Author's Note

Hey everypony, I'm sorry if this update seemed rushed when you were reading it, you know how it is, just trying to get exposition out of the way so you can get to the jucy stuff. I appologise for that, but dont worry, it's going to pick up soon, and attention to detail is something I do very well when I want to, so get ready! Anyway, I hope you enjoy, if you do please leave a comment or feedback, every little bit of self esteem counts!

Three Unwitting Masters

"All right! Today is going to be another wonderful day!" Twilight Sparkle recited to herself in front of her bathroom mirror, a wide smile on her face as she cleared the steam from said mirror. Turning to consult the list hanging next to the sink, one which she had long since memorized, the lavender mare began to check off her morning itinerary.

"Wake up at sunrise? Check! Shower for exactly seven minutes and forty two seconds? Check! Shampoo and conditioner? Check!" She continued to rattle off her morning ritual, her smile as wide and relaxed as ever. "Brush teeth? Check! Comb hair? Check! Get dressed? Check! Glowing red mark on the back of my hand? Che-" She paused, looking at her list. Then at her hand. Her list. Her hand. "Wait, that isn't on the list."

Sure enough, shining dimly through the lavender fur on the back of her left hand was a deep crimson sigil. It appeared to be an image of two stylized waves cresting in opposite directions, the line of symmetry maintained by a slender helix connecting the two waves down the center. Twilight stared at the mark for a few seconds before trying to rub it off. Then she wet her hand and tried again. Then she covered her hand in soap and tried scrubbing harder; but the mark refused to fade.

"What are you?" She mumbled under her breath, examining the marking, her checklist completely forgotten. Twilight reached for it slowly with her other hand, a finger slowly tracing the markings, but when she reached the end of the helix, she felt something radiating from the mark. The sigil suddenly burst to life, glowing brighter and brighter as Twilight felt something surge through her; the feeling was easily identifiable, magic, very powerful magic. A gasp involuntarily escaped her as the waves of old magic ran through her, touching her, coating her, becoming her. But as quickly as it started, the surge ended, leaving the lavender mare hunched over the sink panting hard.

"No... That most certainly was not on the list." She pants, looking down at her hand with more than a trace of justified apprehension. "With magic this strong... It wouldn't do good to study this on my own." Twilight muttered, running a hand through her violet mane. She slowly exited the bathroom, summoning a piece of parchment and a quill to her with her magic, quickly drafting a note to her assistant Spike, before making her way to the stairway, her heels clicking on the crystal steps as she descended.

"Celestia will know what to do... She has to." Twilight rationalized, trying to calm herself as she rushed through the eerie quiet of her castle. Of course Celestia would know, this was old magic, very old, and if there was one mage in all of Equestria who knew magic better than Twilight Sparkle, it was her former mentor turned colleague, Princess Celestia. Possessed by at least a sense of direction, the lavender mare strode confidently towards the massive front doors of her castle, pushed open those doors, and was immediately knocked off her feet in a mess of cerulean feathers.

"I told you Dashie, that one means that a door is about to open!" Came an all too recognizable bubbly voice from above the toppled mare.

"Pinkie! Rainbow!" Twilight groaned loudly, trying to shove the Pegasus off of her. "What a pleasant surprise." She grunted, freeing herself from the cyan mare and stumbling to her feet. "Not that I don't love it when you drop in, I just wish you wouldn't literally 'drop in'." She groaned, cracking her neck in the process.

"Eh... Sorry, my bad." Rainbow Dash replied in her scratchy voice, nervously running a hand through her mane. "Listen Twi, I'm like, super sorry for barging in, and knocking you over, but you see, Pinkie have a little problem; we wo-"

"We woke up this morning and somepony had tattooed our hands while we were sleeping!!!" Pinkie cut her off, grabbing Rainbow's left hand, and forcing it, along with her own, into Twilight's face. The purple mare felt her heart drop as she looked at the markings one the back of her friend's hands. Pinkie's bore a trio of chains spiraling into the shape of a heart, while Rainbow's featured a Phoenix curling around itself as it caught fire. The problem wasn't that her friends suddenly had tattoos, or that they felt attacked; no, the problem was that each of the markings on the backs of their hands, glowed a dim crimson, exactly the same as the marking on Twilight's own hand.

"Girls I-I don't think these are tattoos..." Twilight spoke softly, slowly raising her own hand to reveal the twin crimson waves marking her.

"But then what..?" Rainbow stuttered, shocked and more than a little confused at Twilight's similar affliction.

"I... I don't know just yet, but I think we best all get to Canterlot as fast as possible, I'm sure Celestia will have some clue as to what's going on." Twilight stumbled over her words, trying to conceal the fact that she was trying to reassure herself just as much, and perhaps more, than she was Rainbow.

"Oooohhhh! But why do we need to do that!?" Pinkie giggled bouncing up and down while pointing at the back of her hand. "These are obviously a chain of three seals planted on us by an ancient magic which allows us to summon and control the spirits of long dead heroes and legends in an epic battle for possession of said magic in what is known as a Pony Grail War, or as I call it, a covert game of rock, paper, scissors." Pinkie gave the two a playful yet exasperated look as though they were quite stupid for not coming to that 'obvious' conclusion. For their parts, Twilight and Rainbow just gaped back at the pink mare with a look somewhere between disbelief, confusion, and just a pinch of acceptance.

"I'm... I'm just going to ignore all of that." Rainbow said gingerly, looking back and forth between her friends. "Come on, lets get to Celestia, Twi's right, that does seem like our best bet of figuring it out."

"But I just told you what this was!" Pinkie whined, pouting like a little filly.

"Yeah, but no offense Pinkie, but I'd rather get a professional opinion than... Whatever that was." Pinkie huffed again at Rainbow, crossing her arms to add to her pout. She waved a hand dismissive at the two, almost as if to say, 'all right, go ahead, let Celestia tell you what I just finished telling you.

Twilight nodded in reply, taking this as confirmation that the two of them would be accompanying her to Canterlot. "All right, it's not long past sunrise, there should be a train leaving in about ten minutes, if we hurry we can make it!" She said, grabbing both mares by the wrist and pulling them in the direction of the station. "I just hope for once Pinkie's insane ramblings are wrong and we don't have a war on her hands..." Twilight prayed to whatever deity reigned supreme that her friend's nearly omniscient powers had faltered, but nevertheless she felt a sinking feeling in her gut. There were storm clouds on the horizon... And she just hoped they were ready when that storm hit.