-=Rebellion: Chapter 1=-
The Everfree Forest was a dangerous place infamous in Equestria for its wild inhabitants and independent ecosystem. Nopony dared to enter this maze of terrors alone or in groups even if they were accompanied by the most skilled unicorn or the bravest pegasus. If that is the case, then why is the newly crowned princess of Equestria venturing into its winding roads unaccompanied?
“I really hate this place,” Twilight said to herself. She had been walking her current path for an hour now and was beginning to succumb to the psychological effects of the forest’s atmosphere: the air made her cough, the trees made her claustrophobic and the noises made her paranoid. A nearby bush shook, causing Twilight to jump into the air and fly away. After a few minutes passed, Twilight checked her six, landed on the ground and walked slowly. “I really, really hate this place.” Her destination was still a ways off, but she was determined to get there before sundown.
Another hour of walking passed and Twilight finally reached her destination: Princess Celestia’s and Princess Luna’s old castle. The structures that once housed the royal sisters were now worn down and covered with weeds and vines. Twilight gazed at the ruins and remembered her first time here. Her first time here involved her and her friends, which gave her courage and comfort to explore the castle, but now that she was exploring this on her own, she felt nervous and scared.
“If Discord lied to me about this, I’m so going to make him pay!” said Twilight. She entered the ruins and began searching. “The princess’ research must have been confidential, so they probably wouldn’t put them in anywhere public. Knowing Princess Celestia, she would have kept them in a private place, like hers and Princess Luna’s personal study.” The clattered boulders and messy greenery made it difficult for Twilight to search around, let alone see any signs or doors. After checking the current section of the area she was in, she concluded that she had been searching in the sleeping quarters of the castle’s dwellers. However, she did not find any place that would look like the study of the princesses. Twilight explored the other areas of the castle for the next hour and received the same results of her first search: nothing.
Twilight ventured further into the ruins and came upon the old throne room; the room was similar in layout to the one in Canterlot Castle, except the materials used were old fashioned bricks instead of porcelain and metal. Twilight cautiously walked towards the thrones while observing the worn down walls and the cracked floor of the hall. “I wonder how elegant this place must have looked when the princesses lived here,” she said to herself. Twilight reached the thrones and noticed that they were placed close to each other. She proceeded to look at the thrones and the surrounding area. “I’ve checked the entire castle for a study-like room, but there’s nothing here except weeds and bugs!“ Twilight whined. Feeling tired, Twilight sighed and sat down the throne that had a sun symbol on its left arm rest. Twilight’s heart sank and feelings of guilt and remorse began to well up inside her. “Why am I even doing this?” she asked herself.
-
The coronation had occurred two weeks ago, but Twilight was still grinning from ear to ear. Attaining alicornhood and princesshood was an achievement she never dreamed or even considered of fulfilling. Now, however, she was royalty, a being capable of influencing and making change in Equestria. Twilight did not long for power, but to be able to help others, like she did in Ponyville, only now at a much larger scale.
Twilight was walking in the gardens that surrounded Canterlot Castle, taking a break from her royal duties. Princess Celestia had advised her to take a few minutes to get some air after Twilight had signed five hundred documents for the past three hours. Twilight objected at first, reluctant in abandoning her work, but her peer insisted that she did so. Twilight traveled deeper into the garden and stopped a few times to smell the flowers. “Fluttershy was right,” she said, “the garden does have the best fauna in Equestria.”
She walked a little bit further and ended up at the entrance to the garden’s maze. Twilight cringed at the sight of the maze for bad memories started to pop into her head: falling for Discord’s trick, her friends turning bad and her almost giving up on hope. She shook those memories out of her head and decided that it was time for her to return to her work. Twilight turned to walk back to the castle, only to run into the master of chaos. The creature collage towered over her, his eyes lazy and sharp.
“Why, if it isn’t Twilight Sparkle, or would you prefer ‘Princess’ Twilight Sparkle?” the draconequus teased.
“What do you want, Discord?” Twilight asked. Despite knowing that he had been reformed, Twilight was still cautious around the strange character.
“Why so curious? Is my presence so much of a danger that each action I take and word I speak have to have some type of motive behind them?”
“Well, no. But knowing you it just feels mandatory to ask.”
“Ugh, why I am offended, Twilight Sparkle! Here I am just trying to start a casual conversation and you go ahead and assume that I have the intention of doing something bad.”
“What is it that you need, Discord?”
“Pushy, aren’t we? Well, if you insist. I just came by to ask you some questions.”
"What kind of questions?”
“Just questions. But if you’re too paranoid to answer them, I’ll just be on my way then.”
Curiosity ate away inside her and Twilight finally submitted to her thirst for knowledge. “Fine, I’ll answer your questions,” Twilight replied.
“Without asking your own?” Discord asked.
Twilight paused for a moment. “Without asking my own.”
A grin spreaded across Discord’s face. “Great! Now for the first question: What do you know about me?”
“I know that you’re a very dangerous creature that should be kept in a cage with Fluttershy giving you her stare.”
“Ooh, feisty. But that’s not what I’m looking for. What I’m asking you is what do you know about my history?”
“Your history?” Twilight gave a puzzled look.
“You said you wouldn’t ask questions.”
“Ah, I know that! Um, I know that you once ruled over Equestria. Other than your reawakening and Fluttershy reforming you, nothing else.”
Discord’s body slumped and his face showed a bored expression. “How disappointing of you, Twilight Sparkle. I expected more research and insight from such a highly acclaimed scholar, let alone Celestia’s prized pupil.”
“Uh-“
“Well that’s to be expected, since it is such a controversial and rarely visited topic. Now, for the next question: What do you know about your princesses?”
“I-I know that Cadence was brought up and apprenticed by Princess Celestia and was the destined ruler of the Crystal Empire. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna ruled over Equestria after they defeated you. After Princess Luna’s banishment to the moon, Princess Celestia ruled over Equestria on her own and controlled both the sun and the moon. Throughout her rule, Princess Celestia brought peace, unity and wealth to her people as well as supported change and advancements in society and technology.”
“Not as deep as I would have expected, but it’ll have to do. For the next question: what do you know about unicorns?”
“Huh?” Twilight replied with a confused look.
“What do you know about your race, or in your case, your ex-race. What do you know about it?”
“Um. Uh…” Twilight stammered as she tried to find an answer. She had never been asked a question like this before. The subject was too broad to be answered quickly and Twilight did not expect Discord to listen to an hour long speech about unicorn origins, anatomy and any other aspects about being a unicorn. That and Twilight felt out of place of answering the question itself. However, something inside her didn’t want to back down to Discord so she decided to give a quick summary of her thoughts.
“Unicorns are a species of ponies that specialize in the use of magic. They have been regarded as a high class race for their connection to the supernatural.”
“Wow, I’m surprised that you didn’t go crazy informative about that topic. Well, it would have gotten dangerously deep so I guess I can understand. But this last question will definitely blow your mind away.”
“Just what is the goal of-“
“Uh-uh,” Discord interrupted, “no questions from you until I finish asking mine.”
“Ugh, fine.” Twilight was getting annoyed by all the questions as well as being around Discord.
“Now for the last question: what is a conspiracy theory?”
“What?!” That two word combination alarmed Twilight; she never really liked controversial issues, especially ones regarding the questioning of knowledge. She hadn’t been paying much attention to the questions Discord had been throwing at her, but this last one just made her act on edge. Something about its timing wasn’t right, or too right.
“Not your turn yet. Answer the question first.”
“I’m not going to answer that question!” Twilight replied angrily. She jumped back and positioned herself for battle. “What are you trying to get at?”
“Oh, fine, you got me,” said Discord while he raised his paw and claw in the air. “After realizing that you are now in a high position of power, I thought it would be fun to give you a test, a test to see your dedication to your princesses after learning a horrible truth.”
“What horrible truth?!”
“Oh, that is for me to know and for you to find out.”
“What are you planning?”
“Nothing, honestly, nothing at all. I swear on Fluttershy’s life I am not planning anything evil or along those lines.”
“I thought you were reformed; Princess Celestia even felt and said so.”
“From what I remember she said that she sensed a big change in me. Trust me, that is no lie. That big change, though, is not what your princess had hoped for.”
“What do you mean?”
“She hoped to reform me so that she could order me around and use my magic for her ‘on my own free will’. No, I am not loyal to her. I am only loyal to Fluttershy and Fluttershy alone. Well, maybe some of you as well but, ultimately, only to Fluttershy.”
Twilight’s mind was in a fit of processing input and output at the same time. She felt her face and head get hotter and hotter. So many thoughts buzzed around her mind, causing her to make weird faces and speak jibberish. She stomped a hoof in frustration and started to head back to the castle. “I don’t have time for this! I’m going back to my work.”
“It was nice talking to you, your highness,” Discord said with an odd tone.
Twilight looked back to retort, only to see that the creature had disappeared. She turned and began walking again, her mind still filling with questions while at the same time trying to come up with answers to said questions. Twilight knew one thing though: Discord may be random and evil, but those questions he asked must have some connections to each other. Twilight subdued these thoughts by distracting herself with her plans for the day. However, something in the back of her mind just kept feeding coal to her train of curiosity.
-=Rebellion: Chapter 2=-
Twilight looked at the hour glass at the edge of her desk. The sand had already been emptied three times, meaning that she has been signing papers and reading documents for three straight hours. She looked outside a nearby window; the sun was at the peak of its ark in the sky. She placed her head on her desk and yawned. “My head hurts,” she said.
A knock came from her door. “Twilight, are you busy?” Princess Celestia’s voice was hard to miss, even if Twilight’s focus wasn’t on it. “May I come in?”
“Of course, princess.”
Princess Celestia opened the door with magic and smoothly walked across the study towards Twilight’s desk. After getting a closer look at her star pupil, Princess Celestia showed a worried face. “If you ever feel tired, you are free to take a break.”
Twilight’s face shot up and she straightened her body. “Tired? Who said anything about tired? Me? Tired? No, ma’am. No tired princess here.”
Princess Celestia paused to examine Twilight’s situation, then she gave a sigh. “You don’t need to push yourself, Twilight. Being a princess is not all about hard work and leading others; it’s also about taking care of oneself.” Her soft voice warmed Twilight’s body as each syllable passed into her ears.
Twilight groaned. “I know princess, but… there’s something that’s just been knocking me in a loop.”
“Oh, and what is that?”
“Well…” Twilight stopped her train of thought and looked Princess Celestia in the eyes, those eyes that had comforted her for so long. Twilight felt her muscles relax just from looking at Princess Celestia. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Twilight felt her brain pull her back into a thinking chair. Suddenly, Discord’s questions started to bounce around in her head. History. Princesses. Unicorns. Conspiracy.
“Twilight?”
What do those questions mean? Twilight’s head heated up again. She placed a hoof on her head and closed her eyes.
“Twilight?”
Something just doesn’t feel right about that combo of questions. Twilight’s head felt heavy and aching. She started to massage her temples.
“Twilight?”
History…Princesses…Unicorns…Conspiracy…
“Twilight? Is something wrong?” Princess Celestia asked with a slightly louder volume.
Twilight opened her eyes and looked at her mentor: Princess Celestia’s face was closer to hers now and it showed an expression of concern. “S-sorry, princess. I guess I’m just a bit worn out from all that work,” said Twilight sheepishly.
“It’s alright, Twilight. Go on to your room and rest; your work can wait.”
“O-okay.”
Twilight headed for the exit of the room. When she reached the door, she looked back at Princess Celestia, who had gone and started cleaning Twilight’s desk. Twilight’s head was still under some stress, but now her heart was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Twilight turned her attention to Princess Celestia’s cutie mark: a sun. Her eyes were now following her head and heart.
What is going on?
Twilight left the study and headed for her room. Her senses were starting to fall and her body was shaking. “No…I can’t collapse…not…here…” She focused her thoughts on her horn and casted a teleportation spell. With a bright flash of light, Twilight was no longer in Canterlot Castle.
-
Twilight got off the throne she had been sitting in. “There’s got to be something here, anything!” she said.
She looked at the thrones; they were covered with leaves and cracks in their structure made them look unstable. Twilight looked at the sun throne’s left arm rest again; the symbol on the arm rest was raised a little bit. “Maybe it’s a switch?” said Twilight. She placed her hoof on it and heard a click.
“…”
She waited a little longer, but nothing happened. She took her hoof off the switch and turned her attention to the other throne: a throne that held a moon symbol. She looked at the arm rests of the moon throne and noticed that they were covered with dead leaves. Twilight used her magic to move the leaves and saw that the right arm rest had a moon switch.
“Hmm…”
Twilight placed her hoof on the moon switch and heard another click.
“…”
Like the first switch, nothing happened. She released her hoof from the switch and looked at both the switches. “Of course,” she said to herself.
She raised both of her front hooves and pressed both switches at the same time. A click came once again, but it was immediately followed by a series of ticks and rumbles. Twilight moved away from the thrones and saw that they were starting to slowly separate from each other. From the gap that was forming, Twilight saw a flight of stairs leading to a dimly lit passage. The noises stopped and the secret passage was now fully opened.
“Finally,” Twilight said with a sigh.
With her senses perked up, Twilight slowly made her way down the stairs and into the passage. Unlike the rest of the ruins, the passage was in great condition: the bricks lacked cracks, there was no greenery to be seen and the air felt fresh. The passage was softly lit by a series of hanging orb-like objects that Twilight did not recognize. As she went further, Twilight could make out a door at the end of the passage.
She quickly made her way to it and gave it a better look; the door was made of brown colored wood and had Princess Luna’s and Princess Celestia’s cutie marks on it. The door lacked a handle, so Twilight assumed that it could only be opened by magic and did so. The door opened with a loud creak that hurt Twilight’s ears and she felt wind escape from the other side of the door.
When the door was fully opened, Twilight gasped at the sight in front of her eyes. The room was lit with an large orb similar to the ones she saw in the passage. The walls were lined with shelves that were filled with scrolls, books, sheets of paper and little artifacts. In front of the shelves were long tables covered with papers, quills, bottles and books. Each end of each table also had cauldrons with fumes coming out of them. At the center of the room was a magic circle drawn in chalk.
Twilight took a deep breath and felt that the air was as fresh as the air in the passage. She entered the room, stopped at the center of the magi circle and looked at the rooms contents; most of the objects were in the same condition as the books she had in her library at Ponyville.
“This place was well preserved,” she concluded. Twilight turned her attention to the tables and their clutter. “But not well maintained.”
She used her magic to lift the clutter off the tables and placed them in the empty spots of the shelves. She then noticed that each table had symbols on them: the table on the right had a sun symbol and the table on the left had a moon symbol.
“What is with this place?” asked Twilight.
She headed to the shelves that were on the sun table’s side of the room. A lot of the titles of the books were hard to read, but Twilight took them up anyway and began skimming through them. The books were written in Equestrian for the most part, but some were in languages Twilight could not decipher. Most of the topics covered in the books were about astronomy, physics, meteorology, geography, biology, magic, psychology and government. The subjects covered in each book were thoroughly covered and well analyzed. What struck Twilight as strange was that the pages of the books were marked with notes and calculations. The notes were usually just shortened versions of the information covered in the books, but some of them were personal opinions as well. After finishing the last book on the sun side of the room, Twilight went over to the moon side of the room and skimmed through its books as well. Like the sun side, the moon side’s books had almost the same exact book, except the notes and calculations on each page of the books were slightly different.
“These books are very informative but none of them look like Princess Celestia’s or Princess Luna’s secret research,” said Twilight.
Twilight returned the books in the shelves and walked towards the moon side’s table. The table had drawers that were opened and filled with more papers. Twilight used her magic to place the papers on the tables and saw that one desk held a book. She brought the book closer to her face; the book was hard covered, dark blue and lacked any writing on the covers. Acting on instinct, Twilight went over to the sun side’s table and cleared out the papers from the drawers. Just like before, she found a book in one of the drawers. Like the first, it was hard covered and had no writing on the covers but had a light yellow color instead of dark blue.
Twilight placed both books on the sun table and opened each at the same time. The first page of each book was labeled with the owner’s name; the dark blue had Princes Luna’s name and the light yellow had Princess Celestia’s name. Twilight felt a chill run down her spine when she saw the names. Her head and heart started to feel heavy again. Her body began to shake and sweat as she turned the pages of the books. Before she could have the chance to read the next pages, Twilight closed the books and backed away from them.
“What am I doing?” she asked herself. She started to pace around the table while at the same time looking at the books. “I don’t know why, but something tells me that I shouldn’t read these books.” She stopped in her previous position and stared at the books. “I feel like if I read them, I-I’d be betraying the princesses.”
Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her nerves shook less and her head and heart felt a little lighter. She opened her eyes and looked at the books once more. “No. I need to do this if I want to continue living in peace. What determines my feelings from here on are what I learn from these books. I’m sorry Princess Celestia, Princess Luna.” With her magic, Twilight lifted the books up to her face and opened them again.
-
“Is she gonna be okay?”
“Ah hope so, sugarcube.”
“She just popped out of nowhere!”
“Keep it down, darlings. You’ll wake up Twilight.”
Twilight’s body was still in a state of pain. She opened her eyes and noticed that she was surrounded by her Ponyville friends. All of them had worried looks on their faces. Twilight then noticed that she was in her bed in her library.
“Wha-?” she said hazily.
“TWILIGHT!!!” Pinkie screamed as she hugged the dazed alicorn.
“Ouch!” Twilight yelled. Her body was already hurt and she found this to be making it worse.
“Oops, sorry.” Pinkie released Twilight from her hug.
“Pinkie, be careful!” said Applejack.
“No no, it’s okay, Applejack. I’m fine.” Twilight sat up on her bed and looked at her friends. The sight of them made her feel relaxed for her body had felt less heavy.
“Fine?” asked Rarity. “You look far from fine, darling!”
“Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash, “When we saw you after that bright flash, you looked like you hadn’t slept for days!”
Twilight placed a hoof on her temple. “What are you guys doing here in the library?”
“I needed Spike to help me gather jewels for my next commission,” said Rarity, “and I asked Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie to watch over the library since they were not busy.”
“I was busy!” replied Rainbow.
“Well if you call lazing in the clouds busy…” added Pinkie.
“I wasn’t just lazing around!”
“But when Rarity asked me to get you, that's what you were doing.”
“That’s ’nough, Pinkie, Rainbow,” said Applejack. “Anyways, after they got over to the library, they saw ya come in in that, uh, state and got us as quickly as possible.”
Twilight got off the bed and started heading for the stairs. “Thank you for your help, girls, but I need to get back to Canterlot immediately. I casted that teleportation spell so that I could get to my room in the castle to rest. I guess I was so tired and ready to sleep that I didn’t think of where I should teleport to and quickly thought of a place like home.” Twilight stopped in her tracks and looked at her friends; she felt like there was something missing. “Hey, where’s Fluttershy?”
All of her friends suddenly went quiet. Pinkie’s and Rainbow’s eyes were flickering from left to right. Rarity and Applejack just stared back at Twilight with weird looks on their faces.
“Is something wrong with Fluttershy?” asked Twilight.
“Well, she’s got ‘er a visitor at the moment,” Applejack said with nervous tone.
“Oh? Who is it?”
The silence came back again. Her friends looked at each other with shifty eyes.
Rarity fidgeted from her position and took a deep breath. “U-um, Discord, darling.”
