//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Canterlot Wedding Aftermath Prt 1 // by Lugitorix //------------------------------// AU: One more chapter after this. --- A new, soft, and almost far too peaceful morning... the day of the Medal ceremony of course, a pristine, and fresh Saturday. The birds were chirping, and the winds were slow, looming, and clean. There was only a few folds of clouds in the sky... a pleasant weather pattern. Cloudsdale couldn't just ignore a special occasion, they needed to make it as pure a day as possible. The skies themselves were clear of even the usual air traffic, no carriages, and hardly any guards in the air... as most were just down in the streets, going about a more earthly approach to defense of Equestria's great capitol. At least the higher altitudes were clear... generally there were always pegasi roaming about in the air, but no more than a few feet above the rooftops, or over the streets. It was a busy afternoon as a whole, and everypony seemed to be doing as they normally would... function as an average city. With Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity busy with their daily activities, and Pinkie Pie most likely off doing her own stream of wacky, and outright mad pranks, and antics... where have our other two mares been as of late? Both Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash have seemed to put distance between the rest of the group for the day. In fact, they were off going about their time together... doing as they normally would on any other day. A turbulent, and fast jolt of a color spectrum zipped along, a foot above the actually ground, trailing the grass behind the fast, near untraceable force. It curved left, and right, avoiding a number of trees throughout the royal gardens, skimming through the ponds, pulling up some of the water. The rainbow colored tail behind the small bolt, was most definitely our 20% cooler pony... Rainbow Dash. As usual, attempting a number of dangerous stunts; flying low through the trees, looping, corkscrewing, and high diving toward the ground!... only to barely miss it, and pull up once more. She was so blazing fast, and her surroundings so tightly knit that... she couldn't really predict the cloud of butterflies that would soon block all her vision. "D'oh! AAHHH!", she struggled, and soon came to a tumbling heap, before grinding across the grass with a dusty, and dirt-covered stop, "...Ugh...", she planted her face into the earth, letting out a soft groan. "Ohh no!", came the shrill whisper of yet another Mane character... as Fluttershy bounded over with a delicate stride, "Rainbow Dash... uh-are you... alright?", she softly, and quickly... poked her friend's ear, cowering back in case she got angry or frustrated, "I'm sooo sorry... I should have told the butterflies to stay a bit lower to the ground...", she looked away, "I promise it will never, ever happen again..." "Uggghhhh...", Dash raised her head off the floor of the garden, "Wazza?...", she gave a violent shake, "Fluttershy! You reeeaaally tend to get in my way whenever I'm doing my stunts... It's kinda dangerous!", she waved her hoofs all over the place, now flying a considerable few hooves off the ground. "I do that a lot?...", she looked up, and then away with much shame, "I'm sorry... I don't mean to... H-honest..." This got a long, at first frustrated... but then a defeated groan, as Rainbow Dash leaned back, a dull expression as she gazed off into space, "It's fine. Just... try to be more careful?", RD asked that quite a bit of her, as this happened at least once a week, when she isn't being interrupted, or scathed by failing her moves on her own... it usually has something to do with Fluttershy, and her animal friends. "I promise, I'll stay even more lower to the ground than I-oop...", she hunkered innocently, "Um... usually am...", she smiled softly, closing her eyes as she did, folding her wings tightly. Dash only stood straight, and groaned, "Um... that's not really, necessary.", she cocked as brow, blinking, but then rolling her eyes, "Uh, maybe we should find something to do together?" "Oh!", it was all but loud, as the soft shelled pegasi floated up into the air, "We could guide all the little birdies to their nests... you do like to fly...", she smiled, "Or maybe help the squirrels, and cute bunnies to their burrows?", she looked down, at the underside of a tree, greeted by a smaller squirrel, who popped his head out to greet the animal whisperer. "Good afternoon, Mr. Squirrel... how's your food gathering before the fall coming?", she asked softly. Of course to Rainbow Dash, all she could understand was gibberish coming from an animal who wasn't lingual... Which only made the Pegasus float, hooves crossed... a rather bored expression across her face. "Well that's a very, very sweet thing to do for Mrs. Squirrel on your anniversary.", She nodded softly to the smaller creature, before giggling, and standing... sort of straight, looking to Rainbow Dash, "Do you wanna help me find acorns for the squirrel family? They could always use a helping hoof.", she nodded very happily, and generously. Dash turned back to her, jaw dropping, before she recoiled, "Uhhh...", she rubbed a paw on the back of her head, "I got it!", her outburst made her shy friend lean backward a little, "Why don't I we... uhhh Race! Instead?", she nodded, ANYTHING but foraging for acorns! RD began pointing to the palace no more than a few hundred meters away, an easy sprint on her terms, "From here to the palace wall!" Fluttershy's ears went down, as she was being tugged on by the squirrel beside her, "What was that Mr. Squirrel?...", she leaned down, and then frowned more... oddly. The multicolored Pegasus cocked a brow, "Um... what's he saying?" A bird soon interrupted them all, followed by more when Fluttershy looked back up to the palace wall in the distance... about six stories off the ground... where Dash had pointed. They began to tweet very symphonically... but also with some case of mild... distress. "Um... a barrier?", the shy mare asked, sitting down, and actually curling up into herself as they began to... crowd her. "Uh... Fluttershy?" "O-..Oh...", she nodded oddly to the robins, and doves, and other exotics around her, "You... You don't say...", she looked away, nervously. "Fluttershy!" "...Yes?", she looked up. "Are they having some sort of bird breakdown or something?", the sky blue Pegasus asked, gesturing to all the... still panicking birds, "Because I don't see ANYTHING wrong right now.", she looked left, and then right... and then spun around... there wasn't anything to be spooked over, "So what's wrong with em?" Fluttershy looked away, "They want you to stay away from that spot on the palace... something about um... an invisible barrier...", her ears lowered, "Maybe we should listen to them...", came her whisper, nervous as to what was hidden? Rainbow Dash hunkered, crossing her hooves, "An invisible object, huh?", she wasn't impressed... why would there be something hidden specifically attached to the palace? It wasn't sensible. "Pffft!", she waved it off, "I'm sure they've got a case of the average Bird brain!", she made her eyes go all googly, "Watch me...", she landed, hunkered... and strut her tail up in the air. "But... maybe we should listen to-", ZOOM! Dash was gone, bursting into the air. "HA! Nothing in my way ye-", BANG!...a dark hole seemed to appear... dust plumed out from the now pony-sized gape in the wall, fuming down onto the garden area... and settling softly. Everything seemed to remain the exact same... the air looked empty of anything else... just... there was a hole in some non-existent wall... just... there! It made no sense at all. "Rainbow Dash?", Fluttershy called out from down below... before THEN flying up, nervous, and cautious, "A-... Are you in there?", she peeked inside. And what a sight it was. It was cluttered in all sorts of... ancient materials. Moss, and cobweb covered tables, overturned chairs, opened cupboards, toppled pots, and pans... drinking glasses, plates, a bed... stools, books, candles, a chandelier hung to the side, and nearly fallen. It was so... deserted. IT was dark, yet still averagely warm, thanks to the overall palace itself. Though it still lacked a cozy atmosphere... it lacked that for a very long time. "Dash?", Fluttershy whimpered out, before zipping back, peeking from around the corner of the gaping hole at the sound of some rustling on the other end of the room. "Uggghh!...", Raindbow Dash soon appeared, a pan atop her head, and coated in cobwebs, "What's I hit?...", her eyes with swaying, and spacey, and she could barely stand on her own four feet. She toppled over, getting a face full of cobwebs on her way down, "BLEH!", she spat it off of her when she mustered to her hooves. "Um... wh-what is this place?", Fluttershy asked, "It... Its kind of spooky...", she hid again, even as they were now accompanied by a number of curious birds, and some insects. Dash stumbled to the side, and sneezed, "ACHOO!", blowing off a book on the near crumpled table, "Duwaghhh...", she rubbed her snout, before blinking, "Huh?...", she leaned down, reading, "Guide to Ancient Dark Magic?...", she read off the cover, cocking a brow. She stood straight, and then looked all around, taking in the dark, dimly lit scenario, "...Whooaaa...", this place was something else. "Um... maybe we-... we should go?..." "No WAY!", the dare-devil replied, zipping from one side of the room to another, "Just look at some of this stuff!", she poked some strange balancing tool, which at the mildest poke, set of a number of arrows across a pivot, telling her how much weight she put on her hoof upon touching it, "Kind of an egghead place though.", she looked at her reflections in the murky, dusty, and dirty glass vials, rowed up along one of the counters in the dark parts of the rooms, or again, touching all the odd overhanging items this place seemed to possess. Fluttershy poked her head in farther, "Is it... safe?" She got no answer, only a few more rummages, "Books... books, books, boooooks... and more books.", she tossed them off the shelf, and onto the old table, "Whoever lived here reminds me a lot about Twilight...", she said this passively, though she even opened a few to either find them... too complicated, or unreadable by the obvious age they possessed. "Well... maybe whoever lives here... um... doesn't want us going through their things...", she whispered, floating in and touching down nervously, cringing at the slightest creak the wood floor gave her. Her birds, and bugs flew in after her... but didn't go much farther passed where the rays of light ended. "What the heck is this thing?", Dashie asked herself, slipping on all the weird medallions, and necklaces she could find, tying them on... as they didn't look like normal jewelry... they looked, "Way cool!", she announced. She dusted whatever ones off she could find, "Whoever lived here knew how ta make some sweet stuff!" "Maybe you should... put it back?...", Fluttershy again peeped up... she was being ignored far too much. "Yeah yeah sure, whatevers...", RD waved her off, still fidgeting with the chains, and pendents. Frowning intricately when she found some odd-looking devices... even basic amenities like candle-holders looked... way out of whack. Perhaps a fad from a different time period? Either way, it looked so intricate, yet in a strange outlook that seemed a little interesting, even to her. But then, she pulled out a few more books to discard, and stopped, "Whoa!", she tilted her head oddly. "What? Did you find something scary?", Fluttershy suddenly jumped, cowering behind her birds. "What? No!", she laughed a bit, and then cleared her throat, looking into the shelf, "It's just... who's THIS colt?", she asked, pulling out a... picture frame. It was just as old as this room... the picture nearly faded beyond gaze, yet with one blow on the dust... it became a little more visible. And it was quite an odd sight. The picture itself wasn't odd, it was just... why would it be here? The pony in the picture was... a Unicorn, at least, he wasn't the only one in the frame. There were two other, smaller, fillies... two smiling girls, one pearly white, with a soft pink mane... the other dark blue, and darker blue mane. They looked a tad... familiar. "Ooooh...", this was when Dash was finally interrupted... by a curious Fluttershy, who landed between her and the picture, looking at it herself delicately, "Well whoever lived here, sure looked friendly...", she whispered, a soft smile on her face. "What kinda HORN is that?", Rainbow inquired, pointing her hoof over Fluttershy's shoulder, and tapping where the Unicorn's most strange attachment sat... the horn was not smooth, and symmetrical like they usually were... in fact his was very out of whack. It was long, and curved... and bladed. It was like a sword jutting off the front of his skull. "Maybe it was just a hereditary thing?...", Fluttershy added, her ears going down, "Don't be so mean... he seems nice.", she looked over the old, fading picture again, "Who do you think they are?", she pointed to the two young fillies in the picture. Both little girls were clung to their Unicorn friend, holding tight, and smiling widely, and rather adorably to whoever took the photo?... or perhaps it was a small painting?... a colored Etching? "Beats me, probably just some random batch of fillies.", RD shrugged it off, "Come on Fluttershy, I'm preeetty sure there's a lot cooler stuff in here than some mystery picture." The innocent Pegasus looked up from the frame, frowning oddly, "They both have wings... uh... and horns?...", she had been gazing for a while. "Who cares? Come on!", Dash began to rummage through a pile of scrolls, "Maybe some cool pictures of rabid beasts... or maybe a map to some AWESOME place to train!", she squeezed her face together, wub-wub-woo... before leaning down back into the barrel, pulling out many batches of things, and putting them aside... not that she found this place in general... "Awesome"... it was the things she found inside of it that seemed to catch her eye. "Rainbow Dash... um-... maybe we-", she ducked under a flying book, "Should... go? It's probably a bad idea to take of any these things..." "Well if anypony WANTED the stuff in here... then why is it like... this?", she gestured all around, before halting, eyes becoming small, and dilated. She heard hoofsteps! Clip-clop... they got closer, and closer... followed by seemingly another set of hooves. Fluttershy eeped, and suddenly scrambled away, hiding under the cobweb ridden bed. While Rainbow Dash gave her all to find a dark spot up in the corners beside the ceiling, before suddenly hiding in the cupboard. Closing it behind her with a light thud. Both could see the door just fine... Fluttershy from under the bed... and Rainbow Dash from one of the holes in the wood of her cupboard door. The mumbling grew louder, as hooves on marble floor got closer, and closer. The voices became less distorted... and more feminine. The door... the door that most likely led to the palace of Canterlot itself... actually began to glow! A soft sunlight color turned the knob, before a short, magical shove was given... unsettling the dust, and cobwebs... then being shoved open slowly. "Wow... It has been... well, quite the while since we've been here, sister...", came a younger voice. "Quite...", they both sounded a little sad, yet also a little curious. Two forms entered the room, and all would be awed by the power, and grace that the two carried. As it was no pair of maids, not even a few groundskeepers. "Do you really believe he would have something that could help us?" The first was none other than the Princess Luna, who was first to enter the room, followed by her elder sister, and ruler of all Equestria... Princess Celestia. "I'm not sure, Luna... But the libraries can't tell us much else... it would be one of these books..." "But... should we even be back here?", the younger Alicorn asked, a hoof raised, pointing back to the open door, before she herself closed it... they didn't want to raise too much suspicion. "It is all we have left... There are too many details to sift through...", Celestia turned aside, to gaze upon the bookshelf, before she stopped... the dust... and the cobwebs seemed... moved, and smudged, "Luna?" "What is wrong?", she herself was eying a few of the barrels, "...Sister... has someone been here?-... Celestia?", she was gazing to the far wall, opposite the door. "...Is someone here?", Celestia had spent a good minute glaring at the breach in the old wall, "Speak now!" Surprisingly, even Fluttershy did not budge, she kept tucked against the wall, despite all the cobwebs, and lack of sunlight. She was more frightened of the Princesses, than what this room had to offer at the moment. Rainbow Dash backed more against the wall inside the cupboard... she had to keep quite, with a soft swallow, she peaked through the hole again. "... It's best we not concern ourselves.", Luna decided, turning around, "Do you have the book?" "I... cannot find it.", Celestia was sifting through the obviously moved scrolls, and old novels, "If someones touched them... It's made it difficult to find..." "Whoops..." The sun goddess sifted through the piles of re-stacked books... but oddly, she began to put them back on the shelf where they belonged... in the same order they belonged, had Rainbow Dash bothered to remember what they looked like... Celestia seemed to know by heart. "If we can find the book... we can learn something about who's created the gem.", she confirmed, opening small, short journals... to skimming along the first three pages of full blown ancient novels. Even Luna had gotten to work, "Wouldn't it be a ritual spell?", she asked, raising her head out of an old barrel... setting out three scrolls at a time. She reached down, and set on a pair of slim reading glasses... having found them off to the side, and deciding... well... she decided something, as before she put them on she gazed for quite a long time at their dustiness. "Perhaps...", Celestia responded, setting onto the shelf... another set of books. "Ritual spell?...", Fluttershy whispered to herself. "Ohhh!", Luna complained after a short while... although packed with much laborious searching, "If only he was here... he'd know what we're looking for!" "Shhh... It has been too long... if not long enough, Luna.", she looked back, "I'm afraid there is nothing we can do now.", at first she sounded very royal, proper, and outright emotionless... before she lowered her head quickly, "I understand..." "Who?", Dash mumbled. Luna looked up from her reading, "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have brought it up, sister." However, the sun goddess smiled kindly, "Luna... even now we sit in his room, how can we not?"... she then frowned, "I miss him just as much as you do.", she set another book on the shelf. This went on for some time, as both rulers of Equestria kept fishing about through the ancient texts, and pages... it seemed like they were there at least a full hour. "I think I've found it!", Luna announced excitedly, pulling a scroll completely open, "If we place one of the gem fragments in the middle of this symbol.", she pointed, "And combine three forces of magic, it will lead us to whoever's created the gem!" Celestia stood tall at this, smiling, "A good find Luna.", her wings spread, and fluttered a bit, before refolding, "I'm sure he wouldn't mind if we took it off his hooves for a little while...", she chuckled softly. "I pray not.",the Nighttime Alicorn wrapped up the scroll again, and clipped it to her side, "Shall we be off?" "Lets...", it did not take them long to leave, however that did not mean it wasn't bitter to say goodbye... whoever used to live here... knew them very well... and apparently... they knew that pony well in return. Enough to consider invading a privacy that no longer exists. However, after a good thirty seconds of silence, both Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash stumbled, and fell out of their hiding spots. Both breathing, and panting. "What the heck was that about?", Dash got to her hooves, before waving them all over the place, starting to float off the ground. "I told you we shouldn't have broken in here...", Fluttershy whispered in return, hiding her face in her hooves, "If the Princesses found us... we would have been in so much trouble...", her ears went down. "Seems to me like they kinda knew we were here the whole time...", Dash's mane came down over her right eye, frowning with a very dull expression, as if contemplating something important, "Do you think they were talking about that colt in the picture?" "I-... I don't know... m-maybe...", Fluttershy spoke quietly, her eyes looking back at the door, then around the room, "Maybe we should be going...", she began to stand up, scurrying over to the exit Rainbow Dash had so kindly created. She obviously wanted to be out of both the room, and possibly out of any more trouble she may or may not be in. "Huh?-oh... yeah... uh sure.", the sky blue Pegasus nodded quickly, following, "Twilight used to practically live here... maybe she'll know something!", she began to hurry Fluttershy forward, before they both leave through the breach, "Come on Fluttershy! Looks like we've got a Mystery on our hands!" "Ohh... why does it have to be about a scary dark room... why can't it be about a missing bunny? Or a birdie's nest disappearing...", the nervous mare followed along after her... "Wait for me!", she cried out when she fully realized she was alone... next to the dark hole into... that place. And it was only a few hours until the main event... Transition~ The eyes, both glowing, and cruel watched over the candle flame... unable to know of what he was watching, whether it be the hour of the sun's pass overhead, or the possible future that was to come. The candlelight could only tell one so much... One thing was for sure... the time was nearly at hand... "Tonight...", they announced, "It will ALL end...", and the light flickered to a dim orange ash... the smoke rising, and everything turned dark. --- AU: "They" only refers to the pair of eyes, it is NOT more than one pony.