Cycle: With Wings as Eagles

by SSky

[In Present Day]

“It's amazing,” concluded Twlight, “That we have the tight-knit social structure where we can ask any minor acquaintance if they know somepony and they can find them in a heartbeat. We have a wealth of talent at our hooves; the best of the best just a call away!”

“Twilight,” Spike groaned, “Pinkie recommended you to somepony for some menial task probably; don't read into it so much. Who knows who this pony could be? They could be some stalker or worse.”

Twi squealed excitedly, “You really think I could have a stalker? Someone who watches me with immense interest? Oh that would be a great story to write!”

“Only you...” moaned Spike. It had been a long day and now the sun was lowering over the horizon, but Twilight's daily visit from Pinkie informed her of a pony who wanted her help. There had been no rest from Twilight's constant imaginative ramblings since. Having no idea of the job's nature, She was squirming with anticipation. The unicorn was summoned to the edge of the Everfree forest for the meeting and was now approaching the rendezvous point. The closer they got, the more the suspense built.

Twilight soon spotted two figures talking to each other. She could make out that it was a mare and a stallion, unicorn and earth pony respectively. The stallion displayed a sleek build, red coat, and long gold mane; his cutie mark was hard to make out, but Twilight though she saw a dust cloud. The mare was a dark purple with a short redder-purple mane which had three red stripes that looked a bit like they were painted; she was shorter but slightly buffer than her companion. A closer look revealed a cutie mark showing a wheelbarrow, and around her neck was a golden locket. They both looked Twilight's elder.

Were these the two Twilight was meant to meet? She cautiously strolled up and bumped Spike to make him appear alert. Once they were in distance, the two strangers turned in the direction of Twilight. The mare grew a mysterious smile and approached the lavender unicorn. “Twilight Sparkle, I presume. Yes, it must be. You are the one who I seek. Listen, see. Disregard pleasantries and look into the trees behind me. Of what purpose do they serve? What is the meaning of this forest? What is the meaning of us being here?” The mare turned quickly and began slowly walking, continuing a monologue that was obviously planned and that sailed past Twilight's head.

The stallion stepped up. “I'm sorry. She tends to try being dramatic.”

Twilight shook her head dismissively and smiled. “It's fine. I guess she just wanted to prepare for the meeting. What's your name?”

“Flash Step.” Was the reply. “The one giving the insane speech is my little sis, Sunset Sky.”

“Your sister?” Spike queried, “How do you stand it?”

Twilight bumped Spike off to chide him for his comment. Spike yelped, but Flash laughed. “It's quite alright. She is a bit of a handful. Hard worker though.”

“What do you two do?”

“I race, and Sunset is a delivery mare. I heard you are the princesses' student. What's that like?” he pressed with interest.

“Aw, it's nice to be able to talk to the pony in charge of our country and see how wise she is.” They all stopped for a moment to check on Sunset's rambling. She was oblivious to the ongoing conversation. After a second Twilight continued her questions, “So, is her prose leading somewhere?”

“Erm... well. Kinda. I think she's still trying to build up her name.”

Twilight looked to the sky and realized why she was called at this time. “Cute. Twilight, Sunset.”

“Yeah, you should have seen her planning a date with a colt named Eclipse. It took her three months to work out the timing. The date would have been in fifteen years.” The three shared a hardy laugh. “He he... but she does have a reason. You see, three weeks ago she was carting a load of random stuff when a storm hit. She took shelter in the Everfree Forest and now she thinks she's found something.”

Twilight's eyes sparked. “What kind of something?”

“Some scroll. It's written in some weird scratchy language and I can't read it for the life of me. She says it's about the princesses, but I can't see how she can understand it.”

“Because I can read it, you idiot.” a voice chided. Sunset came up and smacked her brother on the back of the head. “Yeah, thanks for distracting them from my monologue.”

“You are most welcome.” Flash jokingly quipped, sparking a glare from the mare.

Spike casually strolled to the stallion's side once attention had been turned away from hi is. “Girls, eh?”

“Yours a handful too?” Flash whispered back.

“Sometimes.”

Sunset rolled her eyes and focused on Twilight. “Boys.”

Twilight mumbled, “Yours is a handful too?”

“Sometimes.”

Twilight grinned invitingly. “Well, a pleasure to meet you two. Your brother was just telling me about the scroll you found.”

Sunset nodded and pawed at the ground a bit before continuing, “Sorry for taking your time. I'll explain quickly. It's written in an old equestrian language, the one used before Luna's banishment.”

Twilight grew excited. “You mean it's a record in that tongue? The only books in that language are... well... books that teach the language. There are no records before Luna's banishment besides the Hearth's Warming story.” A bit of wariness washed over the lavender unicorn, “Besides, why would you know it?”

“Let me tell ya, carting loads of bricks is boring. You read whatever book you get your hands on. Maybe ten times... or twenty.” Sunset looked around for a moment. “Okay, maybe forty, but that isn't even related to what we are talking about. Anyways, it's pretty old so I wanted to translate it, copy it, and sell it.” Twilight nodded. “And dramatize it.” Twilight furiously shook her head.

“Dramatize it? Why? I bet it's exciting as-is!”

Sunset's golden locket shined, emitting a pure white glow and telekinetically grabbed some saddlebags on the ground. Twilight recognized this as an enchantment, but telekinesis was a simple spell, why would she charge an object? Sunset didn't pay attention to Twilight's inquisitive look. “Because if I translated it it would be a incomprehensible jumble with lines like this: 'Forsooth, yea canst know what vilest of acquaintances thou hast entered into. He is a colt! Via!' Interpreting it would alter meanings dramatically as-is!”

Twilight broke the ensuing silence. “Wow.”

“Turns out, Luna is using really informal language" noted the older mare, "She could be cursing her mouth off for all we know.”

The image disturbed Twilight to the core. “F- fine. But why do you need me?”

---

“She laughed.” Twilight groaned after another day of editing.“I swear Pinkie, she laughed. Maybe not out loud, but internally she did.”

“Aww,” soothed Pinkie, helping clear off the mess of papers on Twilight's desks. “You are just being a grump about it. Be glad you have the opportunity! You seemed so excited two months ago when you first told us about being able to do this. Look on the bright side of things! You see something nopony else has and you make new friends!”

Twilight grumbled. “Thanks for the advice. And also thanks for not remembering that you don't tell whatever pony you come across about me when they ask for something.”

“No problem!” chirped Pinkie, grinning ear-to-ear.

“How did you know her anyway?”

“Duuuuuuh, Twily,” Twilight flinched at Pinkie calling her by Shining Armor's pet name for her. “I know everypony in this town!" A beat, "That and she delivers my bulk orders confetti from Manehattan on occasion.”

“You buy confetti in bulk?” queried Twilight.

“Who doesn't?”

Twilight realized she fell into that one. “Okay, fine. But what am I going to do about this?” She plucked a piece of paper from the stack and let it drop. The weight of the ink Twilight had added made the paper plummet to the ground with a “Clunk.”

Pinkie looked impressed. “Wow, I didn't know there were so many ways you could misspell 'guard.' Gard, gourd, grhd, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. That takes talent!”

“Pinkie, focus! She says there's a lot more left! What am I supposed to do?”

“Make friends with her? That always seems to work for us.”

Twilight couldn't argue that point, but retorted, “Tried. Sometimes when I see her she acts friendly and sometimes she acts like the world hates her and moans at me for talking too loud.”

Pinkie pursed her lips. A flash of thought had caught her brain and she calmly explained an idea to Twilight. “Tell her to write only in the mornings. It will be slower; some random interjections may pop up, but you will have less work and there will be fewer errors.”

“What?” asked Twilight incredulously, but Pinkie had already diverted her attention to something else.

“Where's Spikey?”

“Um, I don't know. Probably at Fluttershy's helping with animals or just hanging around town. I haven't needed him too much recently so he has been helping others or enjoying free time.”

Pinkie smiled and trotted out the door. Twilight wondered why Pinkie gave her the advice she did. It seemed illogical, but Twilight trusted her friend, and Pinkie probably was right. Twilight took a scroll and quill and began to write.

---

“It worked.” Twilight uttered, astonished. When the lavender unicorn had gotten back from her and her friend's picnic, The papers she had from Sunset were intelligible, if a bit bland. A small stack was all the unwilling editor had that afternoon to work with, and she had only made a few word choice corrections and crossed out some weird dialogue interjections. She looked out to see the sun was still high in the sky and she had time to catch up on studies.

She took a second thought. Instead of grab a pile of books, she cleared away a pile of paper to find a scroll. She had made copies of everything Sunset had sent her way so far. Twilight looked at the scrawled notes she had made. Things didn't make sense. Why hadn't she and her friends seen the Everfree ruins when they journeyed to the castle? That could have been explained by decay, and was the least pressing of the questions.

But three crept in her mind as unanswered as she trawled the limited knowledge given. One: why is Everfree a forest? Two: why was the document in such good shape? If it really was over a thousand years old, it would have decayed by then.

Three: Why didn't Princess Celestia ever say anything to anypony?

Comments

[SSky]

Chapter notes:
Keeping this part short. I will note that this will be the ONLY time in this story it will happen. I decided now would be a good time to insert a tie to the present, which will be vital later. How much later? Much. Don't worry, I'm not going to be doing a future/past switching thing like a bunch of fics have.

This also establishes this as a HISTORICAL DOCUMENT, further confusing matters.

I feel I must add a note about Sunset. Yes, she is the mare in my avatar. No, she is not a self insert. Thank Shahar, too. That would reflect very poorly on me.

[SSky]

861200
Argh I knew that would slip past me eventually. Trying to diversify words.

Well since you created it, duh.

[Avenging-Hobbits]

856682 I don't mind. I kinda liked it.