Twilight Limbo

818 After Ascension

As the sun rose at a very slow pace; Star Charmer’s Alarm went off signaling for her to get up. She had finally gotten to sleep some twenty minutes after reading that last prophecy in the book. She got up and went to the mirror, wiping sleep out of her eyes, and tried to brush her scarlet mane into something reasonable. Yawning, she moves slowly out of her room and descends to the breakfast table where her whiny twin brother and her mother were already sitting down.

“Where’s Father?” Asks Star of her sibling and mother.

“He left early, sweetheart. Said he wanted to get his work out of the way; so he should be home early today,” Replied her mother. “Spark said you were up reading at un-equinely hours last night. You know that today’s your first day at Uni, don’t you.”

“I know Mother. But I just couldn’t get to sleep last night.”

“Nervous are we dear?” She gets up and floats a pile of buckwheat pancakes to the table, “Sit down and have breakfast. You’ll need your strength for today.”

“Yeah, Otherwise you might fall and faint and —”

“Oh shut up, Spark. I don’t have the patience to deal with you today.” Interrupted Star, irritated by the sound of his voice. “Really, you don’t have to be all irritating today. You have your dream today as well; getting into the magitech course at the M.I.A.H.S. — even if I don’t believe you should have.”

“Be nice to each other you two,” chided their mother as she laid out a plate of pancakes for herself. “ And eat your breakfast otherwise you going to be late.”

********

Later, Star Charmer was finishing her last class of the day, Historical Artifacts. Her teacher had finished explaining the course in detail and was moving on to the first set of artefacts that they were studying.

“The Elements of Harmony. Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, Honesty, Loyalty and Magic. These were the tools upon which the Kingdom of Equestria was founded. The four princesses possessed the power of these to seal and later redeem the avatar of chaos, Discord. They were also instrumental in the banishment of King Sombra; and the redemption of the Nightmare…” Star Charmer knew all of this and was instead reading ‘The Power of Harmony: A Guide’ by a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. She had found herself too entranced with ‘Predictions for a New Age’ and did not realise until her lunch break — spent faithfully in the magic section of the library — that only that last prophecy hadn’t come true yet. The book had accurately predicted the rise and fall of the Lunalis empire, defeated by the New Equestrian military about fifty years ago; and had outlined the exact nature of how Appleloosa came to be cut off from the rest of the mainland by a massive ocean encircling the once desert town. So it was that she tried to unravel the mysteries behind that final prophecy…

“Ahem, Miss Charmer. Could you please answer the question,” Said the teacher, Interrupting Star’s Thoughts. “Where and When were the Elements last used knowingly?”

“Oh, umm… If I remember correctly that would be 818 years ago. The princesses had evacuated the Royal City of Canterlot and began to engage with a foe known as Dark Matter; a former scientist whose work threatened to destroy the universe, not just Equestria.”

“Yes. Very good, Miss Charmer. Now with the fall of Canterlot we do not know any more of the whereabouts of the Elements. However, many archeologists believe that they may still be in the old throne room, the place of the last stand. Admittedly we know longer know where that is due to the region of void energies surrounding the ruins...”

This last bit interested Star. The book had said it would take 800 years for the void to be reborn and it had been 818 since the fall. She made a mental note to check it out later.

********

After the class, Star Charmer decided to peruse the library downtown a bit to try and find other mentions on void energy, as well as to investigate a bit on the Elements of Harmony. She couldn’t quite put her hoof on it, but it seemed to all be connected. After a while in the library, her search had turned up nothing new. Deciding to take a break, she headed outside to what appeared to be a new café. Reading the sign out loud to herself, “Sugercube Corner,” She went inside and found it to be nicely decorated, even if she thought that having a store made out of what appeared to her to be gingerbread was going to fare with the puns. As she walked up to the counter she glanced back outside, just in time for a blue and yellow streak to come crashing into her. Groaning, Star got up to her feet and looked back at what was a very scruffy looking pegasus.

“Okay… Now if we were outside I might have overlooked the fact that you ran into me; but come on, we are inside a building. How do you crash at high velocity inside a building?” Lectured Star to the slightly dazed pegasus.

“Um… sorry miss. Kinda got distracted outside by a beautiful plot,” He apologised. “Any way, My name is Kaminari. What’s yours?”

“I don’t see a book around here,” said Star as she looked around the impact site. “My name is Star. Star Charmer.”

“I don’t mean a book Miss Charmer—” Kaminari looked up to a confused look on Star’s face. “You have no idea what I am on about, do you? Well in any case let me buy you some coffee as an apology.”

“Um… S-sure” Stuttered Star as she took a better look at her assailant.

He’s quite handsome, isn’t he? A voice muttered at the back of her head.

No he isn’t. And I don’t date guys who — Ugh why am I arguing with myself? Follow him you just got free coffee, Star.

“You alright there Miss Charmer?” Said Kaminari waving his hoof in front of her eyes. “What do you want?”

“Oh I’m alright, just a flat white please. And call me Star.”

“Alrighty then, Star.” Grinning he took two cups from the waitress and moved over to a table by the door. “So what’s your emblem mean?”

“Well me and my twin brother have always loved magic, and five years ago, we kinda screwed up a ritual spell, fortunately the star wraith that was called to us ended up being fried due to a magical outburst that was set off when some kind of electrical discharge interfered with my magic—”

“Woah nelly, No need for the whole story. Just what does it mean?”

“Hehe, I suppose you're right. Anyway, long story short it symbolizes magic, or specifically arcanum magic. Thats what the Pentagrams for; the star represents the Star Wraith I calmed. What about yours?”

“My Emblem? Well it represents the speed I gain when around lightning. Not much else to it really,” He Explained  “Well I best be off. If you want to meet again I’m usually around this area. See ya.” Getting up, he walked out the door and flew on his way.

Okay… that was interesting. Well I got free coffee, now all I need is some information about these damn elements of harmony.

********

Back at one of the Institute’s many arcane laboratories, Energy Spark was indulging in a little research of his own. He had found a very old book with a black spine that detailed some very interesting rituals. The one that had most interested him was a way to increase ones affinity for Firmitas, thus making them more attractive to the opposite sex. Being a teenage boy, he had to try it out.

“Okay, last check,” He murmured to himself. “We have Eye of newt, black ink, rose thorns, a small amount of Bacillum from my horn, and three whole apples. Excellent, We have everything ready. Here goes…

“Erbyn Arcane allai,

Trwy hyn Eitemau Rydym wedi Casglu

Cynyddu rhedeg Ddaear-waed yn fy ngwythiennau

A gadewch i enaid yr awyr llenwi fy ysgyfaint”

A surge of power and a spark of light later, Energy Spark got up off where he had fallen down and looked out of the window at the now darkened sky.

“It’s probably time I got back. Well Let’s see how this spell turned out later.” Picking up his bags, Spark collects the black-spined book and walks out the door, on his way home.

********

At roughly the same time as Spark left the arcane labs, Star found herself looking at the library’s copy of ‘The Power of Harmony: A Guide’. The first few chapters were essentially the same as her own copy, but the text looked to her as if it had been handwritten, and after a bit of analysis via way of magical means, she found that the handwriting was exactly the same as the old Princess of the Dusk. Her thoughts wandered at where the library could have gotten an original copy of the book as she was sure Marebourne was only founded 140 years ago. After quickly going to the counter to check out the book, she returned home with an original copy to read and analyze.