Silver Gaze: the Pony Who Would be King

by FireOfTheNorth


Prologue

Prologue

“All right Apple Bloom, let’s try this one more time, this time following the instructions to the letter,” Twilight said patiently, sweeping away the failed potion with a wing.

“Ah’m never gonna get the hang of this alchemy,” the filly complained, though she obediently went to get the ingredients she’d need.

“Sure you will,” Twilight assured her, “You just need to follow the instructions better. The pony who came up with the recipe knew what he was doing; you just have to follow his lead.”

“Who was even able to figure out how to make potions like this?” Apple Bloom asked as she returned with the assorted herbs for her concoction.

“I’m glad you asked,” Twilight said, transitioning into lecture mode, “This potion, like all the others in this book, was created by Silver Gaze, the greatest alchemist of all time. He did for alchemy what Star-Swirl did for unicorn magic, creating hundreds of new potions before disappearing mysteriously about a thousand years ago.”

“Disappearing mysteriously?” Apple Bloom asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied, “In fact, nopony seems to know what happened to him. In all the history books I’ve read, they just stop mentioning him entirely. Maybe he retired, or maybe he just became less important at that time. His disappearance was shortly before Luna became Nightmare Moon, and I imagine the historians thought that that event was more important to record.”

“Ah guess so,” Apple Bloom said before coming to a sudden realization, “Hey, I bet Princess Celestia might know what happened. She was alive back then, after all.”

“Why didn’t I think of that before?” Twilight asked herself, knocking her hoof against her forehead, “You get started on the potion, and I’ll write a letter to the princess right away. If anypony knows what happened to Silver Gaze, it’ll be Celestia.”