Twilight wandered through the near-empty halls of the Royal Cantelot Library, her hooves making a distinct clip-clop every time they made contact with the polished marble floor. All around her stretched books. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands; they were uncountable. As she passed them by, she kept a mental count of how many she'd read. As of now, it was up to 1,792 and climbing.
As she walked, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye; a book misplaced. She'd never seen it before. Just a simple brown leather cover, rather thin. Maybe one hundred pages, one hundred fifty at most As she levitated it over, her eyebrows shot up. She could feel it, without even using a specific spell: this book was old. Older than any other she'd ever seen. With new interest and a gleeful smile, she carefully slid it into her saddlebags and made for the entrance. She'd found her reading materials for the day.
~~~
Home is where the heart is.
Even after all she'd been through with her friends, all the time she'd spent with them in Ponyville, there was something that reached beyond such things that came with returning to one's old family home. Twilight was no different. As she entered, a wave of childhood memories assaulted her. It was quiet, with none of the sounds that came with her father cooking in the kitchen, or her mother tapping away at her old typewriter. They must be out, she thought, and trotted to her old room, flopping down on the bed. Extracting the book from her saddlebag, which sat several feet away, she cracked it open and began to read. It wasn't quite what she expected.
Day 5
"Luna suggested that I keep one of these soon after we started traveling. She said that it would help me to reflect, and to keep my mind on the task at hand. She is right, I suppose; writing does tend to help me focus. It is a relaxing pursuit, to be sure, and in hopes that we succeed, this may well be a record for future generations to know me by. Let it be known, then: my name is Celestia, and I journey with my sister in hopes of finally ending the Chaos Spirit's reign."
Twilight's breath hitched. Old was right; thousands of years, at least. A suspicion reared itself in her mind, and she ran a quick scan over the book, then jolted back. It was absolutely brimming with chaos magic. This dates back to the Discordian age...Sweet Celestia, what an opportunity!
Pages turned as she kept reading. Each day had an entry, and they flew by as she engrossed herself in the book.
Day 27
"Luna and I met somebody new today, a young mare who is not constantly angry and gray. Pyrrha is her name, a fire battlemage with a talent for...well...setting things on fire. We met her atop the White Cliffs of Clover, balancing a powerful spell. It...misfired. My wings were close to being incinerated when Luna stepped in and stopped it with magic. She refused to even apologize. What a fiery pony, hah.
The rest of the news is...not quite as good. General Bastion called everypony nearby into Trottingham today. His face was grim. From the short time we have been staying in the city, I could tell that something very, very bad was happening.
I was right.
The Chaos Spirit has found where we are. He hunts us, and can tell where we are. The city is surrounded by the yrch. I can hear their scaled bodies crawling around outside of my tower window as I write this. Trottingham is under siege. Canterbury has already fallen. We will likely not hold out. I hope I do not die. If I do, then nobody will ever read my journal. The world will be crushed under the cruelty of Chaos like it was before Luna and I began our travels.
Oh Maker...Luna. If I die, what will become of her? How will I carry on without her if I live and she does not? I fear that I would lose myself to despair, falling down into a deep, dark pit from which there is no return. Oh, I hope we are able to hold the city."
~~~
Day 36
Trottingham has fallen.
I write outside of the city now, watching the vile flames lick the sky as I tremble. Luna is sitting behind me, shaking like a leaf. Pyrrha also escaped with us. She is simply staring into the distance, her face still. I fear that this city's death has hit her far harder than it has us. She has lived her since she was foaled, and now she is the only survivor. She is the last.
I fear that I must keep my entry short today. I cannot continue writing, simply because I'm shivering too hard to even hold my quill properly. I'm almost out of ink as well. My hooves are sore, red and aching from the mad flight from the city. I couldn't fly for an arrow that was later extracted from my wing, and even if I could have at the time, I would not have left Luna. The stones were hard, and one made its way into my hoof. It still pains me quite badly. My coat is slashed in half a dozen places. I'm not sure how much of my shivering is from fear and trauma and how much is from blood loss.
I must sleep now.
~~~
Day 40
Another like-minded individual has found her way to us. This one is...well...I dearly hope that she does not read this, for I rather don't want to be in pain for the next week and a half (any more than I'm already in, at least), but I fear that she may be a bit too harsh.
Okay, very much too harsh. Gruff would be a good word as well.
Her name is Terra, and we found her when I found my wing nearly broken from a rock that came hurtling out of the trees at me as we traveled through a forest. Even now I can feel the dull ache that explodes within it. As it turns out, it was...kicked at me. By an earth pony. For no reason but that she "doesn't really trust strangers". That's Terra. Maker, she's strong. So strong. Strong enough to snap me like a twig. Strong enough to kick down a tree. I do mean that; I saw it happen. It was terrifying.
I am on the mend from my wounds, but Pyrrha still hasn't even come close to closing her mental scars. Luna got off the easiest out of all of us, I think. She was hurt little because of her magical shield, I suppose. My wing blades are serving as a sort of brace for my wing wounds.
Terra just convinced Pyrrha to start the campfire. Took a little while, but I suppose her brand of brutal honestly has a way of galvanizing ponies. "Stop being so weak" has a way of doing something like that.
Oh, that's not good. Pyrrha's starting to throw fire at Terra. Luna's shouting at her to stop. I should probably get over there and mediate before one of them kills another. I suppose I could consider these two my friends. Terra a bit less so. Not until my wing heals, at any rate. Rather painful, that wound is.
~~~
Day 53
I cannot stop laughing.
Today, we passed through Running Rock Ridge, a knifes-edge that runs between two tall mountains. It's mostly stones, but in between are huge forests of thick, tall brambles, easily twice as tall as a full-grown stallion.
Pyrrha got lost in them.
Terra looked back and noticed that she was gone. We searched frantically for nigh on an hour until we heard a crackle and realized that the entire patch of bramble was on fire. Pyrrha emerged, breathing heavily, and declared proudly that she'd won. She is doing better these days, and she has even begun smiling again. Luckily, Luna was able to quench the blaze with magic of her own, whereupon we all burst out laughing. Terra commented that Pyrrha looked like a filly that had gotten lost and then burned the forest down, and sent herself into a fit of hysterics. Luna and I just laughed at the absurdity of the situation.
~~~
Day 62
We have done it.
We have found a way to banish the Chaos Spirit, who we have taken to calling Discord. Deep in a wild forest, we found a hidden cave. At the end was a tree with five branches that glowed a pure white. Embedded in each was a gemstone, with a final, star-shaped crystal in the trunk. I must take her word for it, but Luna claimed that the harmonic energy resonating from them was enormous. Pyrrha agreed. They also stated, however, that the power is locked away. If we can figure out a way to harness it, we may be able to destroy Discord for good.
~~~
Day 70
"We number six now. Today a pair of sisters joined us. Aqua is, well, I am tempted to say that she is mad, and Aria is by far the most compassionate thing that I have ever laid eyes on. As we embraced them, the gems in our saddlebags sparked. I remember thinking, "something is about to happen", and something definitely happened. They began to float, and each of us received one. I remember well which was mine, because it gives me great pleasure to say: I have taken the red gem. If the voice that floated through my head was any indication of what it means, then I am Loyalty."
~~~
Day 296
"Well, we did it. We defeated Discord. I feel no triumph, though. They are all gone. All of my friends...the explosion of Harmonic power was too much, it seems, and they died. We buried them by the trunk of the same willow tree. Nobody will ever know where they are. They will rest beneath the Crying Tree until the day that the world dies.
I am an alicorn now, as is Luna. I have a horn, and she has wings. I suppose it falls to us to govern Equestria now. I can only hope that we are strong enough to pull through."
Suddenly, the journal skipped over many days. The only clue for any event since then was a drawing of the moon on a page stained with candle wax and tears. The final entry loomed in front of Twilight, who by this point had tears streaming down her face.
"I've reached beyond the point where I can measure the days since then. Luna has returned from her imprisonment in the Moon, and my faithful student Twilight has purified her with the help of her friends. It gives me such pleasure to see how strong she's become. She reminds me of myself in a way, all those long, long years ago.
I only hope that she doesn't become too accustomed to using the Elements of Harmony, as we've come to call them. As I learned in a cold, cruel lesson, Balance isn't always right, and if she isn't careful, then she may lose her new friends.
Until that day, though...Signing my name by the last entry of my old journal,
Princess Celestia."
Author's Note
I didn't even have to change Canterbury's name.
That right there is skill.
Originally, all of the journal entries were italicized to make it easier to distinguish. However, FiMFiction gave me a big NO on that one. My bad.
Bonus Chapter: The Siege of Trottingham
"Hold your positions! Ponies on the walls, stay up there! Keep blastin' the bastards! Don't let up!"
Bastion roared at the defenders, urging them on. I sat in the shadows nearby, feeling somewhat useless. I couldn't move my right wing; it'd been crippled by the pain from the arrow that was embedded in it. Blood dribbled down my white feathers to the rough cobbles beneath me. I'd never been a competent archer; blades had always been something of my specialty. The yrch simply let nobody approach. Our only counter to their deadly arrows was the power of unicorn magic. Flares of frothing, unrestrained mana leapt across the battlefield, exploding in volatile blasts of color upon contact.
My eyes roved the walls, searching for the two unicorns I knew. My eye caught on a blue-purple coat, and I locked my gaze on Luna, who tossed pure arcane bolts with startling frequency and intensity. Beside her, Pyrrha was alone in that she was using real structure in her magic. Instead of simply directing raw magical power, she wove spells of increasing complexity, glowing orange circles apparating around her each and every time she cast a spell. Walls of flames blazed forth from those circles, carpeting the battlefield in bloody light. The infernos swept over entire fields of enemies. She truly was a powerful spellweaver. My eyes widened with each magical calculation.
Interrupting my thoughts, the city gate let out a boom and a creak. For a split second, everything went still as we gazed around with wide, terrified eyes. There was a moment of precious silence.
Then all Tartarus broke loose.
The gates splintered, fragments of wood flying through the air like spears. General Bastion brought some of the other ponies to a rallying point, or at least tried to. Barely a moment later, chaos broke out as a black arrow was hurled from the sky and directly into his neck. His eyes bulged and he let out a soundless scream before toppling forwards onto the bloody stones.
Luna whirled, barely avoiding a yrch shaft as she did so, and bellowed in anger. I shrank back further into the shadows. I'd never heard her so angry. An enormous torrent of blue-white magic blazed forth from her, leaving her panting. There was no trace of the group of yrch. Instead, half of the courtyard was marred with an enormous crater. Eyes glazed, magic exhausted, she slumped to the ground, nearly falling from the walltop. The tide of yrch was limitless.They just kept coming.
I shook her, urging her to wake up, desperately pleading for her to leave the city. There was no way we could defend it now. If we didn't run, we would be dead, all of us. Pyrrha looked like I'd punched her in the gut, but as she gazed around the city, a field of powerful magic incinerating any projectiles that drew too close to her, she realized that I was right.
Eventually, I managed to rouse Luna, and the three of us ran. We ran as fast as we could to the back entrance, where a small road led off into the forest. There were few yrch there, likely because of how small it was. Pyrrha teleported into the trees, glaring at me with a vindictive gaze that I don't believe I shall ever forget. Luna managed to muster up the magical strength to shield herself. Me? I ran fast, and through some miracle, I made it.
Even as I write this, I see a plume of smoke rising above the decimated city. "One day," I'm whispering, "one day."
