To Wake the Stars at Twilight

by LA Knight

Prologue: The Edge of the Storm

To Wake the Stars at Twilight
Prologue
The Edge of the Storm

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ŦS

Gusts of wind shuddered through the trees and threatened to tear the thatch from the cottages. The boiling sky ripped open and, in the blink of an eye, torrents of freezing rain and sleet smashed down on Ponyville. A fork of lightning, electric pearl against black skies, lashed through the air to strike the ground.

I don't remember any thunderstorms being scheduled for tonight. This is really going to throw off the pegasi's weather rotation, Twilight thought as she ducked her head and pushed against the wind. Slashing raindrops bit into her coat like needles of ice. She briefly considered using a bit of magic to shield herself, but decided against it. The door to the library was only a few paces away and she was already soaked. Gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut, she staggered underneath the onslaught of the wind and rain until she finally made it to the shelter of the library stoop. A flick of magenta power pulled the silver keys from her rain-slick satchel. Sighing, Twilight inserted the key in the lock and started to twist.

A prickle of unease whispered over her coat, like the shadowy kiss of a dark spell just before it struck. Twilight glanced over her shoulder toward the nearly-opaque sheets of rain hammering down just beyond the awning above the library's front door. She squinted as that strange uneasiness shivered over her coat again and tingled along the elegant spiral of her horn. The air felt wrong. She wasn't sure why, couldn't quite put her hoof on it, but there was a heaviness on the air that had nothing to do with the icy bite of the storm.

Closing her eyes, the unicorn filly let loose a single thread of her magic. If there was something out there - and every instinct said there was - it could be suicide to just throw some power at it without getting a gauge on what it actually was. Shining Armor had taught her that years ago.

So Twilight let a breath of her power shimmer like a stream of orchidaceous and midnight violet stars across the rain-soaked earth and spread outward. Through the touch of her magic, she tasted the richness of the earth, the fresh green of the grass, the chill of the rain. Static, the harbinger of another lightning strike, crackled along her mane and tail.

There! Power. A unicorn's power, so faint she barely felt it, as if the heavy rain and the fog slowly rolling in like a blanket of damp silver muffled its strength. Yet it felt astonishingly familiar in a way she couldn't describe. Shining Armor?

No, she'd know her brother's magical signature anywhere - the taste of pumpkin cookie ice cream, his favorite flavor that he'd always shared with her when she was just a spindly-legged foal; the pleasant, warm aroma of worn leather and the sharp tang of steel from his armor and sword. It wasn't her brother Twilight was sensing. It was a stallion, though. She could glean that much. And he was watching her from... somewhere.

Her heart slammed hard against her breast bone. Biting her lip, she hastily turned away and finished unlocking the library door. Ponyville was a small town. They had almost no crime, unlike in Canterlot or Manehattan. In the months the unicorn had been there, no one had been murdered or assaulted or even been thrown in prison for drunk and disorderly behavior. Except for a rival in Trixie, she didn't have any enemies roaming free, and if Discord or King Sombra or Queen Chrysalis had somehow come to Ponyville, Princess Celestia would've let Twilight know immediately. So who could be watching her?

The tumblers on the lock clicked and the door swung open. Just beyond the open door, Spike curled up in a ball of sleepy baby dragon under a desk lamp, sluggish from the cold weather. The library itself was freezing; she'd forgotten to leave the heater on, since there'd been no forecast of rain or cold weather from the pegasi.

With one last nervous glance over her shoulder out into the impenetrable downpour, Twilight Sparkle stepped into the shelter of the library. She hastily kicked the door shut and used magic to engage all the locks.

ΡĐς

There she is, the unicorn thought, and barely managed to suppress a surge of triumph. It was too soon to celebrate this minor victory. Yes, he'd finally made it back to Ponyville. Yes, he'd found Twilight Sparkle before his enemy had. But that didn't mean he could afford to let his guard down.

There were a lot of things he had to do before he could consider his mission complete. Many things still loomed on the horizon, waiting to come to pass before he would be ready to face off against the alicorns who wanted Twilight's magic for themselves.

Rain dripped down the dusty, scarred coat that had once been white as moonstone. More rain plastered his long, shaggy golden mane to forehead and neck. He'd have to use a bit of magic to dry out his black leather cloak when he managed to get to the place his mistress had arranged for him while he'd be staying in Ponyville. His paired leather satchels were oiled to repel the rain and damp, but his cloak wasn't. Neither was the loose, brown tunic he wore beneath the cloak. If not for the sleek, vicious horn as white as bone spearing into the air, the unicorn stallion knew he'd have looked like a drowned rat in the torrential downpour.

"All right," a sharp voice said from behind him. The stallion smiled. "You've seen Twilight. Now it's time to go and get settled where she's arranged for you to be. Unless you want all of our plans to be for nothing?"

He turned to regard the plump alicorn mare watching him with an exasperated look on her azure face. Unlike the unicorn, she seemed impervious to the rain. The faint sky-blue glow from the slender horn thrusting up like a spike of glittering sapphire seemed to be what kept her dry. He had a fairly good idea she was glamouring herself to look like either a regular earth pony or unicorn, as well.

"So you've made it, Mazzarine," he murmured, turning back to peer through the torrent at the library again. "Will Malachite and Amaranthine be joining us? Or are they staying to keep an eye on things in Canterlot?"

The blue alicorn shook her head. "Amaranthine's gone to Trottingham. There's been word of the Dark One having business there."

"Does Celestia know of the Dark One's renewed interest in Twilight?"

Mazzarine shook her head again with a sigh. "No, and I'm not going to be the one to tell her. Do you remember what happened the last time Celestia faced off against the Dark One? Hundreds of ponies died in the battle. If we can avoid that confrontation, we should. Malachite is doing his part by keeping an eye on the captain of the royal guard. Twilight Sparkle isn't the only one our enemies want to use for their own ends. Now come along... Peter."

The stallion who called himself Peter moved as if to follow the alicorn, but paused to look back at the rain-hazed library one more time. She was in there. Twilight Sparkle. The mare he'd come to Ponyville to find. His enemies wanted to put an end to her. He wouldn't let that happen. He'd come too far to fail now.

Shaking himself to dispel at least some of the frigid water, Peter followed Mazzarine into Ponyville.

TBC

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Author's Note:

Author's Note: so my husband is a brony. Nothing wrong with that. But for the longest time, I thought there was. I would get exasperated when he would talk about MLP:FIM or play what I like to call Pwnie Music (fan-done awesomeness by such brilliant artists as Aviators and Mic the Microphone) or talk about pony-fics. Sometimes I'd just get annoyed. I wasn't interested; why couldn't he just stop talking about it? Then he went as a humanoid Big Macintosh to Comic-Con and I kinda wanted to kill him since I wanted us to go as Kalush and Aaron from The Black Jewels by Anne Bishop.

But I also saw all the other bronies and bronettes who were at the convention. I was like, "Wow. This is really big. What is the deal?" So I started listening to my husband's Pwnie Music and looking at the more epic bits of fanart he got off the internet, and I started asking questions. And he started talking to me about the plot. And after being bribed by my husband and his brony friend (the best man at our wedding, incidentally), I finally agreed to watch the first 2 episodes.

Several months later, I am now a bronette (I refuse to be called a pega-sister. That's the stupidest name I've ever heard. No wonder the fandom is predominantly male). I'm trying to get into Pwnie Music, lyric-wise, and pony-fics. Let's see how I do, huh? Reviews are appreciated.

- LA Knight

PS - is there a My Little Pony Mary-Sue litmus test?

Author's Note: so how'd I'd do? I'd love to hear from you. I would like to think my idea with this fic is pretty original, but we'll see, won't we? This fic will draw on some fairy tale elements, also, so if you see those, they were probably put there on purpose. Anyway, reviews are love and hope you guys are having a great Christmas season and other holidays whose names I can't spell (I don't have spellcheck, sigh).

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A Brief List of OCs: I've got a few OCs for this fic, but all but 2 are going to be minor characters. Mazzarine, Malachite, and Amaranthine are all three alicorns (Mazzarine and Amaranthine are mares; Malachite is a stallion). Another alicorn that's going to pop up, one of the villains, is called Queen Sable. Peter (not his real name) is the main male lead, but he's not reeeaaally an OC. I didn't come up with him, anyway. But I'm using him legally and all that stuff. I promise.

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About the Names: Malachite is not named after the character from the Sailor Moon anime. I needed a name that meant "green," and the only one I could find on my "synonyms for green" webpage that looked good was Malachite, and that's a masculine sounding name, so... yeah. And I felt okay giving Peter a "human" name because Pinkie's middle name is "Diane" and we've got people like Luna, Trixie, Spike, etc. I didn't just randomly decide to name him Peter, either, I promise, lol. There's a reason I picked that name that will be revealed with time. =)

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Regarding the Different Spacers: a spacer is the thing used to break up two scenes in a fic. ŦS is the space intended to precede scenes from Twilight Sparkle's POV. ΡĐς is intended to precede scenes from Peter's POV. As other characters with relevant POV's are introduced, I'll include their spacer designations in the corresponding author's notes.

5007's note: I'm the brony she's talking about up there at the top; I'm her husband. As she has never used BB code before, I'm going to be doing minor edits and making sure her formatting is correct.

Comments

[Ghostfire]

Hmmm...you've peaked my interest, I shall now be following this!

[5007]

1836634
Actually, and LA will confirm this when she next logs in, Peter is actually a cannon character using a codename. But she has sworn me to secrecy on who it is or she will murderer me in my sleep. Considering that we share a bed, it would be suicide to break said promise.

[LA Knight]

1836634 5007 speaks the truth - Peter is a CC using a codename. =) Of course, my husband *would* know, wouldn't he? But thank you for commenting. And the alicorn characters are very secondary. Think... like the good fairies in Sleeping Beauty. =)

What's Suburban Knights?

[ToixStory]

Dear god, this was beautiful. The narration, the story, even the voice was...yes. Just yes.