Chapter 1
(I do not own My Little Pony. Please support the original series.)
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Sunrise.
The day was the realm of the Alicorn Celestia, a Princess of Equestria, who was beloved by most, mentor to many, truly known by few, and Guardian of Light to all. The day was a time where ponies worked, played, and lived, and when life was brought to the land so the plants could grow and the animals could prosper.
Twilight Sparkle was one of the many ponies over the years who had found a mentor in Princess Celestia. She had studied hard and tried her best on everything that the Princess sent her way. She had loved learning as a filly, and over the years, learning had become something of a habit.
The sunrise this morning found Twilight sprawled out on a cushy rug in the Ponyville library, where she lived. Her head had fallen on top of the book she had been reading when she conked out, and she was snoring lightly.
Spike smiled upon seeing this familiar scene as he came down the stairs. He noticed a piece of parchment and a quill next to Twilight, and walked over to see if she had finished writing it. He skimmed it briefly, and upon seeing Twilight's signature, sent it to Princess Celestia via the usual method.
He took another look at Twilight, looked at the book, grimaced, and went to the kitchen to get some paper towels. "I hope she remembers that special Clean-Up spell," he chuckled.
* * * * * * * * * *
Green Dragon-Fire swirled into a sphere and coalesced into a scroll in Celestia's study.
"Ah! That must be from Twilight," she smiled. "So early in the morning, though? I hope everything is alright."
She gripped the letter with her magic, levitated it towards herself, and broke the seal.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I woke up early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to do some reading. Have you ever heard of a pony named Frimzale?
Celestia laughed. "Oh, my, I'd nearly forgotten him! He always knew how to make me smile. I wonder which of his works Twilight found."
I found a book in my library called Frimzale's Fairy Tales. I hadn't read it yet, but there were nice pictures and some of the stories looked interesting. I came across one story about the Ancient Pony Sisters. At first, I thought that might be you and Luna (not that either of you is ancient!). I quickly figured out that it wasn't, and became curious. According to the story, there were once two Alicorns. One was named Dawn Twila, and the other one was named Silvia. They lived happily for many years, but then some things happened and both suffered in the end (there was more detail; I'm just summarizing). I really liked the story.
From a distance, Celestia's smile was unreadable. If one got close enough, however, the beginnings of tears might have been visible.
Perhaps you are wondering why I'm writing you about a story. I would have overlooked it since it's in a book of fairy tales, but there are three things bothering me:
1. It ended strangely.
"When the mountain quakes, when the sun turns black,
When it seems as though peace has turned its back,
Beware, for these are the times."
I thought it was just an odd ending to a story, but it began to feel downright ominous when I realized the next two things.
2. The last time I read a supposed "fairy tale" with Alicorns and a prophecy-like ending warning of things to come, the prophecy turned out to be not only true, but critically important.
3. The book I found this story in also told of the legendary Sonic Rainboom. I know first-hoof that this maneuver is possible; I saw Rainbow Dash do it at the Best Young Fliers' Competition that one time. (Now that I think about it, so did you!) If one "fairy tale" in this book is true, others could be true as well. Of course, they might not be true at all and I could just be overreacting.
Am I overreacting?
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
Princess Celestia set the letter down on the desk where she was seated and stared at the wall in front of her for a few moments.
There was a knock at the door.
"Who is it?" Celestia asked.
"'tis I, 'Tia. Do you have a moment?"
"Ah, Luna! Please, do come in," Celestia said as she opened the door with her magic.
Princess Luna levitated a small stack of books, some paper, some scrolls, and a large blue quill behind her as she entered Princess Celestia's study.
"How was Night Court?" Celestia asked.
"Rather pleasant, actually. One pony came, and she wanted to talk to me about the infrastructure out in some of the more rural areas, specifically, the roads. She apparently does a fair amount of traveling and often runs into problems in the less populated areas of Equestria," Luna explained.
"We've been looking into making some improvement for awhile now... what did you tell her?"
"I said we've been attempting to make improvements and hope to carry them out soon."
"Did anyone else come?" Celestia inquired.
"No, that is why it was pleasant. I was able to end it early. T'is a good thing that I was able to do so, too. I sensed something..." Luna trailed off.
"What is it?"
"I cannot quite place it... but something did not feel right. It was the natural flow of magic last night. It felt different. It was... I do not want to say darker, but I fail to think of something better right now."
"..." To a trained eye, Celestia was beginning to look worried.
"'Tia?"
"Hmm? Sorry, Luna. Go ahead."
"What happened to Twila?"
Celestia closed her eyes and lowered her head. "I wish I knew. That night 1,000 years ago was the last time I saw her. It's as if I've felt her presence here and there occasionally, but the feeling never stays, it's weaker every time, and it's always distant, as though not entirely there."
Now Luna was lowering her head. "If I had known... if I could have resisted--"
"Oh Luna, you never truly wanted things to go that way; I know it. I don't blame you."
"I know, but..." The two were silent for a time.
Luna was the one to speak first. "You know how I've been catching up on various things since...?"
"Yes?"
"Well, sometimes, when I try to cross-reference things, I get distracted by something nearby."
Celestia laughed. "Go on."
"I ran into this old spell that Twila taught us long ago if we ever needed to contact her."
Celestia thought. "...It's survived all these years and I never knew about it?"
"You didn't?"
"No. It wouldn't work as is though. She said that spell always called out to her mind; that's how we were able to contact her."
"So?"
Celestia continued. "Mind you, I used to try using it when I thought I had felt her presence or something close to it. That's why I don't think she's still truly here; because it never worked. The magic always came back and slapped me in the face whenever I tried. That's not something Twila would have ever done. I understand that when a summoning spell fails, though, that's what essentially happens. Summoning spells can fail for various reasons, anything from the caster mis-casting to who or what the caster is attempting to summon simply not being available. I don't think the problem was with me; I've cast that spell hundreds of times, at the very least."
"What if we modified the spell to call out to her spirit?"
Celestia froze. "...Can you do that?"
"You mean you can't?" Luna was incredulous.
"You would be more likely to be capable of something like that than I would. Do you think you could?"
Luna thought for a minute. "If I knew I could, I would, but we both know that spell modification has never been my strength."
Celestia sighed.
Luna suddenly had an idea. "...Would Twilight Sparkle be able to do it?"
If punctuation appeared over ponies' heads to show what they were thinking, Celestia would have had many exclamation points over hers. "That's brilliant! She loves little projects like that. We should go to Ponyville! There is nothing important happening as far as ruling is concerned for the next month that I can think of that cannot be handled by other ponies. That should be plenty of time to arrange something."
"Huzzah! Sister?"
"Yes, Lulu?"
"...Why must you insist on calling me that?" Celestia just smiled as a response. Luna sighed and continued. "Is something wrong?" Luna was genuinely curious; Celestia did not generally act on spur of the moment ideas like this.
"..."
"'Tia?" Now Luna was concerned.
"If you can call me 'Tia, I can call you Lulu. It was just something somepony reminded me of recently. I really do want to see Twila again, though."
"Me, too!"
The two sisters hugged each other and trotted off to take care of their remaining duties for the day, and to delegate tasks for the next week.
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Nopony felt it anywhere, not even a pony in Canterlot, but the mountain Canterlot sat on quivered ever so slightly. Both royal sisters felt the magical tremor that went out, though, and Celestia knew that they needed to contact Dawn-Twila soon for reasons more than simply wanting to see her again.
(To Be Continued)
Author's Notes: Aaaaand... Chapter 1! Just a heads-up, regular updates on this story are not feasible at this time. =( When I get the time and the inspiration (or when the inspiration hits so hard I have to do something with it; that's been known to happen sometimes) I will continue writing.
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