Ch.1- A spark of hope (edited)
“YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THIS TO US?!! WE DESERVE TO BE WHO WE WANT TO BE WITH, NOT WHO YOU CHOOSE US TO!! JUST WATCH US PRINCESS, YOU CAN’T CONTROL US, ONE DAY WE- “
The grand double doors slammed with a hard thud, the stallions last words echoing across the throne room. Two golden auras faded out of existence on the door handles, owned by two royal guards standing outside the entrance.
Right now, court was taking place in the morning today, due to ‘Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns’ entrance exam being open. Every year, an exam would be taken place around September, testing a young unicorns’ magical abilities, seeing if they should enter the most well-educated school Equestria has to offer.
The ruler of the richest, yet one of the most old-fashioned countries in the world was named Princess Celestia. She was one of the last alicorns in history to live right now, and the most powerful being to exist, defeating powerful conquers in the past. She had a pure shade of white as her coat, lavender eyes, and a mane full of magic, moving in colours of green, pink, blue and purple. Celestia’s wings and horn were bigger than the average pony, as for her height too. And of course, her cutie mark was a sun. Due to events nearly a thousand years ago, the Princess now moves both sun and moon, keeping harmony and living things alive, the sun being her rightful gift to harness and control, yet not the moon.
At this very moment, Princess Celestia sat on her golden throne. A hibiscus fabric stretched from the throne to the exit, having a darker colour for an outline. There were 3 stained glass windows around the room. Each one was dedicated to representing the day cycle: day, night, and twilight.
Two royal guards, with grey coats and brown eyes, were stationed two steps below the Princess, both unicorns holding stern expressions on their face.
A few seconds later, a pink aura was noticed. One door was swung open gently as a white coated mare, with a cedar-coloured mane started trotting towards the throne. The mare had brown eyes, her mane and tail in a bun tied by a piece of red ribbon, having two fringes on either side of her face. A white collar held a red bow on her neck whilst a thick pair of black glasses sat on her muzzle. As for her cutie mark, she bore a brown ink bottle with a golden lid to it, as an indigo pen was noticeable next to it. She is known as the solar Princesses assistant, Raven.
“Hello Raven. Sorry about the stallion you had to see, it was about one of those traditional laws, if you understand what I mean.” A small, yet respectful smile was on Celestia’s muzzle, glancing at the unicorn’s notepad in her magical grasp.“Are there anymore appointments for today? I would like to see how the entrance exam is going on so far.”
The unicorn in question glanced at her notepad, before replying “Yes your highness, you have 6 more appointments with some individuals, then afterwards, you will need to check in with the school about the entrance exam results so far.
Princess Celestia hummed for a moment. "I swear there were 5 more appointments for today, oh well, I’m sure it will go quickly.”
Raven smiled a little, keeping her professional attitude along with it. “The extra appointment was a last-minute issue. I had a scan on every statement these ponies wanted to discuss about, and they don’t seem to be that serious.”
The solar monarch nodded, glancing at the door. “Thank you Raven, I would like to proceed with the next appointme- “
BOOOOOOOOM
Out of nowhere, something purple zoomed right past the throne room, causing a hint of shock to every pony present, even the Princess herself. It was so sudden. No pony knew something like this would happen, but it did.
The solar monarch started to panic a little. ‘This magical energy…I’ve never felt anything as powerful as this. But it feels so…familiar?’ Her face slowly created a puzzled expression, before she snapped out of her trance as a royal guard, with a white coat and blue eyes, ran towards the throne in a state of distress.
“Your highness!! There has been an attack in the school tower, we don’t know what it is, but we cannot get close to it without leaving the citizens, they are all panicking, and we don’t know what to do!”
The stallion stopped running with a great halt, pointing outside the twilight window. “A dragon has been spotted inside the tower. I am not sure how it appeared there, but the situation is causing every pony to freak out, as I’ve just stated.”
Princess Celestia quickly stood up, trotting hastily to the royal guard. “Do you know what was going on before this ‘attack’?”
Raven started to trot towards one of the grey guards, letting the princess and the guard discuss the urgent matter. Both grey coated unicorns looked at one another with some awkwardness yet worry, one of them glancing at the white coated guard.
The stallion nodded. "Yes, I do, at that moment, a filly named Twilight Sparkle was doing her entrance exam. However, the fourth set of chicken eggs did not arrive in time, and due to the strict schedule, they had to use a dragon egg instead.”
She paused and glared into the guard’s eyes with rage. “A dragons egg!? Did I say they could use a dragon egg?! You know what, never mind.” Huffed Celestia, regaining her regal posture. “So, what happened next?”
He shook his head anxiously, darting his eyes around the room and not herself. “I uhm... w-we do not know. After we were informed about the news, around 14 minutes later, some sort of rainbow circle came out of nowhere. And just after that, a purple explosion happened, around where the dragon is right now.”
The Princess sighed but gave him an appreciated nod. Her wings spread open, as she started to trot towards the doors. “Tell the guards to stay put and calm down civilians, I’m going to see what’s going on and try to control the situation” turning her civil tone to more of a determined one. “Myself.”
Her pace in walking got increasingly faster every step she took, lighting her horn as she swung the doors open, which ended with a slight crack. The alicorn started to beat her wings in a rhythmic form, until she started to fly carefully, yet quickly towards the disaster.
…
The premises went silent, until one of the grey coated royal guards trotted towards the white one. He held a playful smirk, jabbing him with his hoof at his side. “Dude, that was brave, even Harlow couldn’t do that, and he’s like. Ya know, the fiercest one out of all of us.”
They both glanced at another grey coated guard, who was chatting away with the unicorn mare, both blushing slightly at each other’s company. Both royal guards chuckled, making the pair pause and turn their heads. Raven and Harlow looked at each other in confusion, before questioning at the same time.
“What?”
O0o……………………o0O
Everything was in chaos. From below her, ponies darted across streets, trying to find the most appropriate shelter, safe from the dragon. It was understandable. Ponies haven’t seen a dragon this close since over 600 years ago, only seeing the shadows twice a year, which still scares them.
However, there wasn’t an attack from the purple/green dragon. It was poking its head out the towers roof, just… looking around? And its eyes, its emerald like eyes, held nothing but innocence and curiosity, possibly confusion of its position right now. Celestia knew something wasn’t right about this. Dragons are in mating season right now, having one in Canterlot just didn’t make sense at all.
Yet the dragon was least of her concerns. She could make out a pulsing light of purple and white inside the entrance exam room. Just knowing a filly was in there, just moments before the whole mess happened frightened her. What would Twilight do in the situation? Run? Hide? She didn’t know, but that made her fly even faster.
Celestia knew this was magics doing, she could feel the immense power that was radiating inside the building. Honestly, it was so strong that it was giving her a slight headache. Knowing this, something inside must be so powerful, that it could rival her own magical abilities. This wasn’t good. Not at all…
Sighing, the alicorn was reaching her destination, near the grand double doors that contained the source of this catastrophe.
‘Just hold on my little ponies, ill fix everything. I promise...’
O0o……………………o0O
Princess Celestia pulled the wooden double doors open with a vast amount of force, one door breaking off its hinges, as the other held a massive crack to the side. The whole room was a mess, which wasn’t a huge surprise. Books, papers and debris was mostly scattered around the floor. Looking from above, you could see the dragons body stood there, one claw was scratting its stomach right now, and it seemed to be calm enough to not worry about it.
Turning to her right, Celestia noticed that the four judges were hiding behind the desk, out of fear she thought. Understandable, but they could have at least helped.
The Princess decided to ignore them now and started to trot hastily. However, she paused. Turning her head towards the centre of the room, she witnessed the source to it all. She couldn’t see who was in the bubble, but she had to guess it was the filly Twilight Sparkle.
Inside the ball of white and purple, held a small figure of a pony, noticing a small horn coming off the pony’s head. Celestia heard something. Something faint, yet something that made her realise what was going on.
‘She’s having a magic outburst…’ Celestia thought, holding a sympathetic expression on her face. However, that didn’t last long as she heard the noise again, closing her eyes as she thought how to help the poor filly.
‘I need to draw her magic to the sun, hopefully that will decrease the amount of raw magic she’s giving off.’
Nodding to herself, the alicorn stepped closer to the bubble of white and purple, her horn glowing a soft yellow. This amount of raw power was…amazing. However, it was terrifying. A young pony like Twilight shouldn’t be able to hold this power, it was impossible. Normally, a filly having a magical outburst like this would kill them in seconds, the magic burning their skin until nothing was left.
Yet this filly was alive. And she needed to save her before it was too late.
Starting her spell, she started to suck the magic out of the filly, having enough magic to transfer the raw power to the sun itself. It was the only practical solution she could think of. There wasn’t enough time to think of a better solution, or a safer way of doing this.
There was no time. Yet, the process was working. The noises were getting louder, sounding like faint screaming… Oh how she wished this never had happened, this poor filly was just doing her exam, then minutes later, has one of he post powerful magic outburst she has ever witnessed.
Slowly, the magic was starting to die dying down. What used to be a bubble of white and purple, being the size of herself, has shrunk to the size of a normal pony.
It only lasted a few minutes, but the bubble faded out of existence. The dragon shrunk to a baby dragon. Two plant pots turned into…ponies? She would ask later. And the glowing light faded until it shone no more.
Huffing, Celestia stopped her spell, the golden glow fading until it was nothing. It was over and she let out a sigh of relief. The alicorn glanced down at the filly, hopeful if she survived the outburst. But the feeling ended, replacing with an expression of surprise and shock. This filly wasn’t a normal pony…she noticed something very… interesting about her.
Her coat was a beautiful shade of lavender, her mane being a shade of dark blue, having a streek of pink and purple in the middle. And off course, the filly had a small lavender horn poking out of her head. However, there were other noticeable features she picked out. Twilights ears were fluffier than the normal pony, also seeing small fangs poking out her mouth. Glancing to her back, two lavender wings were apparent, yet they weren’t full of feathers. No, they looked like bat or dragon wing of some sort, she couldn’t tell.
Before she could process the pony that laid before her, Twilight’s eyes started to open. The small filly started to get up, grunting at the pain she was receiving after the whole incident. Honestly, she still couldn’t believe this filly lived through all of that. But she wasn’t a normal unicorn, she was something else entirely.
“Hmmgnn…I. w-what happened?..” Twilight was now sitting in a tired position, rubbing her eyes as she adjusted to the scenery. She started exploring the destruction that was made, the fillys ears folding back.
She slowly wandered her eyes around the room, taking in the sudden change of the room. This lasted for a few seconds, until she noticed four white hooves Infront of her. Lifting her head slowly, both of their eyes met.
Her pupils were…beautiful. Yet, it reminded her of her sister… These eyes were like a dragons, her sclera being a shade of blue (space), and her iris being the colour of violet. It reminded the alicorn of the night, thus her name also being Twilight. This filly was a whole mystery, and she wanted to get to know her.
Twilight shrieked out of fear, now flapping her small wings into the air. “V-velvet.N-nighty?? Where are you?!” she cried out of desperation.
“Over here sweetie!” A stallion with a dark blue mane and coat yelled, noticing that Twilight flew over to him with no hesitation. They both met with a hug, one crying as the other tried to calm them down.
Glancing to the side of them, Celestia noticed a mare. She had a light grey coat, her mane being in stripes of purple and white, but surprisingly in the same style as the fillys. Her eyes were a shade of cyan, and noticing by her expression towards her, she was not happy.
“Hello Princess. I would love to have an explanation of WHAT IN TARTURUS HAPPENED TO MY FILLY?!” The mare shouted, walking towards herself in a fast pace.
Flinching, Celestia tried to think of what to say, because really, she doesn’t know what to say about all of this. The smaller mare pointed angrily towards, assuming, her husband and Twilight, both still in their tight embrace. “My child is crying and seems to be in a lot of pain. I would love to hear an explanation on what has caused this to happen. Hm? Start talking.”
Okay, this was one of the craziest days she has had in her lifetime. First, a grown dragon appears out of nowhere and apparently, is a baby dragon, who was magically forced to grow older. Second, a filly has so much raw magic, that it nearly destroyed this tower, and she still survived it all. Third, the filly Is not just a unicorn, but a whole different species entirely that has never been discovered before. And finally, a mortal mare, around in her 30’s, was shouting to the solar goddess herself, not caring about who she was or just, anything.
“I.. w-well ma’am. Where do I begin…"
Where could she begin though? She was still trying to process everything still. It all just didn’t made sense. Gulping slightly, Celestia breathed as she tried to make herself calm again.
“Your daughter, I assume, was just doing her entrance exam in my school, is that correct miss?”
The mare still held that expression on her face, and it was starting to worry her. “Mrs Velvet will do. And yes, that is correct. She was about to hatch a dragon egg, before a loud noise made her jump. There was a huge white light for a second, but afterwards, we woke up to…this.” Velvet waved her hoof around the area, looking a little anxious for what has happened.
Celestia puzzled everything together, sighing as she began the story. "Well Mrs Velvet, your daughter had a magic outburst, and well…turned you into plants.” She noticed that the young mare froze for a second, but glanced back up, wanting her to continue. “The dragon egg did indeed hatch, and not just that, but grew into a grown adult, creating a hole into the roof. Twilight is fine if you are wondering. There weren’t any noticeable injuries on her, yet maybe lay her off magic for a week or two. It could damage her horn if she uses it too soon.”
Velvet nodded slightly, shocked at the information she had just received. She just stood there, trying to process everything that has happened and has been stated. She couldn’t blame her; she was in the same situation as her too.
Princess Celestia snapped out of her trance and started to walk towards the other two. She was glad the filly had lived through everything. Yet, she had so many questions to ask them. Who was this filly? What is she? Was she their real child? How does she have so much raw energy? How is she even in Equestria for ponies’ sake?!
Yep, so many questions.
“Hello there, I’m guessing you’re Twilights farther, right?”
The stallion in question dropped the shaken filly onto the ground, quickly going behind his leg. This unicorn didn’t have the mare’s anger on his face, but rather a face of hope and dread. “Sort of, more like farther figure. My name is Night Light, Night for short your highness” he smiled.
Celestia copied his smile back at him. She nodded her head slightly, trying to be friendly to the stallion and filly. "Well Night, I am so terribly sorry of what has occurred this morning, if I had to be honest, nothing like this has ever happened to me before, or any pony in fact.”
Night Light had a sheepish grin, rubbing his head with his hoof. “Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised honestly. Twilight sure does make things interesting; don’t you honey?”
Both ponies stared at the lavender filly, now peeking out of Nights hoof. The state of the filly made Celestia’s heart melt. Twilight’s face looked so tired, so frighted, yet exited too. Leaning down, she smiled softly at her, noticing that she was slowly walking out of Nights shadow. “Hey there, you must be the amazing Twilight I've heard so much?”
Twilight nodded quickly, staring at herself with fear yet amazement.
“Well Twilight, I wanted to say I’m sorry for not coming sooner, and I’m sorry that you had to go through that. If I flew faster. Or if I knew sooner, I….” Celestia spoke, closing her eyes regretfully.
Twilight stepped forward, before she wrapped her hooves around Celestia’s hoof. This made her open her eyes in awe. The filly pressed her muzzle again her hoof, starting to feel a slight wetness coming off Twilights eyes. She was very fluffy too.
“I-I..I’m sorry princess… I-I didn’t mean too...”
Celestia enveloped Twilight in her golden arura, lifting her towards her stomach to embrace her into a soft hug. The alicorn smiled warmly, nuzzling the filly in hopes of calming her down. She didn’t know why, but this filly, she made her want to protect and be there for her. There was just this feeling, something she couldn’t understand, nor describe, but it was like instinct. However, she tried to ignore this, thinking on how to proceed with this.
Twilight Sparkle had passed the exam, that’s for sure. But it would be dangerous to let her study with other ponies her age. This filly did something that no pony, even herself, has yet to achieve. Hatching a dragon’s egg. She wanted Twilight to study, and to be in her school. But she knew the young pony had so much potential and could be dangerous if taught by the wrong pony.
There was one idea that she knew could work. And the solar alicorn knew this was the best decision she could think of.
Without a second thought, Celestia gently inquired to the small pony "I have a proposition for you Twilight. Now think carefully, okay? Would you like to be my personal protégé?”
Now that made the filly exited. Twilight stopped crying and gawked up at her in surprise. It was all too adorable. Watching her and her parental figures in shock was funny too, they all looked like they’ve just seen a dragon up close for the first time.
Wait- that did happen. Oh well, she commented to herself.
But the shock didn’t last, as Twilight started flying around in circles shouting in glee
“YES! YES! YES! YES!”
All three adults chuckled in delight, watching the filly having her little victory flight.
Celestia knew she chose the right choice, because for the first time for so long, she feels happy. Truly happy for this filly, and for what comes. Because she noticed something on the fillys flank. A cutie mark of a pink star, and five silver ones surrounding the bigger one. Twilight Sparkle, now the personal protégé of the solar princess herself, was indeed, the element of magic. A spark of hope flashed into the princesses’ eyes, eyeing the very pony who would release her sister from the darkness, and bring her back to her.
The white alicorn sat down onto the floor, spectating the small family celebrating the newfound news. She closed her eyes and smiled lovingly.
‘Everything is going to be okay now, I’ve found hope… and I’ll be able to see you again soon... Luna…’