NaNo2014: Shadows of Friendship: Part 13

Twilight rocked back slightly as she considered what she had read. She knew about as much about the puzzle upon her bed as she did about the Elements of Harmony, which was very little. Both her tutor and her dam-sire apparently knew more and neither of them had shared the information with her for her own safety. Twilight was actually a little offended that the Princess had not trusted her enough to give her the choice sooner. She understood that Celestia was worried about losing her like she had lost her sister and her last student, but it was her life so surely it was her choice.

She did not understand about the ‘Guardian of the Shadows’ bit though. She did not know what the ‘Shadows’ were or how she was supposed to guard them. If an alicorn Princess had given her life to seal them away, then they were surely a bad thing and they should be guarded against, not protected. Unless the idea was to protect them against others who would use them to hurt others like Nightmare Moon had wanted to do a thousand years ago, or Sunset Shimmer, who Twilight had had heard had gone a little crazy and hurt a bunch of ponies before she had fled the castle.

If she completed the puzzle, that would be her role. Her duty would be to shield other ponies from the dark magic. She could imagine that it would be a role that would allow her plenty of practise with her magic and could possibly lead into studies in more exotic magicks. It could be interesting. However she did not doubt that it would be dangerous too. The Princess had been writing like she had not expected to succeed in her attempt to defeat Nightmare Moon and save her sister and that worried Twilight. Celestia was much more powerful than she was and she had quite clearly failed the test on friendship that would have allowed her to use the Elements of Harmony, so how was she, as the Guardian of the Shadows, meant to succeed where her tutor had failed?

Of course she had to make that choice first. Did she want that responsibility? Celestia had given her the choice to turn it down and stay safe if she wanted. Twilight had this odd feeling though that trying to stay out of it would not protect her when Nightmare Moon came calling.

Besides the puzzle was a test. A test she had been trying to complete for eight years. If she failed to complete it, she would not only be turning her back on her mentor, but she would willingly fail the test her dam-sire had set her so long ago. Not only that but the wish that was the prize at the end of all her hard work, would never come true.

She was certain that now she knew the risks of being tempted by the darkness, she could keep it at bay and even If she struggled, she had her brother and her mentor who could help her. If they kept an eye on her then they would be able to see the warning signs and stop her from falling. She would not be Sunset Shimmer, who had betrayed the Princess and frightened so many before her departure from the castle. She would not let herself be that pony. If she took on the role as Guardian of the Shadows, she would do her duty properly. No matter how much work it was. If that was the role Celestia trusted her to take, then she wanted to live up to that trust.

She picked up the piece the Princess had returned to her, examining it carefully as she thought over her options. She wanted to believe she had the strength to carry the burden. The Princess seemed to think that she might but Twilight was just as uncertain as her mentor. Plus she did not know what she wanted her wish to be. It was selfish, but she did not just want to wish Nightmare Moon away. Not only would it make her teacher unhappy if her sister vanished for good, but it felt like cheating and she wanted her wish to be something she wanted. It was selfish, she knew, but after eight years of hard work, if her ‘prize’ was to be placed into a dangerous role, she felt she deserved that one, single wish.

“I…” Twilight hesitated, her mind going over the events of the previous day. She had enjoyed thinking that she had made a few friends and spending time doing something new. If she could have one wish, just one wish, it was that she would like some friends that would not tease her or use her to further their own studies or place in Celestia’s court. Someone she could trust to save her rump if things got bad once she had accepted her role and who she could help in return… “I wish…I wish I had friends I could rely on,” She spoke out loud as she slowly inserted the piece, “And who could rely on me in turn. Friends who I can trust and share everything with…”

The final piece clicked into place and Twilight let out a startled mix of a gasp and shriek as magic erupted from it, temporarily overwhelming her senses. When she came to, she was on the floor, the completed puzzle on the ground before her and any signs of the magic that had emerged when she had completed completely erased, almost like it had never happened at all, except for the fact she had been on the bed when she had finished the puzzle.

“What in the hay?” Twilight breathed, cautiously levitating the completed artefact alongside her while she returned to her place on the bed, trying to piece together what had happened and coming up blank.

It did not matter really. Nothing had gone wrong, nothing had been harmed and she was perfectly fine. A few missed seconds were not really a big issue and it was possible that the missed seconds her just been her magic and that she supposedly gained as the ‘Guardian of the Shadows’ intertwining and disrupting her magic’s natural flow. There was even a reasonable explanation for the pulse of magic. She had to be able to recognise the magic she was supposed to be using if she was going to be able to control it. At least that’s what she tried to convince herself as she examined the completed trinket.

It looked like an upside down pyramid, like the ones she had seen in the pictures of Saddle Arabia, except for the hoop at the top. She was pretty sure she could thread something through it so she could wear it rather than risk it falling apart in her bag if she accidently shoved books on top of it, which was a worryingly likely scenario. Not that she was sure it would come apart easily anyway. Now it was finished it was surprisingly sturdy and she could feel a weak aura of the same magic from earlier surrounding it and interweaving with the pieces, almost as if it was helping hold it together. It was kind of a relief. She did not want to have to reassemble it at the slightest knock after all.

She looked up when the door creaked open. Spike poked his head in, looking concerned despite the lampshade on his head. “Are you alright, Twilight?” He asked, worried for her. “You’re missing one heck of a…you finished it?!” His train of thoughts derailed as he spotted the finished puzzle. “You’ve been working on it forever!”

“Not quite that long.” Twilight chuckled, though she was not surprised Spike thought so considering that she had received it before she had hatched Spike’s egg. “Can you get me a rope or something to thread it onto?”

“Sure!” The dragonet scurried away and came back with a streamer made of silver ribbon. Twilight smiled at him gratefully as she used her magic to thread the ribbon through the hoop, wrapping it around the loop a couple of times to make sure that it was secure and the fabric would not rip. “Are you coming down to the party now?”

“I…” Twilight did not want to, but her wish could not come true if she avoided everyone. Instead she tied the streamer in a loop and put it on, feeling a little odd as the weight settled on her neck and wondering if she would ever get used to how heavy it felt.

“Please Twilight? It’s almost time for the sun to come up anyway.” Spike tried reasoning with her, much to the unicorn’s amusement. “You wouldn’t have to talk to other ponies for long…”

It was not that she did not like talking to other ponies. She just always struggled to find some common ground with them. That was why getting along with Pinkie Pie had been such a pleasant surprise. She had nothing in common with the pink, crazy earth pony. She was loud, she was bouncy and she had no concept of personal space. Yet she and Pinkie had spent hours in each other’s company and chatted away and had generally had fun.

Which was why she did not want to go down. Thinking about it logically, it was quite possible that the hot sauce had not been meant for her. It had just been the closest bottle to her when she had gone to take a drink. The amused smirks and laughter would have been the same towards any pony who had reacted as she had. Even she would have found the situation amusing if it had not been her in that position. She was just over reacting because she was too used to being bullied in school without being able to fight back. As Celestia’s personal student she was ‘supposed to rise above it’ and not ‘react in an undignified manner.’

Running upstairs and hiding like a foal probably counted as the latter, even if it had allowed her to finish her puzzle. Fleeing like that had probably made a worse impression on the citizens of Ponyville then the prank had in the first place.

“Alright Spike.” Twilight could not help but sigh as her baby dragon grinned like a loon. “I’ll be down in a minute, I promise.”

“You’ll enjoy it.” Spike promised. “Rainbow Dash got a duelling ring going and…”

Spike knew just what to say to make her evening. She had completed the puzzle and that was awesome, even if it had come with a job to do, but if she wanted to get to know the ponies here and still stand a chance of passing her mentor’s test, there were not many better ways to understand a pony then learning how they thought from across a duelling field.

“Two minutes.” Twilight swore. Spike did not entirely look like he believed her but he nodded, causing the lampshade on his head to nearly tumble off, and headed back downstairs. The unicorn watched him go with a shake of her head and a chuckle before tidying around and checking her deck was up together.

Once she was certain she was about as ready as she was ever going to be, she took a deep breath and stepped out of her bedroom. The party was in full swing below and she could quite easily see the small group of ponies to one side of the room, over by the snack tables, who had their decks laid out on the floor and were playing each other.

Pretty much all the ponies that she had spent time with the day before were there.

NaNo2014: Shadows of Friendship: Part 12

“My dearest Twilight Sparkle,” The unicorn read out loud, casting a basic ‘flicker’ spell to light the nearby candle, giving her enough light to see the words properly, “By now you will probably be needing the piece I contain in this letter and I apologise for withholding it from you for such a long time.”

Which meant that the Princess had to have had it for a while, though Twilight was not sure when she had taken it. The unicorn was not entirely sure how she felt about the fact that the Sun Goddess had effectively stolen a piece from a treasure that her dam-sire had given her, though she was sure that Celestia had had a good reason for it.

“I have had it since you first showed it to me, back when you first moved into your rooms in the school and I know you will probably be angry with me for not returning it to you sooner.” Celestia’s letter continued, “However, before you put this letter down and refuse to listen to me any longer, please read through why I thought, at one point, that it would be better for you never to complete the puzzle.”

Twilight grimaced, trying to work out why she felt like that was not the Sun alicorn’s decision to make. She was the Ruler of all of Equestria after all. What she said was law. If she had thought it for the best that Twilight did not complete the puzzle, then really the young unicorn should have had no say in that matter. That did not make her feel any better.

“It all starts in a country known as Equigypt, where your puzzle comes from. A country that ceased to exist long before Equestria was ever thought of.” Twilight knew this, Treasure Trove had told her all the tales surrounding the puzzle as a kid. She had committed them to memory, hoping that they would help her solve the secrets of the artefact that she had been working on for going on eight years. “A dark magic destroyed the land thousands of years before even I was born and was sealed away by a powerful alicorn who gave her life to do so.”

That she had not known. Her dam-sire had not told her that part, though it was quite possible that he had not known as nothing she had read on Equigypt had ever informed her of what had happened to ruin the once proud country, only that it had disappeared overnight and become part of Saddle Arabia.

“My sister, Princess Luna, went to Saddle Arabia in order to work her diplomatic magic and came back with reams and reams of notes on the magic belonging to a vizier she had met while there. I allowed her to explore that magic, hoping that it would distract her from me while I dealt with my ever increasing duties, not noticing that slowly and surely Luna was losing more and more face with the nobles as they looked upon the ‘Night Queen’ as a necessary evil rather than understanding the true balance of day and night.”

This was more honesty from her tutor on these matters than Twilight had ever experienced and she was not quite sure how to take it. Celestia had obviously needed to get off of her chest and in revealing her theft to Twilight she had obviously felt that now was the time for the truth. About everything. It was probably easier to do it on paper than it would have been to tell her all of this to her face.

“I did not see Luna’s decent from studying the dark magic that she had discovered, to using it, but I was the cause for her final fall into Nightmare Moon, for I pushed her away and when the nobles came to me, asking why we even needed the night, I did not scold them and defend Luna’s night as I should have done. Instead I allowed them to turn against her and drive her further into the darkness. It was that darkness that finally controlled her and turned her into the demon sorceress, Nightmare Moon.”

Who was due to return tomorrow during the Summer Sun Celebration if the legends were true.

“I had no choice but to banish her to the moon for a thousand years for her own protection and for that of the mares and stallions in our care. I lost my last student, Sunset Shimmer, to that same magic after she discovered my sister’s notes locked away deep within the castle, but unlike my sister, she banished herself to a place from which she could never return and where I could never reach her. I could not lose you the same way.”

Twilight blinked at those words. She had heard only brief rumours of Sunset Shimmer, who had been Celestia’s personal student before she had. The rumours spoke of an arrogant unicorn who had delved too deep into the darker side of magic and had lost her place at Celestia’s side. This was new information about that too. However she had never found the notes of Princess Luna and she did not understand how her puzzle linked to any of this.

“I know you’re probably wondering what this has to do with your puzzle.” Celestia’s letter continued, causing the unicorn to smile slightly at how well the Princess knew her, “Well, your puzzle is an artefact that was once worn by the same alicorn who sealed the darkness away in the first place and since her seal had quite clearly started to fail, I was worried for your safety. After all, the darkness quite clearly held grudges and I was frightened that either you would be lost to the same darkness when your curiosity drove you to investigate it’s properties, just as my sister had, or you would be attacked as the holder of the artefact belonging to that long lost Princess.”

That made a worrying amount of sense. Twilight had trouble bringing herself to be angry when Celestia had stolen the piece from her out of concern for her wellbeing.

“My concerns were not alleviated any when a zebra by the name of Zecora, who held two of the golden relics, a Key and a pair of Scale and came to me not long after I took you on as a student and hid the piece away. She told me that the puzzle granted one wish, but it also gave the wielder power over the darkness and granted them the title ‘Guardian of Shadows.’ Then she warned me of dark days ahead and vanished from my castle. I have had people searching ever since but no one has managed to locate her.”

She knew about the wish. Her dam-sire had told her all about it when he had first given her the puzzle, claiming it was the prize for passing the test of completing it. A test she now knew that the Princess had been preventing her from completing. She had not known, however, about the ‘Guardian of Shadows’ part and she could not help but wonder if Treasure Trove had when he had given it to her. She doubted it. He loved her and she was certain that he would not have willingly put her in any danger, but the part about ‘dark days ahead’ was worrying and Twilight was sure they probably related to what was due to happen tomorrow.

“I believed that I could make the choice for you. That if I took away a piece of the puzzle that you would be safe and I could find some other way of understanding the darkness. However, I was wrong. I have spent the last one thousand years trying to find a way to break through the darkness and free someone from them to no avail and now I have run out of time. Tomorrow the demon controlling my sister will be free once more and I had to make a choice. Allow you to complete the puzzle and claim your place as the Guardian of Shadows, as is your right and risk losing you forever but chancing that if I fall, you will be able to bring Luna back to her senses. Or keep this piece from you and send you far from the danger. I was thinking over those choices when you sent me your letter about Nightmare Moon’s return.”

Which was why it had taken so long to get her reply, Twilight now understood.

“It was actually your letter that helped me decide. That and the tale of an old stallion I once met who I believe is related to you, a Treasure Trove. He knew the Shadows better than any pony alive when I met him and we searched together for a while. He was supposedly doing it to protect his family. Now I know he meant protecting you. We turned up dead end after dead end until finally he reminded me that Unity, the power that we discovered the alicorn Princess had used to seal away the darkness, was another name for Harmony and that maybe the answers I sought were not that far away from home.”

The Elements of Harmony. That was what Celestia was clearly talking about when she mentioned Harmony. Twilight did not know what she meant by the Equigyptian Princess’s Unity, but she understood that her dam-sire had meant the Elements when he had spoken to Celestia.

“Time grows short and you will be pacing your library or perhaps working on your puzzle, waiting impatiently for my reply, but I ask you to think carefully before you make your choice. Do not rush into what seems right for Equestria, do what seems right for you. If you choose not to complete the puzzle and stay out of whatever happens when my sister returns, I will understand. However, if you do choose to stand and fight, I beg that you find the Elements of Harmony. They allowed me to seal her away and may give you, in your role as Guardian, the chance to free Luna where I cannot.

Whatever you choose, I will always be your teacher and support you through any choices you make,

Princess Celestia.”

NaNo2014: Shadows of Friendship: Part 4

The baby dragon was not daft enough to try and disturb Twilight when she was working on the bright treasure that looked edible and delicious to him but had an awful taste that had put him off eating it for life. Instead he found his spare cards and started making adaptions to his deck in case Twilight wanted to duel while they were waiting for the Princess to write back.

Twilight lost track of the time as she worked on the trinket. Her dam-sire had told her a long time ago, back before she had even gotten her cutie mark and started studying under the Princess, that the one who passed the test and completed the ‘Millennium Puzzle’ got one wish and that wish was guaranteed to come true. She was beginning to wonder though, if it was called such because it was going to take a thousand years to complete.

The first pieces went in easily. She knew almost instinctively now which pieces went in which order right up until she was about a third of the way done. Then the difficulty started. She could not insert the pieces by hoof, the puzzle was far too complex and fiddly for that. Instead she had to use her magic to put it together as well as hold it in place. The complex creation was a 3d puzzle, which meant that it would make a statue or something once completed but if she pushed on one piece just a little too hard it would completely collapse and she would have to start from scratch.

More than once she had ruined hours and hours of careful work in such a way and she was extra careful as she started the difficult task of assembling the other two thirds, not that she knew which piece went where or what the end product was supposed to look like.

Spike was surprised when he looked up from his cards to find that not only had it started growing dark, but the puzzle was really beginning to come together in front of the unicorn he looked up to. It looked like an upside down version of one the pyramids that he had seen in a book about Saddle Arabia, which had once been Equigypt. The hoop on the base was new though and looked sturdy, as if you could loop rope or something similar through it and wear the completed thing as a rather large and probably heavy pendant.

“I’ve done it!” Twilight crowed as she slipped the last bar one piece into place, leaving one last space for a piece to go. She knew which one it was, a piece that was, oddly enough, shaped like the main star of her cutie mark and had an eye symbol on it. Twilight had researched it and it was known as the ‘wadjet eye’ or the ‘Eye of Anubis’ who had supposedly been a God in the days of Equigypt. “Just one more piece and…” She froze when she went to use her magic to lift the last piece of the puzzle out of the box and found that it was empty. “Spike!” The baby dragon scrambled to his feet at the panic in her voice, “Spike!”

“What?” He asked as he scrambled to her side, “What’s the matter Twilight?”

“There’s a piece missing.” Twilight panicked, trying to maintain the magic holding the puzzle in place despite the surge of emotions coursing through her.

“Huh?” Spike blinked at her, confused.

“A piece. Of the puzzle. It’s gone! The last piece!” Twilight whinnied frantically, “Please tell me you haven’t eaten it!”

“No way!” Spike protested, even as he lit the lamps with his fire breath and started searching for it, knowing what Twilight’s next question would be. “Tried that once, remember? It was gross. I haven’t seen it lying around either.”

“It might have fallen out when we moved around for a while.” The filly paled beneath her fur at that idea. It was not like she could just buy another puzzle and complete that instead. This one was ancient and one of a kind. Not only that if she could not complete it, she would never pass her dam-sire’s test and that was something she just could not live with.

 “I thought the box hadn’t left the house since Princess Celestia borrowed it? And you had all the pieces then?” The purple dragonet questioned his pseudo-mother as he turned the place upside down to look for the missing gold. Before too long Twilight had put the golden treasure down carefully on the desk and joined him in the hunt which decimated the normally orderly library and left it looking like a surprisingly careful hurricane had hit. One that did not damage anything but did leave absolutely everything strewn across the floors of the multi-storey building.

Despite their best attempts though, the piece was nowhere to be found. Twilight let out a frustrated and despairing whinny as she started getting ready to go look for it outside next, only to pull up short when Spike burped up a burst of green fire and a letter emerged from it, coiled in a red band just like the one she had had Spike send that afternoon, but sealed with the gold wax and insignia of her tutor, Princess Celestia.

“Guess she had a lot to do.” Spike frowned slightly as he opened it, “You want me to read it now?”

“It’s from the Princess, it could be important.” Twilight hesitated by the door, wanting to go and look but knowing that anything from the Princess was more important than her petty concerns even if they involved the puzzle she had poured her heart and soul into for the last eight years.

“My dearest Twilight,” Spike read out as Twilight shut the door and turned to look at him properly, shoulders sinking, “It is of great importance that you join me in the palace this evening.”

“Really?” Twilight blinked, “Tonight?”

“I will be sending a pegasus chariot to pick you up not long after I send this letter to you.” Spike continued, nodding, “Please be ready for a short three day trip before he arrives.”

“Now?” Twilight winced, thinking about the missing puzzle piece and realising that she was not going to have time to search for it outside of her home. “She’s sending me somewhere now?”

“Guess she’s taking your warning seriously.” Spike shrugged, “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“Yes but…” Twilight had a sinking feeling. Unless Celestia was going to come with her, she had a horrible feeling that she was going to be sent away for her own protection. It was frustrating. She could help. She knew she could but it did not look like she was going to be given the chance.

“What do you want me to pack?” Spike asked, “And what about the missing piece?”

Twilight did not know. She wanted a little more time to go out and hunt, but perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. She could ask the Princess if she had seen the puzzle piece and try to convince her mentor that she could help. “Maybe we’ll find it when we’re packing.” Twilight sounded more hopeful than she felt, “Get together the books I was reading earlier, my recent school notes, the…”

Spike nodded, starting to grab everything on Twilight’s ever expanding list. Not that anything was easy to find in the mess they had created when searching. Still by the time the chariot arrived their bags were packed and Twilight had carefully returned the rest of the puzzle to the box it had come in and before Spike could take the last of the bags out, she shoved that in too.

It was a short trip to the palace from Twilight’s library. The unicorn had been assigned her home by the Princess so she was not surprised by that fact, nor that it was the same distance in the opposite direction from the library to her school. It was a boon in most respects as it meant that if she was called to see her tutor or to attend extra classes, as she so often was, she could make it there in a short amount of time.

Today however, she was not entirely happy that the trip was so fast. She had not entirely worked out what she was going to say to the Princess when the chariot arrived in the courtyard of the palace and the pegasus pulling it, a white coated, blue maned stallion with a silver shied as a cutie mark, whose name, if she remembered the introduction properly, was Mirrored Shield, helped her down from the chariot.

“Don’t worry about unpacking, Miss Sparkle.” The Mirrored Shield told her with a smile, “I’ll move your things to the bigger chariot, but Princess Celestia was insistent that you go and see her in the great hall immediately.”

And if that was not enough to set the butterflies in her stomach off again, nothing was as Twilight headed into the building that was imposing enough during the day time, but was worse right now by the light of the torches and the moon which seemed to be watching them ominously from above. Its shadow laid heavy on the ground, the castle’s many spires making the form on the ground look like some kind of beast stretching its arms into the skies as if preparing to strike.

“Get a grip Twilight.” The young unicorn told herself, shaking her head and taking a deep breath, before levitating Spike onto her back and cantering in through the main entrance. “You’re being ridiculous.”

Spike, thankfully, did not say anything, probably assuming she was working herself into a nervous frenzy as she often did when her tutor called her before her. It was ridiculous after the many years of being Celestia’s student, but Twilight was no fool. She was fully aware that the Princess could decide that teaching her was too much effort at a moment’s notice. The Princess, who some considered a Goddess, ruled over all of Equestria alone after all. Teaching her young student took time away from that important duty and she never wanted the alicorn to decide that she was not worth the hassle.

She just hoped that bringing up what could possibly be an overreaction to an Old Mare’s Tale was not the final straw for her and she was not about to be sent home for good.

The guards knew her and Spike rather well and they were allowed through the corridors without much fuss. The only real issue came when she was scurrying through the hallways, heading for the main hall where the Princess heard petitions and held grand parties, when she collided with a unicorn gentlecolt who emerged from one of the side rooms and Spike went tumbling from her back. He only didn’t hit the floor because of the fast reaction time of the unicorn she had collided with, who used his magic to catch Spike in an aura of red.

“S…sorry.” Twilight stammered to the gentlecolt. He an odd looking stallion whose rather gaudy red suit covered up most of his coat, including his cutie mark and whose silvery lavender mane hid one eye from sight, though she was almost certain she caught a glimpse of gold beneath the tresses.  

“No problem Twily-girl.” The stallion shrugged it off even as he set down Spike, “I should have been looking where I was going.”