating solely on the chair, Celestia’s horn lit up; she gritted her teeth and forced her magic to push the chair forward. The chair gave no resistance and fell back into place.The door of book shelves swung shut, leaving Celestia in semi darkness. 
Then, the filly noticed another source of light; there was a small hole on the bookcase-door, small enough to see a fraction of the room. Small enough for Celestia only to see the chair and be able to force it open whenever she wanted. 
Celestia sighed in relief. Maybe these two weeks wouldn’t be that bad after all, she concluded, plopping herself onto a couple of fat, soft cushions and covering herself with her blanket.