"Tia, you are much better at creating the day than you are at creating the night!" I said, bouncing around. "Last night the stars seemed quite a bit off."
"You know, Feria, bringing the night was not my destiny," Celestia said. "The duty fell to me when Night's true mistress was unable." I stopped bouncing and looked up at her. As the Princess, she towered above all ponies, and I was just a little filly. She always seemed royal and mysterious, a bit removed from most ponies, but very kind and caring. She made sure I was happy. I had rarely seen her like this, she looked on the verge of tears, as in remembrance of something lost. When she noticed how I was worried, she came back.
"I will tell you that story another time," she said. "Come on, little sister. I am expected to see the new ponies entering the School for Gifted Unicorns." I gave her one last look as she started walking, and followed after her. I had to fly to keep up with her stride. I admired how beautiful she looked, tall and elegant, a pure white coat, and a flowing mane of magical aura. I felt strange next to her while she was doing her royal duties. I was nearly the opposite of her, short, a black coat, my mane barely had any different colors than a bright red. I still had to ask myself, "who is this Mistress of the Night?"
We were barely across the courtyard when it happened. I heard a noise, and explosion, and looked to the sky. So many colors erupted! Every shade of every color ran through the sky becoming one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen! I heard crashes and screams for behind me. As I turned I saw a purple dragon wearing the tower. I should have been scared by the dragon and the magical energy surging around me, but I felt elated. A warm, tingling feeling was rushing through my body. I felt it in my heart all the way down to my hooves. I felt it in the tip of my horn and every feather in my wings. Something important had happened.
Celestia was galloping toward the tower, and I followed as fast as I could. Up the spiral stairs and down hallways we went. I realized where we were going as we got to the end of the hall.
School For Gifted Unicorns Entrance Exams
We entered the room, and saw it all. The school board members were levitating, two potted plants were in the parental waiting area, the purple dragon still had his head through the roof. In the middle of it all, as a Unicorn. I could not see them correctly, a bright pinkish aura surounded the Unicorn nearly blinding me. The magical energy was out of control. It felt nearly as powerful as Celestia's energy when raising the sun, but uncontrolled. I could only imagine what this Unicorn could do with proper training and focus. This Unicorn could do anything.
Celestia walked forward, and gently put a hoof on the Unicorn. The magic quickly dissipated. I noticed the colors was gone from the sky, and the warm tingles had left my body. The school board fell to the floor, the potted plants turned into a white and purple mare with a blue stallion, the dragon became a baby, and I was able to see the Unicorn that had caused all of this.
She was a lovely lavender color, with a deep purple mane, a pink stripe ran through it. But what shocked me the most was that this Unicorn was just a filly like me. Small, scared of what had just happened. "She does not even have a cutie mark! Just like me!" I thought to myself.
"Twilight Sparkle," Celestia said calmly. I guess that is this filly's name. Before shecould do anything else, Twilight Sparkle began to apologize, but Celestia cut her off.
"You have a very special gift I don't think I've ever come across a unicorn with your raw abilities!" she exclaimed. Seeing the unicorn's confusion, she continued. "But you need to learn to tame these abilities through focus study.Twilight Sparkle, I'd like to make you my own personal protege here at the school!"
Twilight looked flabbergasted. I giggled a bit at her confusion, but quickly quieted myself. No need to make her feel more embarrassed.. Twilight looked to the couple who had been plants a minute ago, her parents I assume. They were shaking their heads yes, and encouraging her to agree.
"YES!" Twilight shouted, jumping high into the air.
"One other thing, Twilight," Celestia said.
"More?" the filly whined, crashing to the ground. Celestia pointed to Twilight's flank, as a pink six pointed star appeared. She jumped around shouting 'yes' for the next few minutes. When she finally calmed down, Celestia suggested we all take a tour of the castle. I decided to introduce myself.
"Hi!" I said to her. She shied away a bit, but said hello back. "I am Feria, Celestia's little sister. That was amazing what you did in there!"
"It was a bit of a fluke really," she said. "If that explosion hadn't scared me, I would have just gone home."
"So you did not create the rainbow in the sky!" Now I was confused. "I mean, everything else you did was amazing, but I thought the rainbow was your doing too!"
"That was most likely a Pegasus." Celestia remarked. "Some Pegasai can break through the sound barrier and leave marks like that in the sky.They usually happen in the color of the Pegasus' mane."
"Maybe they got a cutie mark right when you did!" I said to Twilight. "I can not wait until I get mine"
"But," Twilight said with an odd expression, "You already have a cutie mark."
"No I-" I turned to look at my flank and saw what was undeniably a cutie mark! I flew around screaming "OHMIGOSH!" for a few minutes before calming down enough to get a good look at it. It was a pinkish red and sort of heart shaped. It looked like the Fire of Friendship from the Hearth's Warming Eve play.
"You must have gotten it during the commotion," Celestia said to me.
"But, I do not know what my talent is." I felt worried. I had been so excited a minute ago, but now I felt sadder than before. I had this cutie mark right there, but I did not know what my special talent was. Earning your cutie mark was supposed to be the moment when you realized your talent, but I had realized nothing.
What is it I was meant to be?
I could not sleep. I kept replaying those few minutes over in my mind. The rainbow colored explosion, Twilight's magic, my cutie mark appearing. None of today made sense to me. Actually, the only part of today that made sense was realizing why Twilight looked familiar. My cousin* Cadence is her foalsitter. Of course I had only realized this after literally running into Cadence during the tour.
It was the middle of the night, the moon at its zenith, a time most ponies should be sleeping. I liked to watch the nighttime from my balcony. The guards at night look different from the guards at day. Their white coats seem to gray, and their armor becomes silver instead of gold. You can not hear the noises you usually would during the day. Even up in the castle I can hear all the noise of ponies walking, talking and enjoying themselves. The city had a song to it, one that quieted at night for us to hear the symphony of nature. Tia once told me to listen for the stars to twinkle, but I could never hear it.
I heard something different than usual. It was an actual song? I followed it out of my room and down the hallway. It lead me to Celestia's room. Why was she singing? I had heard her sing before, but not like this. She has sang lullabies, and we always sing together on Hearth's Warming Eve. This song had emotions worked into it. I could feel it, it felt like that warm tingle from earlier.
Come back to me, dear sister the time is nearly gone
I hope you forgive me for all that I have done
Everything was my fault, but you were punished for my ignorance
I wish, I hope, I dream, I pray, once again we shall dance
The others are gone, but you are still here
yet you are nowhere near
One thousand years of regret follow us both
yet somehow there is still hope
"Feria! What are you doing up!" She asked as I entered. She tried to act like nothing had happened, but I was curious, of course.
"I could not sleep," I said. "I still do not know what, my cutie mark means. Then I heard you singing. What was the song about?"
Celestia said nothing. She looked at the moon once more, then quietly herded me back to bed. She waited for me to get comfortable, all tucked in and warm. She was still humming, but it was not the same song. This song was just a lullaby.
"Let me tell you a story," she said. "Once, long ago there were seven ponies. Each one different, but all born to be great. When they were very young they got cutie marks without explanation. They wondered what they were meant to do. It was years before they knew what they were meant to do, but it happened just the same. Some ruled kingdoms, others controlled powers unknown to others."
"You are bad at making up stories, Tia." I said. noticing the lack of plot.
"I will admit that. The point was that you are not alone. Other ponies have gotten a cutie mark without knowing its meaning." she hugged me close. "You will find your way, just like we did."
"We?" I asked as she realized she had slipped. "W- were you one of the seven?"
"Yes," she sighed. "I was the second oldest of seven once. We were different than the other ponies. More powerful, and of course we were Alicorns. The one thing we all had in common was that we were not 'born' like other ponies. We were 'created', we had no parents or other family, but we considered each other to be sisters. You were 'created' too, Feria. But we were created nearly two thousand years ago." It felt weird I could easily accept this. I guess it answered my questions, but it made me ask many more.
"What happened to them?" I asked. I could see the question pained her. I regret asking and bring up whatever memories.
"Most of them are gone," she replied. "The last one died nearly fifteen hundred years ago." She seemed to want to change the subject. "You remind me a lot of one of them. She was my older sister. When you were created, I thought you looked just like her. As you have grown older, you have become very much like her." I felt proud of that.
"Good night, Feria," Celestia said as she began to walk off.
"Wait!" I exclaimed. "Two more questions! Earlier, you mentioned a "true Mistress of the Night". Was she one of the others?"
"Yes. The youngest of us, Luna was the one to bring out the moon as I brought the sun. She is unable to do it now, so I must do it in her place."
"What happened to her?" I asked. The way she said that made me think Luna had not died.
Celestia turned away from me, and looked out the window at the full moon, the image of a mare embedded into it. "That is too long of a story tonight. I will tell you one day, but not tonight". She began to walk again.
"What about my other question, Tia?"
"I just answered two." she said with a small smile.
"No you didn't!"
"Okay, one more."
I hesitated on this, but I had to ask it. "What was the other Feria's special talent? What did she do?" This seemed to shock Celestia. She seemed to think for a minute to get to the correct answer.
"She felt the bonds between people. Love was her talent. Not romantic love, but the love between people who care for each other in every way and would do anything for them. She could not control love, but she could remind ponies of it. She protected it, and reminded those who had forgotten. She knew that just even one pony being a friend, and and caring for one enough to try to change the world, could mean so much. She said that her heart would resonate with others in a way, and could sense a connection between two ponies before they could even meet. I never felt it, but when I asked, she told me the resonation felt like a warm tingling that covered her entire body. It did not hurt or bother her in daily life, but it always made her happy knowing that somepony cares for another."
And with that she left, and I was alone. But I still felt that warm tingling I felt. I focused on it, and I saw many things. Maybe I was dreaming, but I felt I could see everything that was happening, everything that has happened, and everything that might come to be. Through the night, one question plagued my mind;
Is it possible for somepony to come back from the dead?
