Awakening

by punisher143

Prologue

“A life is a fragile thing. All it takes is one unexpected event to send it spiraling out of control.”

-Unknown

Canterlot shone brightly in the night, the many lights making it look like a jewel. The spires that rose to form the skyline showed the grace and elegance that the artisans had put into the city. Most ponies that saw this spectacle were more often than not wowed by the sight. But tonight, there were two that weren’t.

On a nearby cloud stood a Pegasus in an old and worn cloak, on her back was a unicorn wearing a similar cloak. The Pegasus didn’t seem all that bothered by the load as the two looked on at the city. After a moment, the Pegasus spoke.

“You sure about this?” she asked, knowing what the answer would be.

The unicorn shook her head. “Yes, I’m sure. We just have to be quick about it.”

The Pegasus smiled and slouched down, readying herself for flight. “Alright, hang on tight,” she said and then kicked off the cloud, causing it to disintegrate and giving her the speed boost she needed.

She loved flying, the rush of the wind, the sight of the land rushing around her, and of course the sound of her companion shrieking with a mix of joy and terror at the experience. It wasn’t long before the pair was in Canterlot proper. The Pegasus decided to have a bit of fun and dove into the streets. She had become adept at flying in tight spaces like this over the years and had learned a few tricks to help navigate here. Things like bounding off of buildings to help with corners, along with running alongside them in order to avoid obstacles. As she sped through the city, she barely noticed the looks on the odd ponies’ faces as she sped by.

She also thought she heard a window or two shatter.

When she was far enough in, she ended her run at the bottom of a tall spire, where she pulled a near 90 degree turn up, mimed running up the building, and when she reached the top did a back flip and landed on the very top.

“Ha, perfect landing!” She said, not bothering to hide the pride in her voice. She felt her companion shivering on her back, forelegs wrapped around her neck and hind legs around her mid-section.

“Yeah great, are you done showing off now?” the unicorn asked indignantly.

The Pegasus laughed. “Oh, you know you love this. You’re probably blushing right now.”

The unicorn turned her head away, even though her friend couldn’t see her. She was blushing a little, and the shaking was more from the adrenaline than from fear. She shook her head to clear these thoughts away.

“We have something important to do, remember?”

The Pegasus sighed. “Yeah, I know. I just needed to bleed some stress,” she said and looked toward their destination. “Which balcony was it again?”

It took the unicorn a minute of looking before pointing a hoof.

“I think it’s that one,” she said and quickly held on when her companion shot off toward it. She didn’t go nearly as fast as she had before and slowed to a hover when she got close to the balcony. The unicorn nodded in confirmation and the Pegasus landed and let the unicorn off, who was still shaking from the ride earlier. The Pegasus sat down near the railing while the unicorn checked for anypony inside and, when she found nothing, opened the door and entered.

As had been expected, the room spared nothing in regard to class. Of course, she expected nothing less from Princess Celestia’s bedroom. The room was lit only by a large fireplace that cast large shadows across the room. The princess herself was nowhere to be seen. The unicorn sighed in relief; this was going to be hard enough without running into Celestia herself. After a quick scan of the room, she found the desk that Celestia uses for paperwork and the like. She started toward the desk and got halfway across the room when she heard somepony clear their throat behind her. She turned around and found Celestia standing behind her.

“Oh yeah, Princess Celestia is behind you,” the Pegasus said from the balcony.

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her friends comment and instead bowed to the princess, hoping she wouldn’t attack or call the guards. Celestia stared at her for a moment, turned to look at the Pegasus who flinched back, then back at the pony in front of her.

“Would you two mind explaining what you’re doing here?” Celestia said. Both her voice and eyes didn’t speak anger, just disappointment. The unicorn gulped and stood up.

“Well,” she started, trying to find the right words, “I guess we’re here to talk to you.” She lowered the hood of her cloak. Celestia was surprised when she saw her face. “It has been a while since we’ve last seen each other, hasn’t it?”

“Twilight?” Celestia leaned closer and found it indeed was Twilight, although she looked more disheveled than the last time she saw her. Her mane was frayed from lack of care and she seemed to be a bit skinnier. “What happened to you?”

Twilight looked away from her teacher’s gaze. “It’s a long story,” she said and looked back at Celestia. “Although, I’ll try to answer any questions you have, Your Majesty.”

“In that case, do you mind if I go stretch my wings for a bit?”

Twilight nodded at the Pegasus. “Sure Dash, just be back soon ok?”

The Pegasus, now revealed to be Rainbow Dash, gave a salute and flew off, leaving teacher and student alone.

“Well, I’m glad to know that you and Rainbow Dash are safe,” Celestia said and motioned for Twilight to sit on a nearby cushion.

Twilight did so and sighed. “Yeah, I heard those rumors too.” Celestia sat down on a cushion across from Twilight and waited for her to continue. Her teacher’s calm demeanor was making Twilight a little nervous. “Of course, I suppose that happens when somepony disappears for almost 5 years, huh?” Twilight’s attempt at a joke fell flat and an uncomfortable silence fell between them. Celestia broke the silence after a minute.

“Twilight, what have you been doing for the past few years?” The question was innocent enough, but the underlying question was apparent. Twilight gathered her thoughts for a minute before responding.

“We, me and Dash, got into some trouble a while back. It’s only recently that we think we found a way out of it.”

Celestia let that sink in before replying. “If you were in trouble, why didn’t you come to me? You know I would do everything to help you.”

Twilight’s eyes glanced down, on the verge of tears. “I was scared.”

“Scared?”

Some tears escaped. “We found something in the Everfree forest. It started chasing us and never stopped. I’m afraid of staying in one place for too long.” Twilight barely managed to choke the sentence out between sobs.

Celestia rose and moved over to Twilight and covered her with a wing. The two stayed like that for a few minutes while the purple unicorn cried her eyes out. Soon, the sobs and tears stopped and Celestia nuzzled her student.

“Twilight, what exactly has been chasing you?” Celestia asked.

Twilight sniffed and tried to find the right words to explain the situation.

---

Rainbow Dash found herself doing what she loved best: flying for the sake of it. Although she couldn’t fly as often as she used to, she still enjoyed flying as much as she always had. At the moment, she was high above the spires of the city, practicing some tricks that she had wanted to do for a while. Time didn’t mean anything to Dash as she reveled in the sky. This was brought to a halt when an unfortunately familiar sound in the distance. It sounded like a sickening mix between a fog horn and some kind of animalistic roar.

“Oh horse apples, it’s here already?!” Dash whispered to herself and whipped around and sped to the castle as fast as she could. This led to the familiar situation of her coming in too fast for a smooth landing. Since Dash had been in this very situation countless times before, she did what she always did.

“Incoming!”

---

“And none of your spells work?” Celestia asked Twilight, who had calmed down.

“No, although I only know low level attack spells,” Twilight answered. She was about to explain further when she heard Rainbow’s familiar ‘incoming’ and sighed. Her horn lit up and cast a simple spell, causing a sheet of purple light to form around the door outside. Rainbow Dash crashed into the light, which cushioned her like a net, and then she fell into a light tumble when the light dissipated. Twilight stood up and walked over to Rainbow, who stood dizzily. “Seriously Dash, how many times are we going to do this?” she asked.

Rainbow shook the last bit of dizziness from her head. “No time for that, its here!”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “What, already? It’s only been an hour!” she said.

Dash turned her head back to the window. “That thing has been getting faster every day. Are you done?”

“I was busy catching up,” Twilight said weakly. She half expected Rainbow to say something, but was glad when all she did was offered a comforting hoof. Dash nodded understandingly and moved to the window. Twilight turned back to a worried Celestia.

“Your pursuer is in Canterlot?” She asked.

Twilight nodded. “Yes, which means we have to go,” she said looking down sadly.

Celestia moved closer to Twilight. “Why don’t you stay here? I’m sure I can protect you.”

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t want to take that chance that you can’t.” Twilight used her magic to open her saddlebag and took out an old book. She floated it over to Celestia. “I want you to have this.”

Celestia took it in her own magic. “What is it?”

“It’s a journal I’ve been keeping all these years. I’ve only told you the basics of what’s going on, everything is explained in there.” Twilight closed the saddlebag and pulled her hood back up. “Please read it through,” Twilight turned around and started for Rainbow Dash, but stopped after a few steps. “I’m sorry,” she said and then galloped the rest of the way, leapt onto Dash’s back, and barely had enough time to wrap her legs around her friend before she took off. Celestia made sure to drop the journal on a cushion before racing to the window, where all she managed to catch of her student was a quickly receding blur.

When she couldn’t see the two anymore, Celestia went back inside, shut the balcony doors, and walked to the journal. She settled into a cushion and levitated the journal over to her. Celestia noticed a scroll tucked into the pages, so she took it out, undid the seal, and read it.

---

Dear Princess Celestia,

First off, I’m sorry I haven’t written to you in ages. As I write this, I’m not even sure I’ll see you when we go to Canterlot. If I don’t see you there, I want to say how honored and happy I was to be your student.

As I may or may not have told you, this journal contains all the important events that happened to me and Rainbow in the past 10 years. It’s been hard for me and Dash and all the great friends I have made.

I could go on about the past, but right now I have to focus on the present. For good or bad, this will end soon. Looking back, I don’t have any regrets and Rainbow says the same.

Hopefully, It won’t take you long to go through this. If there is anypony I can count on for help, it’s you.

I’d better finish this now; it’s almost time to go. I hope this ends well.

You’re Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

---

Celestia read the scroll a couple of times before setting it aside and flipping the journal to the first page. Celestia started reading, hoping to find a way to help her student.

Author's Note:

Looking back on this chapter, I still find that it holds up. There are hiccups concerning later events in the story, but it's not enough for me to want to really fix them.

Comments

AWESOME SET-UP!

[Cunt_Crusader]

reading stories with massive time gaps like this kinda makes me sad and full of nostalgia..

[MLP BRONY 27]

[Lonewolf554]

15680 AGREED

[Rarostar95]

I really hate how I don't read, but from the comments I've read this sounds like an awesome fanfic. I've only ever finished one book in my life (and that was of mice and men for school) but I promise I'll make it two.

[eunectes]

I am surprised I really want to know what happens well here we go

[Phobiac01]

Boop :P

[Commander Darklight]

HEY THE SCROLL SAYS TEN YEARS AND IM RE READING THIS AFTER YOU CHANGED IT TO 5 GOTA FIX THAT

[Elementalwriter]

Sirenhead?

[DS1065]

4927952
Well it could have something to do with time dilation.
Which the time you spent doing one thing is not equal to the time another person spent doing the other but both still start at the same time and end at the same time