“And with the proper distribution of magic flow, one can truly begin to understand and achieve higher tiers of magic than ever thought before.” The slamming of a book and the day's lecture was over just as a charming melody alerted the sparsely filled room of eager minded unicorn fillies and colts that the school week had ended as well.
“Have a good weekend, Professor Wanda.” The fillies would tell their teacher as they left ready for a well deserved weekend of relaxing. The professor would just keep her back turned as she cleaned off her board littered with equations and formulas she had used to teach the weeks lesson.
Advanced Enchantment at Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns was a grueling endeavor that not many students took and even less could pass. The professor had a reputation for being cold and slightly unnerving as her icy glare seemed to pierce each student, they wouldn’t dare meet her gaze as she spoke to them.
“I can not wait until the school semester is over. Pass or fail that class I’ll just be happy to get out of it.” One of three friends talked as they walked through the halls of the grand school.
“Tell me about it Serendipity. Professor Wanda is, like, the worst. Always with her muzzle in some crazy looking book as she speaks at us. It is like she does not even give a care if we learn anything.” Bridle Brass another of the friends cackled.
“It’s not like that girls. Professor Wanda is a busy mare, I’m sure she cares. In her own way.” The last of the trio tossed in her two bits and was met with distasteful stares.
“Of course you’re on her side Lydia, because you’re at least passing her class.” Serendipity gave a huff at her own failing status in comparison. “You’re lucky you’re cute.” She smiled and bumped Lydia off balance as she trotted off around a corner followed quickly by Bridle Brass.
‘I’m not cute.’ Lydia muttered under her breath as she searched for her glasses.
“Oh? You know, Lady Lydia Cobblestone, a low self image stifles one's potential.” Lydia knew who the voice belonged to even without being able to see it’s owner, as she felt her glasses float to her face and her vision come back to her the voices owner came into focus. Professor Wanda stood in front of the filly in all her glory. Lydia had only personally spoke with the revered and frightening teacher once before at the beginning of the school year when she signed up for the class. She was so happy to meet her new teacher, so many of her previous mentors we’re warm and welcoming. Professor Wanda was different and seemed to not even notice her gestures of friendliness as she was told to take a seat not even being looked at.
“Pr… Professor Wanda, what can I do for you?”
“I was just on my way to the library, I happened to see you and wanted to congratulate you on your exemplary work.” Lydia was taken by complete surprise she had never heard of Wanda speaking to anypony, even other faculty, like this.
“Thank you, Professor.” She stammered and fought back the nagging feeling she had to runaway. And with that the tall thin grey mare headed to the library.
It was a truly disturbing encounter. Even though it was a compliment all Lydia could feel was empty and hollow from Wanda’s words. The Professor was an exceedingly beautiful mare her silver mane seemed to flow in an ethereal wind only she could feel, topped with a golden crown fit for royalty of some mystical far away land. So much of the Professor reminded any who met her as a smaller version of the princess herself. But nowhere as nice.
Lydia pushed her glasses up her nose to set better and stopped as she realized she was headed to the library as well. She walked a little slower and wished one of her friends were coming as well. Maybe the Professor went to one of the deeper parts of the library that the school foals weren't allowed to go. Maybe she wouldn’t see her, or even better just ignore her like she does everypony else.
After what felt like an eternity she got to the library and the librarian on duty met her with her usual smile. “Good evening Lady Lydia, studding hard as usual I see?” The librarian noticed Lydia’s nervous looking around.“Is something wrong dear?”
“Is Professor Wanda, still here?”
“Oh,” The Librarians smile dropped into a scowl “ya The Ice Queen is here, why?” Lydia had only heard it was a rumor that the rest of the faculty called Wanda that name. It kinda made her smile because of how well it fit Wanda.
“Oh no reason, I just thought I saw her come in here?” It was an obvious lie but harmless nonetheless.
“Well sweetie, I suggest staying away from her. It’s none of my business but I’ve heard strange rumors about her.” She whispered into Lydia’s ear. “I’ve worked here for decades and I’ve never noticed her age, it’s the weirdest thing.” Lydia had to cover her mouth from laughing. Unicorn Mares such as Wanda must use their magic to stop aging effects, it’s not uncommon among the more talented unicorns. Lydia did wonder though how old was the Professor? “Well don’t let her get to you too much, the school year is almost over and you’ll have your whole life ahead of you.” Lydia smiled to the Librarian and bid her adieu. She went to her usual corner to study.
Lydia’s corner consisted of a few piles of books that she liked to study and reference along with a pillow, she’d fallen asleep in the library on occasion so the staff left her one just in case. They also left her study books because it had built up a nickname with the library staff ‘The Fortress’ as she would come into the library and lock herself away surrounded by books. A former student would do the same thing so they would let it pass as long as she respected that anyone could take what they needed, it was still a library after all.
Lydia was a few hours into her studying, most of the other students had left and even the Librarian had passed out for a short nap, she was scouring through ancient myths and legends for her final on Legends of Antiquity. A lot of other students chose Princess Celestia as their topic of the final and it was almost a guaranteed A. But Lydia wanted something special something different. She pulled a book from her tower only to miss judge and become buried under it. She shook off the pile and started to stack them back up when she saw a small tome that she didn’t recognize. Maybe one of her teachers added to her fortress as they had been known to do from time to time.
The book was smaller than most of the ones she normally had in her collection but the cover was inlaid with gold leaf and bound in leather, and oddity in Equestria, an iron latch held the book closed and opened with ease as she went to discover its contents.
‘The Immortal Mare’ read the first words, she stopped. The Immortal Mare was a myth she had heard about last year in one of her classes it was a cautionary tale of giving up everything to gain the unattainable treasure of living forever. Everypony knew that both Princess Celestia and the fabled Mare in the Moon had lived for over a millennia but it was still debatable whether they were immortal or not. Lydia read on. The story seemed to be a more in-depth version of The Immortal Mare than she remembered, it told of a powerful unicorn that managed to extend her life well beyond the natural limit but couldn’t escape times unfaltering march and resorted to drastic measures to stay it off a little longer. The book described many experiments that made Lydia turn away. The use of another's life force, it spoke of trinkets forged of dark magics brought back from the ancient empires of wraiths and trapping mythic creatures to drain them of their essences. Only to name a few, but ultimately the story just, ended… poof, nothing, like the writer either just gave up and walked away, or died. She looked the book over for something more, anything. The story couldn’t just end like that. After a few moments of examination she noticed the cover had small grooves in it like a pattern of some sort. She used the pillow to wipe the layers of dust and age of the book until she could see it more clearly.
Lydia dropped the book and couldn’t believe what lay before her, the pattern was a crown. But what did it mean? So Lydia went to work, she hastily gathered the books she wasn’t using and began to search the library for anything that had to do with crowns. Pictures of crowns, any crown of legend, even the history of crowns. She had constructed a new fortress and began her weekend.
It was exhausting there had been so many crowns throughout history and almost all of them seemed to be important in some way. They all seemed to vary in shape and size. And many legends pointed back to The Princess's crown. Her crown was constructed 1500 years ago by a goldsmith as a gift to the king's daughter to wear when she became a queen, but the kingdom had been ransacked and burned to the ground before she could ever wear it. It was later found in a dragon's horde and presented to that queen who wore it until she passed it on to her successor and the history is fuzzy and didn’t seem to add up until Celestia became its owner. And there it sat for what Lydia could account 1020 years. Lots of other crowns had similar stories but every crown had one thing in common, royalty.
Lydia heard her stomach growl. It had been hours since she had eaten and it was sometime in the midnight but she knew that if she hurried she could get a bite to eat at the mess hall, they always had fruits a few pastries out for ‘Luna’s students’ as they were called for the late hours they kept. Not that The Princess of the night had students that she knew about.
She hustled across the school it was chilly out and the moon was full she thought about looking into Princess Luna’s crown next, it’s shouldn’t be too hard and if she wasn’t busy maybe even ask her herself, she had seen The Mare in the Moon here and there and she seemed friendly enough. She couldn’t be any worse than the Ice Queen…
Lydia stopped in mid trot, Professor Wanda wore a truly elegant crown. It was almost on par with that of Celestia herself. And she had never seen The Professor without it so it had to be significant somehow. Tiaras were a popular accessory among unicorns and other ponies even her friend Serendipity wore one. But Wanda wore a full blown crown, exotic gemstones and all. Lydia raced to the mess hall and back to the library as fast as she could.
Over the next few hours she scanned what she had already seen looking for anything to link that crown to anything. But nothing, no link to any royal family Unicorn or otherwise. No catalog of jewelry to trace the gemstones. It was all dead ends, she had given up for the most part and had fallen asleep.
“Good Morning My Little Bookworm!” Lydia shot out of her sleep to the bolstering sound of the morning Librarian. Tomberry was a larger Stallion and always a morning pony. “Ha! You shouldn't sleep on the books or that might become permanent.” She was confused at first and groggy from the jolt. Tomberry Held up a mirror for her to see herself and she laughed a little with him in how funny she looked with the imprint of the crown from the book she fell asleep on. She smiled and then it turned to dread as she looked at herself. She realized the book she fell asleep on was The Immortal Mare, and the crown shape she recognized as Wanda's.
Lydia shot up and sleepily staggered out of the library leaving Tomberry confused. So many things raced through Lydia’s head how was this even possible? Is Wanda related to the Immortal Mare? Is Wanda the Immortal Mare? Before Lydia knew it she was standing in front of Professor Wanda’s classroom. What was she thinking? It was the weekend there is no way…
“Hello, Lady Cobblestone.” Lydia frozen in place, behind her stood the Ice Queen herself Professor Wanda.
Lydia turned around to face the towering Professor. “Go...Good morning Professor.”
“Ah, and that’s something I haven’t laid eyes on in a very long time.” Lydia suddenly realized she was holding the copy of The Immortal Mare in her hooves. “Come in please, you seem to have something you wish to ask me.” The Professor opened the door and walked past the stunned Lydia. She knew she was trapped. If she ran, could she run her legs were shaking so bad, how far would she get?
“So what can I do for you today Lady Cobblestone?” Lydia was now in the lecture hall on the other side of Wanda’s desk.
“Crown, tell me about your crown please.” It took everything Lydia had to ask. Sweat poured down her face and into her eyes, it stung so bad but she was afraid to blink.
Wanda looked up to her brow. “So you want to know about this old thing? Well you can say it’s kind of like an heirloom.” She touched it lovingly and smiled as if remembering something. “I can tell by the look on your face you connected my crown to that book there. I always knew you were a smart filly. It’s been a long time since anypony even came close to passing my class. But instead of telling you about my crown let me show you something.” Wanda gathered a small amount of magic and a book appeared. It was a tome, much like The Immortal Mare but it was much thicker and she could see what looked like pictures sticking out of it. Wanda set it in Lydia’s lap.
Lydia slowly opened the book to find it was nothing more than just pictures page upon page of pictures of what seemed like random ponies. There seemed to be nothing linking them was this a family album? A history book? And then she saw it, in one of the pictures a clear shot of Canterlot being constructed and there in background a mare wearing Wanda’s crown. Lydia turned to another random page and scanned all the pictures too find in every one of them some pony wearing Wanda’s crown. But these pictures were so old, and nothing connected the ponies themselves other than the crown.
“It’s the crown The Immortal Mare is the crown…” Lydia’s world crumbled around her as she looked up to see Professor Wanda no longer at her desk.
“I always find a smart one.” Lydia froze in terror as she heard Wanda’s voice behind her and felt the cold heft of the crown being placed on her head.
****15 years later****
“Hello children, and good morning I’m your new teacher,” A floating piece of chalk began etching a name on the blackboard. She finished and her name spelt out large and and elegantly. She turned around and smiled warmly. The children all enthralled by the shimmering crown on the mares silver mane “Lady Cobblestone.”
