Pilgrimage

Luna watched as the last fiery rays of the sun sank into the distant west.  Her eyes lingered on that horizon, and both a foreboding and jumping excitement filled her heart.  She turned her head away from the window and shifted on her seat, looking across the arched council chamber, formally known as the Council of the Princesses.  Only Princess Cadance and Princess Twilight Sparkle occupied the chamber with her.  All waited silently for Celestia to arrive, to begin a task so monumental alicorns only performed it once every one hundred years.

Luna eyed her companions.  Twilight Sparkle stared at the table, brows furrowed, deep in thought as she normally was.  She was the least in the know about this meeting, and Luna sensed some apprehension in her as well.  She flicked her gaze to Cadance, who sat calmly with her head bowed, eyes closed.  The Princess of the moon noticed how the Princess of love took deep breaths, and her ears were stiff.  Nervous, but trying not to be, trying not to show it.  Such was her way to appear strong to others.

Luna summoned her aura, the magic all unicorns and alicorns possessed, appearing as a blue glow about her horn, and commanded a pitcher of apple cider and four glasses to appear.  With a soft pop they floated above the table, and she manipulated the pitcher to pour drinks for all four that would be present.

“Thank-you, Princess,” Twilight said, sighing.  Cadance seemed not to notice her cup before her.

“Princess Cadance,” Luna said with some royal command. “Please, partake.  You need not worry about the future, but only think of now.”

Cadance’s deep pink eyes snapped open, and she let out a heaving breath.  Twilight watched her old sitter over the lip of her cup, ears folded partly back with some concern.

“Is it really that worrisome?” Twilight asked, trying to piece together the puzzle that was this unexpected meeting.  Cadance chuckled.

“No, it’s nothing,” Cadance responded.  Luna sensed the lie, but said nothing as the council door swung open, and her older sister paced in regally.

Luna’s spirit lifted to see the beautiful white mare, her mentor and friend, wings flared upward with her entrance, her eyes closed as if she always meditated everywhere she went.  Celestia would lead the meeting with patience and understanding, as she always did; a thousand years of ruling mortal, impatient ponies could do that to a Princess.  Princess Celestia closed the door as two royal guards took their posts outside, and she took a pillow next to Luna.  She smiled at the cider and immediately lifted it up with her aura to drink.

“Shall we proceed, sister?” Luna asked, folding her hooves upon the table.

“Of course, Luna,” Celestia said gently. “The sun has set, and it time for another beginning.”  She gave a comforting smile to Cadance, who bowed her head slightly, and then turned to Twilight. “Twilight, just under a hundred years have passed since you freed my sister from the awful darkness in her heart.  It was the thousandth year since the Banishment, and it was a good year.”

“Yes it was, Princess,” Twilight agreed with some question in her voice.  Luna was grateful that Celestia didn’t speak condescendingly about the past, only talked of it as it was, as if she had dreamed it and the nightmare was over.

“That year was also the year of what the alicorns know as Pilgrimage,” Celestia went on. “At the beginning of the year, while it was still winter, I and Cadance left on Pilgrimage.  A hundred years later, it is time for Pilgrimage again.”

“Pilgrimage?” Twilight demanded.  Her face turned hard again. “...I don’t recall ever reading about it, or hearing any stories of it.”

“It is a well-kept secret, my faithful one,” Celestia responded.

Her aura appeared, and a scroll wrapped in her magic appeared in the air.  She unraveled it upon the table.  It was a map of the continent.  Luna immediately found Canterlot in the northeast, with Ponyville a little south, Sweet Apple Acres marked not too far from there.  Cloudsdale took its prominent place in the sky about thirty miles southwest of Canterlot.  Other major cities dotted the map, stretching far, far west to the border of Saddle Arabia and beyond.

“Pilgrimage is a most sacred thing to alicorns,” Luna went on to explain. “In Pilgrimage, which all alicorns traditionally undertake, we learn about the first alicorns, whom we call the Mighty Ones.”

Twilight observed the map for a moment, and then gave Luna and Celestia a quizzical look.

“Why not just write down their history, where all can access it?” the lavender alicorn asked. “Wouldn’t a….a Pilgrimage be too dangerous?”

“You have a generous spirit, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna allowed. “But there are some things not everypony is to learn unless they are privileged to, if they are given that gift.”

“In your own studies, Twilight,” Celestia said. “You have learned that everypony has a special gift, not just the talent expressed in their cutie mark.  You learned that with your own friends...but would you just give those talents to anyone who has not earned it?”

“No, of course not,” Twilight agreed. “Everypony must learn at their own pace and time.  Nothing can be forced.  It defies what we call freedom.”

“That is why we cannot explain to everyone where the alicorn came from,” Celestia finished. “Not everypony is ready for such knowledge.  It is a knowledge of power and sacred gift-giving.  Our society has forgotten much of the histories, and we keep what they need to know, keep them out of ignorance as much as possible without causing disaster.  Perhaps someday we will reveal our entire pasts to Equestria, but they are not ready for such knowledge.  Do you understand?”

Twilight gave a firm nod.

“You, Twilight Sparkle, have earned this privilege,” Luna explained. “As have we.  It is the inheritance of alicorns to go on Pilgrimage.”

Celestia began to mark different points on the map with spots of golden aura.

“We will visit ten sites, the same places our predecessors stepped hoof upon, to learn why they became as they did,” Celestia told all of them. “Traditionally, alicorns go alone unless they have a family unit as alicorns.  All of us will go together.”

“Why go on Pilgrimage every one hundred years?” Twilight inserted.  Luna glanced at her sister as both noted the doubt growing in the lavender alicorn’s voice. “Isn’t once enough?”

“So we will remember,” Cadance responded softly. “Twilight, I’ve only been once on Pilgrimage, and I hardly remember everything.  But it is worth it.”

“It has been over a thousand years since my last Pilgrimage,” Luna hummed, a shiver crossing her indigo coat. “There are many things for me to see again.”

~

The four Princesses  trekked down the paved walkway.  Around them reared the magnificent spires of the palace, their colorful domes sparkling in the moonlight.  Twilight was in a whirl of confusion about this whole Pilgrimage thing.  Why was it necessary to begin with?  She was content with who and what she had become, a Princess, a leader, a friend among friends.  She had made the greatest accomplishment in her life creating new magic and fulfilling her destiny as a Princess.  What more could there be?

None of the others had indicated where they were headed now.  Twilight suppressed a yawn and shuffled her wings, ready for bed.  That day had been physically and emotionally tolling, the thought of Rainbow Dash’s death still flying about her brain.  She had found no answers about death at the meeting as Celestia had implied.  Perhaps the Princess had meant something else; she could speak cryptically that way.

Celestia halted their group before a short tower with an unadorned roof and a single arched window.  The white mare lifted her head skyward to peer at the stars, and then she bowed and  touched her horn to the blank stone door.  She summoned her aura and began to draw a golden line across the granite.  Twilight watched her draw the constellation Equaria, the constellation nearest to the North Star.  She finished drawing the pegasus mare and stepped back.

The drawing faded away, and the door swung inward.  Celestia let Luna enter first, followed by Cadance and Twilight.  The Princess of the sun brought up the rear, and the door closed behind her.  Luna lit up her horn with a spark of sapphire light and took them up a spiral staircase.

They entered the top floor of the tower.  It was an empty, round room, with only a set of pillows stacked off under the single window and a large brown chest at its center.  Twilight moved to the chest immediately, curious and eager to learn what was in it.

“Don’t touch,” Celestia warned softly. “It has a protective spell on it that will seriously shock anyone and leave them asleep for a day.”

“Ouch,” Twilight hummed, stopping a good distance from the chest.  Cadance came up and pressed her flank against Twilight, and the lavender alicorn shivered gratefully.  This was all so strange.

“You’ll come to understand,” Cadance assured softly.  Twilight found her throat was too tight to reply as Luna and Celestia stood on either side of the box.  Celestia bowed her head once more and pressed her horn against the crossing metal braces of the lid box.  Electricity danced around her horn, and the top split open and spread to either side.

Celestia used her aura to lift four curious pieces of work from the box.  They were shaped like a pony’s head, with grooves for the eyes, mouth and nostrils, and a unicorn’s horn.  Pieces of the things flared up at the rear of the headdresses.  One was gold, one was some sort of black stone, one was made of diamond, and the last was made of brownish bronze.

“These are the Forgetting Helms,” Celestia announced. “Each pilgrim must wear theirs during the duration of the Pilgrimage.  It will protect our identities while we are abroad; no pony will be able to recognize us for who we are.”

Pilgrim.  Twilight immediately felt uncomfortable with the term.  This was starting to sound too religious for her to care.  She had to admit she had never studied much into religion before, used to having science and books and experiments explain things to her rather than a simple belief...although she also had to confess that she had had thoughts about death and afterlife, and what she could do to prove their existence should they exist at all.

But here these three ponies were before her, ready to take on an enormous task  without question or second thought.  All had been on Pilgrimage.  Twilight took a deep breath and decided it would at least be worth a try, to see what was real and what was not.  It comforted her greatly she didn’t have to do this alone.

“At the beginning of the first month next year, the first day of the first week, we will meet here at the sun’s setting, with all our clothing and bags and other preparations, and don the helms,” Celestia finished. “Then we will leave.  Cadance, I trust you have already organized affairs in the Crystal Empire?”

“I have,” the pink alicorn said. “Shining Armor -- he doesn’t know exactly what’s going on, but he trusts I will be safe.  I plan on spending the next three months with him before coming back.”

“I will take time in Ponyville,” Twilight added.  She took a moment to gaze at Celestia and Luna.  She wanted to say or ask something, something to explain more of the Pilgrimage, but simply couldn’t.  Only time would be able to still her troubled heart.

Time.  It was time to go back to Ponyville and say goodbye to her friends, and that thought warmed her spirit right back up, causing a self-knowing smile to spread across her muzzle.