Canterlot.
The name made you think of spiraling towers, perfectly groomed unicorns, fancy shops, possibly illegal drugs and dirty bars.
But the one thing everypony always thought of was the alicorn princesses which resided there.
One particular purple alicorn was practicing magic in her bedchambers, which she had kept since she was a mere unicorn filly, her teacher's beloved student, raising her like she was her own foal.
Princess Twilight Sparkle thought wistfully of those simple days. She remembered her entrance exam. She was so nervous, her magic wouldn't ignite. It took the Sonic Rainboom from one of her best friends, Rainbow Dash, to get her to let it loose. She giggled as she remembered how she hatched Spike, then accelerated him into adulthood in mere seconds, as well as turning her parents into potted plants. Oh, the joy she felt when Princess Celestia declared her her personal student. Twilight also remembered how Celestia allowed her to keep Spike, who she nurtured and loved like a little brother. All the great memories they had together, Twilight and Spike. From studying to teasing Shining Armor about his crush on Princess Cadence, Spike was beside Twilight, and her beside him.
She remembered catching Spike playing with Smarty Pants, who was so embarrassed he locked himself in his room and wouldn't come out for a week.
She remembered going to the ball Princess Celestia's school was holding for the students and relatives, and the teachers. She immediately chose Spike as her date. Twilight blushed as she remembered Spike and her shared their first kiss together, mostly because the other foals were. Oh, she remembered her parents giving her a scold and lecture about it, but she found, deep down inside, she didn't regret it one bit.
Some part of her yearned to be back there, but unless she came up with a secondary time-travelling spell, it was impossible.
Speaking of inventing spells, the lavender princess was creating one right now. The cool breeze ruffled her soft fur and whipped her blue and pink mane around her cheeks and neck. She gently brushed it away with a delicate hoof. Her gut hurt somewhat, afraid of this spell. It was risky, far too risky, but she desperately wanted to impress Princess Celestia.
Twilight was jotting down the last of her notes as she was spooked by the large door opening.
"Who is it?!" Twilight asked, raising an inky quill in defense.
"Calm, young Twilight, it is only me." The calm, soothing voice of the ruler of the moon, Princess Luna reassured the younger alicorn, who sighed in relief and set the quill down.
"I'm so sorry, Luna, I've just been on the rather stressed recently." Twilight apologized to the dusky blue elder.
"From your work, I presume?" Luna gestured with her long, spiraled horn, her starry blue mane flowing serenely around her. "You are doing well."
"Th-thank you, princess," Twilight took the compliment to heart. Although not as close to her as Celestia, Twilight was fond of Luna, in a friendly way.
"Pray tell, what are you planning to accomplish with this spell?" The larger of the two asked, genuinely curious.
"Well, it's based off of the spell Princess Celestia used to turn me into an alicorn, except it can turn anypony into any species." Twilight explained, "However, I've only got earth ponies down so far, and there's still bugs in it, but it's almost completely smoothed out."
"Very impressive," Luna commented, glancing over Twilight's notes. "However did you figure out how to replicate sister's spell?"
"Well, you know how my cutie mark shows my talent in magic?" The blue one nodded as the purple rubbed the pink star on her own flank. "As it turns out, not only did the Sonic Rainboom unlock my powers, but the magic signature of a spell another unicorn, or alicorn, did is copied into my mind. But it varies greatly depending on the difficulty of the spell."
"Say Rarity casted a simple jewel-finding spell. I can master it in a few tries because the signature is simple, and therefore stronger. The species-changing spell, on the other hoof, is immensely complicated, and I must completely rewrite it to understand it, and from a very complicated and, as a result, weaker signature." The purple one flared her wings, very proud of her explanation.
"That is astounding, Twilight. I don't think I've ever heard of another pony with a gift like that since
Starswirl the Bearded." The elder was significantly surprised. Celestia sure knew how to pick students.
"Isn't it?" Twilight smiled, but blinked and rubbed her eyes. "However, working on this spell has taken a lot of time from me, and I haven't slept much."
"Then how about taking a break?" Luna suggested, "It would not be wise to keep working when your mind is frayed."
"It's almost done though." Twilight's eye twitched, "And I cannot stop. Until. It's. Done."
"Okay then, but please try to take at least a nap." The lithe moon-pony stood up, nodded respectfully, then started towards the door in one long, graceful movement. An odd, barely noticeable sound caused Luna to look back. Twilight's horn was lit up with a magenta glow, aimed towards Luna. Luna cast a shield around herself just as Twilight's magic collided with it.
Twilight pulled herself out of the rubble of her room. The result of their spells impacting created a large explosion which shook the ground all the way to Ponyville. Twilight was momentarily amazed by the castle still intact, except it's insides being what was affected. She was snapped out of her awe as she remembered somepony.
"Luna!" She called out, scrambling around and digging, hoping, wishing, praying she'd find a midnight blue feather or a lock of shimmering mane. She tilted her head back and screamed loudly. "LUNAAAAAAAAAA!!"
After fifteen minutes of fruitless howling, Twilight came to a horrible conclusion.
"I think I just killed my teacher's little sister."
Luna woke up slowly, her head pounding to the point of nearly bursting. She quickly slammed her eyes shut again to block out the mere slit of light that had somehow found it's way in from somewhere. The dark blue mare took a deep breath, her skin shuddering from being so unnaturally cold, opening her turquoize orbs completely. As her eyes rapidly adjusted to the almost non-existant light, she noticed she was in an abandoned train station which had been mutilated by gangs graffiting the walls with vulgar things and trash strewn everywhere. Luna tried to use her magic to light up the room, but as hard as she tried, all she got was a worse headache.
"Um... miss, what are you doing?" The voice of a young stallion hit her ears. Luna turned and stared in horror, getting quite a rude shock from believing she was alone.
The voice belonged to a rather handsome green earth pony stallion which dark forest-y eyes. His mane and tail were muddy brown and gray, yet they meshed well together. The princess allowed herself to realize how handsome this colt was, until she realized his rudeness.
"We are attempting to light up the room, obviously." She said, pushing herself higher, in a bitter state from her headache and previous memories of the castle. "Doth thou not know to bow before royalty?"
The earth pony merely stared at the mare.
"Well?" She said again, her temper boiling over. "Thou art not deaf, are you?"
"No, but..." The stallion said, "You're not a princess."
"Thou surely are daft! How can thou not see we are an alicorn!" Luna went into a defensive pose, her wings flared. Except... they weren't there.
The dusky blue mare stared at her shoulder blades, expecting her see her flying appendages, but they simply weren't there.
Luna opened her mouth and screamed in horror, patting her head and seeing her horn was gone as well. She stopped, stared at the stallion, then tackled him into a wall, holding him down.
"What did you do to us?" She snarled, her hoof above her head to slam down onto his face.
"I-I didn't do anything, I swear!" He yelped, cowering in hopes her raised hoof wouldn't come in contact with his face. Although she no longer was wearing her armor, Luna's bare flesh was still something to fear.
"Then why are our horn and wings gone?!"
"I dunno! I just found you like this!"
"Where am we?" Luna was less tense, but still ready to beat the suspect senseless.
"The Old Train Station in Longlegs, Grounding, Pegosopolis." He blurted out, his hooves over his face.
Luna back away from him, sitting down to meditate.
"Who are you?" He asked her. After a few minutes Luna finally answered.
"Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria." She said, just now noticing her mane was no long flowing and sparkly, just long and wavy.
"Hah, Princess Luna, now I know you're crazy!" The stallion laughed. Luna gave him a deathglare.
"Why doth thou not believe us?" She asked, displeased with his amusement at her answer.
"There was an article about Princess Luna being caught at a smoothie stand today. Apparently she goes nuts for them or something." He giggled, "You can't be THAT Luna. You're just, like, an earth pony clone."
"We hate smoothies..." Luna muttered, before looking back. "That is a lie, we am most definetly the real Princess Luna."
"Are you sure you just don't have a little memory problem? You fell a pretty big height." The green pony said, his eyes soft and compassionate. "It's not out of question you might have a minor case of very serious brain damage."
Luna snorted, "We are sure."
"Then what's up with your speech? Are you bipolar or something? Why do you call yourself 'we'?"
"It is traditional to use the royal 'we'." She explained, rolling her eyes.
"Okay, whatever, you really need help." The colt said. "I'm taking you to a hospital."
"No! We are fine!" Luna snapped, though in truth, she felt like she did need medicine for her headache.
"Then I'm taking you home."
"No, we are staying here."
"Hey, I'm not leaving you here to get raped." The colt said, grabbing her tail and uncerimoniously dragging the moon princess out the door before she stood up and followed him herself.
"By the way, what is thou name?" She asked the colt. Without even looking at her, the earth pony answered.
"Emerald Skies,"
