Alicorn Origins: Legends of Disharmony

by lunabrony

00 - Prologue

The soft click of metal on the floor echoed down the hallway. The metal came from custom fit silver hoofguards which so frequently decorated the legs of Princess Luna. The world had changed in her absence. The castle had undergone many changes in style, only some of the towers reflecting the appearance she had remembered in her own time. Ponies around dressed queerly and talked in strange inflections. Things had loosened and gotten far more informal. Yes the ponies kneeled, and rightly so, but they also didn't quiver too much in fear before asking questions. She wandered down a long stretch of hallway, an empty corridor filled with stained glass windows featuring ponies who seemed to be laughing at her. Their eyes followed her every move, and the princess of the night broke into a run. She was filled with an unnatural sort of fear, worsened by harsh, victorious laughter that she could not escape. She turned her head as she ran down the infinite hallway to see Nightmare Moon closing in, eyes glowing and fangs glistening.

"You can't escape me that easily, Luna!" The apparition taunted.

Luna screamed and woke, realizing the ponderings she'd had the night before about the world that had entered her daily sleeptime. Light had woken her, the light from a sundown, she saw the silhouette of a small unicorn against the sun, moving from each of the towering windows in her bedroom and opening them quietly. Luna's hair was a mess, and she had rolled onto her left wing, the feathers out of alignment and practically aching for preening. The young servant was new. The servants since her return had been serviceable enough, no one stood out. He approached a small table set out next to the silken dark blue bed. Silver tray. He was surprisingly young, barely a colt at that, and surprisingly at ease in her presence. No eye contact, he conducted himself with grace. His horn glowed quietly and the lid of the tray lifted up. A nostalgic scent lifted off the plate, something that triggered memories so old that they slipped between her mental hooves before she could catch them. It was something that looked like a rough flat bread, and a goblet filled with something of a very fruity scent.

It was slightly odd, seeing such a young colt in her room. Each level of the castle had different levels of security. Her bedroom, for instance, was off limits to everypony except Celestia, and Twilight on rare occasions. The closer to the Main Courtyard they went, the more public the area became. Many of the front rooms were often occupied by a Tour Guide taking small groups of tourist ponies on an exposition filled tour of the castle, groups of whom just itched and prayed for a glimpse of royalty. As it was, she smiled at the servant, and excused herself to be made up properly. She wanted to look presentable, even for something as regular as raising the moon. One never knew when one might suddenly encounter a high ranking offical or a delegate, or even just randomly photographed.

The colt genuflected in a strangely familiar way, as she passed the breakfast that seemed to spark memories she couldn't quite place. Since Celestia had shown her those two old maps, she'd been in such a nostalgic mood. Adjoining her bedroom was a room with great mirrors, and a ream of dresses fitting many possible future occasions, they were replaced as they were used. One time wear. The usual team was gone, but she found that the colt appeared... or rather was already there when she arrived. Now she knew why he'd stood out. The way he stood, acted, it was completely familiar to the way servants had acted in her own time. Quiet, silent, quick to fulfill commands she hadn't even indicated she was about to give. Servants who were in tune with her, and simply knew what needed to be done. Different brushes lifted off the table, two were for her mane, two for her coat and four others each suited for a specific task were dedicated to straightening out and smoothing the feathers of her wings. All silently hung in the air around the unicorn. A little smile played on his lips for a brief second and the smile was immediately banished, he was obviously not perfectly into this role. Not a servant from her own time then, someone from this time who'd found out how her servants had once acted. An attempt to please her, no less. And it was working.

She couldn't help slightly teasing him, and cast a smile of her own towards him. "Thou hast not to always look as if thine mother has just passed on, a smile goes farther than you might think." She said to him. She went quickly into her daily grooming and preening, an act which she had done to a science and didn't take long at all. "Is our sister finished in her Chambers yet?"

He smiled silently, looking more than just pleased at her joke, it was the smile of someone enjoying great success. Interestingly he kept up the appearance of the servant, not faltering. And he seemed as good as herself at preening her feathers. A small flat piece of wood, elegantly lifted the tangled feathers out of each other one by one, and the other brushes gently stroked the hairs of the feathers into alignment. The itching along the wing arms decreased.

"Her royal highness, thine sister." He began. Correctly pronounced, almost the right accent too. "Hath returned from sending the sun down. She awaits your royal highness in the antechamber of the study."

Luna nodded. "Thank you, dear. Go and get some rest. Just because I must stay up through the night does not mean you have to as well." She made her way towards the antechamber, taking special care to take a shortcut which she knew would take her right past one of the last tours of the day, and bring joy to the hearts of all those contained in that little group. Particularly the children, who's smiles were as endearing as those of her own sister. She couldn't see every tour of course, but made special notice to 'accidentally' pass by one or two whenever she could.

A small rainbow of tourists with oversized cameras, almost tumbled over each other. Four little fillies squealed silently, their parents having a near impossible time of controlling them as the children tried to climb on anything they could to get a better look. A few flashes occurred. The tour guide was used it happening on occasion, and had as usual and wisely not told this tour group that around this time you had a good likelihood of spotting her. Most tourists tended to think it was during the twilight. Just like that she was gone, and the tour moved on without her. Luna entered the antechamber, on alert as she always was when she left her room. It was a small chamber separating a landing platform with the study. And like other events of today, it seemed designed to tickle her with nostalgic impressions. This room more than the others remained decorated in Golden Unicorn style, which the castle had been built in. She found Celestia, trotting in from the landing platform.

"Good evening, Luna." Celestia smirked. Of course, the elder sibling was the source of this mornings arranged amusements.

Luna burst into a delighted smile, and in a moment of high energy tomfoolery, rushed to meet her and nuzzle necks. She didn't get to see her all that often, so whenever she did it was a special time. "I woke occasionally to delight in your day for a few moments, it was beautiful as always." She said proudly.

Celestia returned the joy, resting her chin on Luna's neck for a moment. Her rainbow mane flowed around Luna's eyes, and their wings touched. Celestia went over to a large red pillow and lay down on her on her belly. "I think we have till you lift the moon, then I'll answer a certain sister's many questions before retiring." She made no mention of the young unicorn servant. A paper flashed into existence from out of nowhere and a quill. "Do you feel like diving into the past tonight Luna? I wouldn't try to write down this story without you, I only know my part after all." She closed her eyes in concentration "Its lifetimes ago, I think I know where to start, but I don't know how it ended. How we defeated Discord." Ponies sang songs about it, theaters reenacted parts of it. A story that had long been told and retold in art so many times, and without attention to accuracy, that the story currently shown was likely far from true. "We weren't born of the stars after all." She sighed. Contrary to what a popular play had said, they had not been born as alicorns.

Luna sighed with annoyance. It was not necessarily annoyance at her sister, but at having to recall events she had purposely pushed out of her mind. Tales of sadness and hardships that she didn't want to think about ever again. At the same time, however, she disliked when plays and songwriters made up their own facts, facts which then became accepted as truth by ponies too naive to ask questions or do research. A problem, thankfully, that they had never had with Twilight Sparkle. There had been a time long ago when they had both been as normal and mortal as any other pony.

"I will always help you, Celly. You know that." She said kindly, using the more intimate nickname for her sister that was reserved for her use and her use only.

Celestia smiled in gratitude. "I know it's hard, but it's time our story was told."

"I thought we had agreed not to talk about this. While we are indebted to Twilight for everything she has done, we also were the ones who asked her to reform Discord. Does it not seem hypocritical then that we give him a second chance when we are going to bring up the evils that is responsible for? You know what he did," Luna said, anger seeping into her voice.

"Yes, but anger blackens the heart, Luna. I have forgiven him. We cannot change what he did, but we can ensure it never happens again. Besides, this tome will not be available for just anypony to see."

Luna was not as easily convinced, and turned her head to look outside, trying to hide the irritation on her face.

"Let us begin." The quill which hovered near the elder sisters horn was dipped in ink, and Celestia began to write.

Comments

[ThyCelestia]

This looks good, Favorited.

[Depechemare]

Nice chapter title.