Just a day in Equestria

by dave89898989

32 - Where love was lost, Part 3

I walked down the set of spiral stairs leading down under the castle. Opare was there waiting for me, surrounded by stone tablets, varying sizes of pages stuck across the walls, and many drawings and diagrams.

“I’d call this the treasure house of olde study,” the Princess heartily spoke.

“This is a very interesting place...what do you think this whole room holds?” I asked.

“As you can see, the written and drawn pieces show the astronomy and astrology that the princes and princesses had worked on before us. Here, take a look at this, it’s the scroll that I’m currently looking at,” Opare beckoned me over to her side.

“What is this about?”

“This particular scroll notes down all the types of meteor recorded, and their relations with Equestria. Some meteor showers had led to adverse effects in the past, by changing the shape of the land, and contaminating plants and such. The most notified meteor that travels around the world, causes lightning to strike trees; apple trees. The leaves would turn grey, and multicolour apples would form over time. Isn’t that fascinating?”

“Wait, do you mean zap apple trees?”

Opare looked at me with a tilted head. “Zap...apple?”

I had to avoid slipping up at this point. “Yeah, that’s what I called them anyway. The bolts just kind of...zap the trees, changing their appearance.”

“Would you mind if I can get that name down?”

“Sure, be my...guest.”

The dark orange coated alicorn scribbled down the name onto the scroll with a magically floating quill.
“Oh, you must look at this too. I just can’t seem to figure out what it means...”

I was directed to one of the stone tablets, with extremely complicated engravings decorating the beige material. A mass of strange lettering was scrawled down one side of this large rectangular piece of stone. On the other side however, were some illustrations.

I began to describe what I could make out. “At the top, here, are a range of different planets and moons, lined up. Then there is a creepily grinning sun, and a sad-looking moon just below it. A flying disc object seems to be moving around a separate planet. A pony wearing a royal helmet is shown, being overrun by an army of sinister enemy ponies. I suppose it would be telling some sort of prophetical story, about a pony against all these other creatures.”

“You may be right there. Well done, Blue! How did you manage to figure it out?” Opare looked ahead in wonder at the tablet.

“I just pieced the drawings together. I’m not that smart though, so you don’t have to flatter me. You’re the only intelligent one in this room, really.” I nudged the piece of stone in awkwardness.

“I’m sure you have a large amount of intelligence, just as anypony would. It just takes focus to unlock your mind to use it fully. There is a way to do it practically, if you’d want me to show you,” my ancestor offered.

“Um...alright then, but I’m getting pretty tired right now.”

“That’s quite okay, I have it here on a piece of parchment, recovered also from this room. I’ve looked over it enough times to understand it, so maybe you could try yourself sometime.”

“Of course, thank you Princess Opare. I’ll put it to good use, if it can help clear up my lack of memories.” Even though Rose had made me forget all of the bad human memories, I wanted them back. I started to think out that she was planning against me, as deities that defect from their place in ruling are known to lose the moral way. I also wanted to recover all the memories I had as a pony, not just having the ones with Destiny present.

I left Opare for the night, and returned to my room for rest. For about two or three weeks, I stayed with the royal residents. I watched the Princesses train their students every night and day, I helped them all support and build their relationships with each other, and I ran errands outside of the castle, mostly establishing developments with the town of Ponyville. Sometimes when I had nothing better to do, I visited the Canterlot tavern to get my fill of mead; usually unacceptable amounts of the liquid was consumed by me. What a drunken mess I was at points, coming back to the castle and getting disappointed talks from my peers.

One day, I overhead the shouting of disagreements coming from behind closed doors, opposite the throne room.

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s too early to let them be in charge already!”

“Don’t you remember that we can’t rule forever? We’re falling apart because of our conflicting views, and they can do much better than us.”

“Luna is just a foal! And so is Celestia, pretty much!”
“They get on better though, and we’ve taught them as much as we know.”

“It doesn’t matter! Even if they do work together well, they don’t have the experience to protect Equestria!”

“I know you’re the boring one and all, but I honestly hate ruling over ponies! I just wanna get out there already!”

“Are you abandoning your responsibilities?”

“I...I guess I am, yeah! You can take care of this on your own, seeing as you’re the ‘older, wiser’ one!”

“How dare you be so insolent!”

At that moment, a loud crash sounded, and Princess Aora came running out of the room, carrying a panicked expression. “They have to take over sooner or later!”

A dark purple light came from the room, emitted from Opare’s horn. “Well, what if this happens, hey? How are they going to manage to keep on protecting themselves and their land?”

“What will happen?”

“Go to the courtyard, you’ll see.”

Aora rushed outside the halls, and Opare followed, as well as I. A huge, glowing sphere appeared in the sky, hovering over the small hamlet of Ponyville in the distance.

“Don’t you even dare!” Aora yelled in refusal.

“Why should you care? You hate ruling, don’t you?” Opare looked at the appalled alicorn, emotionless.

Aora charged at her sister, knocking the dark blue-haired mare to the ground with an awful sound. Her attempts to stop the magic failed though, as the ominous sphere descended on the village. Its colour changed from purple to bright red in an instant, and then disappeared. The product of the spell left a crater of wasteland, and Ponyville was gone.

“How could you?!” I screamed, letting the duo know of my presence.

“I was demonstrating to my incompetent sister the gravity of our situation, simply put,” Opare replied calmly.

“You just-just got rid of a whole area, ponies and all!” Aora scolded her.

“Are you going to stay with me, and keep ruling, or not?”

“Why should I? You’re just a tyrant, Opare! A tyrant!”

I had to help now, as this was an extremely dire situation. “Both of you, just stop! Aora, hold on. Opare, can you bring back Ponyville?”

The dusk Princess pushed Aora off of her, and stood upright. “Unfortunately not.” In a way, her face seemed to change slightly, for a split-second. “I...I have done what is needed, so why would I need to get back what was necessary to remove?”

“What are you saying? We were helping Ponyville to become an actual town!” I snapped at her.

“It was high time to erase that waste of resources anyway. Do you think we’re able to handle any more ponies like this? I think I should take control on my own, since Aora cannot qualify.” Opare’s tone also changed to be a sinister one.

“Sister! Stop slandering me! What’s gotten into you?” The Princess of the dawn looked dejected.

“I obtained a newly-found power in the archives this morning. The ancients had a fondness for dark magic...you know.” The dark orange coated Princess took slow steps towards Aora, lighting up her horn again.

“Wait! Please! I’m your only sister! You can’t do this to me!” She moved backwards, attempting to get away from the somehow possessed Opare.

“You already know of your fate? Clever. But I don’t care what’s going to happen to you now, just as long as you...die.”

I watched in horror as this event unfolded. Aora looked at me in need of help. Opare stared at Aora, waiting to bring her destiny to her. I heard a wooden door open from behind me, and stood there was Celestia and Luna. They suddenly understood what was happening, and hid behind the door in fear. Opare crept ever closer to her former co-ruler. I just had to do something before it was too late...

“T-traductos meteoron!” I shouted, and my magic spell was cast. My abused sorcery brought up a meteor, which hurtled from space and hit Opare, making her fly out of the castle grounds at great speed.
“It is done.”

“What did you do?!” Aora berated me.

“I saved you from your demise, what else?” I replied in the same way.

She remained silent, and still.

“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t just stand there and watch you lose your life!”

In the distance, Opare was galloping away from the castle, and the rest of Equestria. Where was she going?

Aora collapsed, and I rushed to her. She smacked me away.

“Listen, we’re going to get her back, don’t worry about it. She must have uncovered something evil in those archives, so I guess we should seal up that place.”

“I...can’t believe what you’ve done,” Aora said in defiance.

It was time to play with the machine. “Aora, I have to admit something to you. You probably won’t understand this at first, and this isn’t the best time to say it.”

I waited for Aora’s reply, but no answer.
“I...I am from the future. I am also Opare’s latest descendant,” I whispered into her ear. “This happened for a reason, and I’m here to resolve this mess.”

“W-what did you say?”

“I’m from the future.”

“That must be why you looked so familiar...”

Celestia and Luna came out of hiding to comfort the grieving Princess.

“What’s going to happen now?” Celestia asked.

“I will have to rule over Equestria on my own, for now,” Aora stood up. “Blue, please come with me. You two, go and rest, you have a long day ahead of you later on.”

We parted ways, and I went with the Princess. She walked towards the throne room, then sat and slouched in the tall, golden seat.
“I take back what I said about reigning over the land. I and Opare’s disagreements about our power got out of hoof, and so it came to this. She never used to be that aggressive with me, as we only argued a couple of times before...”

I waited for her next couple of sentences.

“And now I’ve got to take care of this all by myself, something I’ve never done before.” Aora sighed in complete discontent.

“It’s funny, really.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s like this,” I started, trying to change the subject a little. “You’ve lost Opare, your sister and your best friend, right?”

“Right...”

“Well I’ve lost my sister and my best friend too. Her name is Destiny Bond, and she’s your descendant.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re more important than I first thought...”

“I’m not important, at all. I’m a nopony, really. And on that thought, I’ll leave you be. I must retire because it’s getting late.” I trotted out of the throne room, and directed myself to Celestia and Luna’s room.

They were both on the same bed, excitedly and nervously chatting to each other.

“If I can have your attention for a moment, please,” I called out quietly, and they both turned to face me in silence.
“Okay, right...this is mostly for Celestia, but Luna, you may be needed in this too. You’re going to have to help me and Princess Aora with the job of maintaining balance in Equestria. So you’re going to be semi-assuming power soon enough, until Aora leaves the throne to both of you in full. I probably won’t be here for much longer, as I’m needed in a far off land, so you’re going to have to help the Princess as much as you can, while you can.”

“It’s lucky that I’ve been studying about becoming royalty, then!” Celestia cried happily.

“Yes, that is lucky. Celestia, I know you’re going to do good on the throne, I can see it. Luna, When you are older, you’re going to have to support Celestia even more. As Celestia will be reigning during the day, you will be during the night. And just remember, ponies won’t celebrate the time of the moon as much, because they all need their rest, as everypony does. Don’t give in to jealousy, and stay as close as you can to your sister. Good night, and good luck.” I then exited the room without another word, leaving the two to discuss everything that was going to be carried by them.

I went to my room, and sat on my bed. I noticed a bottle of strong brandy on an end table, and decided to gulp it down. I then proceeded to pass out.

I woke up feeling worse for wear. What’s suddenly given me this habit to drink so much nowadays? I didn’t see enough of Opare, and I don’t have an idea of where she went. Maybe I should check the treasury room for evidence, as she definitely changed after coming out of that place. I got up from my bed, walked out of the room while holding my head in pain, and made my way to the archives. Right in the centre of the room was an open scroll, singed at the corners and off-purple in colour. I immediately turned it over so I couldn’t read it. This place had much more of an eerie atmosphere to it now, so I didn’t want to stay long. I had a thought, and then lifted the overturned scroll on to a wall-mounted torch, which burned it away to ash. I didn’t want anypony else to read that piece of dark magic literature.

“Is anypony down there?” A voice called out.

“I am,” I replied.

“I’ve been told to seal this place up, so you better come out of there quickly.” I complied with the voice and exited the room.

A normal enough looking royal guard nodded his head at me as I passed by. The armour was a lot different, like scale mail mixed in with a partially ripped cloak, and a strange looking knight’s helmet which you could hardly make out the face from.
I went to check up on the now-lone Princess, to see if anything important was needed for me to do today.

“Oh, good afternoon, Blue.” Aora was slouched on the throne.

“Good afternoon, Princess. Am I required for anything at the moment?” I asked.

“Let me think...How about you go to get Opare for me?”

I looked at Aora, perplexed. “What!? I can’t do that! You know how dangerous she is, right?”

“Hmm...you have a point. You aren’t somepony who is expendable, after all,” she doubled back, somehow slouching even further.
“Maybe you can gather some information on her whereabouts. Is it alright if Celestia goes with you? She hasn’t been outside of the castle walls in a long time.”

“That’s a better idea. Celestia can accompany me too, of course she can.” I gave Aora an encouraging smile, and headed to fetch the sun goddess in-training.

I knocked on the door. “Hey, Celestia? Would you mind coming with me into town?”

Already she was walking out of her chambers. “Sure, that should be fun.” For some reason, she sounded sarcastic with that.

We explored Canterlot in efforts to find any details on where Opare had gone to, or what she was doing. But, she did make a quick escape yesterday, so nopony caught sight of her. After canvassing the whole of the town fruitlessly, I and Celestia travelled to the defunct Ponyville remains. It was just a huge, scorched crater, with nothing that resembled a town. I picked up a faint smell of burning, still lingering from the magic’s effects. I only had to hope that the future Ponvyille stayed intact. The bright sun glared down on the dirt wasteland as I looked around the scene. I looked at Celestia, but when our eyes met, she looked straight down.

“Is something wrong?” I asked her endearingly.

“Why do you have to be here, Blue?” She snapped.

“I’m...sorry?” I was worried about what was going to come next.

A fixed look of anger cast across my companion’s face. “You messed this up for all of us, didn’t you? Just look at this place! You made Opare destroy it. You made her go away when we needed her. You made Luna cry all night, as she lost a close friend. She’s only young you know!”

“This wasn’t my fault!” I countered. “Opare got caught up reading something about the dark arts, and so she became possessed by that certain scroll. That’s what I think happened anyway.”

Her face lost the aggressive look for a second, but changed back. “You still got rid of her!”

“It was either that or let Aora be lost forever. I had no choice,” I somberly said.

“Look, I don’t really know who you are, but you came to the castle unexpectedly and then things started to unfold badly. You...you should just stay away now. We don’t need your place there anymore.”

“But-”

“But nothing. I’m sorry it’s like this, but we just can’t cope with anymore threatening situations right now. Goodbye, Blue.” The pink haired teen-mare turned and galloped away, leaving me behind.

What was I supposed to do now? I was just abandoned by Celestia. Again. Maybe I could catch up to Opare, in light of what just happened. I distinctly remember her going through a forest, probably the same one that was off in the distance. With no other choice, I took my path. I needed to do something more about this still.