Royal Library
Canterlot, Equestria
997 ANM (After Nightmare Moon)

A young, but very intelligent Twilight Sparkle, had been studying in the Canterlot Royal Library for hours. Not even an hour ago, she had come across a mysterious tome, written by Starswirl the Bearded himself! Upon reading the book, Twilight noticed that Starswirl was studying the boundaries of existence, when he had discovered some minor fluctuations in its weaving. The old unicorn may have written the spell he had used in the book, as well as what he had found in those flux points, but there were entire pages missing from the text! Said pages appeared to be expertly removed as well. With this revelation, Twilight placed the old tomes into her saddlebag to read later, as she had to question the only pony with the answers she desired about her discoveries.

While she runs away, a small scrap of parchment, seemingly undamaged, flies from one of the books as she runs past a stallion with chestnut fur, brown hair, and an hourglass cutie mark. The parchment lands on his snout, and he says to himself, "What's this thing? Ah well, little miss Sparkle will have to wait. In the mean time..." he trails off as he walks away, parchment still balanced on his muzzle. The Doctor casually strolls into an unnoticed, unassuming, and unusual blue box, which begins to fade away with its parking brakes left on, 'because they're fun.'

Twilight wanders the halls in search of the Princess, and arrives at the throne room. Empty. She keeps looking for her teacher, when she finds her brother, Shining Armor. He points her in the direction of the conference hall, and continues his patrol.

"Princess Celestia? I found some pages missing from one of Starswirl the Bearded's personal tomes," the young unicorn shouts to her mentor upon reaching the conference hall. "Look at this book! The pages were removed from their binding with great care and precision! Do you know what happened to them?"

The Princess lets out a long suffering sigh, uncharacteristic of the extremely patient Sun-goddess, and walks over to a stained-glass window. "Yes, Twilight, I know of this because it was I who removed them. They were too dang-"

"Princess! How could you just remove knowledge of what has been? It could have been useful!"

"Twilight,"

"I mean, we could have learned from what Starswirl wrote, and used it in modern times!"

"Twilight," Princess Celestia was beginning to lose patience.

"We might even have been able to travel to other worlds! Do you know how heavily that would impact our society for the better? We may also have been able to-"

"Twilight! I removed those pages because the knowledge stored upon them would have been dangerous to my little ponies, and they may have attempted to explore these borders themselves! The existential barrier is there for a reason, Twilight. It is there to keep otherworldly beings from entering our own!" The princess had only raised her voice ever so slightly, but to Twilight, she was shouting.

"I-I... I'm sorry. I should have listened more before... well, that..." the unicorn apologized.

The princess smiled and said, "It is alright, Twilight. That reaction was very reasonable, especially if I had not had any reason for it. But, I will tell you about what Starswirl found past one of those fluctuation zones, when the need arises. You simply need to be patient."

Twilight nods in response, "Yes, Princess Celestia. I'm sorry about not waiting for you to explain why you did those things. It won't happen again."

"Good. Now, was there anything else that concerns you?" the Sun Princess asks her faithful disciple.

Twilight scrunches up her nose in thought, the her eyes sparkle with excitement, as she gasps, "Yes, actually! I found this piece of paper while looking at a book about written by Smart Cookie. Here, let me get it..." the little unicorn trails off as she digs around in her saddlebag. The princess lets out a soft chuckle at how excited Twilight got at a piece of paper.

With a confused look plastered on her face, Twilight looks at her mentor with sad eyes and a frown, "But, it was right there! It was a letter for you! It wasn't even written by Smart Cookie. It also mentioned something about a changeling war that took place a few hundred years ago." Twilight hangs her head in disappointment.

Celestia walks up to her student, and places a comforting wing over her shoulders, "Do not worry little one, I'm sure it is still in the library. Why don't we go and get it?"

"But, Princess! What about your royal duties? You can't just abandon them like that, for me!" Twilight gasps in surprise as her mentor nonchalantly walks off toward the library.

Princess Celestia only smirks, "They aren't THAT important, only a bit of paperwork that won't be due for another few days."

Twilight, still shocked by her mentor's behavior, simply complies with Princess Celestia's request, and follows along to the library. Once they arrive, the unicorn librarian currently cleaning up after the mess of books Twilight had made, glares at the culprit. Upon seeing the princess, her eye's widen, and she bows so deeply, her muzzle is pressed against the cold stone tile. Celestia simply rolls her eyes and asks, "Tell me Fresh Ink, did you happen to notice a piece of parchment among the mess of books you have just cleaned up?" The old mare shakes her head in a negative, and continues cleaning.

"What? It's gone? How can it be gone! I know it was here! It was the only place it could have been if it fell out of my bag! And we walked the path I took to the conference hall, so if it was still along that path, we would have found it!" the unicorn filly panics in exasperation.

"Don't worry, Twilight. It may have not been of any importance anyway. Shall we continue your studies?" the princess inquires of her student. Twilight nods her head in excitement, already forgotten about the mysterious piece of parchment she found earlier, and ready to get on with her next lesson in magic. Celestia however, is no longer blessed with youth and the childish mind that comes with it, as her thoughts are focused on the letter, and why it was written to her, of all ponies. However, these thoughts will have to wait, as there are far more important matters that concern Celestia's focus, such as a rambunctious teenaged student of hers.

Author's Note

Hey, listen up all of you, I have some pretty important things to ask of thee. Do any of you want to beta read my story chapters? Another thing, what do you think of the prologue? Well, post anything you want in the comments. By the way, you guys are probably wondering some things such as, "Why was the Doctor there?" or "What does he mean, 'Little miss Sparkle will have to wait.'?" and "Will we see the Doctor later in the story?" or even "What is on that piece of paper to make the Doc go back to his TARDIS and then the Time Vortex?" Well, the answers will be answered, as there is an old saying, 'Good things come to all who wait'. I will answer your questions within the story, so by all means be patient, as I will take my time writing these chapters as I want them to be perfect. Well, see you guys, later!