Prologue: A Fate Distorted
Twilight was gleefully hopping around her room. She was absolutely ecstatic! Not only had she passed her entrance exam into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but she even got to be the personal student of Princess Celestia! And, to top it all off, she even got her cutie mark at the same time! It was the day after, and she could still barely contain herself.
Her celebrating was interrupted by a light snoring from the corner of the room. Spike was sleeping soundly in his new basket. Seeing him reminded her that she should probably read up on how to take care of a baby dragon. That would probably be pretty important.
As for the rest of her room, it was currently filled with boxes. A lot of boxes. Most of them were filled with books. Today she would be moving into her new room in the palace, and the boxes were packed with her things, ready to be taken there.
“Twilight, the movers are here!” her mother called from downstairs.
“Okay!” She called back. She grabbed Spike in her magic and put him on her back, making sure he wouldn’t fall off, before heading out of her room and down the stairs. The movers needed room to do their work, so Twilight was going to get donuts with her BBBFF.
“Hey Twiley,” Shining Armor said as she reached the bottom of the steps, “ready to go?”
“Yep, all set!” She replied cheerfully.
“Let’s get going then,” He said.
The two of them walked out the door past the incoming mover ponies and left for the donut shop.
~*~*~*~
Rounding the corner, Donut Joe’s finally came into view. Twilight was overcome with joy at the sight. Donut Joe made the best donuts in Canterlot, if not all of Equestria!
“Is somepony ready for donuts?” Shining asked.
“I am!” Twilight answered.
“Great, because we’re here.”
Just as the two were about to enter the shop, Twilight saw a flash of light out of the corner of her eye. When she turned her head she saw something small streaking through the sky high above her, heading for the outskirts of the city. It looked vaguely round shaped. She turned to Shining.
“Hey, what’s that?” she said, pointing towards the object.
Shining looked where his sister was pointing.
“It’s probably just some rambunctious pegasus."
"Are you sure? It doesn't really look like one."
"Well whatever it is, it isn't any of our business. Come on, let's go inside," Shining said as he pushed the door open.
Twilight was still curious, but the smell of donuts wafting from the open door convinced her to put that curiosity aside for now and follow her brother inside.
Upon entering the shop, Twilight was greeted with a familiar voice.
“Well if it isn’t my favorite little filly!” Donut Joe said warmly, “And you’ve got your cutie mark too, congratulations!”
“Hi Mr. Joe! I’m so happy to see you again!”
“Twily, we were here just a few days ago.”
“So, you takin’ a break from guard training Shining?” Joe asked.
“Yep,” Shining replied, “taking time off to spend with my sister to celebrate her new cutie mark.”
“And to celebrate me being the new personal protege of Princess Celestia!” Twilight chimed in.
“The personal protege of the Princess, eh?” Joe said, surprised, “Well ain’t that an accomplishment.”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t expect any less from a little sister as great as her.” Shining said, ruffling Twilight’s mane.
“So, what can I get for you two then?”
“Me and Twily will have the usual.”
“Alright, one glazed with nuts for you, and a chocolate glazed with sprinkles for the little lady, comin’ right up.”
Twilight and Shining made their way over to a table to wait for their donuts, and Twilight set down the snoozing dragon on her back. Soon enough Donut Joe was bringing out their donuts to them. Twilight took a bite and felt like she was in heaven. Joe still made them just as absolutely fantastic as he always did. After a bit of munching on this ring of deliciousness, Twilight heard a yawn from beside her. When she looked, she saw that Spike was finally waking up.
“Hey there Mr. Sleepyscales.”
Spike just yawned again in reply. Twilight didn’t want him to miss out on food this good, so once he was more awake, she made the noble sacrifice of pulling off a piece of her donut to give to him. Spike gladly took it and ate it in one bite. As Twilight finished the rest of her donut, her mind wandered back to the object she falling through the sky earlier. There was no way that was just some pegasus like Shining said. What was it? A meteorite? Twilight found the question nagging at her, no matter how much she tried to think of anything else. She just had to know.
I have to go find it! she thought. But how will I do it without Shining noticing?
In a moment of brilliance, she devised a plan to escape the watchful eyes of her sibling.
“Hey Shiny, I need to go to the bathroom.”
“Go ahead then Twily.”
As Twilight made her way to the bathroom, she was quite pleased with her cunning plan. When she got to bathroom, she undid the latch on the window, opened it up and climbed out, landing on the grass below. She was quite certain nopony had ever thought of a plan like that before. Not once.
Sneaking around the building to make sure her brother couldn’t see her through any windows, she made her way back to street. She thought back to when she saw it race through the sky to jog her memory on which direction it had gone. It had come from over the edge of town, and seemed to be heading straight for…
“The Canterhorn!”
Even with how high up Canterlot was perched upon it, the mountain still loomed imposingly over the city. With a destination in mind, she made her way to the mountain, where the enigma that had been plaguing her mind was sure to lie.
~*~*~*~
"What's taking her so long?" Shining asked himself. “I should go check on her.”
Shining left the table and trotted over to the bathrooms. He knocked on the door to the mare’s room.
“Twily, are you okay in there?”
There was no response.
“Twily?”
There was still no response.
“I have a brand new book out here for you.”
Yet again, there was no response.
“If that didn’t get her, then…” Shining threw open the door, “TWILY?!”
Shining was greeted with the sight of a (thankfully) empty bathroom, with an open window on the wall opposite the door.
“This is bad. This is reeeeeeeally bad.”
Shining rushed back to the table, grabbed Spike in his magic, and ran out the door.
“Hey, you gonna pay for those?” Joe called after him.
Shining poked back in, through some bits at the counter, and ran back out again. He set Spike on his back as he broke into a full out sprint.
“Don’t worry Twily, I’ll save you!”
~*~*~*~
She was almost there, she could feel it, almost like something was pulling her onwards, towards the solution to this mystery.
“Here we are!”
Twilight had finally reached the very limits of the city, where it connected with the mountainside. That… thing was somewhere on this mountain, it had to be.
“I only have to search… an entire mountain. Joy. Well, better get started.”
Twilight marched forward, looking around for any signs of an impact.
Before falling face-first into a crater she hadn’t noticed.
“ACK!”
As she got up and dusted herself off, she saw what it was that had made the crater she was now in.
“It’s… it’s a-”
“TWILYYYYYYYY!”
“Huh?” Twilight peeked out over the rim of the crater. “Shiny?”
Shining lifted her out of the crater in his magic. “What were you thinking? I thought you might’ve been kidnapped! I had to use a tracker spell just to find you!”
“But I needed to go look for that thing that fell from the sky earlier!”
“That’s no excuse to run off and almost give me a heart attack. And besides, I already told you that it was probably nothing anyway.”
Twilight grinned. “Well if it was nothing, then what’s that in there?”, she said, pointing towards the crater.
Shining walked up to the crater and looked in. “Well it’s… it’s…”
“An egg!” Twilight finished for him.
~*~*~*~
“I’m sorry Twilight, but you’ll just have to keep waiting.” Princess Celestia told her.
“But Princess, it’s been days since I found it and it still hasn’t hatched yet!”
She glanced across her new room in the castle to where the grey and gold egg was sitting in a nest of blankets. The two of them were currently sitting on her bed, which was, of course, the tidiest bed in the entire palace.
“Well, unless you can find another magical explosion to set you into another flare like that, there’s nothing you can do to rush it. These things happen with time.”
Twilight’s eyes lit up. “That's it! i just have to-"
"And that does not mean you can go set off a magical explosion," Celestia interrupted her.
"Right," Twilight sighed as her ears drooped, "I just really can't wait for-"
Crack
Twilight was interrupted yet again, but this time by a peculiar noise from the other side of the room. Both student and mentor turned to look in the direction of the noise. They noted that the egg had a crack in it.
"It's hatching!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Oh my, already?"
The two went over to the egg as more cracks appeared on it's surface. After about a minute, the shell finally gave way, revealing the creature within.
It was quite unlike any creature either of them had seen before. It's wings seemed almost to be made of shadows and it had numerous spikes and ridges, not to mention the whole six legs thing.
"Princess, what is it?"
"I... don't know. If I had to make a comparison then it looks somewhat like a dragon, but just barely."
The creature looked between the two of them curiously.
"Well whatever it is, it doesn't seem very threatening," said Celestia.
"Does that mean...?"
"Yes, you can keep it. Although it will be observed to make sure it is not dangerous."
"Yaaaaaay!" Twilight rejoiced as she start hopping around Celestia. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!"
"Which means you should probably come up with a name for it."
Twilight stopped her celebratory hopping to think. "You're right. Hmm..." Twilight let out a groan of annoyance. "Why did I already use the name Spike? That would fit this one so much better!"
Celestia stifled a giggle.
"Hmm... I'll name him..."
Amidst her thoughts, a name seemed to push itself to the front of her mind, one that seemed like a perfect fit for the creature in front of her.
"Nebris!"
Author's Note
Please mention any mistakes you notice or feedback you have about the story, it's a big help!
The idea for this story was born from the disappointing lack of stories involving Giratina on this site, combined with my own love of the Pokemon.
Updates will come whenever I get them finished. I can't promise updates on a consistent schedule like some people, but I'll try not to slack on them.
Hope you enjoy this!
(Also, the first person to figure out the reason for Nebris's name gets a cookie.)
