Starfallby canonkillerChapters1 - First Contact2 - Insight3 - Faithful Student1 - First Contact"What do you mean, my insurance doesn't cover meteors? Like, the spaghetti not being included makes sense, but that was a freak incident! Do you have any idea how many meteors hit Equestria every day? Don't hang up on me-" Twilight sighed as the communication line went dead, her horn sparking defiantly as it tried to regain the connection. She wiped her sleep-tossed hair away from her eyes with the back of a hoof and resisted the urge to fall asleep on her hooves. "I told you it wasn't included." Spike piped up from behind her, wiping ashy dust off of his bed. "I'm a Princess! My insurance should cover everything I could want it to! I'm going to have a talk with Celestia about this..." She stomped a hoof in frustration, making the wooden floorboards sag alarmingly. The shift in balance brought Twilight back to the more urgent situation; the gaping hole that led directly through the leaves above, down into her bedroom, through the floorboards into the library, and ended quite suddenly in the darkness of the basement below. She lifted her hoof quickly, as if moving it back would put the floor back, and cautiously flapped up to the edge of the jagged hole. "Spike, I'm going to go see if there's anything down there. Don't follow me." Spike snorted. "The basement gives me the heebie-jeebies. You're on your own." Rolling her eyes, Twilight began a slow hover down into the hole. The rest of the library was still dark, as she didn't want to turn any lights on where the wiring might be damaged. She focused her magic at the tip of her horn, creating a small orb of purple light. As she passed through the next ring of the hole, she could see at least two dozen books torn up by the impact, a few stray pages still drifting around as she flapped her wings. The whirling pages landed alongside her as she settled her hooves on the cold cement floor of the basement. She titled her head back, seeing the stars glittering through the top of the hole. A shiver ran down her spine, but she brightened her horn's light and shook it off. "Let's see where it landed," she muttered to herself, taking flight again to make sure she didn't stumble over anything in the dark. Her horn cast eerie shadows across the small room, and she once again got the sense that she was not alone. She tore her eyes away from the edges of the room, focusing on the ground and the path of debris that the meteor had left as it bounced away from the impact zone. Her chills getting worse, she began to speed up, glancing around as she flew past to try and figure out where the path ended. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw an upturned box pressed up against the wall, papers and shreds of cardboard scattered around. She landed carefully in front of the large box, her light dimming as she changed her focus towards clearing the debris. The papers flew away around her in a single pulse of magic, leaving the cardboard box empty save for one thing... ...a pony. Twilight bit back a screech of horror, quickly grabbing the pony in her magic and teleporting back up to her bedroom. She quickly wove a magical net over the hole in the floor so that it wouldn't collapse any further and then turned to investigating her strange visitor. "Spike, go to the hospital and get them to send somepony out here." The young dragon scurried out of the room, glancing curiously at the pony as he passed. Twilight's horn glowed as she checked the pony for any major injuries. Whoever this pony was, they were a pegasus. One of their wings was twisted at an awkward angle, probably broken, and the other was folded up against their side. Even at a glance, Twilight could see that their wings were much larger than most pegasi; it appeared as if they were nearly as big as Celestia's. Her coat was a pale yellow, blackened with ash and dirt. They had deep cuts on their knees and chest, and smaller scratches over most of their body. Their mane and tail were blackened at the tips as if burned, and as Twilight shifted the light caught a few strands so they glittered like starlight. She was still breathing, though, and seemed in stable enough condition. Twilight sat up and teleported down to the main floor, prepared to teleport the doctor up to her bedroom floor. She flinched as another Pegasus slammed the door open, hauling a bulging bag up the stairs. The flash of blue in the darkness made the identity all too recognizable. "Rainbow Dash!" "Technically I knocked!" She yelled down, returning to the main floor one bag lighter. "The knock was just the sound of the door on the wall this time." "That doesn't count," Twilight sighed. "Where's Spike?" "I passed him on the way here. I saw some flaming thing hit your house while I was practicing my epic cloud spin moves and I wanted to see if it was something cool." "It's not cool! There's an injured pony in my house who I've never seen before!" Rainbow tapped her chin with her hoof. "I think Blossomforth was inviting some family in for a party this weekend, so maybe it's one of them. She couldn't stop showing me pictures of them. Where is this pony?" "Up in my room. Watch out for the holes." "Wings," Rainbow called over her shoulder as she flew up the stairs. Twilight turned back as Spike ducked through the door, followed closely by Nurse Redheart. Twilight quickly teleported the three of them into her room, narrowly avoiding Rainbow as she flew up the stairs. Nurse Redheart trotted up to the unconscious pony as Twilight set to giving Rainbow a lecture about flight safety. She quickly set their broken wing and wrapped up the worst of their scrapes. She had just started cleaning the smaller wounds when the pony let out a yelp of pain and sat up. The pony stared down at Redheart, their eyes wide with panic and breathing fast. They moved their wings to take flight, but the bandaged one refused to move free and the other was so disheveled that the air whistled out around its feathers. They backed up against the wall, wincing as the bandages rubbed around their injuries. "Where am I?!" They shouted, glancing between the four ponies in the room. "How come I can't fly?!" "I found you in my basement," Twilight began gently. "I think you must have crashed into my house." The pony looked up, seeing the sky through the hole in the ceiling. Their eyes glittered with starlight for a moment before they looked back at Twilight. Twilight flinched as she got her first good look at the mystery pony's eyes; they were pure gold, seeming to glow and shift like embers. She wasn't sure how she knew the pony was looking at her, as their eyes lacked any whites or pupils, but she felt as if this pony could see into her very core. "Princess Twilight Sparkle!" The pony said suddenly, getting to their hooves. "I am so sorry for crashing into your castle!" "Castle? How do you know my name?" The pony blinked, startled. "You are the ruler of my people. Have I not committed a great crime by intruding on your abode?" "The ruler of your people?" Twilight replied, her ears pricked. "Who are you?" The pony bowed, their mane and tail taking on a glittery sheen as they drifted into the starlight. "I am Antares, leader of the Scorpius starponies." 2 - Insight"So you're telling me that I rule over a million ponies who can barely ever actually contact me and live in space and you just forgot to tell me?!" "I think that sounds about right," Celestia replied calmly, taking a sip of her tea. "At the time, it just seemed like needless stress for you. I mean, new Princess, public image, a breakdown wouldn't have been good publicity." "And they were still under my rule until very recently," Luna pointed out, chugging from a pot of coffee. "The whole Princess of the Stars thing was kind of included with the other nighttime celestial objects." "Technically the stars are still there during the day-" "Celestia didn't want the responsibilities." Luna interjected. Celestia nodded gracefully. "I'm quite lazy." "Anyway," Twilight shook her head, "what am I supposed to know about these... starponies?" "Many of them don't have genders." Luna began, wiping a dark smear of coffee from her muzzle. "Since stars are born through massive gaseous explosions, they don't have to do the dirty and so they don't have the parts. They're all pegasi, and they only have the colors that stars come in. Which are...?" "Red, orange, yellow, white and blue!" Twilight replied happily. Luna smiled. "Exactly. They live in groups depending on which area of the sky they live in; I mapped them as a foal into constellations that I named myself, with some help from Celestia." "You mean... Antares is a part of the constellation Scorpius?" "One of the main stars," she replied. "I'm sure if you look up at it tonight, you'll be able to see that Scorpius looks a little incomplete." "That can't happen!" Twilight protested. "You mean to tell me that all of the stars could literally land on my doorstep and the night sky would be empty?!" "Yep." "Okay. Okay." Twilight took a deep breath, pressing her hoof into her forehead. "So how do we get Antares back up there?" Luna hesitated, thinking. "She'd have to be healed up, first. Usually when they land, starponies pick wide open spaces like plains or oceans and use that wide space to slow their landing. One dropping straight out of the sky is quite unlikely." "Well, one did," Twilight replied bluntly, looking across the room. Antares was sitting in front of the stained glass windows, her pale yellow coat spattered with the colors of Celestia and Luna turning Discord to stone. "There might be a problem in the Balance." Luna said, her voice lilting strangely. "Celestia, could you make sure I don't fall over? I'm going to project. Twilight, make sure you're not holding anything breakable." "What do you meeeeeeeeeeeeean!" Twilight's voice stretched into a scream as Luna's eyes flashed pure white and the two of them suddenly teleported. Twilight felt the air around her as thick as honey, fluid but dense, and looked over to Luna in surprise. The entirety of the mare's body glowed like the moon on its' brightest night, every pinprick of light in her mane its' own supernova. She turned to face Twilight, her eyes pale globes as pure and wild as the moon itself. "I was wondering how the projection would change you," she said, her voice echoing in the darkness. Twilight looked down at herself, balking as she realized her coat was sparkling like starlight. She caught a glimpse of her tail as she turned, and realized it looked like thousands of trails of shooting stars. Her cutie mark blazed gold against her paled coat. "What is this place?" Twilight asked, her voice feeling quiet in her own ears. "I haven't come here since I was banished," Luna answered. "This is the Astral Plain, which is the method I usually use for contacting the starponies. It's quick, and you don't have to worry about all of that no-oxygen-in-space thing. I mean, we don't need to breathe as alicorns, but it's really quite alarming." "How did you bring me here?" "Oh, you'll be able to reach it on your own with practice. This is a form of meditation called astral projection. Few non-alicorns have ever been able to reach the Plain; your favoured wizard Star Swirl was among them. Oh, but we don't have time for an old mare's memories." She turned away, lifting a hoof. "Scorpius!" She slammed her hoof down, and the darkness seemed to ripple. Forms began to take shape; a large room, a long table set with many chairs, a high ceiling with red glass chandeliers. The entire room reeked of red; not a cheery red, but a dark red like spilled blood and rich velvet. Directly ahead of them, a large tapestry woven with gemstones replicated the constellation Luna had named, a copper scorpion embroidered around the stars. Twilight noticed with a shiver that the Antares stone had gone dark. "Lambda Scorpii!" Luna yelled. "Female," she added quietly to Twilight. One of the gemstones in the tapestry flashed, and a pony walked through it. The gemstone did not get bigger, and the pony did not get smaller; the pony simply fit. She spread wide blue wings, the feathers glittering like ice. She flew down to the carpet and landed gracefully, bowing in front of the princesses. "Princess Luna of the Moon, Princess Twilight of the Stars, what brings you to the Scorpius hall?" She looked up at them through a fringe of sparkling mane, her eyes blue and shallow. "One of your ponies has fallen to Equus," Luna stated. "Antares." "The Brightest," Lambda replied smoothly. "Yes, she fell not long ago. Has she been injured?" "She will not be able to return for a while. She has damaged her wing, and the mortality aura that affects your people on Equus will not allow her to fix it herself." "If she does not return within the turn of the moon, I will have to take her place as Brightest." Lambda said, standing up to look the two ponies in the eye. "As the Word of Stella declares." "Word of Stella?" Twilight questioned. Luna glared at her. "I am aware of the Word of Stella, Lambda. Do not shift your position before the Word allows." The mare looked back steadily, blue eyes emotionless. "I can be patient." Twilight jolted as she was suddenly back in Celestia's hall, feeling the golden warmth of the Sun Princess's magic slowly allow her to stand on her own. Luna shook herself awake as well, a shower of small sparkles falling from her coat as she did so. "Twilight," she said quickly. "It is of greatest importance that Antares takes back Brightest before Lambda takes her place. Any further shift in the Balance may upset the Celestial Rings, and-" "I don't even know what you're talking about!" Twilight protested. "I didn't even know these ponies existed yesterday!" "There is much she has to learn, Luna." Celestia added gently. "Perhaps you could train her while Antares's lightest wounds heal." "Yes," Luna sighed. "Training will be necessary. Twilight, care to be a princess's student once again?" 3 - Faithful StudentAntares had told Twilight her gender once she was sure of her safety. She had also become quite the bookworm, telling Twilight that many starponies simply told stories by mouth and not by script. She did relent on the fact that it may be quite a biased way of recording history, and had begun editing one of Luna's starguides to mark out which starponies were the best at what. "Scorpius starponies like me are alchemists," she had explained, "working with the elements to create new stars and to destroy the old ones. We follow the Word of Stella by replacing the dim stars with brighter ones, in order to maintain the Balance." "Destroy the old stars? Like, kill them?" "Nothing so barbaric," Antares shook her head. "No, when an old star is beginning to burn out, they release all of their energy at once, going supernova. It can be catastrophic at close range, but they often leave their constellations before they do so no harm comes to any other star. After they supernova, they are... dropped, in a way, out of the astral plain. They may survive for a short while in their weakened state, gray husks of what they once were, but when whatever material form they have left disintegrates their spirits merge with that of the Flow of Life, and they are born again as mortals." "The Flow of Life? The Word of Stella? The Balance? I don't understand. What do these mean?" Twilight questioned. Luna stepped in, taking a seat beside Twilight to watch Antares continue with labeling the chart. "The Balance and the Flow of Life are what enable magic in Equestria," she began. "Think of it like a spiderweb over the world; when one tendril breaks, another must replace it. That is the Balance. The Sun, Moon and the stars are what keep that web in place. The stars are... connections between the lines of web, and the Sun and Moon are their anchors. If the Sun and Moon do not move, areas where magic is used a lot, like Canterlot, would soon deplete that area of magic and at section of web would break. With one section gone, the others are unable to stabilize, and the rest of the web begins to dissolve. "That was why Nightmare Moon's eternal night was so dangerous," Luna continued, her voice hardening. "Without the rotation of the web, the Flow would soon be disrupted. The magic would leech from the earth and air whenever it was used, instead of the web being able to replenish itself over the low-use areas. It was not solely the lack of sun that would kill crops, but the fact that the magical qualities of the earth ponies were drained. The weather was cold and dry, because the pegasi were unable to manipulate the clouds or fly as well as they used to. Unicorns tried to replace them, but their access magic only tore the web worse. It was a terrible time." Twilight nodded. "And the Word of Stella?" "Stella was one of the first of my subjects. She was an earth pony, about your age, and she had grown up in my care. When Nightmare Moon took hold of me, she sought out the Elements of Harmony for Celestia, as my sister was greatly weakened by the shift in the Balance. The Elements work on a web of their own, separate from the Balance, and that was what defeated the Nightmare; she drew her strength from the damaged web, while Celestia drew hers from an intact source. When the only solution left was banishment, Stella was distraught. She had grown up under my protection, and so she told Celestia it was her turn to protect me. "Celestia aided her in her wish; she shifted the Balance to allow room for four more stars. Stella allowed her mortal form to be destroyed, and her spirit to be broken into four pieces. Her greatest strengths became my four guardians. Her courage, her bravery, her knowledge, and her love. Each became a separate star, but her being was lost in the process. Her sacrifice empowered Celestia's spell. Though I was banished, I could no longer feel hunger, thirst or physical pain. She saved me from losing what I had left of myself. "Celestia later found a list in Stella's notes, while she was preparing to accept you into her care. It was a code of conduct of sorts, to help the stars better understand their duties. Many of the stars from my time had gone, and some of the new ones of your time had not been fully taught. Celestia projected herself to each of the constellations, sharing Stella's knowledge and hopes for peace, and ultimately brought back the Balance that had been destroyed from the deaths of stars when Nightmare Moon halted them. The unified power of those stars allowed your magical fluctuation to happen on the day of your entrance exam, along with the Sonic Rainboom and the other events that coincided with it. It restored the magic of Equestria to a stronger past state. Ever since, the Word of Stella has guided the starponies in order to maintain the Balance and to keep the starponies in line while I was unable to care for them." "Wow," Twilght whispered. "...What happened to Stella's stars when you were released?" Luna's mane tossed, flashing purple and red as the stars inside it burned. She calmed quickly, her voice betraying her hurt. "The Nightmare destroyed her. She was forced to go supernova. She is nothing but a memory, now." "But you just said the stars return as ponies, didn't you?" "I have searched long and hard for any ponies who carry her aura, but I haven't found her. I am lucky, as a Princess, that people enjoy me being interested in their children. But I fear that splitting her soul has caused her to be gone forever, and that is a burden I must carry." "The one bore my energy before me once said that the starponies may not take mortal form if they feel a task is unfinished," Antares added in the following silence. "Perhaps she feels she still needs to watch over you, and you just can't see her yet." Luna nodded, looking calmer. "Yes. Now, Twilight, I need you to study those charts and see what else you can find in the libraries about starponies. I'll be sending you a quiz scroll later, to see how much you know." "Of course." Twilight started packing up her things, rolling up Antares's chart and setting it down between her wings. "Don't disappoint me." "When Celestia said you were a quick learner, she wasn't kidding." Luna levitated the papers in front of her, checking over each one. "I don't think you got anything wrong." "I stayed up as long as I could so that I could memorize all of their names and appearances!" Twilight smiled weakly, bags sagging under her eyes. "You realize you still have a week before Antares can even start working on her wing strength, right?" Twilight nodded quickly, stumbling as it unbalanced her. "I just wanted to make sure I knew everything." "Well," Luna said, putting the papers back into a neat pile. "You've gotten pretty close. You can have the rest of today off. Meet me in the gardens at dawn, and I'll begin training you to project."
1 - First Contact"What do you mean, my insurance doesn't cover meteors? Like, the spaghetti not being included makes sense, but that was a freak incident! Do you have any idea how many meteors hit Equestria every day? Don't hang up on me-" Twilight sighed as the communication line went dead, her horn sparking defiantly as it tried to regain the connection. She wiped her sleep-tossed hair away from her eyes with the back of a hoof and resisted the urge to fall asleep on her hooves. "I told you it wasn't included." Spike piped up from behind her, wiping ashy dust off of his bed. "I'm a Princess! My insurance should cover everything I could want it to! I'm going to have a talk with Celestia about this..." She stomped a hoof in frustration, making the wooden floorboards sag alarmingly. The shift in balance brought Twilight back to the more urgent situation; the gaping hole that led directly through the leaves above, down into her bedroom, through the floorboards into the library, and ended quite suddenly in the darkness of the basement below. She lifted her hoof quickly, as if moving it back would put the floor back, and cautiously flapped up to the edge of the jagged hole. "Spike, I'm going to go see if there's anything down there. Don't follow me." Spike snorted. "The basement gives me the heebie-jeebies. You're on your own." Rolling her eyes, Twilight began a slow hover down into the hole. The rest of the library was still dark, as she didn't want to turn any lights on where the wiring might be damaged. She focused her magic at the tip of her horn, creating a small orb of purple light. As she passed through the next ring of the hole, she could see at least two dozen books torn up by the impact, a few stray pages still drifting around as she flapped her wings. The whirling pages landed alongside her as she settled her hooves on the cold cement floor of the basement. She titled her head back, seeing the stars glittering through the top of the hole. A shiver ran down her spine, but she brightened her horn's light and shook it off. "Let's see where it landed," she muttered to herself, taking flight again to make sure she didn't stumble over anything in the dark. Her horn cast eerie shadows across the small room, and she once again got the sense that she was not alone. She tore her eyes away from the edges of the room, focusing on the ground and the path of debris that the meteor had left as it bounced away from the impact zone. Her chills getting worse, she began to speed up, glancing around as she flew past to try and figure out where the path ended. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw an upturned box pressed up against the wall, papers and shreds of cardboard scattered around. She landed carefully in front of the large box, her light dimming as she changed her focus towards clearing the debris. The papers flew away around her in a single pulse of magic, leaving the cardboard box empty save for one thing... ...a pony. Twilight bit back a screech of horror, quickly grabbing the pony in her magic and teleporting back up to her bedroom. She quickly wove a magical net over the hole in the floor so that it wouldn't collapse any further and then turned to investigating her strange visitor. "Spike, go to the hospital and get them to send somepony out here." The young dragon scurried out of the room, glancing curiously at the pony as he passed. Twilight's horn glowed as she checked the pony for any major injuries. Whoever this pony was, they were a pegasus. One of their wings was twisted at an awkward angle, probably broken, and the other was folded up against their side. Even at a glance, Twilight could see that their wings were much larger than most pegasi; it appeared as if they were nearly as big as Celestia's. Her coat was a pale yellow, blackened with ash and dirt. They had deep cuts on their knees and chest, and smaller scratches over most of their body. Their mane and tail were blackened at the tips as if burned, and as Twilight shifted the light caught a few strands so they glittered like starlight. She was still breathing, though, and seemed in stable enough condition. Twilight sat up and teleported down to the main floor, prepared to teleport the doctor up to her bedroom floor. She flinched as another Pegasus slammed the door open, hauling a bulging bag up the stairs. The flash of blue in the darkness made the identity all too recognizable. "Rainbow Dash!" "Technically I knocked!" She yelled down, returning to the main floor one bag lighter. "The knock was just the sound of the door on the wall this time." "That doesn't count," Twilight sighed. "Where's Spike?" "I passed him on the way here. I saw some flaming thing hit your house while I was practicing my epic cloud spin moves and I wanted to see if it was something cool." "It's not cool! There's an injured pony in my house who I've never seen before!" Rainbow tapped her chin with her hoof. "I think Blossomforth was inviting some family in for a party this weekend, so maybe it's one of them. She couldn't stop showing me pictures of them. Where is this pony?" "Up in my room. Watch out for the holes." "Wings," Rainbow called over her shoulder as she flew up the stairs. Twilight turned back as Spike ducked through the door, followed closely by Nurse Redheart. Twilight quickly teleported the three of them into her room, narrowly avoiding Rainbow as she flew up the stairs. Nurse Redheart trotted up to the unconscious pony as Twilight set to giving Rainbow a lecture about flight safety. She quickly set their broken wing and wrapped up the worst of their scrapes. She had just started cleaning the smaller wounds when the pony let out a yelp of pain and sat up. The pony stared down at Redheart, their eyes wide with panic and breathing fast. They moved their wings to take flight, but the bandaged one refused to move free and the other was so disheveled that the air whistled out around its feathers. They backed up against the wall, wincing as the bandages rubbed around their injuries. "Where am I?!" They shouted, glancing between the four ponies in the room. "How come I can't fly?!" "I found you in my basement," Twilight began gently. "I think you must have crashed into my house." The pony looked up, seeing the sky through the hole in the ceiling. Their eyes glittered with starlight for a moment before they looked back at Twilight. Twilight flinched as she got her first good look at the mystery pony's eyes; they were pure gold, seeming to glow and shift like embers. She wasn't sure how she knew the pony was looking at her, as their eyes lacked any whites or pupils, but she felt as if this pony could see into her very core. "Princess Twilight Sparkle!" The pony said suddenly, getting to their hooves. "I am so sorry for crashing into your castle!" "Castle? How do you know my name?" The pony blinked, startled. "You are the ruler of my people. Have I not committed a great crime by intruding on your abode?" "The ruler of your people?" Twilight replied, her ears pricked. "Who are you?" The pony bowed, their mane and tail taking on a glittery sheen as they drifted into the starlight. "I am Antares, leader of the Scorpius starponies."
2 - Insight"So you're telling me that I rule over a million ponies who can barely ever actually contact me and live in space and you just forgot to tell me?!" "I think that sounds about right," Celestia replied calmly, taking a sip of her tea. "At the time, it just seemed like needless stress for you. I mean, new Princess, public image, a breakdown wouldn't have been good publicity." "And they were still under my rule until very recently," Luna pointed out, chugging from a pot of coffee. "The whole Princess of the Stars thing was kind of included with the other nighttime celestial objects." "Technically the stars are still there during the day-" "Celestia didn't want the responsibilities." Luna interjected. Celestia nodded gracefully. "I'm quite lazy." "Anyway," Twilight shook her head, "what am I supposed to know about these... starponies?" "Many of them don't have genders." Luna began, wiping a dark smear of coffee from her muzzle. "Since stars are born through massive gaseous explosions, they don't have to do the dirty and so they don't have the parts. They're all pegasi, and they only have the colors that stars come in. Which are...?" "Red, orange, yellow, white and blue!" Twilight replied happily. Luna smiled. "Exactly. They live in groups depending on which area of the sky they live in; I mapped them as a foal into constellations that I named myself, with some help from Celestia." "You mean... Antares is a part of the constellation Scorpius?" "One of the main stars," she replied. "I'm sure if you look up at it tonight, you'll be able to see that Scorpius looks a little incomplete." "That can't happen!" Twilight protested. "You mean to tell me that all of the stars could literally land on my doorstep and the night sky would be empty?!" "Yep." "Okay. Okay." Twilight took a deep breath, pressing her hoof into her forehead. "So how do we get Antares back up there?" Luna hesitated, thinking. "She'd have to be healed up, first. Usually when they land, starponies pick wide open spaces like plains or oceans and use that wide space to slow their landing. One dropping straight out of the sky is quite unlikely." "Well, one did," Twilight replied bluntly, looking across the room. Antares was sitting in front of the stained glass windows, her pale yellow coat spattered with the colors of Celestia and Luna turning Discord to stone. "There might be a problem in the Balance." Luna said, her voice lilting strangely. "Celestia, could you make sure I don't fall over? I'm going to project. Twilight, make sure you're not holding anything breakable." "What do you meeeeeeeeeeeeean!" Twilight's voice stretched into a scream as Luna's eyes flashed pure white and the two of them suddenly teleported. Twilight felt the air around her as thick as honey, fluid but dense, and looked over to Luna in surprise. The entirety of the mare's body glowed like the moon on its' brightest night, every pinprick of light in her mane its' own supernova. She turned to face Twilight, her eyes pale globes as pure and wild as the moon itself. "I was wondering how the projection would change you," she said, her voice echoing in the darkness. Twilight looked down at herself, balking as she realized her coat was sparkling like starlight. She caught a glimpse of her tail as she turned, and realized it looked like thousands of trails of shooting stars. Her cutie mark blazed gold against her paled coat. "What is this place?" Twilight asked, her voice feeling quiet in her own ears. "I haven't come here since I was banished," Luna answered. "This is the Astral Plain, which is the method I usually use for contacting the starponies. It's quick, and you don't have to worry about all of that no-oxygen-in-space thing. I mean, we don't need to breathe as alicorns, but it's really quite alarming." "How did you bring me here?" "Oh, you'll be able to reach it on your own with practice. This is a form of meditation called astral projection. Few non-alicorns have ever been able to reach the Plain; your favoured wizard Star Swirl was among them. Oh, but we don't have time for an old mare's memories." She turned away, lifting a hoof. "Scorpius!" She slammed her hoof down, and the darkness seemed to ripple. Forms began to take shape; a large room, a long table set with many chairs, a high ceiling with red glass chandeliers. The entire room reeked of red; not a cheery red, but a dark red like spilled blood and rich velvet. Directly ahead of them, a large tapestry woven with gemstones replicated the constellation Luna had named, a copper scorpion embroidered around the stars. Twilight noticed with a shiver that the Antares stone had gone dark. "Lambda Scorpii!" Luna yelled. "Female," she added quietly to Twilight. One of the gemstones in the tapestry flashed, and a pony walked through it. The gemstone did not get bigger, and the pony did not get smaller; the pony simply fit. She spread wide blue wings, the feathers glittering like ice. She flew down to the carpet and landed gracefully, bowing in front of the princesses. "Princess Luna of the Moon, Princess Twilight of the Stars, what brings you to the Scorpius hall?" She looked up at them through a fringe of sparkling mane, her eyes blue and shallow. "One of your ponies has fallen to Equus," Luna stated. "Antares." "The Brightest," Lambda replied smoothly. "Yes, she fell not long ago. Has she been injured?" "She will not be able to return for a while. She has damaged her wing, and the mortality aura that affects your people on Equus will not allow her to fix it herself." "If she does not return within the turn of the moon, I will have to take her place as Brightest." Lambda said, standing up to look the two ponies in the eye. "As the Word of Stella declares." "Word of Stella?" Twilight questioned. Luna glared at her. "I am aware of the Word of Stella, Lambda. Do not shift your position before the Word allows." The mare looked back steadily, blue eyes emotionless. "I can be patient." Twilight jolted as she was suddenly back in Celestia's hall, feeling the golden warmth of the Sun Princess's magic slowly allow her to stand on her own. Luna shook herself awake as well, a shower of small sparkles falling from her coat as she did so. "Twilight," she said quickly. "It is of greatest importance that Antares takes back Brightest before Lambda takes her place. Any further shift in the Balance may upset the Celestial Rings, and-" "I don't even know what you're talking about!" Twilight protested. "I didn't even know these ponies existed yesterday!" "There is much she has to learn, Luna." Celestia added gently. "Perhaps you could train her while Antares's lightest wounds heal." "Yes," Luna sighed. "Training will be necessary. Twilight, care to be a princess's student once again?"
3 - Faithful StudentAntares had told Twilight her gender once she was sure of her safety. She had also become quite the bookworm, telling Twilight that many starponies simply told stories by mouth and not by script. She did relent on the fact that it may be quite a biased way of recording history, and had begun editing one of Luna's starguides to mark out which starponies were the best at what. "Scorpius starponies like me are alchemists," she had explained, "working with the elements to create new stars and to destroy the old ones. We follow the Word of Stella by replacing the dim stars with brighter ones, in order to maintain the Balance." "Destroy the old stars? Like, kill them?" "Nothing so barbaric," Antares shook her head. "No, when an old star is beginning to burn out, they release all of their energy at once, going supernova. It can be catastrophic at close range, but they often leave their constellations before they do so no harm comes to any other star. After they supernova, they are... dropped, in a way, out of the astral plain. They may survive for a short while in their weakened state, gray husks of what they once were, but when whatever material form they have left disintegrates their spirits merge with that of the Flow of Life, and they are born again as mortals." "The Flow of Life? The Word of Stella? The Balance? I don't understand. What do these mean?" Twilight questioned. Luna stepped in, taking a seat beside Twilight to watch Antares continue with labeling the chart. "The Balance and the Flow of Life are what enable magic in Equestria," she began. "Think of it like a spiderweb over the world; when one tendril breaks, another must replace it. That is the Balance. The Sun, Moon and the stars are what keep that web in place. The stars are... connections between the lines of web, and the Sun and Moon are their anchors. If the Sun and Moon do not move, areas where magic is used a lot, like Canterlot, would soon deplete that area of magic and at section of web would break. With one section gone, the others are unable to stabilize, and the rest of the web begins to dissolve. "That was why Nightmare Moon's eternal night was so dangerous," Luna continued, her voice hardening. "Without the rotation of the web, the Flow would soon be disrupted. The magic would leech from the earth and air whenever it was used, instead of the web being able to replenish itself over the low-use areas. It was not solely the lack of sun that would kill crops, but the fact that the magical qualities of the earth ponies were drained. The weather was cold and dry, because the pegasi were unable to manipulate the clouds or fly as well as they used to. Unicorns tried to replace them, but their access magic only tore the web worse. It was a terrible time." Twilight nodded. "And the Word of Stella?" "Stella was one of the first of my subjects. She was an earth pony, about your age, and she had grown up in my care. When Nightmare Moon took hold of me, she sought out the Elements of Harmony for Celestia, as my sister was greatly weakened by the shift in the Balance. The Elements work on a web of their own, separate from the Balance, and that was what defeated the Nightmare; she drew her strength from the damaged web, while Celestia drew hers from an intact source. When the only solution left was banishment, Stella was distraught. She had grown up under my protection, and so she told Celestia it was her turn to protect me. "Celestia aided her in her wish; she shifted the Balance to allow room for four more stars. Stella allowed her mortal form to be destroyed, and her spirit to be broken into four pieces. Her greatest strengths became my four guardians. Her courage, her bravery, her knowledge, and her love. Each became a separate star, but her being was lost in the process. Her sacrifice empowered Celestia's spell. Though I was banished, I could no longer feel hunger, thirst or physical pain. She saved me from losing what I had left of myself. "Celestia later found a list in Stella's notes, while she was preparing to accept you into her care. It was a code of conduct of sorts, to help the stars better understand their duties. Many of the stars from my time had gone, and some of the new ones of your time had not been fully taught. Celestia projected herself to each of the constellations, sharing Stella's knowledge and hopes for peace, and ultimately brought back the Balance that had been destroyed from the deaths of stars when Nightmare Moon halted them. The unified power of those stars allowed your magical fluctuation to happen on the day of your entrance exam, along with the Sonic Rainboom and the other events that coincided with it. It restored the magic of Equestria to a stronger past state. Ever since, the Word of Stella has guided the starponies in order to maintain the Balance and to keep the starponies in line while I was unable to care for them." "Wow," Twilght whispered. "...What happened to Stella's stars when you were released?" Luna's mane tossed, flashing purple and red as the stars inside it burned. She calmed quickly, her voice betraying her hurt. "The Nightmare destroyed her. She was forced to go supernova. She is nothing but a memory, now." "But you just said the stars return as ponies, didn't you?" "I have searched long and hard for any ponies who carry her aura, but I haven't found her. I am lucky, as a Princess, that people enjoy me being interested in their children. But I fear that splitting her soul has caused her to be gone forever, and that is a burden I must carry." "The one bore my energy before me once said that the starponies may not take mortal form if they feel a task is unfinished," Antares added in the following silence. "Perhaps she feels she still needs to watch over you, and you just can't see her yet." Luna nodded, looking calmer. "Yes. Now, Twilight, I need you to study those charts and see what else you can find in the libraries about starponies. I'll be sending you a quiz scroll later, to see how much you know." "Of course." Twilight started packing up her things, rolling up Antares's chart and setting it down between her wings. "Don't disappoint me." "When Celestia said you were a quick learner, she wasn't kidding." Luna levitated the papers in front of her, checking over each one. "I don't think you got anything wrong." "I stayed up as long as I could so that I could memorize all of their names and appearances!" Twilight smiled weakly, bags sagging under her eyes. "You realize you still have a week before Antares can even start working on her wing strength, right?" Twilight nodded quickly, stumbling as it unbalanced her. "I just wanted to make sure I knew everything." "Well," Luna said, putting the papers back into a neat pile. "You've gotten pretty close. You can have the rest of today off. Meet me in the gardens at dawn, and I'll begin training you to project."
