In the Canterlot Gardens, there is a maze. The most complicated maze in existence. Very few have reached the center of this maze. And even fewer have found their way back out.
At the center of this maze, there is a casket. A casket made of pure white stone with engravings of roses and their vines growing over the lid.
Around the casket are several hundreds of bright and beautiful flowers. Brilliant colors and delicate petals were included with every bud and carnation.
Inside this casket, was a filly. An earth pony filly who slept gently for all these years.
Her eyes were delicately shut with every single black eyelash perfectly in place. If her eyes were to open, you would see a perfect shade of gold as the iris.
But over her right eye was a scar. A thick pink scar over her delicate face.
Her coat was a pure snow white. Perfectly clean and kempt considering she had not moved in over a millennia.
Her mane was long and wavy. Not to her hooves long, but it made it to her nose at the front where it flipped over and curled and it dipped past the base of her neck and curled. Her tail was the same as it got wider and thicker toward the bottom where it then met at a curl to her hooves.
Her mane and tail were blue. Not a bright and brilliant blue or a very dark night time sky blue, but a soft shade of orphan blue that looked calm and friendly. Some might even say the blue was sad.
Around her neck was a gold locket. A heart shaped gold locket on a golden chain. The locket was engraved with the picture of a sun in the top right corner. A sun that was a perfect match to the cutie mark of a certain princess of all Equestria.
And then there was her cutie mark. It was… intricate. There was what appeared to be a picture of her (no cutie mark), laying in bright and fresh green grass with three purple flowers on the ground, a blue sky with a bright yellow sun with rings of fading orange to the center and yellow light rays, and two soft and very thin white clouds in front of that sun while they appeared to have been lazily drifting.
Then below that picture was… darker.
There was another filly, with black fur and a red mane, in the same position as the picture of her and the same mane style, and red eyes that were narrowed angrily as she stared at the sky. The sky was night time and was such a dark blue that it might be mistaken for black. Very small stars of white were scattered through the nighttime sky, with a very icy blue crescent moon out in the night.
The grass this bottom filly was laying in was gray, as if it were dead, and had three black flowers, as if also dead, in mirrored places as the above purple ones. The two places of the grass met and merged so that the bottom picture was upside down and the top one was right side up. The outside edge of her cutie mark faded and fuzzed away with a very light gold shimmer to it. And all together it seemed as if the cutie mark was a wheel. The day had this young white and blue filly, and the night had the black and red filly.
She was sleeping on fine pink silk and linen sheets that were draped over and stuffed with soft cotton and goose feathers. And a white linen blanket was draped over her and tucked around her frame, and another pink linen blanket was tucked over that one. Her head was resting on a soft silk and goose feather pillow with ruffles along the edging and embedded with diamonds. And finally, pressed white daisies were surrounding her figure and daintily placed overtop her blankets.
She wasn't dead. She was sleeping. She had been sleeping for over a thousand years due to a spell. A spell that was placed on her by her mother. Her mommy said that she needed to go to sleep for a while, for her own good. But when she got to wake up again, things would be all better. Her daddy wouldn't be crazy anymore and mommy and her auntie would have everything under control again. She had no idea about the passing of time. That was what her mother intended. But her chest still faintly rose every now and then, and her dreams were filled with her memories of her family.
And now was her chance to make new memories.
From outside the casket you could see the rim of the lid glowing with gold. The light sparkled and shined through the crack between the lid and base. Then it stopped. The light disappeared as suddenly as it came and left no evidence of it ever being there. Well, almost no evidence.
" *Yawn* " came from inside the casket.
The lid slid ajar slowly before falling to the ground with a loud bang. The filly inside sat up and stretched out her front legs to the sky and stretched her mouth open in another yawn.
" *Yawn* Hun... Oh! I'm awake!" the filly exclaimed.
Her golden eyes scanned her surroundings, seeing she was in a casket at the center of the maze she could remember from her past.
"Hun? Oh, I guess mommy put me in the middle of the maze to keep me safe. That's ok!"
She sprung to her hooves and wobbled a little, her legs still waking up from her long sleep. Then she hopped from her box to the grass and took a gentle sniff of the flowers surrounding her.
"Mmmm, these smell great! Mommy had my favorite flowers planted!"
The filly smiled as she looked around her neck to see her locket still around her neck.
"Ok. Mommy said that when I woke up, I needed to find her first. So that's what I'll do!" The filly giggled as she then disappeared in a flash of white light....... Wait what?
The filly reappeared at the entrance of the maze, still giggling.
"He, he! It still tickles when I do that!"
She looked at the many statues that were in the garden, most seemed to be the same as when she was last awake. She took the path straight forward and just watched the different statues pass by as she made her way through the garden. Finally, she came across a guard at his post. 'Maybe he can help me find mommy,' she thought. She approached the guard, a white Pegasus with a blue mane and tail and gold armor.
"Excuse me, Mr. guard," she waved her hoof to get his attention.
The guard looked down at the filly with his blue eyes that got wider upon seeing a filly somehow get into the garden.
"Mr. guard, I need some help please. I'm looking for my mommy but I don't know where she is. Can you help me find her?"
The guard's look softened and he smiled gently.
"Well of course young filly. What is your mother's name?"
"Celestia!"
The guard froze, not sure if she was serious or possibly delusional.
"Um, could you repeat that please?"
"My mommy's name is Celestia!"
The guard was sure this child was wrong. Princess Celestia had no children. "Dear I think you're mistaken. Princess Celestia has no children."
The filly pouted, "Am not! Celestia is to my mommy! I need to find her. And Auntie Luna! And my daddy!"
The guard's face hardened, being in no mood for this child's foolishness.
"Now young filly, I am in no mood for such stories. I am on duty."
"I'm not telling stories!" the filly shouted "I want my mommy! Stop 'not believing me'! I want mommy!”
"Young filly, what is your name?!"
The filly growled at the guard, "My name is Heaven's Grace! Princess Heaven's Grace! And I! Want! MOMMY!"
As Heaven's Grace yelled, a circle of white light flashed around her, lighting up the sky and causing the guard to close his eyes to avoid being blinded.
The light from the garden could be seen from almost a mile away. And it caught the attention of a certain princess of the sun. Celestia starred out her window at the whited out sky.
"Could it be....? Gracie...."
She fled the room as fast as she could and headed for the garden.
The light also got the attention of the princess of the moon. Luna looked out a window to the garden.
"Heaven...."
She too ran from the room she was in to get to the garden.
"I! Want! Mommy! Waaaaaaaaahhhhh!"
Heaven's Grace started to throw a tantrum in front of the poor guard. He held his ears shut and was on the ground with his eyes shut from the strange light and her loud screams.
"I WANT MY MOMMY!"
"HEAVEN'S GRACE!"
The light disappeared and Heaven stopped crying. She wiped her eyes and looked behind her.
"Mommy!" She saw princess Celestia running for her full speed and ran to meet her mother half way there.
Celestia had tears forming in the corners of her eyes when she felt Heaven's Grace meet her in a hug and she wrapped her wings around the filly.
"Mommy! I missed you so much while I was asleep!"
"I-I missed you too baby! I-I missed you..... so much." She cried as she nuzzled Grace's face and kissed her.
"He he he! Mommy that tickles!"
She hugged Grace tighter, "I can't believe... you're finally awake."
The guard was now standing and questioning his whole life after seeing the display in front of him.
"Y-your highness, this filly is- is-"
"My daughter. Y-yes," she finished "Gracie, my precious baby girl."
Grace looked up at her mother, "Mommy, why do you look so sad? How long was I asleep?"
Celestia froze. She starred at her daughter's wide and golden eyes filled with innocence. How does she tell her she'd been sleeping for over a thousand years?
"Mommy?"
Heaven's Grace kept hold around her mother's frame with her hooves. Celestia sighed and nuzzled her daughter once again.
"You've been asleep... for a long time."
"H-how long?"
Celestia closed her eyes, "Over one thousand years."
Heaven's Grace's face dropped and her smile vanished. "Wh-what?"
"You've been sleeping- for over a thousand years."
Celestia saw her daughter sniffle, then her eyes misted up with tears, and she shoved her muzzle into her mother's chest and sobbed loudly.
Celestia's instincts took over as she hugged her daughter tighter and smoothed her blue mane with her muzzle.
"Shhh, it's ok. Mommy's here dear. You're home now, that's all that matters."
"HEAVEN'S GRACE!"
Both Celestia and Grace looked away to see Luna galloping for them. Grace couldn't help but smile.
"Auntie Luna!" Heaven let go of her mother and ran for her aunt and they embraced in a hug, Luna's wings draping over Heaven.
"Our precious niece! You are awake!"
"Auntie Luna! I missed you too!"
Celestia felt herself crying again as she joined the two in a group hug.
"I'm so happy to be back! But..." Heaven looked around then at her mother and aunt "where's daddy?"
