//------------------------------// // Prologue: The pegasus who floated from the sky // Story: The World Tree: World of the Frozen Moon // by Artaelian //------------------------------// As he walked in the crystal caves beneath Canterlot, his gold and white armour was upon his body, making the only noise in the caves loud enough to cover the sounds of his hooves. He diverted from the dirt and stone covered path to another that had taken him many months to create from the stone. It wasn’t very long, just two seconds from the main path where the door to the room he had made too. The room was well lit with torches fueled by a negligible drain on his own inner magic, and a chair and table were all to be found within, the table covered by books and notes. Princess Maakera was the ruler of the land of Equestria and the only one he, Captain Time Twister, answered to. She trusted him fully and had proven himself as such over her second choice for captain of the guard, Shining Armour. An attempt on Princess Maakera’s life had been carried out, the assassin had expected a shield spell, easily knocking Shining Armour out cold, but hadn’t expected a time freeze spell for which Time Twister was well known for. Had it not been for that one incident, Shining Armour could very well have been talked up to rank of Captain by his alicorn fiancée, Cadance. And yet, not once did she question him on anything he decided to do. Time Twister stared at his notes, not really taking any in as he thought of his friend Shining Armour. Shining had been so disappointed to not be made Captain, and be left as a lieutenant. But perhaps, Time Twister pondered, maybe that should have been what happened. After all, all he had done was what any guard was trying to do in that moment, and protect the life of the sole ruler of Equestria. How did that suddenly make him better for the job? He shook his head. These thoughts had bothered him for ten years, and nothing could change the past. But the things he had learnt as a captain… Wonderful things, things Princess Maakera kept from the public, of news articles and old family stories that spoke of things that would cause such panic, chaos and anarchy if they were widely known that Equestria itself would be torn apart irreversibly. Such as the old fairy tale of Tirek, a powerful and evil creature that had only just been sealed into Tartarus, and finding the tale had been true. Or the tree of harmony, in which sat the fabled elements, she had shown this to him and how important it was the elements remained in the tree, lest the last trick of Discord surface from where it had somehow gotten underneath the tree. But what really interested him? There were secrets even Princess Maakera herself was unwilling to tell him. And one day, four years ago, she had slipped up for just a moment, mentioning her daughters. Everypony knew the tale, two sisters who controlled the sun and moon, but both became jealous that the other controlled one celestial object, and desired control over both, and even fought their own mother for control. Princess Maakera had let slip that her daughters were in other worlds, other realities, and wondered how they were. When he tried to press her for more information, Princess Maakera had realised what she had said and spoke no more on the matter. This made life tiring for him quite often. And hence the room, every scrap of myths, legends and rumours to do with other realities, worlds and dimensions had found their way here. Four years, and no stone had been unturned. He lit a fire and an illusion spell to make the dull stone seem more like the cozy inside of a sitting room. From the table, Time Twister took a book called The World Tree, sat on the only chair, and began to read. Thirty five miles from Canterlot stood the town of Ponyville. Not a very large town, which was to be expected when it had been founded just a hundred years earlier. The town focused around the town hall, a circular building, which was the home of the current mayor. Very few lights were on in the town, only street lights being lit in most places. The town had no active night life aside from some ponies who enjoyed a walk in the cool night air. A certain librarian, however, preferred this, and had set up her telescope on a balcony in the library she called home now. For years she had been a student under Princess Maakera herself, and had fallen in love with the idea she could restore a library to how she wished. And so she had moved here, restored the inside of the library to also include living areas for her, and had never looked back. At Sugarcube corner, a perpetually happy pink mare hopped away, giggling softly to jokes she told in her head to an audience of what anyone could only hope numbered no more than one, heading towards her home. On one outskirts of the town, a blue pegasus mare with prismatic mane and tail waved goodbye to her yellow with pink mane pegasus friend, before flying as fast as she could to her cloud home. And, not far away, the farmland of Sweet Apple Acres stood, the trees branches swaying in the wind and their leaves rustled in a relaxing way. A tall red stallion stood outside, eyes closed, listening as the apple trees let the wind blow through them, and all was right with the world. “APPLEBLOOM!” At least, it had been, he sighed to himself, turning to look at the farm house. An orange earth pony mare with a yellow mane and tail raced out the front door, closing it quickly behind her. Her green eyes had become like pinpricks and her face was of pure horror. “Applejack?” Big Mac asked. “Bloom gone up smashed one o’ Ma’s plates.” Applejack answered the question she knew her brother would ask. Big Mac shivered, Applebloom was a goner this time for sure. Inside the farmhouse, the yellow filly named Applebloom was looking rather sorry for herself, under the angry glare from a dusty yellow looking mare. “Sorry Ma.” Applebloom apologized, sounding sorry. “That you may be, but you're grounded for tonight,” her mother replied, “what made ya drop the plate?” she inquired. “Just, bad day at school.” Applebloom answered. “Diamond Tiara?” her mother asked, getting only a nod in reply. Gently, she held a foreleg around her youngest daughter. “I’ll have a word with her father tomorrow. For now, go to your room, do any homework, I’ll call ya when dinner is done.” Slowly, Applebloom trotted towards the stairs and her room. She slowly worked on her homework, her mind weighing heavily on Diamond Tiara’s latest words, over her father’s death. Not even telling Diamond that it was wrong to talk ill of the dead could make her stop insulting Applebloom’s deceased father. The first break from homework was for dinner as her mother promised. The talk at the table barely registered to Applebloom, as her sister, brother, mother and grandmother all talked about something on increases in the military. Returning to her room half an hour later, Applebloom watched as the moon rose, its perfect white surface reminding her of snow. With a sigh, she sat at her desk and begun to work on her homework once more, passing a glance at a photo she kept nearby. In it, a younger Applebloom could be seen, a big grin on her face as she sat on the back on a soft pastel green earth pony wearing a stetson hat, her father. She couldn't recall what had become of him, aside from being told he had died when she was old enough to understand. With a small smile on her mouth, she begun to work once more. Two hours later, a drooling Applebloom awoke with a start. The farm house was quiet, but she could have sworn she had just heard the ringing of a small bell and a soft voice calling to any that could hear it. She rubbed her eyes and slowly wandered to her window, looking out at the night sky. It was a very beautiful night, the moon shone brightly, but not enough to hide the stars, faint traces of nebulae and the galaxy itself. And among it all, a blue star that she hadn't seen before floated in the sky. What knowledge she could recall from school had taught her that new stars formed all the time, but the light took so long to get to where the world was that the sky seemed to never change. She yawned, thinking to herself how amazing it was that school actually had uses besides giving bullies like Diamond Tiara a playground. Opening her eyes only half way and realizing how tired she was, Applebloom decided on one more glance towards the night sky before bed. She looked, then turned to face her bed before her eyes opened wide and made herself do a double take. The new blue star was actually getting bigger! Or at the least, she observed as she watched it fall, it was getting closer, while staying the same size. Watching it fall for three more seconds, she quickly worked out that it would fall somewhere among the trees, close to the small tree house she now called her own. Without a thought to her safety or being heard by the rest of her family, Applebloom ran out of her room, down the stairs past Granny Smith, through the living room where Big Mac and Applejack were planning the next day’s activities on the farm, and out the kitchen into the farm. She ran as fast as she could through the trees, watching all the while as the blue dot fell slowly. She arrived to the clearing in front of her tree house long before it had landed, and she watched in shocked awe at the sight before her. The blue dot that was glowing was attached to the golden band on the front left leg of a pegasus pony, who was surrounded by the blue glow and floating slowly upside down toward the ground. In a minute, the blue glow from the gem on the band gently placed the orange pegasus filly with a purple mane and tail on the soft grass of the clearing. But Applebloom just stood there, her mind unable to fully register what she had seen happen. From somewhere high above, this pegasus had floated down, by some sort of magic in the leg bracelet she wore. Behind her, Applejack ran into the clearing “Landsakes Bloom! What got into,” Applejack paused in her shouting, when she saw the pegasus filly laying on the ground. Having not witnessed what her younger sibling had, she had assumed the pegasus had crashed to the ground, and Applebloom had witnessed it from her bedroom window. Applejack rushed past her sister and gently got the pegasus filly on to her back, “Get back to the house, tell Ma, Mac and Granny we found a pegasus that fell out the sky and I've taken her to the hospital!” She shouted, running towards Ponyville itself. But Applebloom didn’t move. Instead, she slowly turned her head towards the starry sky, wondering where the pegasus could have come from on a cloudless night.