The Princess sent Twilight a letter earlier this week. It was an invitation to have a holiday in Canterlot. The invitation included Train tickets for all of her friends. Twilight eagerly passed them out the next day as she trotted through town. The date came and they all boarded the train. The Train ride wasn't too long, but it was very occupying. For one, Twilight had to block out Pinkie's rantings about...whatever she was ranting about. She also had to block out Rarity's complaining about the seats, and the heat, and everything. Twilight focused her attention out the window, taking in the scenery. She manely saw the Everfree Forest, but she also saw the beautiful view of Ponyville from the mountain. From here, she could see her house, Fluttershy's cottage, Rarity's boutique, Pinkie's bakery, Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow Dash's house, Town hall, almost all of Ponyville was in sight. Twilight took solace in the comforting scenery. She felt happy, being around her friends, but she also sometimes got tired of them, and just needed to get away from them.
She banished the thought. Twilight loved her friends, they were like a family to her. Her family... maybe she could visit her family too. The thought made her smile, she didn't have a large family, no, it was just her, her mom, and her dad. She loved them very much, but didn't get to see them very often. They were the ones who encouraged her, and gave her the push down the hill of being Celestia's student. Learning, and learning, and learning, and learning about magic and much more. Now she was learning about friendship, which became quite the responsibility. Twilight enjoyed her new life in Ponyville, but also missed Canterlot. A visit to Canterlot was just what she needed, just enough to soothe that ache for home.
Twilight continued staring out her window, thinking of friendship, family, and more. She kept her train of thought running just as fast as the train itself. Twilight watched more scenery pass, and more, and more. The abundance of nature was almost overwhelming. All kinds of animals as well as plants filled almost every space available. Twilight imagined how much forest the first settlers of Ponyville had to clear out, then she thought about how much work it must have been, and then she fell asleep
Twilight dreamed a peaceful and relaxing dream, she was in the forest, near a pond. the waters of the pond were clear and pristine, she could see fish swimming to and fro within the blue waters. The cattails seemed almost arranged around the pond, but they still grew tall. Twilight heard the sound of small critters, it almost sounded like they were getting rapidly closer. She was right, they were. A squirrel ran past her hoof and hopped into the pond. Twilight gave a quizzical look to the squirrel. She wondered why animals would just jump in a pond for no reason.
Twilight racked her brains for information, she thought of books she read on woodland creatures and their behavioral patterns. Normally creatures like this only jumped into water for safety from a fire... but there wasn't a fi-
Twilight was hit with a wave of heat as a wall of fire washed over the landscape. She hurt. The fire burned her hair and skin, she could feel her eyes bubble, and her skin blister. She fell to her knees, the pain was unbearable. She attempted to crawl to the pond, but her muscles refused to work, she was being cooked alive. Her blood began to boil and her heart beat frantically against her chest, she was dying. She gasped for air as she suffocated in the heat and smoke. She closed her eyes and prepared to awaken.
.
Twilight gasped as she awoke. The feeling was still there, the suffocation, the burning. She shook her head to banish the thoughts from her mind. What an odd dream she thought I don't normally have nightmares like this, especially when I'm with friends. Pinkie was of course the first to inquire what had happened. "What's wrong Twilight?"
"Oh nothing, just...just a bad dream is all."
"Oh okay. I had bad dreams once but then I-"
Twilight began to drown out Pinkie's chatter once again. She was a nice pony, but not always a good listener. Pinkie was more of a talker. Twilight looked out the window, Canterlot was close. She watched the city approach, it was big, The castle was its most dominant feature, but the surrounding buildings took up most of the city. It wouldn't be much of a city if it weren't for the surrounding shops and businesses, if they weren't there, it would just be Canterlot Castle. Twilight imagined what it would be like if it was just the castle. There wouldn't be many ponies here, and there wouldn't be much commerce. Not to mention information would travel a bit slower.
Twilight Sparkle had enjoyed the train ride to Canterlot, but she decided needed a break from her friends after all. Pinkie Pie was just a little too chatty. Twilight still had a headache from the last time Pinkie Pie went on a talking spree. Twilight decided the best place to retreat from her friends would be the library. It had been so long since Twilight had last visited the royal library. Now she could just relax and curl up with a nice very engaging book book. Twilight began her journey to the library.
Twilight Sparkle trotted off of the train platform, saying goodbye to her friends. She spotted the library in the distance, and headed off in that general direction. Twilight passed by many ponies she recognized and occasionally said hello. She reached the library in a short time and entered the door. Twilight grinned as she smelled the pages of books. She spoke to the librarian pony at the front desk. "Hello"
"Shh"
"Oh sorry"
"Shh"
"Right"
"SHH!" Twilight left the librarian and quickened her pace to find a book for her to read. Twilight began trotting up and down the aisles of the library, taking in the familiar sights and sounds of the royal library.
Twilight turned down the aisle for the letter C, she began trotting down the aisle and neared the end before a book fell out. Twilight picked up the book, she looked at the cover, nothing she wanted to read, but then a folder fell out. Twilight looked at it. She turned to place the book on the shelf, then she picked up the folder. The front was stamped with red and said -CONFIDENTIAL-. Twilight took the folder to a table and opened it, she began reading:
Incident report #5: The Great Everfree Fire
Date:-CONFIDENTIAL-
Ponies involved:-CONFIDENTIAL-
Twilight continued to examine the report. It was a report on a fire in the Everfree Forest, but Twilight had never heard of any recent fires. The incident report fell out of that book, a book about old pony cults. Twilight was well aware that the cults had been all but extinguished, but she still found them mysterious and fascinating. She didn't decide to read the book though, because she had already read it in her own library.
There was one cult in particular that she always found amusing. The Dark Stripes Cult. She found them intriguing because they followed the zebra’s every move; even thought they had been told that none of the things they were doing were what the zebras wished. The cult was soon disbanded after the zebras just asked them to leave Africadabra.
Twilight examined more of the report:
The Everfree Forest was burned down earlier this week. The Fiery Rebirth Cult burned down with it.
Fiery Rebirth? Twilight gave a thoughtful look. She had never heard of this cult. She closed the manila folder that held the incident report and headed towards the C section. She skimmed the shelves until she found an encyclopedia on Equestrian cults. She flipped open to the letter F and searched for her cult. She found it all right. The page had been smudged, making the description unreadable. This was suspicious, a confidential folder, and now a smudged page. Something fishy was definitely going on. Twilight decided to find more clues elsewhere. She walked down the center aisle until she reached the door. The librarian pony spoke "Have a good day"
"Shh" Twilight grinned and exited the library with her folder.
Twilight trotted through the summer streets of Canterlot, the ponies all were wearing fashionable summer clothes to make an impression with their upper-class friends. Twilight passed them by, fighting her way through a crowd that slowly grew, thickening at the balcony of Canterlot Castle, where Princess Celestia was giving a speech on the founding of a new coastal city, San Franciscolt.
Princess Celestia gave speeches about pretty much anything that happened in Equestria. Twilight had heard the speech before though. Since The princess lives in Canterlot, she only gives speeches there. Everywhere else in Equestria had newspapers, which were much more convenient. Twilight had read about the new settlement in Ponyville. The place was really blossoming, and would soon become a proper city.
Twilight staggered as a hooded pony bumped into her. The pony attempted to pull away the folder from her, but Twilight held firm. The pony gave up using her teeth and bucked at Twilight, striking her in the face.
Twilight’s vision swam; she shook her head to clear it. Twilight began pushing through the crowd and after her assailant. Twilight managed to catch up to her, before the pony slipped into an alleyway. They both splashed through the gutter, and took a sharp right turn; Twilight rushed after her, but found a dead end.
Twilight’s thoughts slowly collected into two topics. Where did she go? And Should I go get my friends? Against Twilight’s better judgment, she decided not to retrieve her friends for any help. Twilight instead began searching the alleyway, looking for any clues as to where this mysterious ne’er-do-well had gone.
Twilight felt something cold on her hooves. Of course! She thought We ran through some water, I could find her hoofprints! Twilight examined the ground around the dead end, finally spotting some hoofprints that were not her own. Twilight followed these prints up into a wall on the right side of the alley. Staring at it from the front, Twilight could see a doorknob. The side of it had been cleverly painted to be invisible from the entrance to the alley. Twilight reached out with her magic, and twisted the doorknob. The door was unlocked, Twilight pulled it open.
The inside of wherever she had just gone was dark. Twilight was wary to enter, Why am I chasing this file anyways? But then she pushed herself forward Because I know everything! Anything that is hidden like this must be something interesting. Twilight flinched when the door behind her shut, and a hanging light flickered to life above a table in the center of the room. At the table sat the pony who stole the file. She motioned to Twilight with a hoof and then spoke “Come, child. Have a seat, I wish to talk.”
“Now you wanna talk?”
“I am sorry about earlier, I needed to get you here.”
“Your voice…do I know you?”
“You could say that.” She spoke once more, pulling back her hood revealing her face. It was Cherry Berry (you know, one of those background ponies). She continued to speak “Twilight, you haven’t finished reading the report, please continue, then I will explain.”
“Okay Cherry, this is a little odd though.”
“You will understand”
Twilight had a seat at the table. She took a moment to open the report and find her place, before she continued reading:
We believe all members of the cult died in the fire, but we cannot be sure. The Everfree is a dangerous place, so we could not get an investigation crew out there. The fire started when the cult was experimenting with some kind of transformation. Whatever it was that they were doing, it was unnatural. We believe… we believe that they were creating alicorns. One of the bodies we found was almost a full alicorn, but the fire killed it, along with those performing the experiment. The brutally mutilated bodies of failed attempts were piled up nearby; we believe these to be the cause of the fire, as the bodies were previously being burned. We think something in the experiment caused the fire to be pulled into the body of the alicorn, as well as the cultists.
The witnesses later reported having seen a building in the Everfree. Investigations into that building led to the finding of...an empty building. The cultists who survived the accident appear to have fled, as of right now, we do not know where they went.
Rumors report that the cultists moved west, but there are no current towns out west for them to go to, so the rumors were dismissed. Rumors also claimed they moved to Canterlot, but these were also dismissed. Who in their right minds would move right into police headquarters? Anyways, there aren't any legitimate leads as to where they went, but we'll find them.
New developments, ponies have gone missing in Canterlot. The ponies are confirmed missing as of this morning. The rumors appear to be true, but it could just be coincidence. No real evidence has surfaced to pin this on the Fiery Rebirth.
New developments, we caught one of them, so far he has refused to share any information on the location of his pals. Though he has confirmed four more surviving cultists. We cannot get any information out of him, but Luna has asked to speak with him later. I doubt she'll do any better though.
New developments, Luna got him to crack! Whatever she did, it worked. She might just become our resident inquisitor. Anyways, he divulged a lot of info. The names of the cultists, as well as the general location of the hideout. Two of the cultists are ponies we thought were missing. As for the location of the hideout, nothing too specific. We only know what street it's on, but it will narrow down soon.
New developments, we have narrowed down the possible hideouts to three different locations, The locations will soon be scouted out. We are so close...
End incident report
“Cherry, I don’t understand, why is this important? It just sounds to me like these cultists are almost caught”
"We aren't really, we killed the pony working on the report and hid it in the royal library. I must say though, we didn't expect it to be found this quickly."
"What can I say? I got lucky. But I still don't understand why me reading this was important."
“Now you know what we had almost succeeded at, but because of a thoughtless mistake, many of our numbers were killed. Now you know your purpose.”
“And what is my purpose?”
“Why Twilight, you are going to be the first pony-turned-alicorn. I don’t think the princesses would have it any other way. Who better to have change into an alicorn than one of their closest friends?”
“I don’t want any part in this! This isn’t right!” Twilight winced a little at her own voice.
“It’s too late, you found and read the report, you know the full story, and now there is no turning back.”
Out of the surrounding darkness came two hardy stallions. They held Twilight in their hooves, subduing her. They neglected Twilight’s horn, though. Twilight picked up the chair with her magic and struck one of the stallions. His grip on Twilight loosened drastically. The other stallion, however, smacked her in the back of the head, causing her to drop the chair. He then took her away.
Twilight saw the door to the next room open. The stallion brought her in. All along the walls were nozzles. The stallion left the room, and then bolted the door. A window opened in the wall in front of Twilight showing Cherry Berry’s own transformation. One of the stallions had prepared a very good disguise spell. He had made Cherry Berry completely indistinguishable from Twilight. Cherry Berry grinned at Twilight, and then left the building, off to live Twilight’s life.
Twilight however, was still here. The stallions moved to the window. She saw one of them begin to focus his horn on her, and the other flipped a switch. The nozzles began to spray fire. Twilight felt her skin bubble and her hair burn off, just like her dream. She also, however, felt her horn grow and her back begin to throb. Her limbs began to elongate as she got taller and stronger, new alicorn muscles rippling under the now soothing fire. Twilight’s wings burst from her back, the rest of her old, charred skin peeling away. Her new pristine purple coat and luminescent mane showing off like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon. The fire slowed to a stop. The stallions outside were in awe.
The Stallions opened the door and released the new Twilight. She didn't know what to do, so she collapsed, collapsing felt good. It put an ease to all of her muscles. Her head was throbbing. Twilight just watched the two stallions. The took her and placed her on the table, allowing the incident report to fall to the floor. They tested her reactions and made sure she was okay. All her limbs moved just fine and her motor skills functioned accordingly.
The cult was actually made up of nice ponies, just strange beliefs. They took the time to help Twilight get used to her new alicorn body, the resident pegasus even teaching her a little about flying. All was well until Celestia and her guards showed up. The cult did not resist, and they were all taken to jail. Celestia approached Twilight.
“I’m sorry that this happened Twilight.”
“I’m fine, really. But now, I’m an alicorn. What will other ponies think of a new alicorn?”
“I have a solution to that, my faithful student. As you know, the westernmost settlement has been founded. I would like you to be my ambassador there, my kingdom is stretched far and thin, so I cannot keep peace out in the new western lands.”
“Thank you Princess… but what about my friends?”
“They will be moving there with you, each of there special skill sets makes them the perfect settlers, but they don’t know what happened to you yet, so I left breaking the news up to you.”
“And Spike?”
“Of course I’m sending Spike.”
“Thank you Princess.”
“You are very welcome, my sister.”
End incident report #6: (Origin of) Princess Twilight
All characters are owned by their respective companies. I try not to leave this stuff out.
