To Forge a Legend

“Are thou sure this is to be the wisest choice thee has made, sister?”  Luna asked her sister as the two enjoyed their cups of tea out in the Royal Garden under the peaceful glow of her moon and the stars that dotted the sky.  The many noises of the busy Canterlot could still faintly be heard from where they sat, matched by the harmonious sounds of nature’s creatures.  The white gazebo they sat under provided a small amount of privacy as they both enjoyed their midnight snacks.

Celestia’s lips twisted into a minor frown as she sips her tea, enjoying the little relaxation it was providing.  She had just finished explaining to her sister what had recently transpired and the (quiet confusing) information she was given by the human who called himself Patrick.  She was not sure harboring an unknown species that seemed to of just teleported into her court without any of the Royal Unicorns detecting any magic was the best decision, but she couldn’t turn down such a unique creature that appeared to be relatively harmless.  After releasing a small sigh, Princess Celestia put her tea cup down and looked to her sister with a slightly concerned look upon her face.  “I am not entirely confident it was the best choice, but what choices did I have?  Act hostile to a creature that could possibly be harmless and live with giving the new species a horrible first impression?”

Luna’s frown only grew as she listened to her sister’s words, sighing with irritation after Celestia finished.  “Thou are right, Sister.  We shall not relax around such an unusual creature, however.”  Luna’s voice held slight irritation, not at her sister, but towards the uncertainty if this could end up like another attack similar to the Changling invasion not too long ago.

As Celestia began to levitate a small serving of crumb cake to dip in her tea, both Luna and Celestia herself suddenly felt a major distribution of magic erupt from the direction of Ponyville, both of the Alicorn’s eyes opening wide as they found the objects they were holding telekinetically suddenly fall onto the ground and table.  Celestia and Luna’s eyes growing wide with horror and shock at what had just transpired and their discovery; their magic had been cut off!

“What…What just happened, Luna?”  Celestia asked with eyes wide with disbelief as the servants quickly moved to clean up.  Her sister shared a similar expression as she tried to lift the a piece of crumb cake once again, this time succeeding in using her magic to bring it to her mouth, where she took a small bite out of it.

Luna’s expression softened as she let the sweet taste of the cake delight her taste buds before responding to her sister’s Question.  “We do not know, something had disturbed our magic and forced it to cease to function properly for a moment.”  The Princess of Night slowly placed the crumb cake upon her plate as she took a sip of her new cup of tea before continuing.  “What do you think we should do about this unusual occurrence, sister?”

No words left Celestia’s mouth as she furrowed her brow in concentration, choosing her next actions carefully.  It was unlikely it was an invasion seeing as her Royal Intelligence Group would normally inform her of any impending attacks.  The burst of magic came from Ponyville, so her protégé, Princess Twilight Sparkle, would have most likely felt a similar disturbance.  Could she handle whatever this was?  Would it be the best choice to allow her to deal with it?

Celestia looked upon her sister, whose expression held the certainty that she was prepared to follower her sister’s orders to the best of her ability, and gave a solemn nod before standing up.  “We will entrust Princess Twilight and her friends to handle these events.  Sister, would you mind checking to see if any of them are asleep and alert them.”

Luna’s face remained neutral as she gave her sister a firm nod before turning and heading towards the castle while Celestia herself let released a small quiet sigh.  She noticed the servants looking at each other with slight nervousness and fear before comforting them with a small smile.  “Do not worry, Brim and Clean.  I am confident that this is nothing to be concerned about.” Though that was not entirely a lie, it was not entirely the truth ether.

With that, she left the servants to clean up as she began to head towards the castle as well.  She needed to inform the girls of a possible alien in their peaceful village and be prepared if this wasn’t the Wayward their new friend was mentioning…

*****

“What in tarnation was that?” The orange coated country pony asked with alarm as she looked out the window in an attempt to spot the anomaly.  Her blonde mane and tail were loose and free from their usual ponytail design though her brown Stetson was back on her head.  Her emerald eyes quickly turned to her friends who were starting to wake up from their slumber party at Twilight’s Library.

A beautiful white mare was next to respond, her coat covered by a luxurious white robe with pink fur hanging around the collar and cuffs of the sleeves, her stunning sapphire eyes narrowed as she spoke with slight irritation “I don’t know, but whatever it was better keep quiet because SOME of us are trying to get our beauty sleep.”

Rainbow Dash, the last pony to be waking up, mumbled something under her breath as she rubbed her rose colored eyes.  “What’s going on guys?” She asked as she brushed her rainbow colored mane away from her face and spotted a light yellow mare cowering behind her, her pink mane and tail wrapped around her for protection as she whimpered weakly.  “What’s gotten into Fluttershy?”

“Ooh, Ooh, Ooh!” A pink, energetic pony hopped in place as she tried to get her friend’s attention, her wild and untamed poufy mane and tail bouncing along with her.  “It could be a giant cupcake meteor or somepony had REALLY bad gas and lit a match, or Crystal Shard could be discovering a new ingredient for pie or-“

Pinkie Pie’s words were cut off as their friend began to walk down the stairs and decided to spoke with a hint of fatigue which came from being rudely awoken.  “I don’t think it’s anything like that, Pinkie.”  The light purple horned Pegasus mumbled her purple and pink mane a total mess.

“But I am certain it is magic related, I felt a strange sensation when it woke me up, whatever it is.”  Rarity’s pouting expression was replaced with realization at Twilight’s words, as did the other mares around the room.  They all began to exchange looks at each other across the library, which confirmed their combined assumption; they also felt something strange when they were awoken from the sudden blast.  This didn’t ease the tension at all in the room, however.

Twilight looked down grimly as she attempted to think of what to do next, ether unaware she had a major case of bed hair or didn’t care.  “What…What do you think we should do, Twilight?”  Fluttershy asked from behind her azure coated friend.  The winged Unicorn only shook her head slowly as she made it to the bottom of the stairs, her eyes running around as she searched her thoughts in an attempt to think.

“I…I don’t-“Before Twilight could finish her sentence, the combined sound of belching and fire resonated from up in Twilight’s main bedroom, which was followed by the sound of a door opening and closing.  Curious as to what it was, all the girl’s turned their attention towards the stairs where a purple dragon with green ears and spines began to trudge downward, combating his eyes to stay open.

Twilight quickly grabbed the scroll which Spike held weakly in his claws as he mumbled something along the line of “Celestia” and “Amethyst and Topaz pancakes.”  The Princess of Friendship simply wrote it off as Spike being both hungry and tired, seeing as he hadn’t woken up fully just yet, and unfurled the scroll before her and read the contents out loud for her friends to hear.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I am certain by the time you receive this letter that you have noticed the sudden occurrence that had happened not too far from Ponyville.  Me and my sister have also noticed it and have discovered it has created an unusual outburst of magical power.  Though possibly very powerful, we have reasons to believe it is relatively harmless and possibly even friendly.”

Pinkie Pie’s eyes lit up after hearing that and began to hop in place even more as she squeaked “Friendly?” with glee.  “Twilight, we TOTTALY have to go say hi to our new friend!  Can we, can we, can we, Pleeeeeeeeease?”  This got a slight chuckle and an eye roll from the Alicorn as she continued to read out loud.

“I am entrusting you with the responsibility of locating the creature who is possibly the cause of the magical disturbance and giving him a warm welcome into the land of Equestria?”  All of the girl’s eyebrows rose when they heard the last line, Twilight pausing to look around the room with uncertainty before taking a deep breath and continuing.  “Princess Luna and I have reason to believe it is not a resident of our world but actually an alien species from an alternate reality?!”

Applejack’s green eyes widened along with everypony else after hearing Twilight nearly yell out the last part.  “Eer…Big pardon?”  The other girls questioned what the letter had as well, a mixture of fear and excitement filling the air as they looked at each other, unsure how to really feel about what the Princesses mean by what they wrote.  Twilight took a deep breath as she decided (and silently hoped) the letter would explain what Princess Celestia is talking about.

“We suspect that the creature has similar characteristics to that of a thin, mostly hairless ape wearing clothing.  I believe it will not be difficult to find, seeing as we know it should still be radiating a decent amount of unusual magic from its body to keep this form for the time being.  However, it most likely is unaware of the fact it is even using magic to keep itself in its current form.

As you are well aware of, this actually very dangerous due to the constant strain the spell is placing upon the wielder’s mind and body.  Unfortunately, you may have little time to locate the creature seeing as it had cast a spell to bring not only himself, but a friend into Equestria from their world.  We have discovered the being’s name to be, Wayward, and his friend is in our custody now.  More will be explained, but for now you and your friends must make haste to locate Wayward and cancel out his magic as quickly as possible.”

Twilight’s eyes had become wide and everypony in the room, including Spike, was wide awake by the end of the letter.  The Alicorn’s mind raced with the information she was suddenly given and attempted to organize them all in her mind before she looked at the others, who were all staring back at her and waiting to hear what she had to say.  Many emotions ran through the Princess’s head as she contemplated what to do, but one thing stood clear in her mind and told her what she needed to do.

“If this creature, Wayward, teleported two creatures across reality, it probably means it has just used a large amount of his energy, enough to make a lot of great unicorns pass out.  But if what the Princess says is true and it is still unknowingly using magic to keep its form, then it is in serious trouble and we need to find fast before is possibly burns up the remaining amount of magic it has left!”

Rarity gasped dramatically at Twilight’s words, her eyes wide and her sapphire pupils turned into pinpoints.  “Oh dear, we can’t let that happen.  I refuse to let anything that could possibly be friendly perish.  We simply must hurry!”  What Rarity said seemed to of gained the attention of others more and added just the drastic situation to nearly cause a panic.

“Perish?”  Fluttershy asked fearfully, her fore hooves moving to cover her mouth.  “You…You mean he could…die?” To everyone surprise, the timid Pegasus quickly took to the air and shook her head.  “Oh no, we have to find it quickly.  Poor thing is probably scared, lonely, possibly hungry and sad.”

The girls all found their resolve, Twilight letting Spike hop on her back as she looked around with a determined look within her eyes.  “Alright girls, sorry to cut the slumber party short, but this is vital.  Everpony ready?”

All of the ponies announced that they were prepared before Rarity and Twilight’s horns began to glow.  “Princess Celestia said he will still be radiating magic so it shouldn’t-Whoa!”  Both of the girl’s eyes shot wide open as a bolt of energy ran through both of their bodies and their vision blurred suddenly, their minds buffered from the sudden rush of magical power they unknowingly sensed.  Rarity had actually fallen over where Twilight’s legs began to feel incredibly weak, the other showing an increase of concern as they ran to both of them to assure they were alright.

“My goodness.”  Rarity started, slowly rising to her hooves with the help of Rainbow and Applejack.  “I must say, never have I felt such…such a powerful presence before.”  Her eyes still appeared heavily unfocused and glazed as she attempted to regain focus, Rainbow and Applejack swapping concerned glances at each other as they held their friend steady for a while.

With the combined assistance of Fluttershy and Pinkie, Twilight quickly regained her senses and shook her head to finish clearing her mind.  “Wow, I don’t think we’ll have trouble finding him with a magical presence like that.  That was almost as strong as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s presence!”  This got the surprised, and slightly terrified, stares of the not-so-magically-sensitive mares in the room.

After assuring Rarity and Twilight were fine after a few moment of recuperation, Twilight was able to discern where the source of the magic was coming from; the depths of the Everfree Forest.  Applejack tipped her hat slightly with a stern expression on her face as she looked around at the group and headed towards the door.  “Well, let’s get this here show on the road, everypony!  We got a critter to save!”

With that, the girls headed outside and made their way around the curious and scared ponies of Ponyville who had been woken up from the sudden noise.  Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie and Applejack did their best to reassure everypony that the situation was fine, which quickly surprisingly settled a lot of them down.  By the time the girls had made it to the edge of the Everfree, most of the civilians had been calmed down and decided to go back to bed.

When the girls crossed the border of the Everfree Forest, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash visibly and violently shivered.  The two Pegasi’s eyes locked onto one another’s for a moment with shock before turning to the others, Rainbow asking with a slightly panicked voice “What in Equestria was that?”

“That is the magical presence of Wayward.  But something is wrong; it was much stronger than this earlier.”  Twilight glanced around at the other ponies with worry in her eyes before she decided to pick up the pace.  “We have to hurry; it’s fading away and fast!”

Noticing the serious and panic in their friend’s voice, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash matched Twilight’s pace as they all hurried quickly into the darkness of the Everfree.  Their hooves kicked against the uneven soil as the familiar sounds of the lively forest hummed quietly in the background.  The humid night air gripped their lungs as concern for the new creature forced them to move even quicker through the underbrush.

To Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash’s dismay, they began to sense the magical aura of the creature quickly fade away until they couldn’t sense it anymore.  The light yellow coated pony’s eyes shot open in fear as she moved even faster, quickly and quietly whisper “No, no, no, no, no.  Please hang on, little guy.”  Unfortunately, even Rarity and Twilight were registering the rapidly weakening magical force of their visitor and dread gripped their hearts.

They ran for a long ways, the unicorns eventually having to resort to using their magic to locate the weakening creature.  Their minds began to doubt if they could get to the creature in time and judging by the rapid deterioration of the magical energy, their doubts were quickly growing more and more profound.  Their hearts beat into their ears, sweat poured profusely out of all of the ponies’ coats, and even Spike was holding onto Twilight for dear life and could tell how dire the situation was.  They weren’t running for their lives, they were running for the life of somepony else!

When the mares turned around a rather large tree, their eyes shot wide open once again and all of them gasped at what laid before them.  Their hearts sank as their mind drew blanks at the image they had seen.  Twilight was the only one who could recognize what the creature was, yet she could not believe that it was right in front of her and was colored differently than the others were.