The Stained Glass

by chris_25_luna

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Luna, Drama, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, King Sombra, Romance, Discord, Princess Celestia
Length: 4591

A big aspect of Equestrian history has been hidden in a hallway for thousands of years. NOw princess Twilight has to help the princesses get that piece of history back.

When you are thousands years old you have had a big complicated life. Secrets you wanted to hide deep in the shadows get revealed...
The alicorn sisters have tried to hide aspects of their past but Twilight Sparkle is not gonna let them. After all she is a princess too right? Doesn't she deserve to know?

Cover made by https://www.deviantart.com/shattered-gears

Published 2017-06-02 23:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-08-03 08:21:54 UTC

Chapter 1

"Discord! Have you seen a blue book, with bunnies on the cover?" fluttershy asked renoving every remaining book in her already small library. She seemed to be in a hurry which was not like her.

"Cures and medicines for pets and other creatures?" Discord replied appearing out of thin air right above Fluttershy's head.

"Yes, Discord, that's it where is it?" Fluttershy said filled with excitement... Well as excited as Fluttershy can be.

"It's in a safe place don't worry..."

Fluttershy raised her eyebrow. "Do you mind telling me where it is? Twilight told me that Owlicious is sick and I need a painkiller recipe from that book... May I have it please?"

"I am afraid I am not capable of that!" Discord said

"And why is that?" Fluttersy asked who was starting to lose her patience...

"You see when I said that it is in a safe place I meant it! " he replied patting his stomach.

Fluttershy's jaw drooped. "You ate it?"

"Oh yes of course I did. It was a delicious treat to my hungry tummy"

"DISCORD! RESTORE MY BOOK NOW...please."

Discord sighed. "Fine here is your precious book!" he snapped his fingers and restored the book. It reappeared on the self right next to a cooking book.

"Thank you!" Fluttershy said relieved. Now she could finally go and help poor little Owlicious.

"I will probably stay there for a few hours... Pinkie Pie said she wanted us to try her newest frosting recipes!" Fluttersy announced hoping that she would avoid his nagging. He would always complain if she was gone for long! This time though he decided to ignore her, he obviously had his own stuff in mind.

"Goodbye angel bunny, bye Discord take care!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When she arrived at the castle starlight glimmer opened the door for her.

"Hi Flutters" Starlight said addressing the pegasus with her nickname.

"Oh hello Starlight... Are the others here yet?"

"I am afraid not only Pinkie Pie is here... You know she wanted to prepare her 'presentation' " Starlight said making quotation marks with her hooves. "So she has locked herself in the kitchen... So... Until the others are here would you like a cup of tea?"

"Oh that would be lovely... But I think we should check on Owlicious first!" Fluttershy said kindly rejecting Starlight's offer.

"Oh okay she is upstairs on Twilight's library..."

"Wait... Where is Twilight? " Fluttershy asked while Starlight took her to the 1st level of the castle.

"She went to Canterlot Flutters didn't she tell you?"

"Again?"

"Yes dear I think she is doing some research in... The history of... Research... Or at least that's what she told me!"

"Darlings who are we to interfere with Twilight's research... Come on Pinkie is getting impatient... " Rarity said appearing behind of them!

"Sorry Rarity but we can't come just yet! We have to check on Owlicious! " Fluttershy apologised

"Don't worry we will catch up with you in a minute " Starlight added.

“So why do you want to see Twilight’s pet flutters?”
“What do you mean? Don’t you know? She is sick!” Fluttershy exclaimed. How could she not know she lives in the same house?!
“No she is not she was wondering around the garden like 5 minutes ago!”
“But Twilight told me that I had to come as soon as possible. Here look!” she said pulling a scroll from her bag!
Dear Fluttershy,
I need your help Owlicious is sick! Please come at the castle as soon as possible.
Twilight
“We will ask her when she comes back… It could be just Spike messin’ with his mail fire breath!” Starlight sighed. She had already received 4 prank letters.

“She left again?” Rainbow Dash shouted. “It’s the 4th time this month!”

“Calm down sugarcube you know how twilight can get with her research and her books!” Applejack said pulling Rainbow back to her throne… chair thingy.

“Why do you thing she keeps going to Canterlot?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t know… but I am gonna eat her cupcake!” pinkie pie said while munchin’ another cupcake.

“Girls relax…” Raity said “she probably has some really important princess duties”

“I thought she was doing research…” Starlight started but was interrupted by Rarity

“Oh please darling… research on the history of research… it is obvious that she lied! But we don’t need to worry, I suppose she will tell us when she returns…”

Princess Twilight sparkle arrived at Canterlot and set off to her old dorm. But while she was walking down the streets of the Equestrian capital a few ponies stopped her and bowed in front of her.

“Your highness” one of them said “I see you decided to visit our city again! It’s truly an honour to finally meet you in person! My name is Tulip Blossom and this is Glimmering and Fallen!”

The two other ponies bowed again when they heard their names. What was odd is that the unicorn who came by the name of fallen was wearing a long dress that covered her entire body. But twilight was in a hurry and didn’t even notice the other ponies. She rolled her eyes and said sounding as politely as she could “Nice to meet you all but I am in a hurry so if you don’t mind…”

“Of course come on everypony let’s go!” Tulip Blossom said and they walked away.

“She is so beautiful!” Glimmering exclaimed!

"Don't worry Glim! We will definately be seeing this beautiful alicorn again!" Tulip Blossom said and looked at Fallen. "Right Fallen?"

"We don't have another choice do we? Fallen said trotting happily to a bakery “When it’s time it will happen don’t worry! Now let’s go get some desserts for after the dinner!”

And when our small company of pony’s were buying their deserts a certain purple princess (purplelina purple of purpleon , just kidding!) was turning her library upside down looking for a certain book with hopefully the answer to her problem!

Chapter 2

Twilight was surrounded by a pile of books inside her old dorm. The magic of her horn was getting weaker and weaker... She had been searching for hours through every single one of her books but she couldn't find that one sprcific volume of Equestrian history she was looking for. She was a hundred percent sure that she saw it somewhere here... But where? She looked everywhere. On the history section, on the older volumes,on the equestria shelf... The book was nowhere to be found.

"Ugh! Where is it?" she shouted and her voice echoed across the room. "It can't be gone... It was right there when I left canterlot last time... Ugh... I'll find it on the Canterlot archives. I must get Spike here to help me organize everything again." her horn shot a powerful magical ray and everything got piled up in a corner.

She sighed dissapointed and stepped outside. "Canterlot archives." she thought to herself but her belly interrupted her. "Maybe I should have a snack first..." she said out loud and headed for the nearest restaurant.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Glimmering let the pastry down it's for Tulip Blossom..." Fallen said slapping his hoof away from the plate.
"Ow!" Glimmering Fountain frowned and started rubbing his hoof. "That hurt..."

"I am deeply sorry my dear friend but you simply must learn to control yourself... Hold on... Why are you giggling?" she said. The pegasus had his hoof over his mouth and was trying his hardest not to burst out into laughter

"Fallen... The language" he said and started laughing loudly. You see Fallen couldn't adapt to the modern ways of speaking and used some rather old-fashioned words to express herself. I mean who cals his pals dear friends nowadays! Anyway back to the story.

"I just keep forgetting Glim. It's difficult you know. I was trained to be a perfect member of the royal family and now I realize the imact it had on me. Just... Let ne get in the zone..." she took a deep breath and sighed. "Okay what are we gonna do now buddy?" she asked.

Glimmering put his hoof on his chin and said. "First of all we eat this delicious pastry."

"Yes... Wait... What? Glimmering no!" she shouted but it was too late the sneaky pegasus was already munching the delicious treat.

Fallen sighed. "You know Tulip is going to kill you right?"

"Yep but the pastry was delicious so it will be worth it." he smilled sheepishly.

"Really?" she said raising her eyebrow "So you wouldn't mind if I told her that you ate it?"

Glimmering's jaw dropped. "You wouldn't dare."

"Watch me!" Fallen said. "Hey Tulip! Glimmering ate your pastry!" she shouted.

Silence...

Silence...

...

...

...

...

...

"HE DID WHAT?" Tulip yelled bursting into the living room.

Glimmering shrieked and opened his wings to escape but it was too late... Tulip pulled his tail with her magic pulling him back on the couch.

Needless to say the whole neighborhood could hear Glimmering's screams of... The feeling you have when a crazy unicorn is levitating you and tickling you with 15 feathers all over your body!

Chapter 3

The train to Canterlot just left Ponyville. The 6 friends were heading to the castle to help out with the preparations and to keep the town safe.

Starlight kept reading and re-reading Twilight’s letter as if she were to figure out what had happened by just staring at it.

"Uh... You know the paper is not gonna talk right?" Rainbow asked raising her eyebrow.

Starlight sighed. "I am just worried! We were not to leave until the day after tomorrow and go directly to the Gala. What has happened and we had to rush to get to Canterlot?"

"Relax sugarcube. As soon as we get to the castle, I am sure Twilight will explain everything." Applejack assured her.

Pinkie Pie jumped to the seat next to Starlight and said "But how cool would it be if the paper actually did talk?" she lifted a sandwich "Just like this sandwich!"

"Huh?" Fluttershy raised her eyebrow and looked at the sandwich. It was an ordinary daisy sandwich and she was sure that sandwiches didn't talk. "Um... Pinkie Pie... I don't think that..." she tried to say before getting interupted by Pinkie who made the sandwich a puppet and let out a muffled voice. "Woah there miss 'sandwiches don't talk' check your facts. I am talking alright." the sandwich 'said' getting shoved in Fluttershy's face who shunk in her seat.

"S-Sorry sir... I didn't mean to offend you." she squeaked.

"Pinkie Pie!" Applejack shouted pulling her back in her seat. Her look fell on Starlight who had her hoof on her chin and looked like she was having some crazy idea.
"Oh shoot you have that face on again!" she said.

"What face?" Starlight asked confused.

"The I-am-about-to-cast-a-super-dangerous-spell-not-minding-the-consequences face."

Starlight's jaw dropped. Applejack had just read her mind!

"I-I... Well yes I did have an idea... A... Combination of spells that if used with perfect concentration the paper might actually 'talk'."

"Oh really darling. I don't think we need another voice just mumbling random nonsense. I am already staring to get a headache." Rarity complained putting her hoof over her forehead.

"No! Rarity you misunderstood. I thought of combining a time spell with a voice enhancing spell that will allow the paper to tell us what twilight was saying when she was writing the paper!" Starlight said excited.

"But... Why cast a acomplicated spell when you can just wait a few hours to find out?" Fluttershy asked.

"Well silly. Starlight is obviously really stressed, also she needs time preparing a plan if something has gone really really really really wrong!" Pinkie Pie said in one breath.

"What she said!" Starlight said and started concentrating. Her horn started working and her aura whizzled. The other five got off their seats and duck on the floor hoping to avoid damage if the spell went totaly wrong.

Suddenly Pinkie Pie stood up and ran to everypony on the wagon telling them something. And then she just stood there watching as everypony trotted happily outside.

Only when the last pony got out of the wagon did she return to her position on the floor.

Rainbow Dash shot a glance at Pinkie Pie and asked in a low voice.

"Why did you get everyone out?"

"We didn't want anypony to get harmed did we?"

"That's right!" Applejack added "Also I don't think they would be happy to know whatever is wrong with Twilight in Canterlot. It could be anything and it's better that we don't cause panic." she whisped.

Pinkie nodded. "I told everyone that there was a pony handing out free cupcakes just a few wagons away!"

"But there isn't..." rainbow whispered.

Pinkie laughed "Of course there is! I saw it to the way here! There was a pony with a big stack of donuts and he was just begging another mare to get one!"

The others not wanting to disturb Starlight any further just ignored Pinkie's answer.

Little did they know that because of Pinkie Pie this colt became rich for his donut recipe after a big bunch of ponies trying and loving his 'free samples', that he begged his marefriend to try but she denied.

Author's Note

Hey everypony! Yeah I know I am months late but still... I got ya a new chapter!

I will try to keep up with the weekly updates I promise!

Now about the chapter! Do you think Starlight's spell will fail and ka-boom or will it work and reveal some worrying stuff?

Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Until the next chapter!
Chris

Chapter 4

Starlight's aura was setting down. She was panting as she stared at the scroll waiting nervously to see if it worked. So did the others, they had gathered up around it and were just staring at it.

Then after a few seconds the paper started glowing and it formed a face.

Starlight's eyes widened and beamed like a foal in front of candy. "It worked!" she exclaimed.

"Spike... You will have to send a letter to your friends in Ponyville." said the voice coming from the scroll

"Wait is that princess Celestia?" Pinkie Pie asked confused.

"Shhhh!" the others mares whistled.

"Twilight... I suppose it was about time you knew. Equestrian history is so big and goes back really far."

"But this is a part of our past that you need to know and seeing the information you have gathered you might be able to help us find her..." Princess Luna's voice was now speaking.

"Her who? You are talking about the last alicorn right? It was you, Princess Celestia, Discord, Sombra and her... Another alicorn... So what happened to her?" Twilight finally asked before the paper went back to its original form.

"Don't stop there!" Pinkie cried dramatically.

They were all left dumbfounded. What they heard had certainly confused them even more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Why do you two fight so much all the time?" Fallen asked Glimmering as they were sitting on a bench at the "Store Avenue". Tulip was across the street at her flower shop closing up for the day.

"We don't actually fight. It's more like a thing siblings do. You know for fun!" Glimmering said taking a bite from his Hayburger. "You shouldn't worry that much. I play pranks on her she takes 'revenge' and then after a while we look back and laugh."

Fallen turned her head towards the sky "Look back and laugh..." she repeated. "That sounds familiar."

"Do you miss him?" Glimmering asked offering her a french fry from the little container next to him.

She took one with her magic and nodded. "Yeah... A lot... We had so much fun together all these years... You could say we were like siblings. However we almost never fought like you two!" she said and ate the potato. "Anyway..." She said in an attempt to change the subject. "Are you coming with us to get our outfits for the Gala or not? You know you need a new suit!"

Glimmering rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. "Ugh...Fineeeee. If it means that you will stop nagging.

"Yes!" Fallen exclaimed punching the air with her hoof. "Now give me another potato please!" she said pointing to the container. "What's taking Tulip so long?" she asked munching on her food.

"I don't know... She is probably messing with her seeds again. Let's not interupt her. She will remember that we are waiting for her eventually."

For the next few minutes the two ponies were eating in silence waiting for Tulip to finish her work.

"Hey... I want to ask you something..." Glimmering said breaking the silence. "But it might sound a bit rude..."

She looked at him and gave him an encouraging smile. "Ask away I don't bite!"

"You said that you and Night Sky did not fight a lot. So when you did...Why did you fight? You seemed to be super close."

Fallen's smile immediately turned into a frown and Glimmering regretted asking. He tried to tell her that she didn't have to answer if she didn't feel like it. But she interupted him.

"No,no... It's okay. Afterall it's about time that I told someone and who better than my best friend, right?"

Glimmering beamed "Yay! Storytime!"

She took a deep breath to calm herself and started telling her story. "Just like you said Night Sky and I were really close and fights between us except from rare were actually heartbreaking. And at first we were fine. The real trouble started from the day Luna's pearl dissapeared from my necklace. That meant that my time there was limited. It didn't take long for him to find out and I am preety sure that he was more afraid of me leaving, than I was. He started being overprotective and didn't talk to other ponies that much.

One day he decided to talk to me... When I saw him I gasped in shock. His features looked overtired his mane messy. It looked like he hadn't slept but that wasn't it... Lack of magic... This easily happens to his kind in times of extreme sadness and worry. I tried to hug him and magic him back to normal but he refused to. I knew why he was here and what he wanted to talk about. So I tried to explain to him once again that the choice was not mine to make. And then my necklace chose the worst time to interrupt us. Discord's pearl dissapeared in front of his eyes."

"Your necklace has the worst timing ever!" Glimmering exclaimed.

She sighed and turned her sad gaze to the ground. "I know... So we started yelling at each other. In fact we made so much noise that my neighbor bursted in to see what was going on. When we saw her we stopped immediately and I felt so ashamed. Then when I turned to look at him he had already spread his wings and flew out of the house."

"And then what happened?" Tulip asked who had joined them a few minutes ago.

"At first I froze for a few seconds but Neon, my neighbor slapped me out of it and shouted that I should follow him. And so I did. I was after him for a few minutes but he had always been faster than me so after a while I lost him. I didn't lose hope though. So I looked everywhere. Every possible place he might be hiding. It took me hours but alas I didn't find him. My wings were aching and I knew that I had to stop... Afterall if he didn't want me to find him he could find a thousand places to hide. I landed and headed towards my sanctuary, a cave at the end of the town. Thankfully I was close so I didn't have to walk too much.

When I finally got there I collapsed to the ground and cried to my heart's consent. I was in pain both physically and emotionally and worst of all I was afraid... My life there would soon be over and I had no choice but to accept my fate and return to Equestria. Losing him forever." she said tears streaming down her cheeks. Suddenly she felt two hooves wrapped around her neck. Tulip was hugging her for comfort. Glimmering upon seeing this opened his wings and closed the two mares in a big group hug.

"So did you ever find out where he was hiding?" Glimmering asked curiously.

Fallen pulled away and let out a little giggle. "Yes... Yes I did... Or rather he found me..."

"What do you mean?" Tulip asked confused.

"Well... That sneaky pony apart from being faster than me also was smarter than me. So he used my whole logic against me. It was only reasonable that I would look firts on places where I thought he might be hiding. So he turned my logic upside down and went to the place I would go if I wanted to hide. So I suppose you can imagine how surprised I was when I felt a wing hugging me close. I was still shaking and couldn't seem to stop but he didn't mind. He let me relax and then pushed my mane out of my face. I looked at him and saw that he was smiling at me. How could he be smiling at a time like that? He left my house in a terrible state and now he was there comforting me? Why? Why did I deserve him? Because I love you and you love me, he said reading my mind. I blushed and hid my face on his neck. That bat pony could make me go crazy..." she concluded smiling and blushing. She turned to her friends who were smiling to her as well, Tulip was the first to jump to her hooves and grabbed Fallen's hoof.

"You know, I for one don't think that you have lost him. I am preety sure that you will meet again! Now come on guys we have to go shopping. Glim are you coming?" she asked.

"Aye, Aye captain the other two said and laughed taking flight. Little did they know that Tulip was actually right.

Chapter 5

Spike was waiting at the train station for the girls to arrive. Twilight had asked him to guide them through the tasks they needed to take care of once they got there. He was accompanied by a checklist of course.

This time however the checklist was given to him by Celestia, who wanted to ensure that everything would run smoothly up until the Gala.

A distant sound echoed and Spike jumped to his feet. The train was coming towards the station and he was really nervous. Afterall he was worried about the whole alicorn situation the princesses were talking about.

What he didn’t know was that the 6 mares in the train had heard the exact same thing and were equally worried.

“What is this place? Where are we?” Twilight asked squinting her eyes trying to adjust to the darkness around.

Luna ignited her horn lightening up the room. The air was moist and if you concetrated hard enough you could hear the sound of water flowing nearby.

“We are underneath the castle, a restricted area that only we can access.” Celestia said also igniting her horn to provide light.

Twilight looked around and saw that they were standing in front of a door. She hesitated for a moment but her curiosity overtook her so she took a few steps forward to take a closer look.

“In here I have kept every record regarding her... well not only her but all the Guardians of Harmony. This room has an entire part of history that has been lost in time!” Celestia said and Twilight’s eyes shone.

“Do you mean books? Ancient books that no one has ever read in ages?” Twilight asked squealing in excitement.

“Not just books, Twilight” Luna replied “Relics, portraits and of course their respective Stained Glass collection.”

Celestia looked at Twilight. Her excitement and eagerness were actually a bit worrying in her eyes. She did hope that if Twilight found out the truth she would be able to help her in finding Fallen... but what if Fallen had changed after all these years? She had been hesitant on revealing the truth fearing that Twilight would look down on her if she found out about all the mistakes she had made. She wasn’t naive and she wasn’t her loyal little student who believed everything she said. Would she change after finding out everything?

No that’s nonsense! Afterall friends forgive each other for their mistakes right? Twilight would... But what if she didn’t?

Princess Luna stepped forward and her magic aura sparkled across the room as she cast a spell to open the door. A bright light escaped from inside making them squint their eyes.

Once the door was fully opened Twilight’s eyes widened. In front of her was lying a beautiful corridor. Crystals were illuminating sharing their chilly cyan light. The sound of water was louder now since small waterfalls were situated beside the stained glass windows that decorated the entire hallway.

Celestia and Luna walked in with Twilight following behind, she was still a bit confused on what was going on. Not only that but since she didn’t know anything she felt completely unprepared. She did her best to hide it from Celestia and Luna however, it was obvious that they would need her help with everything and she wanted to inspire strength and courage not weakness and fear.

Lost between her thoughts and admiring the room Twilight accidentally bumped on Princess Celestia.

“Oh princess, I am so sorry I got... distracted by the view.” she said and gave a nervous chuckle.

“Really pretty huh?” Luna said breaking the awkward silence. “I made the blueprints and Celestia dusted them off sometime during my banishment. I never thought she would actually make a room out of it!”

“Wait, you designed this? I didn’t know you liked architecture!” Twilight asked raising her eyebrow.

“Why is it so weird to everyone that I have hobbies? Just like you enjoy reading books and Celestia likes making pancakes I like designing spaces. It’s not that weird really.” she laughed.

“Now, now. You are getting off topic. We must get through this soon. The Gala needs its princesses and we don’t have much time. Twilight look around and tell us if you need any help with anything. The bookshelves are over there all the stained glasses have inscriptions underneath. You should be able to find everything you need.”

“Right” Twilight said and trotted towards the bookshelves when something caught her attention. One of the stained glasses made her jaw drop. She walked closer and read the inscription out loud.

“The Guardians of harmony, Celestia, Luna, Fallen Star, Discord, Sombra.” She looked at the image of Fallen Star. A graceful alicorn with purple fur, her mane and tail were flowing gently and the colour was alternating between blue, pink and cyan. On her flank was laying her cutie mark a fallen star.

“Twilight? What is it?” Celestia asked seeing the worried expression on her face.

“It’s Fallen Star... she looks...”

“Pretty? Happy?” Luna tried to guess taking a look at the image.

“No...” Twilight hesitated “Familiar...”

“What?”