The Forgotten Melody

Art credited to dragk.deviantart

Prologue

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A letter, lost from the Equestrian manuscripts, deep under the existence of Canterlot itself:

How do such things come to be? A destiny, found to be a dead end without a purpose. Was there

a reason for my teaching? Or was I...not the prophesy proclaimed? I thought I had found what I was

here for, but that turned out not to be. I thought I had found the answer to bring ALL together in

Harmony again...but it seems I have brought nothing.

Nothing but devastation.

Maybe Princess Celestia is right after all. Maybe I was a mistake.

Maybe she will find a student more qualified than I.

"The rest of the letter is torn from here," said a smooth, calm tone in the darkness. A pair of shimmering eyes stared at the manuscript, blinking in the pale blue light from the owner's magic above, but only then did they close. "I wish I would've known who had written it."

"You wouldn't have known either way," said a sympathetic voice behind the reader with the torn scroll. "This letter seems younger than a thousand years."

"Still," replied the first voice, "I wish I would've known the writer. This note has baffled me since the moment I returned and found it here in this ancient library." She was referring to the study full of books and scrolls with spells of all kinds, known and mysterious, scribbled on them. The place was full of dust from a long while's wait, but without the grimy layer the place would've been very tidy, which was unfamiliar to this reader with the scroll in her magic.

It was this tidiness, this note she was holding, that made her wonder who else had been in the room after she had left.

"Well, I'm sure the Princess would know something about this," said the second voice. "We could get her-" The first stopped her by turning around violently.

"Cadence," the mare said to the companion sternly, "Celestia must never know of this place. You can't tell her." Princess Cadence gave a questioning look.

"Wh-why not?" she asked.

"The great Star-Swirl the Bearded showed me this place, and he entrusted me in it's security," said the first. "All of his most elusive and confidential spells are kept here, and nopony has ever imagined a place existed. Only he and I, and it need be that way."

"But Celestia is major leader of Equestria, shouldn't she have such a right as well?" asked Cadence. "I don't understand why this can't be brought to her attention." The first mare tightly rolled up the note she was holding, tying it with an extra ribbon that was lying on a dusty desk just next to her. She set the scroll down and sighed, then facing Cadence with her brilliant eyes.

"I don't know why Celestia can't know for sure," admitted the mare. "But one thing I do remember clearly is the great wizard's command that he had given me about a thousand years ago."

"And what is that?" inquired Cadence. The mare looked deep into her memories as she quoted the old wizard.

"'Do not, by any means, reveal these secrets to your sister.'"