Chapter 1: Ponies, Palaces and Prisms...
Author's Note
Ok, lack of grammar in some sections are intentional...
Enjoy.
Chapter 1: Ponies, Palaces and Prisms...
Ebony trotted along the path, looking into the forest, the sky, and the distant structures ahead the birds were singing, animals were rushing through the forest, and the grass glistened with a every step Ebony took, life was everywhere, and not a pony wasn't enjoying Celestia's warmth, that is, apart from Luna, and Ebony, who trotted down to the town, eyes narrow to block the sun, and mouth firmly strait, any other mare of her age and much older would have admitted it was a nice day, but not Ebony, wanted nothing more than for Luna to raise the moon, or Icy send a single snowflake onto her burning back.
"Mid-summer," she grumbled "the worst days, and the longest ones," she continued to grumble to herself "and me, unlucky enough to be born with a black coat, and a Unicorn." Her grumbling became incomprehensible, even to her, and she stopped herself, she was on the borders of the town, she stopped to contemplate turning back. She eventually resolved herself and stepped forward, though she was immediately struck hard on the nose and barreled over, though whatever had happened, the onslaught didn't continue as she expected, instead, a light, high-pitched moan found it's way into her ears, she stood and glared at her assailant waiting to see their next move, the pony however, just looked up with innocent blue eyes stared into her own, but were met with anger from Ebony's own, dim pink eyes, which, she thought, could have appeared to be reflecting the ponies own coat.
"S, so- sorry," she stammered "I didn't mean to do that," Ebony just now noticed the pony was rubbing her nose.
"You didn't mean to?" Ebony didn't want to trust this pony, she hated herself for trusting a pony she'd just, literally ran into, but somehow, this pony just seemed, funny, innocent, she decided, but tried her best to hide it "sure you didn't..."
"I really didn't!" She exclaimed, tears began to run down her face "honest."
Ebony trotted off without another word, away from the crying mare, she was against the clock, and in too much a bad mood, to help anypony at this point, she glanced around, several ponies had stopped what they were doing to glare distastefully at her, including, a bright blue Pegasus who intercepted her as she made her way across the town.
"Hey!" She called from above, before appearing before Ebony, her colourful mane seemed to reflect the suns light, a prismatic effect, it seemed, Ebony made a mental note of this, and listened for further speech "how dare you treat Pinkie Pie like that!?"
"Like what?" Ebony was enraged, and to hot to be standing outside in the sun, she thought about this "prismatic refraction," she muttered.
"Prismatic rewhatnow?" The pony crossed her forelegs and began to hover off the ground.
"Nothing," Ebony lowered her head and tried to pass, but was blocked.
"No you don't, you tell me what you said, to Pinkie, and to me!"
"Prismatic refraction," Ebony pointed to the mares mane "or should I say prismatic in fibre reflection, creates a constant set of prisms down a strand of fibre like the hair in your mane the prisms cause refraction and splitting of light into the different wavelengths of the visual spectrum some of which are less susceptible to prismatic refraction which causes separation of white light into the visual spectrum which moves into the next prism where a critical angle is available for some sections of the spectrum reflecting that light into the fibre and out the end or in the root the density of the prisms in the fibre will change the colour emitted in different sections," she finally paused, but the pause didn't last "of course the entire spectrum including visible light is subject to this effect in a fibre such as that in question including infra-red and gamma, that's a remarkable trait, rainbow pony."
The pony stared blankly at Ebony, she tried to make sense of the statement "in Equestrian, please."
Ebony blinked "your mane is actually colourless."
"Uh, no, it's not dyed," the mare clearly had not understood.
"tell me, Rainbow pony, do you leave a trail when you move quickly, and possibly cause large rings in the sky?"
The pony stared "a sonic rainboom? I can indeed."
"I can explain that, it's actually pre-"
"No! Thanks!"
"I had calculated you would be unwilling to continue."
"Uh, thanks?" She glared at Ebony with mistrusting pink eyes.
"What were you saying?" Ebony changed the subject before Rainbow pony could go down the route of Ebony's
own mane, which was messy and grey, rather less fascinating.
"Yeah! What did you say to Pinkie!?" The pony suddenly became angry again.
"Odd, it is rare for a Pegasus of your age and gender to defend others with such vigour, I must note this."
"What!?"
"Who is the weather pony in this town?"
"Uh, me, why?"
"You may want to place a better weather pony on cloud duty, I calculate vapour overload may cause cloud rupture to dislodge any loose ores inside, creating a plague of rainbows similar to that of the CFLG Republic. This year."
The pony thought about this, before "Hey! I am the best weather pony in town!"
"Hm, lacking weather ponies? I could propose a few freelancers for the job of-"
"We have plenty of weather ponies! I'm a brilliant weather Pony!" Her voice cracked again.
"MmmHmm, well, fetch me a cloud, I need some shade."
"I don't think, that's not how it works, we don't do requests."
"Good, so you're not completely incompetent after all," she stared into the pony's eyes with the same apathetic stare that she'd been looking at her with the whole time.
"You bet I'm not! Who are you anyway!"
"Ah, Iridescence," she'd learned, over many trips to different towns that anypony who has your name can use it against you however they want "and you?"
"Rainbow Dash," she watched Ebony angrily "the one and only."
"Hmm. Interesting, you act as if you're famous, but I've never heard of you."
"How many famous ponies have you heard of?" Rainbow Dash challenged, rather effectively, Ebony hadn't heard of many.
"None the likes of you have heard of."
"What's that supposed to mean!?"
" It means, that I hypothesise you are not familiar with those I am, and vice versa. I've heard of ponies such as Stable Hock-" she continued, or would have, had Rainbow not put a hoof to her mouth.
"Twilight, I found you another friend," Rainbow muttered, the pony had heard enough about Stable Hockings from Twilight... then louder, she addressed Ebony "look, Irrid, do you read? Like, books?"
"Of course, who doesn't love a good book," she said, in the least energetic tone she could muster, in fact, the same tone she had been using the whole time.
"Twilight's good, or my good?" Rainbow returned to muttering, but it seemed to register this time.
"It would be futile to answer that question without knowing what books you both enjoy though I often read non-fiction books often regarding the other sentient species of the world I find creatures such as manticores and Chimeras very fascinating also particularly the latter did you know that a Chimera can live with only it's snake head intact this is because the respiratory and circulatory system are shared and controlled by the head in question and each head has an independent digestive system this means that despite the lion head being assumed to be the best target for fighting them that head only controls the nervous and motor systems the goat gets the unfortunate side of that being given no control of the body at all, poor goat," She spoke quickly, but with apsolutely nothing in the way of excitement.
Rainbow was feigning sleep "so, Twilight's good."
Ebony suddenly dropped to a kneel in front of Rainbow.
"Uh, well, I am awesome, but I don't- oh, hi Twilight," Rainbow took a while before she realized what was going on.
"Princess," Ebony addressed Twilight in the same way she did everypony, apathetic monotone that sent shudders through the spines of those nearby, she might as well have been talking about her parents dying, the way it made everypony's smile got a bit shallower when they heard it.
"Please, no need for formalities, I am Ponyville's average citizen today."
"perhaps this place was worth the trip after all," Ebony thought, standing up slowly "is there anything I can do for you, Princess? I'd be honoured."
"Please, call me Twilight."
"Yes Princess Twilight."
"No, just Twilight."
"Yes, ah, Ma'am."
Rainbow giggled "you have your work cut out for you Twilight."
"What's your name?"
"Ebo-" Ebony hesitated "Irid, Iridescence, ah, ma'am."
"Iridescence? That's a nice name," Twilight smiled, Ebony was shocked, a compliment from a princess?
"Thank you, ma'am."
"How true is it?" The question hit Ebony hard and deep, it hurt a little, it was an odd question, but it still struck her, she named herself Iridescence as it was her mothers name, it was true then, but she had to answer.
"Actually, the foals at school used to say it was ironic."
"How so?"
"Because I don't change, no matter where you look at me from."
"Oh, well, that's sad," Twilight let a bit of laughter emerge, before stopping herself "where was this school? If I may ask, the foals having a sense of irony is remarkable."
"Oh," Ebony paused, she had made that up, nopony ever said that to her, no pony ever said anything to her until secondary school, and none of there insults were that clever, and that's not even clever "Bridlish schools had very good pupils," that hurt, she just complimented the ponies who ruined her early life, she thought she heard Lance Prize laughing at her from his place in a hospital somewhere, before coughing up a lung, she hoped. Lance did many things that ponies his age shouldn't, all the while Ebony shook her head and thought "you'll be dead by twenty," that always reassured her, as much as she hoped to meet the stallion on a street corner begging for change to buy another cigarette, or whatever he was sticking into his putrescent hole at the time.
"You're Bridlish?"
"Yes ma'am."
"What are you doing here then?" Ebony would have taken that as 'you're not welcome here,' if it wasn't for this ponies perpetual friendly grin that wore on Ebony's mind.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I came to," she stammered nervously.
"It's ok, I'm not going to stop you coming, you don't have to say."
At that moment, a gallon of water dropped on Ebony's back "Rainbow!" Twilight shouted at the angry Pegasus who had dropped the water from a cloud onto Ebony's head.
"Pinkie!" she shouted.
"Oh, pinkie'll be fine!"
"I'm grateful, it's only getting hotter out here. I'm not too fond of heat ma'am."
"Well, I can imagine, funny."
"What is ma'am?"
"I arrived a few days before the summer sun celebration as well."
"The summer sun celebration? Is it here this time?"
"It is indeed."
"Oh dear, that's going to be a lot of ponies."
"Come on, let me show you something," the Alicorn trotted away happily "Oh! And Rainbow! Follow us with that cloud, like Irid's personal sunblocker!"
A loud grumble came from the cloud, but was silenced by a glare from Twilight. The Alicorn and Unicorn trotted side by side, over them, a shadow was cast by the cloud above, being reluctantly paddled along by Rainbow Dash "so, Irid, do you have any friends? Please don't take offence."
"No ma'am, and I take no offence in the matter, the last friend I had no intention of remaining such."
"Oh," Twilight fell silent, her accepting smile became a pitiful frown "well, you might make friends here."
"With all due respect, I have no intention of doing so, I came for a quiet place where I could do work, nothing more."
"Tell me about it," Twilight sighed "I only came for the summer sun celebration last year. And now I'm a common sight around town."
"The ponies should be honoured."
"Oh no, I'm not better than anypony else!" She seemed offended at the concept.
"That's odd."
"What?"
"The ponies in this town are not reacting to stimulus as hypothesized," Ebony paused, she realized what that meant "oh no, my theoretical scenario did not translate to real life situations, but Stable Hocking has my paper."
"Ponies aren't on a." Twilight paused also "Stable Hocking! As in, the greatest Unicorn since Starswirl to delve into the field of Quantum magics?"
"Indeed."
"Irid, you, met Stable Hocking?"
"Well, ah, yes, ma'am."
"I've never met him!"
"I'm sure you have, ma'am, no need to improve my esteem."
"I've never met him." Twilight sighed, a hint of jealousy seeped into her voice, but she expelled it quickly "see, nopony is better than another in the same way!"
"You're certainly better than me."
"Look, everypony is equal, nopony is better than anypony else, ok?"
The two had been approaching what appeared to be a large crystal tree, a purple base held a large golden door and supported a blue growth up to the top, where rooms seemed to be scattered wildly in the branches "is that your palace ma'am?"
"Yes, yes it is," the Alicorn seemed smug, or at least a little excited to show a new Unicorn the place.
"Certainly better than my palace."
"Do you have a palace?"
"You seem surprised that I would, I do not, therefor, believe you believe we are equal."
"How would you like a palace like that?" Twilight gestured to the building.
"well, formally, I did live in a small keep castle, but nothing like this."
"I see, what do you think of this one?"
"Interesting choice of material, I would recommend a smoother darker stone rather than one like that as it is it seems too translucent to really be a palace and the material looks fragile being crystal though I assume counter-measures are in place to protect from dragon attacks or other crystavoric animals either way a smart dragon could probably eat his way through that and become rather large afterwards as I'm sure you know Princess Dragons growth is not determined by their age but their diet meaning a dragon that eats more will grow much faster biologically than one that eats less often similarly dragons have a rather interesting growth habit in that they become younger if they go with little or no food this can mean that what appears to be a baby dragon can theoretically be over a thousand years old and just decided not to eat very much of course this makes it a constant battle because if they eat too much they become too old and die but if they become younger to an age of requiring an egg they will not be able to consume food or obtain sustenance from the egg and therefor die."
Even Twilight was taken aback by this, Ebony spoke fast when she was explaining something, and even Twilight failed to comprehend what she said "I didn't choose the material," was all Twilight could say in an attempt to interrupt Ebony "it just appeared by magic."
"Magic," Ebony mumbled "what was the spell? Can it be learned?"
"I don't think so, no," Twilight chuckled "sorry."
"That's a shame, I could probably change the spell's affect to change the material if I were to use the alignment of a darker material such as 'Umbra Lenin vitae' and then I could provide a 'perpetua soliditate' enchantment to avoid rot and breakage and then a-"
"Ok," Twilight interrupted "I'm happy with it as it is! Thank you."
"Apologies Princess," Ebony said quickly "I merely imply that if I was to own a building such as this, I would change it somewhat, take no offence."
"No offence taken, I understand," she did, nothing Twilight had said Ebony had doubted, as hard as she tried, she could not doubt these ponies "I must be wary, this could easily be a trap." she thought as Twilight opened the doors and motioned Ebony to enter.
"I, can't go in, ma'am."
"Oh? Why not?" Twilight sighed "I give you my express permission to enter."
"Goodness Princess, are you sure?" Ebony didn't seem shocked in the least, she still had the same unchanging tone, she entered after Twilight nodded.
The room was large, but rather bare, a staircase around the side and an annoyingly asymmetrical ring of crystal chairs, about the most interesting thing was the large recreation of the Princesses cutie mark across the floor, Ebony began preparing the best defensive spell she could without a catalyst, then remembered something "Ma'am, you said this was made by magic, did you not?"
"I did, why?" Twilight confirmed as she trotted up to the centre of the room where the Unicorn was standing. Ebony noted that the pony moved slowly, contemplating something.
"No reason," Ebony tried her best to connect to the walls of the palace, and proceeded to charge the most powerful defensive spell she could without physical preparation.
Twilight seemed to reach a conclusion, she shook her head and opened her mouth to speak "I'm sorry, I really am."
Ebony expected an attack, she tried to cast the spell, beams emerged from the walls into her horn, it seemed to scream and pull at her, causing her to writhe in pain, when it ended, Ebony finally had the energy to scream, she tried, but only a weary groan was made before Ebony collapsed onto the cold crystal.
"I knew it, was a trap," Ebony thought, before her eyes were blocked by darkness as she fell unconscious.
Ebony lay in her new bed, but she didn't sleep, instead, she read, and thought, about Cutie marks, and defensive enchantments, quite a contrast. She had taken some books from the few shelves in the house, she had silently vowed to make the place look like a library by the time she had finished here. For now, however, the party had left her exhausted, not because she did anything, rather because of Pinkie Pie. Needless to say, the books had little useful information, one was a simple book on physical directional magic, the book was poorly organised, though a dedicated reader, such as Ebony, could discern what little information it had, though she still found nothing similar to the spell used "one of Twilight's own, it would seem, well, Ebony would know, she had ways of finding information, she had a plan, so she dramatically and heroically fall asleep, finding out could wait until morning.
Or not. After about an hour of tossing and turning trying to sleep, she rose from the bed and trotted out the door into the blackness, light shone nearby to her, a deep blue orb of light formed in front of her, she remained out of the light cast by the orb, for two reasons, one, flies, it was midsummer, and flies would be attracted to the glow. Two, foalhood fears, Ebony reasoned that if the monsters couldn't see her, she had a better chance than if both sides could see the other, of course, this was just her foalhood, she knew that her monsters weren't real, but old habits die hard.
Suddenly, something collided with Ebony in the dark, both of them fell onto the floor, but one side screamed in panic, while Ebony silently regained herself, she placed the light over the cowering lump, a pink mane shaded her coat, which, as far as Ebony could tell, was a bright yellow. The pony trembled as the light splashed her body.
Ebony said nothing, until she knew this pony, she would not reveal herself. The pony looked around, their pupils appeared to be slits down her irises, she looked strait at Ebony, despite Ebony's best efforts to hide herself, this pony saw her "umm... Hello?"
"Who goes there? Friend or foe?" Ebony had nothing else to say.
"I, I'm..." Her voice became a high pitched whimper.
"Your eyes, what are you?"
"I... I'm a..." The same whimper emerged.
Ebony stepped into the light, causing the pony to cower again "explain yourself!"
"I, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to, I was..." Ebony began to tire of this pony.
"I swear if you don't tell me who you are I'll vaporise you."
This caused the pony to scream a little, before answering "I'm Flutterba-" she paused "Fluttershy!"
"Fluttershy, I see, Ebony," she instantly regretted giving her name, but knew she couldn't take if back now.
"I should go." Fluttershy began to trot away.
"Fluttershy!" Ebony called after her.
The pony whimpered as they turned.
"What are you doing out?"
"I'm searching."
"For what?"
"For, for, umm, Actually, I just woke up here."
"Sounds like lycanthropy is at work," Ebony muttered to herself as she watched the pony disappear, when the pony was gone, Ebony retreated into the shadows.
Twilight's palace was not a difficult or distant place to reach for anypony with a sense of direction, so naturally, Ebony found it after about three hours. She entered slowly, deciding not to use any magic once inside, she climbed the steps to find the closest thing to a library. which happened to be Twilights bedroom, as she was asleep on a bed against the wall. Ebony quickly killed the light as she entered, and set about searching "it should look like a notebook, or a journal," she whispered, and continued the search, after a while, she found what she was looking for, a dull, worn notebook that had seen heavy use. Ebony began to read the small book with the dim light from her horn, what she read read was fascinating, without thinking, she picked up a quill and inkwell that were neatly arranged on the Princess's bedside and began to scribble notes and suggestions on the book. This time was entertaining to Ebony, her idea of fun was a dark room, a Princesses notebook and a quill pen. Until.
"Ah, hello?" Something stirred at the back of the room, the voice she had heard when hospitalised echoed through the room, with a small flash, Ebony had disappeared, just in time, because the lights on in the same second, Ebony dropped the items she was carrying onto the floor, though she tried not to knock the ink bottle over, or break it, Ebony figured it was probably worth more than the little nerdy black Unicorn in the corner, she killed the light from her horn and sat perfectly still while the dragon climbed onto the Princess's bed, he shook her "Twilight, Twilight!" He said as loudly as he could while whispering.
"What is it Spike?" Twilight rolled over half heartedly.
"Their's a, a, g, gho- Ghost!" He accidentally shouted, and immediately covered his mouth.
Twilight's eyes opened "Spike, there's no such thing as gho-" she was interrupted by Ebony telekinetically knocking a book from a shelf at the far side of the room, Twilight leaped out of bed and stared at the book "there must be a logical conclusion. Spike, detecting life, make sure I can see you."
"Why detect life!? What would that prove?" Spike seemed.
"Hmm, good point, detect magic then," Ebony was less pleased to hear this, she could counter a life detection spell, with magic, I don't think I need to explain why this wouldn't work for detect magic. Ebony knew she could just stop casting any spells, but her invisibility spell would be cancelled, and that's counter intuitive, Ebony vowed to make her invisibility spells undetectable to spells like that, preferably using an algorithm, she enjoyed algorithms, anyway. Ebony lifted the book, opened the door, and mocked a unicorn running by using several different miserly spells, Twilight chased the fleeing apparition out the room, followed by the dragon.
She waited a while, mustering her courage to face the Alicorn, who was, Ebony predicted, now very angry with the floating book ghost, in other words, Ebony, Twilight was probably very angry at Ebony. Ebony stood, and walked slowly out the door, Twilight's notebook hovering beside her head.
Twilight stood in the large room, staring cautiously at the book "I apologise for the deception ma'am!" Ebony called from the top of the stairs, causing a shocked Alicorn to turn to her.
"Irid! What are you doing!?" Twilight was obviously angry.
"I apologise profusely ma'am. I merely wished to understand the events after my arrival, unfortunately, I uncovered nothing, however, I did find some of your spells facinating."
"What were you doing in my room!?" Twilight stared at her, eyes narrowed.
"I was making notes, ma'am, many spells here are interesting, and even the greatest Unicorns collaborated at some point," she defended, before describing a spell from the notebook "I'm especially curious about this failsafe, I'm not a fan of Celestial magic in general," she paused, gave a small chuckle through her unchanging mouth, when the Alicorn didn't react, she explained "you see, Celestial magic is very direct, so the irony of the statement 'Celestial magic in general' amused me, apologies. As I was saying, celestial magic is very direct, it often works with single targets rather than, as you did, using it for general environment. I believe you made the mistake of ignoring this fact, as, in your notes, you claim it targets all magic but the used spell, the spell however was general, placed through a celestial medium, this, instead of improving the power and range of the spell, split it into many direct spells, all targeted at spells that are not the general spell you first cast, including the direct versions, in short, the spells destroyed themselves."
Twilight flew up to her quickly and snatched the notebook from in front of her face "one! I don't like it when ponies come into my room uninvited!" Her tone was scolding, one Ebony didn't expect from such a gentle looking pony "two! I don't like it when ponies look through my things! Three! No pony writes in my notebook! And four! Don't know more than me!"
"Apologies ma'am, and no offence meant, but-"
"Stop calling me ma'am!!!" Twilight's eyes became white orbs and her horn began to glow lavender.
"Twilight I'm really sorry but I have no choice," Ebony spoke quickly, like when she talked about science, before she bowed her head, a flash of light burst in between them, and twilight was launched across the room. Her notebook floated gently down to Ebony, who caught it as it landed. A large bubble formed containing the sprawled Alicorn, it floated down to the floor. Ebony watched the dragon, Spike, who could have been a thousand years old for all Ebony knew, stared at her, then at the mess of purple that was Twilight Sparkle. Ebony trotted calmly over to the dragon "she will be ok, I hope, in a minute, and hopefully, calmer."
"What was that!?" Spike looked on the verge of screaming 'NOOO!' At the top of his voice.
"The Pinkie Parker," a voice emerged from the bubble on the ground "I made it, in case Pinkie ever needed to be thrown across a room, stunned, and trapped in a magic bubble, Irid, just used it on me." Twilight sighed, as if to say 'is that how low I've sank?'
"Ebony ma'am."
"What?" Twilight stirred inside the bubble.
"My name, it's Ebony, I lied, apologies."
"Ebony? Why didn't you say?"
"I, I didn't trust you, my apologies."
"I understand, but, why now?"
"Because I, I trust you now."
"Ebony?"
"Yes ma'am?"
"Someponies, at your party, I'd never seen them before."
"Go on."
"I don't know, but I've seen everypony, do you know them?"
"No, ma'am, but I may ask, what did they do?"
"They were very still, I wondered if you would know them."
"I'm not sure, I will be sure to investigate."
"Ok, that's good enough."
"Ma'am?"
"Yes?"
"Do you mind if I borrow your notebook? Just for a while?"
"Fine, I never use that one."
"Do you have another one?"
"Yes, several."
"Can I-"
"No."
"Thank you, ma'am," Ebony hurriedly left, and set out for home, but before she could return, she saw the sun rising, and changed her mind, she would drop off the notebook, then go about her business, first conscious day in town jobs needed to be done, and on the second day, she would stettle in to a book, and not leave the house till morning on the seventh day, or not at all.
No social interaction, no friends, and no interruptions. Sounded like heaven to Ebony. That was the plan, but it seems, Ponyville and plans don't coexist.
Author's Note
Dear princess Celestia:
Today I learned, never write in another nerds notebook, no matter how good friend you are, it's like jumping the friendship shark...
Your faithful student.
Twilight Sparkle...
And Breeze Ark.
Not as happy with this chapter...
