//------------------------------// // Chapter Three: Once Upon A December // Story: The Secret of Her Past // by Nerdz //------------------------------// The Canterlot Palace, once the shining jewel of Equestria, now lay long ago abandoned. The once bight colors now were faded and dull. Doors and windows were boarded up, keeping most unwanted ponies out. They, however, did nothing to stop Evergreen from wriggling herself through an opening between the slats. "Evergreen, stop!" Niya mumbled. The wind had grown stronger, forcing her to pull her scarf up over her face. She pressed her muzzle against the wooden slats. "Evergreen?" she moved her hat and bangs out of her eyes. "Evergreen, where are you?" The mare pulled on the boards, grunting with the effort. The rotting boards cracked and splintered before finally breaking away. She fell backwards, her scarf and hat falling out of place as she crashed into a snowbank. With a groan, she shoved the boards off of her chest and stood up. Looking around, Niya found her hat halfway buried in the slush. She wrinkled her nose as she wrapped her hoof around the soggy fabric, gently squeezing water out as she shoved it and her scarf into her coat pocket. The building, despite its homely state, was surprisingly warm inside. Following the rapid chirps, Niya soon found Evergreen. She hadn't really intended to enter the Palace, just wait around for this 'Comet' outside, but evergreen had other plans. She took a moment to glance around the room. Despite lack of care, you could tell it was once a grand foyer. The peeling wallpaper was a deep red with intricate swirls that appeared to once have gold. "Hello? Anypony there?" she called out. Receiving nothing but an echo in return, she walked forward, leaving hoofprints in the dust as she walked. After a few moments, she came to a room holding various knickknacks, fine china, and baubles, all covered in a layer of dust. Niya walked over to a table as Evergreen flew underneath the off-white tablecloth. She looked down at a silver tray sitting in between two candlestick holders, each containing a few melted nubs of wax. She stared at her reflection in the silver before turning and scanning the room. It seemed so familiar. "This place..." she whispered, as if somepony might overhear her, "I swear I've been her before." She turned to a vanity next to the table. The mirror was coated in dust and had a long crack running down the center, but just could still make out her reflection. Niya then began to sing. "Dancing mares, with painted wings..." she turned to a wide archway in wall, shedding her coat as she went. Evergreen followed. "Faces I almost remember. And a song somepony sings once upon a December." She entered a stage-like area with a few thrones overlooking a grand staircase that lead down to an elegant ballroom. A large family portrait hung behind the thrones. Niya stood swaying in front of the painting. In the center of the picture, four Alicorn fillies sat with bright smiles, holding onto two considerably younger colts. Their parents stood behind them, wrapping their massive wings around the whole family. "Sisters held me safe and warm," Niya continued her song, pulling off her gloves. "Brothers pranced through a silver storm. Figures dancing gracefully, across my memory!" she twirled around, ending facing the ballroom as she reared up, forelegs and wings outstretched. Ponies in the paintings that surrounded the ballroom twirled out of the frames, shimmering almost like ghosts. All were dressed for a ball. They all smiled and bowed to her. She bowed in turn, and walked out onto the dance floor. The room suddenly seemed brighter, cleaner, and more festive. She repeated what she sang, much louder this time, her voice strong and pure. "Sisters held me safe and warm! Brothers pranced through a silver storm!" three mares who looked a lot like the ones in the painting rushed towards her. They all embraced her, as the eldest slipped tiara on Niya's head. "Figures dancing gracefully across my memory!" She twirled around, and a grand, purple ballgown replaced her tattered yellow dress, and her hair worked itself into a fancy updo. All four mares then began to dance with various stallions as the two young colts from the portrait ran around them. "Far away, long ago! Glowing dim as an ember! Things my heart used to know, things I yearn to remember..." she turned, almost ramming straight into a regal looking stallion. The father in the painting. He smiled gently down at her as he took her hoof and slow danced to the final notes of her song. "And a song...somepony sings," they stopped dancing and the stallion placed a gentle kiss on Niya's forehead before stepping away. Niya bowed and curled up on the floor as her song ended. "Once upon a December!" "Hey!" Niya gasped, jerking her head up. Everything in the room was back as it had been, and she had no memory of what had occurred. She turned to look at the two stallions standing at the top of a stairwell on the opposite side of the room. She leaped to her hooves, rushing back to the staircase she'd descended from. The stallions flashed their horns, teleporting just behind her, giving chase. Reaching the top of the staircase, just beneath the portrait, Niya stopped herself and turned to face the stallions. The younger stallion caught up first. "Now," he panted, "how did you get in..." his voice trailed of as he looked at the mare. She was next to the painting, almost head-level to Princess Luna's picture. This mare looked almost exactly like the princess. "Lute," he whispered to the puffing stallion, "do you see what I see." "No." Surprised, Comet glanced towards his friend before reaching a hoof up and flicking his glasses back to his eyes. "Yes!" Lute responded with a gasp. "Are you Comet?" Niya spoke up, rubbing a hoof to her temple. Evergreen buzzed around the stallions. "Well," the dark blue stallion smirked, "depends on who's looking for him." he walked towards the mare. "My name is Niya, and I was told you were the one to talk to about travel papers, but I can't tell you who told m-uh-what are you...Would you please stop circling me!? I mean, what, were you a buzzard in another life!?" "Sorry, Neia-" "Niya." "Whatever, just-" "Ni-ya" "Yeah, yeah, okay, it's just that you look an awful lot like...never mind." he walked back over to Lute and swung a foreleg around his shoulder. "So, you said something about travel papers?" "Yes, you see, I wanna go to Maris." "Maris!" Comet grinned at Lute who was busy cooing at Evergreen before turning back to Niya. "Well, lemme ask you something, Niya was it? There a last name that goes with that?" "Okay, uh," Niya started, rubbing a hoof to the back of her neck "This is gonna sound crazy, but, I don't know my last name. I was found just wandering the street when I was eight years old-" "Yeah, yeah, and before that?" "Look, I know it's strange, but I have very few memories of my past." Niya looked down as she fiddled with her necklace. "Well that's," Comet turned his head, mumbling the end of his sentence "that's perfect." "But I do have one clue, however, and that is Maris." She let go of the charm "So can you two help me or not?" "Well, that's interesting, you see 'cause..well, uh,"Comet turned to his friend, waving a hoof towards himself. "The tickets!" he whispered urgently "Lute, gimme the tickets!" "Oh, uh, here." Comet snatched four golden slips of paper from Lute's magic aura "'Cause we have- well this isn't..." he tossed one of the slips aside. Niya glanced at it as it fell, reading 'Canterlot Circus' in bold, swirling print along the paper's glimmering surface. "Three tickets to Maris." He waved the tickets over Niya's head. The mare reached out for a ticket as it was snatched out of reach. "But the extra ticket is for her." He waved a hoof at a face in the painting." Princess Luna." "Huh?" Niya mumbled as the stallions lead her up a second flight of stairs to another room. "We," Lute started, "are going to reunite Luna and her eldest sister, Princess Celestia!" "You know," Comet said "you do kinda resemble her..." "Yes!" Lute nodded excitedly. "She has Eclipse's blue eyes." "The Galaxianov eyes! And Sunniva's chin..." "Why, she even has the oldest filly's wing shape!" "Same age, same physical type!" "Are you two trying to tell me that you think I am Princess Luna?" Niya scoffed. Comet stopped her in front of a painting of the said princess and the 'oldest filly'. "All I'm trying to tell you is that I've seen thousands of young mares from all over the kingdom, and not one of them looks as much like the Crown Princess as you do. I mean, just look at her!" "I thought you two were crazy from the beginning, but now I think you're both mad!" Niya snapped, turning away. "Think about it!" Comet turned her back around. "You don't remember what happened to you." "No one knows what happened to her!." Lute joined in. "You're looking for family in Maris." "And her only family is in Maris!" "Have you ever thought about the possibility?" "That I could be royalty?" she earned a nod from both stallions. "Huh...well, I dunno, kinda hard to think of yourself as the heiress of an entire kingdom when you're with a bunch of scared, crying foals sleeping on a damp, cold, moldy floor...but sure. Yeah, I guess every lonely filly would hope she's a princess." "And somewhere," Lute added. "One filly is." "Anyway," Comet swung a foreleg around his friend "really wish we could help, but, like I said, the third ticket belongs to the Princess. Good luck!" and with that, they walked away. "Why did you not tell her about our plan?!" Lute whispered as they headed into the ballroom. "All she wants is to go to Maris. Why give up a third of the reward money? Trust me; I've got it all under control. Just, you know,walk a little slower. Give her some time to think." Niya stared at the painting as Evergreen buzzed over and landed on her head. She reached a hoof over to touch the aged canvas. The image depicted on said painting was a happy one. A teenage filly, whom she assumed was Celestia, smiling down at a younger, laughing foal, Luna, as they clung to each other in a hug. She couldn't deny that the younger filly did look like her. "Three...two...one..." Comet whispered. "Comet, wait!" the stallions smirked at each other as Niya rushed towards them. "Did you call me?" Comet faked innocence as they turned to face the young mare. "Who's to say I'm not a princess or an heiress or whatever she is, right?" "Go on..." "I mean, she disappeared around the same time I was found. And if I'm not, her sister will know right away, and then it's just an honest mistake!" "Hmm, sounds possible..." "And if you are the princess," Lute joined in,"You'll finally know who you are, and have your sister back!" "Hey, either way, it gets you to Maris!" The two then shook on it. "May I present, The Crown Princess Luna Galaxianov!" "Evergreen, we are goin' to Prance!" "Uh," Comet chuckled, "the Breezie stays." "What are you talking about? She's coming with us." The two started bickering, nopony noticing a small, crystallized bat watching them from a dusty chandelier. "Luna? Ha! One problem with that, buddy. Luna's dead. ALL the Galaxianov's are dead. They're dead! Dead, dead, dead!" He turned to his side, glancing briefly at the shadow bat that had appeared out of nowhere next to him. "I mean, c'mon, how that be Lu-lun...AHH!" He screamed, tumbling backwards and crashing into a dark, glowing, black lantern. "You really mean to tell me that old thing lit up again after all these years just because some guy claims she's the Galaxianov?" More angry shadows flowed from the lantern. "Okay, okay, I get it already! Enough with the glowing and shadow people!" He paused, thinking. "If that thing's come back to life that that must mean...Luna's alive!" he whirled around, staring at the figures below him, "And that's her!" "Just leave the Breezie!" Comet groaned. "I am not gonna leave the Breezie!" "Oh my gems!" the bat panicked, snatching the lantern's cord with his feet. "I-I gotta tell the boss!" Taking flight, he rushed out a broken window, speeding north.