Twilight’s Quest

by Dashie04

Chapter 2

Canterlot was absolutely bustling with ponies! Ponies, many of them unicorns, were talking amongst themselves along the central road, next to the shops. The shops were manned by ponies giving ponies weapons and armor to anyone who paid.

Beside her was an inn, also lively with activity right outside, that also seemed to double as a tavern. Various houses were scattered about the place.

Then of course, there was the majesty of Canterlot Castle, which towered over the rest of the city in a truly spectacular fashion, built into the side of the mountain, with a grandiose staircase leading up.

Twilight had been to Canterlot a few times in her lifetime, mostly to talk to Princess Celestia, but sometimes she came to meet with her parents as well.

Regardless, this time Twilight had been summoned, and even if it were just to hang out with Celestia, she’d make the most of it.

Twilight trotted down the central street, stopping at the weapon shop. While she had a passable piece of protection, she was still busy clubbing enemies with her hooves, which wouldn’t work in the long run.

The pony behind the counter was a buff earth pony who didn’t even look like he needed weapons.

“Welcome to the weapon shop, what can I do for ya?” he asked.

“I mean, what do you have?” Twilight asked.

The Earth pony laid out a small collection of weapons. “We’ve got an old Wooden Wand,” he said, gesturing to a gnarled, splintery wand that ended at a sharp point in the bottom and a spiral at the top.

“It’s enchanted with a simple spell, anything that is enchanted to go through that wand will become slightly more powerful when it leaves the wand, restricted to spells of course.”

The pony gestured to another weapon. “We’ve also got an Oaken Pole, thin, long, great for swinging around easily if you’re trained.” True to his words, the pole was a very long piece of smooth wood, and not much else.

“Finally, we have a Thorny Whip, it can hit multiple monsters at once. Just take it easy when you touch it, because those are 100% bona-fide thorns straight from the thorn patches.” The Thorny Whip appeared to be a long piece of thin rope with thorns wrapping themselves around it, it had a distinct handle, but the thorns did crowd a bit on the bottom.

“Don’t know why you gave me three choices,” Twilight said. “I really only can guess how to use one of them, and that would be the Wooden Wand.”

“That’s going to set you back 50 bits,” the weapons dealer said.

Twilight laid all of her money on the counter and took the wand, and continued her way up to the castle. A strap was provided to attach the Wooden Wand to her side, which she did.

The way up to the castle was a dirt road that promptly ended in the magnificent staircase. Twilight quickly trotted up to it and started the climb up, watching the beautiful mountain on the side.

When she finally reached the castle doors, she told the two posted guards what she was doing at the castle, and was let in.

The interior of Canterlot castle was almost as spectacular as the outside regal red carpets lined the hallways, and the entire castle felt incredibly open. The ceilings were incredibly high, and each room entrance was marked off with a golden arch that was almost as tall as the ceiling.

The castle was brightly lit from scattered chandeliers, and had a few ponies inside of it.

Twilight turned a corner to find a grand double staircase leading up to a massive door engraved with the Canterlot seal, a bright and burning sun. She presumed that that was the throne room.

Twilight aimlessly wandered around, she just wanted to see the majesty of Canterlot castle in greater detail.

She talked into the first pony she ran into, a pink unicorn with a blue mane and big blue eyes.

“This castle sure is beautiful, isn’t it?” she said, glancing at the hanging chandeliers.

“It sure is,” Twilight responded.

As if the pink unicorn hadn’t even heard her, she continued, “I’d love to get an appointment with Celestia herself, but do you know how hard it is to get an appointment with her? I envy those ponies.”

She said absolutely nothing else, so Twilight awkwardly walked onwards. It’s like she’s robotic she thought.

Twilight moved on, and climbed the regal staircase in the center. She pushed on through the big center door and managed to see Celestia herself sitting on a throne.

She was particularly occupied with a pink earth pony who was juggling on the left side of the room. Said pink pony was wearing a jester’s hat and clothes and looked to be enjoying herself.

“Hello, Celestia,” Twilight said.

“Oh, hello there Twilight,” Celestia said. “I presume you got the summon?”

Twilight nodded.

“Right, so I wanted to talk to you about The Everlasting. Twilight, I think you’re the right pony for the job.”

“So, you didn’t want to hang out with me on ‘royal business’?”

“No, Twilight,” Celestia said, smiling a bit. “I wanted to talk to you about The Everlasting.”

Twilight was a little disappointed, but she continued listening.

“What I know is that The Everlasting poses a massive threat to the balance of Equestria at large. However, besides the fact that we know it's a dragon, and a large one at that, neither the motives nor the location of the creature is known. I will defer you to my sister, Luna of the Crystal Empire, who studies these creatures in her spare time and might know more.”

“Wait, so you called me up here to defer me to your sister who’s up north in you knows where? Why didn’t you just, you know, send a letter to Luna to invite me?” Twilight challenged.

“We’re not on the best of terms. When you board the Appleoosan train to head northward, do not tell her I sent you, I don’t know what could possibly happen,” Celestia explained.

“Great,” Twilight responded, “why did you choose me in particular?”

“Because, Twilight, you are a reincarnation of the legendary mage, Blackest Night.”

Twilight stared at her dumbfounded. “Reincarnation is impossible! What makes you so sure? There’d have to be so many factors, not to mention that I can barely cast a spell worth anything in the first place! If I’m the so-called ‘reincarnation’ of this legendary mage, I’d have to know a bit more, don’t you think?” Twilight exclaimed.

“You have an innate knowledge of how spells work, and an acute mind to perform them easily. I could teach you the art of self-teleportation and you’d understand immediately,” Celestia responded.

“Why don’t you, then?” Twilight asked.

“Visualize a place you’ve already been, and just think about appearing in front of said place, and transporting all of your matter to that place. It should work. The best mages can do it with little-to-no effort on their part.”

Twilight did exactly what Celestia said, and she suddenly found herself in front of Ponyville, exactly as she remembered it. She then visualized herself in front of Celestia’s throne, and she appeared there.

“See, Twilight, you have an innate understanding of magic,” Celestia said. “This is why I think you’re a possible reincarnation, as the prophecies have said.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “Whatever, I’ll see Luna, but only to mend your relationship. I still think that reincarnation is complete nonsense, as that’d require an outstanding number of elements to fall perfectly in place and would require some outside tampering.”

Twilight turned to walk out of the room, when Celestia’s jester piped up.

“That was a great trick, and it looked so fun! Besides, a chance to go out adventuring sounds like it’s going to keep me entertained for a long time!” The pink pony got very close to Twilight. “Wow, you look so nice in that costume, where’d you find it?”

The jester continued to waffle on, and Celestia said, “It seems that Pinkie Pie has taken a shine to you. If you wouldn’t mind, I think you should take her with you.”

Pinkie Pie stopped talking and looked at Twilight with a wide smile. “I don’t think I have much choice,” Twilight replied.

“I’m sure she’ll enjoy that,” Celestia said. She then levitated a small sum of bits to Twilight. “You’re going to need some gear for heading south to Appleoosa, so I’m offering you about 200 bits to get some basic preparations done.”

Twilight collected the bits and walked out of the castle, Pinkie Pie on her tail. Literally on her tail. “Pinkie Pie, please stop bouncing, you’re stepping on my tail.”

“Sorry!” Pinkie Pie said.

Twilight headed back to the weapon store and picked up a Thorny Whip for Pinkie, because she told Twilight that she could use it, which set her back a hundred bits. She decided to hold onto the remaining hundred for a rest and some different gear.

Twilight and Pinkie walked into the nearby inn, and talked to the innkeeper, a blue unicorn with a brown mane.

“Welcome to the Canterlot Inn! We appreciate your business. It’s 4 bits to stay the night here.”

Twilight gave him 4 bits, and the moment she hit the bed, she was out like a light.

Upon waking up, the two ponies walked to the Canterlot gates and prepared to head out and start their trip south.

Author's Note:

Have this absolutely garbage chapter.

Does the reincarnation seem shoehorned in? Good, you probably know how I felt when that was brought up in DQXI now.

Speaking of which, this story is going to have plot holes, inconsistencies, a ton of cliches, and overall just have some awkward writing choices that I wouldn’t do in a normal story. Most of that’s probably intentional, for the record. I have plans for this story, and that does involve some of that stuff.

I know that intentionally bad still does mean bad (or in this case, simply mediocre), but honestly, I don’t really give enough of a shit to really be bothered by that.