The Princess that Equestria Always Had

by rillegas08

04: Meeting Her Pre-Classical Idol

Twilight had only her thoughts to occupy her as she walked north. She couldn’t have been in the past longer than an hour, but she had encountered so much already, most of which she hadn’t expected.

She looked up to the sky, and noticed the moon was starting to go down. It wasn’t the smooth movement with which Princess Luna moved it, and Twilight had to remind herself again that the alicorn sisters hadn’t even received their cutie marks yet; that happened sometime after their coronation, which happened sometime after Equestria had been founded. She realized the unicorns had begun their work, and started running to meet them. As she crossed over a hill, she heard a voice speaking commands. She turned toward the voice and followed it over some more hills.

Finally, at the top of one hill, she saw a group of ponies. Stepping carefully down the hillside to avoid slipping, she placed herself behind a small grove of trees. Having had the responsibility for lowering the moon and raising the sun once not long ago, she knew such a feat required a great deal of concentration.

She counted eleven unicorns in all, one of whom she recognized immediately: Star Swirl, with his iconic blue cloak and hat, and of course his brown beard. It was shorter than – and not nearly as gray as – the images she’d seen of him in her own time depict him, but there was no mistaking his image. His horn and the horns of five of the other unicorns glowed their respective colors, and Star Swirl guided the others to keep them synchronized.

Her heart skipped a beat. Here was her idol, the stallion she admired most in all of Equestrian history, and she was about to meet him. She racked her mind, remembering what Rarity had said about meeting somepony she’d admired so much. Right. Focus on what needs to be done. She closed her eyes, held her hoof to her chest, and slowly inhaled. She held her hoof away from her as she exhaled, and her heartbeat slowed, her breathing became calmer, and her thoughts less jumbled.

When she reopened her eyes, the moon was below the horizon, the other five unicorns had taken the places of the first five, and the sun was above the horizon. The unicorns’ horns glowed with their magic auras until the sun reached its apex, when their magic fizzled out. Twilight chose this moment to approach the group.

“Good work, everypony,” she heard Star Swirl tell the others, before the grey stallion turned around to return home and saw her. He rattled off a “good morning” to her before trotting past her, not immediately realizing she wanted to talk with him.

“Excuse me, sir,” Twilight began. She could already feel her heart beat faster, but took a deep breath as the stallion turned to face her.

“No need to call me ‘sir,’ young mare. What can I do for you?”

Feeling calmer, she continued. “First of all, it’s great to finally meet you! I’ve admired you for so long – since I was a filly in school, actually – and I thought it would be impossible to actually meet you face to face.” Her heartbeat was still quick, but she herself was surprised that she was able to control her excitement without once again using the calming technique she'd learned from her sister-in-law some time ago. The bearded stallion smiled.

“It’s always good to meet a fan like yourself, and see the impact I inspire in young ponies. I must say,” he continued, “in all my years I’ve met many unicorns, and I’ve met fewer admirers as my visits to villages became more common. You must be from far away.”

“You’re right. I’m not from here at all. It’s taken a great effort to get here.” In more ways than one, she said to herself. Suddenly she remembered why she went back in time in the first place. “Right, I’m not just here to chat. I was hoping I could study under you.”

Star Swirl put a hoof to his beard. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a suitable student. I tend to work on spells that require a great deal of control, which many ponies can’t handle. Can you demonstrate your magical abilities?”

Twilight nodded, and quickly ran through the list of the types of magic she could do. Why had she not considered that this might happen? Many of the spells she knew were created after Equestria was founded, so those were out. Teleportation, although it came easy to her now, was a difficult spell when she was Celestia’s star pupil, and it might not have been around before Equestria was founded. It was safe to assume, then, that teleportation wouldn’t be suitable. Levitation is one of the oldest and easiest spells to learn, so she would have to try something unique with it to impress him enough. Perhaps standing on her forelegs, levitating rocks on her hind legs? Nah, that’s just silly. She decided to use her telekinesis on several of the rocks near them, throwing them up and shooting them with blasts of magic in quick succession. She noticed the remnants of the first rock fall toward Star Swirl before she’d finished, and Twilight quickly added a second layer of her magic to move them away. Star Swirl looked at the pieces and grinned.

“Impressive. Only strong unicorns can use multiple spells at the same time. Next concern: many have come seeking not to learn, but only to say they were my student, and I’ve had to let them go.”

“I’ve experienced that firsthoof, so I know what that feels like. I promise I’m not just here for bragging rights.”

Star Swirl looked into her eyes, and Twilight found herself unable to speak. She felt nervous, as if he wouldn’t believe her and would send her away. The trip to a thousand years in the past wouldn’t be worth it if he were to reject her. After a moment, Star Swirl broke his gaze and smiled.

“Ponies may lie, but their eyes never do. Any pony like yourself, who enjoys learning and is sincere, will always be welcome as my student.” He placed his hoof on her shoulder for a moment before starting to walk. “Let’s go to my study so we can begin. How long have you been studying magic?”

“Ever since I got my cutie mark when I was a filly. I created a spectacular display of magic, and became determined to figure out what else I could do.”

“Ah, excellent. Say, I just remembered there’s a faster way home. Prepare yourself, young mare! This is going to be exciting.”

Before Twilight could respond, there was a flash of light as Star Swirl teleported them both to a room large enough to accommodate several ponies. So teleportation is possible in the past. The room was mostly circular, with a single door and no windows. Several candles lined the curved wall.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“We’re in a tower not far from my workshop. I teleport here often, especially when I have to travel far to find suitable unicorns for moving the sun and moon. Usually it’s not safe to teleport somewhere you can’t see, but I keep this room empty for the sole purpose of teleporting here whenever I need to.”

That’s good to know, she thought. Maybe I should reserve a room in the castle for such a purpose.

“Why not use the same ten unicorns?” she asked as Star Swirl opened the door and they started descending a spiral staircase. Although she knew the answer from reading the Journal of the Two Sisters, she knew most ponies who hadn’t volunteered to move the celestial bodies before wouldn’t know.

“The effort and concentration to move such things are so great, their magic is depleted. My magic is stronger than the average pony’s, I think, so my magic is preserved.”

They opened the door at the bottom of the tower and made their way across the short path between it and the other building. The terrain was moderately hilly, with groves of trees in several directions. Star Swirl’s workshop and the tower were on a hill in the middle of the plain.

The workshop itself, to Twilight’s surprise, was smaller than she expected it would be. Here was the home of the most powerful magician in Equestria, yet it wasn’t nearly big enough to accommodate all the scrolls, books, living spaces, and equipment she assumed would be necessary for such a reputation. It was two stories tall, and the second story contained most of the windows. They entered the workshop, and Twilight saw more or less what she expected: shelves and shelves of books, tables with half-written spells and other research on them. Twilight picked up one such book, glancing over it. In it she found sketches of the stars’ paths through the sky and the phases of the moon. She asked him what this book was.

“Ah, that’s my ongoing research on all the heavenly spheres. Fascinating, really. I’m currently working on a theory that can utilize their alignments to travel to different worlds. If they exist, that is.”

“I’m sure if they do exist, you’ll be the first to figure it out.”

“Thank you... Hm. I must be scatterbrained today. I don’t recall your name.”

“I never got around to saying it. I’m Twilight,” she said, choosing not to reveal her surname.

“Well then, Twilight, shall I take your cloak?”

“I’d rather keep it on, if that’s all right.” I’d rather not reveal right away that I’m an alicorn. That could cause major problems later on.

Star Swirl shrugged. “All right then. Are you hungry? I think I’ve got enough food for the both of us for a day or two.”

“Now that you mention it, I am a bit hungry.”

“Right then! Let’s have some breakfast.”

It was at that moment that there was a knock on the door. When Star Swirl opened the door, they saw a messenger pony. The unicorn stallion wore a simple yet regal outfit.

“Venerated Star Swirl the Bearded, I have a message for you from King Bullion and Princess Platinum.”

“What could they want this early in the morning?”

“‘Dear Star Swirl, I am contacting you about a matter which may be of some urgency. There have been rumors and reports of some rather unseasonal snow in the west reaches of the unicorn kingdom. If you have time, We request your advice on how such weather might occur. Regards.’ Dictated by Princess Platinum.”

Star Swirl put a hoof to his beard. Twilight noted that he seems to have made a habit of the gesture when he was thinking.

“Your highnesses,” he began, “I thank you for your contact. I shall begin looking into the matter, but as of right now I can foresee two reasons for the snow that are most likely. First, the pegasi could be messing with the weather in the western regions. This correlates with the prejudice against the pegasus tribe, but makes little sense, as snow destroys the crops they would receive from the earth tribe. The second reason is a rare creature I have heard of in my travels and research: Windigos.”

“Windigos...” said Twilight softly. She hadn’t been able to pinpoint exactly when in the past she had gone, but if the strange winter had already started in some places, she felt she had a pretty good idea.

“They have the ability to cause unending winter,” the grey stallion continued, “and their power is drawn from the fighting among ponies.” He gave some coins to the messenger pony for his trouble, and sent him on his way.

“That was rather eloquent.”

“Yes, well, one must be professional when speaking with the King and his daughter. Now, what were we doing before he came?”

“Breakfast,” Twilight replied with a smile.

“Yes, that’s right! Say, you seemed interested in the Windigos when I mentioned them. How about we begin your studies by talking about them?”

Twilight smiled at his offer and agreed, even though she already knew quite a bit about them. She could forget about keeping up with her cover story at times like this: it’s always interesting to listen to your idol speak about something he’s passionate about.

“It was many years ago, soon after my beard had started growing, in fact. I was young and full of wanderlust. One day I’d found myself trotting north, much farther than anypony else at the time...”

Comments

[TwilightXLuna]

OMG another great chapter

[Phoenixfire Productions]

I always thought this would go down... differently. But hey, it's much better than I imagined after reading the title & summary.
Wait, I need a quick second... there. Added to favourites.