Forgotten Legacy

I walked toward the palace throne room, a look of concern on my face. When I had returned home the last time I thought I wouldn’t have to answer any calls of Equestrian duty. Imagine my surprise when a burst of green fire appeared in the middle of my living room as Twilight and I had been enjoying a special moment. Friendship with Twilight had been stronger than the pull of duty. My lips still felt the warmth of hers when she pulled me into a kiss before I crossed, another whispered promise.

Come back to me, Sunset.

I met Cadence as I walked, coming from an adjoining corridor. She lowered her head slightly with a small smile. “Princess Sunset,” she said.

I sighed. “I doubt I’ll ever get used to the title,” I said. “How long did it take you?”

“A while,” she said. “You forgot your crown.”

I touched the top of my head, being careful around my horn. Ever since the ascension, anytime it manifested it was unusually sensitive. “I’m working up to being used to wearing it.”

She nodded in understanding as we entered the throne room and saw Twilight already there with the Two Sisters.

“Now that we are all here,” Celestia said as we all sat at the conference table. “Please, Twilight, explain what you saw.”

She proceeded to explain in full detail what she had summed up in her letter. The fact that someone could invade an Alicorn’s dreams was especially troubling to me, given the recent events. Sunshine and I had just started sleeping soundly again, greatly in part of the support of our friends.

Luna looked visibly troubled, her eyes glowing slightly as she turned her thoughts inward. “I can find no trace of a presence in your dreamscape, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, the glow dying. “If this was an induced dream, it was not placed while you were in my demesnes.”

Cadence frowned. “How could somepony plant a dream and not leave a trace for the Princess of Dreams to find?”

Celestia shook her head. “One thing that many do not realize is that we are not infallible,” she said. “There are ways to hide such things from us.”

“A letter,” I said quietly. A story about someone being poisoned by a letter from one of Sunshine’s crime dramas slid to the fore. “Have you received any unusual mail lately?”

Twilight frowned. “Not that I can think of,” she said, thinking. “Why would that matter?”

I lifted a blank piece of parchment, quill, and ink from the nearby clerk’s table and scribed out a quick diagram, infusing it with magic and rolled it up before passing it to Twilight. “Open that and read it,” I said, sitting back down.

She unrolled the scroll, and when she put it down, a bright amber aura surrounded her. “What was that supposed to do?” she said before blinking. “Why is everything yellow all of a sudden?”

“Spells held in scrolls can be hidden by the writing contained in them,” I said. “It’s been a common practice in some of the more restricted texts I remember reading when I was less, well,” I fluttered my wings. “Reformed.”

Cadence tapped her chin. “Cursed texts would hide the curse in the tempo of the text,” she mused. “The aura almost undetectable unless you knew the nature of the curse. We destroyed close to thirty of that type of thing when we were clearing out the Crystal Palace.”

Twilight nodded. “And then there are things like the Alicorn Amulet,” she said. “Harmless until used. It's possible I received a letter with a vision embedded in it.”

“Research the possibility upon the closure of this measure,” Celestia said. “Now, we must determine who it was that sent such a letter and if there are any further hidden effects.”

Luna stood and lit her horn, a teal aura covering Twilight. “Sunset Shimmer, if you would cancel out your glamor upon her,” she said as she closed her eyes, her mane flowing a little faster.

I reached out and canceled my spell, barely able to sense it past Luna’s overpowering mantic presence. Even though all five of us were Alicorns, the sheer power of the Two Sisters built over millennia dwarfed the rest of us.

“Luna is searching for the traces of the spell,” Cadence whispered to me. “Anything that would manifest as a dream she would be able to sense, despite how it may have been hidden. She can then help us to trace the magic source.”

“I am familiar with mantic trace spells,” I said with a slight grin. “I spent my time in the SFGU too, you know.”

The aura faded, and Luna stepped back.

“I am unable to find any additional spells in effect on Twilight,” she said. “And the traces of the message spell are too weak to distinguish. It may have been cast many days ago for this amount of mantic degradation.”

“Active spells do have a degradation rate,” Twilight said, pulling the inkwell and quill I had pilfered over to herself and started dashing out calculations on the scroll still resting before her. “If we can determine the ratio of decay and factor in the amount of mana that would be required to place it upon a scroll or letter, we can trace it to where it was sent from.”

“And a caster?” I asked.

“Not quite as conclusive as catching them glowing-horned,” she said. “But it gives us a good lead.”

“Could Chrysalis be behind this?” Cadence asked. “She’s still at large since the incident a year ago.”

“It does not feel like Changeling magic,” Luna said. “And she had sworn vengeance on Starlight Glimmer, so she would be the target, not Twilight.”

“How do you know?” Twilight asked. “I could have read the scroll by mistake if it was misfiled.”

I smiled. “Twilight, you have a poor grasp of villainy,” I said, earning a nod from Luna. “If she vowed vengeance on Starlight, then she wouldn’t change targets unless it would affect her as well. We tend to be single-minded that way.”

The princess nodded, realizing the logic behind it. “So what do we do now?” she asked.

Celestia looked at Cadence. “Return to the Crystal Empire, and confirm the defenses. The snowscape she described sounds much like the blizzard held back by the Crystal Heart.”

Cadence nodded and flew through one of the open skylights. The Princess of the Sun turned to her sister.

“I will begin to monitor the dreamers for any trace of this mantic signature,” she said without waiting for Celestia to speak. Her sister smiled with a nod.

“And you, Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer,” she said. “Trace the letter to its destination. That will be the key.”