Aurora: The End of Beginnings.

by WinterLune

Chapter 1 - Of Ends and New Beginnings?

Everything has a purpose, be it alive or dead. But sometimes we need a helping hand to guide us on our path.

Aurora: The End of Beginnings.
Chapter 1
Of Ends and New Beginnings?

Everything was black. Was I dead? No, everything hurt, especially my head. Everything was still black, where my eyes closed? I couldn't tell but I tried to open them anyways.

My vision was blurry but I could tell I was in some kind of cave there was also a strange glowing pool of water near the center of the cave. My mind was foggy, I couldn't tell what it was about the pool but it felt inviting.

I did my best to get up, a bit wobbly at first but that was probably because I was on four legs. Walking on four legs felt strange to me. Had I not done this before? I pushed the thought aside, as the pool was just in front of me.

The pool was small but had three pillars holding up the ceiling around it, each with a plaque of something on them; on a closer look I took note that the plaques all had four legged creatures on them, each looking similar to the next. The one in the middle, however, had features of both the others. I wanted a closer look at this one but I would have to go into the pool to do so.

I carefully walked into the pool to get a better look, only to almost walk on top of a round object in the center of the pool that I hadn’t noticed before. Seeing this made me look at my reflection.

I was silver in color with a two tone mane of white and a second color of silver, lighter then my coat, as well as having wings with the same tint, thinking about my mane made me realize it was covering my left eye. “Maybe that why I’m not seeing very well” I wondered to myself; I brushed my mane off to one side, giving me a better look at my eyes. My eyes where different colors, one being a dark steely blue and the other being an off color orange; I used my mane to cover my right eye, the orange one, making my colors look more natural. Thankfully I could see just fine out my left.

Looking back to the pool I decided to lift the object out of it; it was a pretty thing glowing white and black almost like it had a pulse, “Its glow must be the pools light source.” I thought to myself; I don’t know what about it made me want to put it into my mouth but I did just the same.

I walked up to the third pillar to gaze upon the plaque, the object giving me more light so see what was on it. The creature on it looked a lot like me, only it had a horn as well as wings, well as having a symbol of a sun and moon on its flank; I look back at mine, not seeing anything on it I decided I had been here long enough and climbed out of the pool.

I walked back to where I awoke from to find a bag sitting against the cave wall, I didn’t pay it second thought and put in on my back, upon doing so I realized the orb, as I was now calling it, was no longer in my mouth but back in the pool. That tossed me for a loop, though one thing was for certain. I wanted that orb.

I went back into the pool to find the same orb in the exact same spot it was before; I picked it up again, only this time it shattered in my mouth.

Light, water, and rock started to spin around me and before I could think about what was going on I was sitting in front of a hut, cold and soaked to the bone with a surprised look on my face and only a few words on my mind. “Water in my everywhere…..”

I didn’t move until I saw the huts door open, I could tell that whatever was standing in front of me was female, I was about to say something to her but she shrieked and rushed back into her hut before I had the chance to, I tried to say something anyway but my voice came out as a sneeze instead, making me jump a little.

I didn’t feel like sticking around, I’ve had enough happen in one sitting already to make me want to find someplace to sleep; I followed the path from the hut to the outside of the forest. I still don’t know what those creatures where, all I know is that they look like me; then a voice came from the back of my mind, “Ponies” it said. I wondered to myself about the word, it seemed to fit into a hole in my mind. It felt like I had known that word already, but I couldn’t place why.

I came up to another hut, rather larger than the last one; it had a large assortment of animals sleeping around it, “Maybe the owner takes care of these animals” I wondered to myself, I didn’t feel like being a bother to the animals to I did my best to stay quiet and walked up to the door; it was locked. The window next to it, however, was open so I decided to invite myself in.

Inside was, of course, another maze of animals; most being birds sleeping in their houses and bunnies in their warrens from the look of things. I didn’t have time to think about what the owner was going to say about my sneaking into their house but I was dead tired and needed someplace to sleep so I quickly located a sofa to sleep on and fell into a deep sleep, still feeling the pain coming from my skull.

“Darkness again” I thought to myself only to then realize my eyes were still closed from sleeping, I promptly opened them to find the animals that were sleeping the night I arrived here to all be looking at me, along with a pony sleeping next to me; the pony was yellow in color, along with a matching pink tail and mane. She also had a trio of butterflies on her flank as well as having a pair of wings. I quickly picked up that she was, at most, double my size.

I saw that the bag I found in the cave had been set on the floor next to me and decided to check its contents; inside was a notebook, a few sharpened pencils, and drawing that caught my attention. The drawing was a seen of rain and a shadow of something on the ground. Something was missing from it, I just didn’t know what.

I decided to take out the notebook and one of the pencils from the bag and draw; I remembered the place I awoke from, the pond and that strange orb along with the three pillars with the plaques on them. I figured a third…..um.”Third-Pony” the voice in my head said, I didn’t question that it wasn’t my own voice saying it but thanked it just the same. Yes a third-pony view would do nicely. I didn’t even notice that the pony next to me was awake by the time I started drawing.

I think I finished my drawing about an hour after I woke up; it was the scene of my finding the pond and the pillars, along with a second spot on the drawing for me finding the orb and it shattering. By the time the pony next to me finally said something I jumped, “Just how long has she been staring at me?” I wondered to myself, more so wondering why she was sleeping next to me in the first place.

“Are you….all right?” she quietly asked. Was I all right? “I never bothered to check myself over did I.” I thought to myself while feeling my head for any damage; I quickly took note of something wrapped around my head, “Did she put this on me?” I wondered, also noting that my head wasn’t hurting as much as it was before. I nodded.

“That’s good; I was a little worried to see you so banged up and wet.” She said, a little louder than before. “Maybe she’s a bit shy” I wondered. I smiled for some reason at this thought. This seemed to loosen the tension in the room, making the animals go about their business, leaving me and the other pony to talk.

“So, do you have a name?” she asked while reaching for something on the counter in front of her, “Mine’s Fluttershy.”

“A name?” I wondered to myself, “I’m not sure. I sure don’t remember having one.” I shook my head upon thinking this also making Fluttershy frown a little.

“I see…..” Fluttershy said while drinking something from a cup she was holding, “What about family? Do you have some-pony to go home to?” she asked.

A home and family; those words rang in my skull like the dull thud of a giant broken bell. I wanted to say something but my throat was so dry all I could to was stifle a chough that made my eyes water. She must have picked up on my dry throat, because the handed me a separate cup of whatever she was drinking.

“It’s tea, drink it. It should help.” She said after handing me the cup.

“Tea huh…?” I thought while taking a sip of the liquid; it was extravagant, I had no idea what this so called *tea* was made from, but it was the best thing I’ve ever tasted so far. Though that wasn’t saying much because this is the first thing I remember tasting; the dryness in my throat went away after finishing my glass.

Since the first time since ever after waking up in the cave, I spoke the only three words I could think of. “I don’t know…”
I ended up being embraced by Fluttershy a few moments after I said those words.

Fluttershy said, “I’m sorry”, but was almost inaudible from her shallow crying.

I didn’t know why she was sorry but I accepted her embrace just the same; the moment felt like it lasted forever, though it only lasted a few minutes.

After a while Fluttershy said she wanted to take me to some place called Ponyville to see another pony named Twilight. I had no idea who this Twilight was but Ponyville sounded nice, considering the name had the word pony in it; I grabbed my bag with my notebook, drawings, and pencils then proceeded to follow Fluttershy out her front door.

The walk to this place called Ponyville was nice, the scenery was amazing; birds playing in rainwater, squirrels eating things on the ground which Fluttershy told me where acorns. I was about to ask what an acorn was when a pink pony the same size as Fluttershy walked up to her.

“Oh hello, Pinkie Pie, how are you today?” Fluttershy asked the other pony who was apparently known as Pinkie Pie.

“Super duper!” exclaimed Pinkie; “Today I meet a new pony in town so I’m going to throw her a Welcome-to-Ponyville-have-a-good-time-party!” exactly after Pinkie said that she zoomed off in the opposite direction in a pool of what Fluttershy called confetti.

Not too long after that we finally arrived at Ponyville; I’d have to say the sight was something to behold. There were ponies everywhere I looked, in the sky, in houses, moving clouds around, even a particularly colorful pony was sleeping on a cloud. Every pony I saw looked different; some had wings, others had horns, some didn’t have either.

Fluttershy managed to remind me why we were here, to find a pony named Twilight. Fluttershy seemed to know exactly where she was going, leading me right to a giant tree with a door on its front; she knocked.

A voice from inside called, “This is a library you know, the door’s open!” upon hearing this Fluttershy smiled and pushed the door open to be greeted by a purple two legged creature with green spikes on its back and tail; I hid behind Fluttershy.

“It’s alright,” Fluttershy said,”Spike is Twilights assistant in the library.” I had no idea what the word assistant meant but after hearing what she said I shyly waved at him; he waved back with a smile, making me feel a bit less shy about his looks.

“Spike do you know where Twilight is?” as soon as Fluttershy said this Spike pointed to a large amount of empty boxes in the middle of the room as a purple pony with a horn popped out of the mess of boxes.

Twilight took one look at me and looked back to Fluttershy.”Fluttershy, it's nice to see you as always" she said with a grin," but when did you take up foal sitting?” she asked, looking back to me.

“Oh no, I’m not foal sitting.” Said Fluttershy,” I found this filly sleeping on my couch this morning.” She told Twilight as she then progressed to explain the matters of finding me to Twilight while I was entirely distracted by the large amount of boxes sitting in the middle of the room; I jumped onto the pile as my inner filly raged to life as I progressed to make a box fort.

My mind was on one track. Box fort, my mind repeated the same words over and over again as I moved around boxes, stacked them on each other, and even gave my fort a sealing made out of flattened boxes; I had no idea why but I was positively giddy with my fort. I wanted to name it after myself, though that razed a problem. I had no name, but I found a few books on the floor which distracted me from my problem; one being a dictionary, an almanac, and another book labeled “The Legend of ---------------”. The rest of the words where worn off the cover.

I started with the dictionary, I found a rather large assortment of words I didn’t know and even more words to explain them, heck, they're even words to explain the words that where explaining words, as so on. The almanac explained history to a point, but not as much as I would have liked, however it did mention two alicorn princesses that razed the sun and moon. That reminded me of the pillars in the cave, though I didn’t pay it much mind.

The last book however proved a challenge as a large amount of the pages were missing, had faded text or was in another language that I couldn't read. I did however find one page that stood out, it was much like the third pillar in the cave; only this page had an inscription under the picture. It took a bit of flipping back and forth between the dictionary and the almanac, but I did find out what the inscription said, though only one word of it.

“Aurora”, I liked the sound of that word, so I decided to look it up in the dictionary. An aurora (plural: aurorae or auroras) is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere.

That definition made me like the word even more, even if I had to look up half of what the definition defined, so I decided on something. Since I didn't think I had a name I figured it best to call myself something for the time being so I decided to call myself Aurora; I then remembered my box fort and looked out of it to see Twilight and Fluttershy still talking to each other so I decided to get their attention.

I said in a loudish voice, “My name is Aurora Queen of the Box fort!”

They both looked at me straight away with a funny look; they both laughed.