Origins: Equestria

by Sunsette

Origins: Part I

It was just like any other day in Ponyville, sunny but far too hot for Starlight. She had asked Spike to lead her to the library (she still doesn't remember where to go), and when he happily agreed the duo walked to the tree house situated in the middle of the cosy town; a permanent residence for Twilight Sparkle.

They opened the door and were greeted rather enthusiastically by none other than Twilight.

“Hey, Starlight, what brings you here?" Twilight chirped, returning the book she had just finished reading to its shelf.

“Oh, nothing much, just want to read some books, you know?" Starlight replied, smiling over at the purple mare.

"Oh thats great!" Twilight smiled back, the tone in her voice growing more cheery. "What kind of book do you want?”

“I don't really have a preference, anything is good,” she replied. Her eyes wandered from bookshelf to bookshelf, taking in her surroundings bit by bit. “This place library is pretty big just for a treehouse,” Starlight commented.

“Yeah," Twilight agreed, “but it’s great for a large book collection.”

They both stood in silence as Spike walked past them, looking for the fridge.

“Well, let me know if you need anything!" Twilight called, laughs bubbling. “Other than that, you’re free to do anything!” She laughed again and Starlight couldn't help but giggled, happy that her friend was being as cheerful as always.

Starlight trotted around the library for fifteen minutes, checking all the categories from Pony biology to spell-books, but nothing was worthy of her attention.

Being advanced in magic-using for her age, she had already mastered most of the spells she had come across—whether it be teleportation or high-level telekinesis.

Her mind picks up the books patterns—spell-books, fiction, non-fiction, in that precise order—as she ventures deeper inside the library. It was huge, colossal compared to others Starlight had visited.

As the books kept flooding in, the light around her began to dissipate, growing dark, too dark. She lit up her horn, wanting something to calm her, something to light up the path.

With the aid of the dim light, she managed to locate a book she had never seen before—in any library, at that.

"Huh, what are you doing all alone?" she lifted the book and gently blew the dust covering it’s worn cover. The title read Forerunners.

"The Forerunners and the Cleansing of the Galaxy, by anonymous,” she smiled to herself, happy something seemingly worth-while had come up, and put the book inside her saddlebag. She trotted back to the counter to pay the book.

"Hey Starlight, got what you were looking for?” Twilight asked, sipping at the coffee Spike had just made for her.

“Yep, here you go,” she placed the book on top of the counter.

"Something about this something Forerunners,” Starlight chipped in.

"Huh, I never remembered that book being here,” Twilight commented, but the book didn't seem out of place; she shrugged and giggled for a bit instead. "But who cares, if my pupil wants to learn something new I'm not stopping ya."

Starlight chuckled along and sighed. "Yeah, anyways how much do I have to pay?”

"That'll be five bits,” Twilight replied, smiling warmly. She had done all too much smiling, recently.

Starlight handed over the bits and proceeded to exit the library. "See you in the castle Twilight!" she called.

Starlight trotted back to the castle just outside of the town and opened the huge entrance. She sighed softly and walked over to Twilight's study room, which happened to also be Starlight's study room.

She lay the book on the table and brewed a cup of tea.
"It's going to be a long night Starlight, Twilight will be gone until midnight,” she said to herself, lifting the cup of tea. “Now let’s see what this book’s worth.”

[Ten Hour's Later, 22:00PM]

Twilight walked inside the castle along with Spike, a bag of hay fries among her possessions.

She told Spike to “Go put the fries in the kitchen”, and he did so obediently, humming softly as he padded over to the kitchen countertops.

Twilight walked into her study room only to be greeted with drawings littered everywhere.

She picked up one of the pieces of paper that she found lying on the table. She looked around and read it, ceasing to have any worry.

IS THIS WHERE MAGIC CAME FROM, ARE THESE THE WILL OF THE GODS?! read the title, glossy, black ink screaming at her.

Twilight looked down at the paper in disbelief, hearing what could only be laughter at the dark corners of the room. Scared, she walked over to the corner cautiously, warily, and saw Starlight with her untidied mane.

“Starlight?" she asked, a sigh escaping her lips.

"Do you hear that? The screaming, all the despair from everypony." Starlight whispered cryptically.

Twilight took a few, tiny steps back. There was worry written all over her face.

"The reclaimers fought for their own survival against a foe they knew they couldn't beat,” Starlight continued, shaking her head as she continued to tidy her mane.

"Starlight, what did that book do to you?!” Twilight shouted, taking a few larger steps back. She tried running to the door, but it shut itself.

“What? Sorry if i acted like that, just testing out a spell, you know?” Starlight laughed uncomfortably, trying to find an exit out of this awkward conversation. "So how was your day?" she asked awkwardly.

Twilight wasn't buying it, she picked up the book and read one of the chapters.

"Visions of the reclaimers, you shouldn't try out with unknown spells without the Canterlotian authorities!” she shouted at Starlight.

"So what? I've seen what happened, we're not alone!" Starlight hissed back.

“How do you know that? What if the book was a fake?!” Twilight screamed.

"B-Because it worked!" Starlight yelled incredulously at Twilight, making the purple mare shiver. Starlight sighed regretfully.

“Look, I'm sorry. I didn't—" Starlight began, but she was cut off from Twilight's hoof.

“It's alright. I-I’m sorry if I shouted at you..." Twilight replied, wiping away the tears in her eye. “Tell me about this… reclaimer thing,” Twilight asked softly.

Starlight then proceeded to burble about the Forerunners and how they wiped out all intelligent life in the galaxy.

"They what?" Twilight snapped in surprise. "Why would anyone do such a thing?”

"To ensure our survival, to create a future for all of us, not only for ponykind; for the gryphons, dragons, and many others. They saved all the aliens that lived in our galaxy,” Starlight replied, as undeterred as ever. She picked up a drawing of some sort of mutant. One fact for sure, Starlight was really good at drawing.

"But why? Why would they do such a thing?” She asked again. “I just… I don't understand how you would want to hurt someone like that.”

"You see this drawing?” Starlight asked, giving the sheet of paper over to Twilight.

“The Flood. What? Like they’re made of water or something?” Twilight joked, but Starlight only looked down.

"Don't you get it? they wiped out half of the alicorn population in a day..." she said in grief, voice strained.
“Oh. Oh.” Realising the mistake she just did, Twilight rushed to apologise, but instead settled for a "Where did they come from?”

"No one know's, not even the aliens; all they know is that that they feed off intelligent life and doing so became ever more intelligent themselves,” Starlight explained more about the parasite and how the Forerunners failed to protect all alien life, how they tried all methods and how all of them, all of them, failed.

“Haven’t they tried using magic?" Twilight asked, causing Starlight to chuckle.

"Twilight, not everypony uses magic,” Starlight whispered, something of a mocking tone in her voice.

Shock wrote itself all over Twilight’s face.

"T-Then how did they fire these Halos then? It must've have some sort of magical properties,” Twilight complained incredulously.

"I'm not sure, but they fired their weapon, returned all the species of the galaxy, and rebuilt all the damage they caused,” Starlight told the lavender mare.

They both stood there in an awkward silence, looking around while Starlight was drinking her (now cold) coffee.

Spike walked in to the room and nearly dropped the tray of food and drinks he was holding. A cup tumbled over, but Starlight caught it delicately with her magic.

“Oh, phew, thanks Starlight,” Spike says, putting the tray on the nearby table and joining Starlight and Twilight for a while. He grabbed one of the paper sheets that was lying on the floor and held it for a while.

“So... what's up?" he asked, inviting a giggle from Twilight.

“Nothing much. Hey, Spike, could you leave Starlight and me alone for a moment?” Twilight asked innocently.

"Oh, sorry if I was interrupting your mare gossip. I’ll be in my room, then.” He closed the door behind him, trying to be soft but failing miserably. A muttered sorry was heard by both mares.

"So earlier, you said something about ‘Vision of Reclaimers’. What do you mean by that?" she asked Starlight, out of plain curiosity, of course. She had no interests in befriending the said aliens.

"I'm not sure what it is but I think it gave us a view of these reclaimers called”—there was a silence as Twilight waited for the answer—“Humans.” Starlight finished, but something in her tone was sad, sullen.

"What's the matter? Did they did something wrong?” Twilight asked worriedly.

“What? Oh! No, no! Nothing like that!” Starlight tried to pick herself up after what just happened.

Twilight put her hoof on her pupil’s shoulder and Starlight looked straight into the purple mare’s eyes. “Tell. Me. What’s. Wrong." Twilight asked, a seriousness in her then that had never been there before.

"I-I think you should see it for yourself. It's sort of tragic." Starlight tried performing the spell once more, this time with Twilight beside her.

"Ready?" she asked Twilight. The alicorn grabbed Starlight's hoof and gave a small nod.

"All right, let's go.”

Not more than minutes after the spell was cast, their vision dimmed and dimmed, blackness nipping at the corners of whatever sight they had left.

Comments

[AchaiusSade]

First paragraph last sentence, "we're" should be were.

Pargraph twenty seven, ""Look i'm sorry i didn-" She was cut off from Twilight's hoof. "It's alright, i-i'm sorry if i shouted at you..." She replied, wiping away the tear's in her eye."" I'm and I should all have capital "I's".

Paragraph forty, "Halo's" doesn't need an apostrophe

There were a few more grammar mistakes but other than that, I'm enjoying the story so far. My one piece of advice is to make sure you re-read your chapter several times before posting, or ask somebody else to proof read. Trust me it will help a lot. I look forward to your next chapters, this is pretty interesting.

[Sunsette]

7087274 thank you for your advice, i'll make sure to double check the grammar next time

[Bronzer]

Interesting. This deserves more attention.

[Armageden]

Well starlight lost her sanity.