Equestria Rewritten

by darlinglightfoot

Unfriended

Flurry Heart trotted behind Starlight Glimmer as they made their way through the halls of the school of friendship.

"You know, I didn't really expect Twilight to be so okay with you coming here-" Starlight stammered, never missing a step as she knew these halls better than anypony else. "And you are my first, you know, actual magic pupil... But I think it will be fine..." Flurry nodded as they finally stopped at the door of the laboratory building. "I know I invited you here to prioritize friendship, but this is the place where we will practice your spells and lessons."

Flurry Heart looked around the wide open room. "I didn't know I was your first one-on-one pupil, Starlight."

Starlight blushed. "It's difficult to allocate time to every creature in the school, but I had to promise Twilight your education would be just as good coming from me, as it was coming from her." Starlight trotted back to the exit door.

"Aren't you going to... give me a lesson of some sort?" Flurry started.

"Your lessons will have to begin tomorrow, I have to visit Twilight's school today..." She seemed worried for a moment, but quickly wiped the frown off of her face. "I will see you at noon tomorrow."

Inside Daffodil and Berry Patch's dorm room, a small pallet of blankets formed a third, rinky-dink bed in the middle of the room. Daffodil used her magic to levitate scissors as she cut shapes out of paper. With her hooves, Berry pressed the shapes onto a large card with paste.

Flurry Heart entered the room, and their attention turned to her. "Your lesson was quick." Berry noted.

"It wasn't really a lesson, she just showed me our meeting space, it's in the laboratory building." she looked at the girls, preparing what seemed to be a 'get well' card. "What's the occasion?" she asked.

The two turned their attention to her once more, "You don't know?" Daffodil asked, quietly and almost inaudibly.

"Know what?" Flurry asked.

Berry and Daffodil exchanged a solemn glance. "Flurry, Darling Lightfoot is sick."

"Why? What happened to her?" Flurry asked.

"They aren't certain... I was sure Starlight would have told you-"

"Can we visit her?" Flurry asked, urgently. Despite the disdain Darling seemed to hold for Flurry Heart, it only seemed right to at least visit her and attempt to comfort her.

"We were planning to..." Daffodil began "you could come along with us if you'd like."

Once in Canterlot, the three girls stepped into the school of magic. There, Twilight met them. "I've never seen such an ailment..." she could be heard saying, as Starlight trailed behind shaking her head. "I've sent for Celestia... If only Starswirl were still around-"

Flurry Heart listened, and her heart sunk with every word.

Berry, Flurry, and Daffodil entered Darling Lightfoot's dorm room. It was large... a room lined with books and music discs. She had lived at the school of magic for quite some time, she had devoted all her life to studying, surely making friends, but her priority was the magic... "Everyone has come to visit me today." She said, finally, after a long period of silence. "They said... Maybe I will never be able to use my magic again..."

The three gasped, despite not being entirely close to Darling, anyone who had ever met her knew her devotion, and her power. "What happened?" Flurry Heart asked...

Darling starred off at the wall, not looking at Flurry Heart or her friends. "I overexerted my power." She said simply. "During a battle, in which an alicorn princess was meant to assist Dusk and I in turning somepony into stone... But she didn't, and I pay the price."

Everyone turned to watch Flurry's face for some sort of reaction, but only stunned confusion graced her regal face.

"Thank you for your visit, but I'd prefer to be alone." Darling said finally, still not looking their way. Her voice was troubled, monotone, and calculated all at once.

Flurry Heart raced the halls in tears, tearing toward the exit when she was stopped by long white limbs blocking her path. Looking up, she saw a familiar face. Princess Celestia. "Flurry Heart?" Are you alright.

Flurry Heart stammered through her tears and guilt, trying to explain the situation to Celestia. "Darling has lost her magic... and well... it's all my fault!"

Celestia put her hoof up to silence the rambling pony before her. Her features were softer, aged now, but they had a sense of regality to them still. They say alicorns are immortal but having given up her magic to Twilight all those moons ago, Celestia had begun to age as an Equestrian pony would. "Come with me, I shall assess Darling's condition soon enough, but there is something I must show you, too."

Celestia stepped into her old office, which had since become Twilight's. Behind the desk she pulled out a large book with two gold alicorn symbols pressed into it. "Ah, just where I had left it... I left this here, on the off-chance Twilight would need it, but I think it will benefit you..."

Flurry took the book in her hooves. "What is it?"

"It is an autobiography of sorts... from when Luna and I came to found Equestria..."

"Really?" Flurry Heart asked.

Celestia nodded. "I think some of these excerpts might help you, and I'm sure Twilight won't miss it much."

That night, underneath the covers on her make-shift bed, Flurry Heart used her magic to create a small glow. Opening Celestia's book to the first page.

LIFE IN SKYROS.

Celestia

Excerpt Fifteen.

"Many Miles away from where Canterlot now stands... beyond the clouds and waterfalls, is a land called Skyros.

As foals, Luna and I lived there. Born to contain and create the elements and use our special talents to better the world, each alicorn had a special talent, much like all ponies do, only with more obligation. Our mother was the keeper of the sun and moon before us. It was traditional that she'd pass down her magic to us...

Luna and I's talents were unique to us, passed down from generation to generation within our maternal line. Talents that only the two of us possessed. Often times, it is quite difficult to fathom how isolating being unique can be. Though everyone in Skyros seemed to know of us, at times it felt as though only Luna really knew me...

As foals, Luna and I were well-liked. Though, being well-liked always comes at a cost.

There was once an alicorn, a remarkably talented alicorn in her elemental power. From memory, I do recall her being a fire alicorn. Though, truthfully, fire alicorns are a dime-a-dozen. She was particularly good at her craft, but her obsession with being unique limited her."

The lights flicked on as Daffodil rose, Berry Patch still snoring, undisturbed. "Flurry? Shouldn't you get to sleep?" She said, noticing the glow of the alicorn's horn under the covers. Flurry scrambled out of her covers suddenly, shaken from the place in her book. "What are you reading anyway?"

Flurry held the book up with her magic. "It's a book Celestia gave me... It's a journal of sorts... I'm sort of reading it to maybe help me unwind from... everything."

Daffodil sighed in understanding. "You know, it wasn't your fault what happened. We've all told you as much."

"I could've done more-"

"Sometimes, ponies just need someone to blame... Darling is just hurt, don't take it so personally."

Daffodil disappeared into the bathroom, and with a deep sigh, Flurry returned to the book.

Excerpt One-Hundred and Seventeen

Luna

"I know the thorns of jealousy. They can be so crippling. Starswirl came to us, my sister and I, to ask us to rule as a pair in the land we would soon call 'Equestria'. Though the village of Skyros was sad to see us go, one poor soul was particularly devastated. Perhaps, not for she might miss us, but rather, for the fact that she was not the one invited. She was taken to the holdings, perhaps they will leave her in Tartarus.

It is such a shame, she had so much potential to be greater... If only she could control that temper."

Excerpt Three-Hundred and Forty-Five.

Celestia

"I have often wondered what became of Skyros after Luna and I's departure. I know now, from the reports of the explorers, that Skyros disbanded. This is not the first nation to disband, or rather disappear, in my lifetime. The Crystal Empire has been gone for a near millennium... Though Skyros was not a place I had counted on ever going the way of Sombra.

Secretly, I had always wished that perhaps, when I felt my duties in my found home of Equestria were through, when I found my successor and knew all my followers were in good hooves, I would return home...

Alicorns are a rare breed now, they say... A horrible fire had destroyed the city... and those who remained... had given up their immortality.

I wonder: Perhaps we will all have to find somepony else to do what the alicorns once did."

Flurry awoke with the book draped over her face. She scurried up, looking out the window, and realizing she was already late for her first lesson with Starlight.

Once in the laboratory classroom Starlight had specifically set aside, she found her instructor pacing. "Flurry! You're late!" She shouted, in an awkward attempt not to show her disappointment.

"I-" Flurry caught her breath, disappointed in having disappointed somepony else... "I'm sorry, I just couldn't get to sleep."

Starlight sighed, knowingly. "I heard what Darling said to you... and I know she is your aunt's pupil, but sometimes two ponies just can't be friends." Flurry starred on, for some reason this had just never occurred to her. "Darling is hurt now... And if she lets that hurt fester within... She may never reach her full potential. Trust me I know from personal experience... Don't let that happen to yourself... Flurry Heart."

Flurry looked on in a daze, "I have to do something." She said, suddenly disappearing out of the classroom.

"I always say the wrong thing-" Starlight muttered, putting her hoof to her head.

Upon arriving to the school of magic, Flurry Heart buckled the satchel onto her back. She trotted up the hall back toward Darling's room.

Once there the door creaked open, as it had been left ajar. In a reflection, Darling noted Flurry's presence.

"What don't you understand, Flurry Heart?!" She shouted, jumping up onto her hooves. "I don't want to be your friend! I don't want to hear how sorry you are or anything!"

"I didn't come here to apologize." Flurry said seriously.

Darling narrowed her eyes. Awkwardly taking a seat. "Fine then, what do you want?"

"I want you to have this." Flurry said, unraveling the satchel to reveal Celestia and Luna's journal. "I'm going to want it back... once you've healed."

Darling took the book in her hooves. "This is an artifact..."

"I don't need to be your friend, Darling." Flurry said, sternly, "But, I also won't let you go through this alone."

Darling grazed the cover of the book with her hoof. "You can go."