Canterlot was never a city to be still. Even in the night, colts and mares enjoyed the refreshing and beautiful night sky of Equestria, reveling in all its worth and enjoying the stars that their princess had set out for them. Even after a thousand years of the same constellations, the stars still held mystery and beauty for many ponies to enjoy at night.
As the colts and mares wandered about at night enjoying the darkness, one lone figure sat on her tall balcony, staring up at the stars, watching four particularly bright stars converge upon the bright moon.
Although to a normal pony, these stars would have caused no alarm, to this one Princess, who had been tracking the stars for nearly a thousand years, the movements of the stars were a great distress.
Through years of observations, the stars were converging closer and closer to the moon, meaning the prophecies were coming to light.
"The stars will aid in her escape..." Celestia whispered quietly to herself.
Too long had she been delaying this moment. She dropped her head in shame and regret as a thousand years ago, she had chosen the decision to banish her sister, rather than try to help her.
At the time, it seemed like the best choice. The Lunar Legions and the Solar Guard had ravaged each other, with losses mounting in the tens of thousands. The blood of ponies spilt all over the princess' hands.
Even then, the sky thundered as they had fought, hoof to hoof, spell to spell, a duel of epic magnitudes and magnificent powers.
Magnificent... if only it weren't for the reason behind it. Celestia had been desperate, and like a beast backed into a corner, she unleashed the most powerful force in the universe--the Elements of Harmony.
If only it hadn't gone that way. Surely she could have reasoned with Luna.
"No, there was nothing that could have been done." Celestia thought as she steeled her resolve. To prepare for the second arrival of Nightmare moon, she had sent her one and only faithful student to Ponyville.
It was the perfect scene. The old Elements of Harmony were kept nearby, and under the guise of having to organize an entire event, Celestia was sure that Twilight would make many friends--hopefully friends capable of using the Elements of Harmony to their full power to completely destroy Nightmare Moon.
In the back of the tower, Philomena sat on her perch, with her head tucked inside her wings.
It had been many years since she joined Celestia as a companion and as a friend. She could even remember of back when Celestia and Luna were fillies, playing around in the sun and enjoying foalhood as any filly should have.
Many years. Many years indeed had passed. Ages came and went, kingdoms rose and fell, and in the end, Equestria had claimed its own land with the two princesses as its rulers.
Due to the rebirthing cycle of phoenixes, it was difficult to tell their age. As a matter of a fact, when Philomena first met Celestia, she had already been full grown and lived many lifetimes prior to that.
However, as she had befriended Celestia, Philomena became Celestia's confidant. Even though Celestia didn't expect the phoenix to ever reply, the phoenix had been a steadfast cornerstone of Celestia's life.
Philomena had heard of Celestia's troubles with Luna, eventually mounting to the coming of Nightmare Moon. She had seen what began as banter escalate to all out violence between the sisters.
However, as the Warden, she could do nothing.
As the Warden of Phoenixes, Philomena could only wait for the Chosen One to arrive.
The chosen one.
It had been a long time since Philomena had thought about that. Back when Philomena was but a chick, her mother--at the time, the Warden, had warned her of the coming of the Chosen One, as her Mother's mother had done before that.
The Chosen One would bring the Phoenixes to glory, bathing the world in light and glory, and ultimately unifying all races under one banner to forge a better world.
At least... That's what they told her.
Many millennia had passed since the foretelling of events had occurred, so much that even the oldest phoenix had definitely forgotten the prophecy.
However, the Warden was tasked specifically with guiding the Chosen One in the ways of leadership and glory, of power and wisdom, and to proclaim their authority over all living beings.
At first, Philomena had thought that would be Celestia. As the prophecy stated, the Chosen One would be a pony that had been given absolute control over fire, to forge the world into a new age.
While the prophecy had been relatively loose about the powers of the Chosen One, Philomena had chosen to support Celestia, given her powers over the sun. After all, what closer being was to fire than the sun?
However, that time had long past, and Philomena had realized that Celestia had power of only the sun. Even with her strong conviction to drive the world to become a better place for "her" little ponies, Celestia had no interest in unifying the races and making the world a better place for everyone.
The chosen one... was still to come.
Lost in her thoughts, Philomena almost missed a tug on her heart, a feeling that she had never felt before.
Perking up from her thoughts, she looked around curiously and tried to discern the source of the disturbance. It had come from far away, towards the direction that Celestia had been looking at.
Taking flight, Philomena quickly teleported to the disturbance and was met with loud noises all around.
Panicking, she took to the ceiling to discern where exact ally she had gotten herself to. Ponies were dancing and enjoying themselves with drink and food.
"Ah... a Party then." Philomena thought to herself as she settled down on a particularly high bookcase to watch the events occur in the party. There must have been a reason why she had felt this place was important.
She then saw from the corner of her eye, Twilight Sparkle. While Twilight had not been with Celestia for long, given her age, Philomena had sensed great potential in the purple haired unicorn. However, it was nothing special.
Philomena had seen ponies with greater potential in her long life span--ponies that would become great in their own right, but nothing big enough to be considered an action of the "Chosen One".
Sitting on a tall book case, she looked on closely as Twilight mingled with many ponies. This alone was an odd as the avian had known Twilight to be relatively recluse during her time under Celestia's tutelage.
As the purple haired unicorn mingled amount, Philomena started ruffling her feathers. Why was she here? What was so important about this gathering?
Suddenly, she felt it, her gaze drew to Twilight just as the unicorn was drinking hot sauce. The purple unicorn's face quickly became red as she leapt into the air and momentarily transformed into a white unicorn with a flaming mane, spitting fire.
"By Faust!", Philomena thought to herself. This was it! Twilight was the Chosen One!
While the other ponies simply laughed off the event-- treating it as perhaps an illusion or perhaps simply a joke, Philomena saw this as something completely different.
The flames belted by the purple unicorn had been that of phoenix fire, capable of performing long distance travels and melting even the strongest of steels. It had the destructive capabilities to incinerate any biological life form, but at the same time, the fire had the healing capabilities to cure any wound or disease.
Never before had Philomena seen such a display of the fire--from a unicorn none the less! That alone was preposterous!
Twilight Sparkle had to be the chosen one--destined to lead the world to greatness, and as the Warden, Philomena would be there to guide and teach the purple unicorn how to become who she was truly destined to be.
Sneaking up the stairs after the purple unicorn, Philomena sat on the bed stand, looking expectantly at Twilight as she ascended the stairs.
"Oh! Philomena! What are you doing here?", Twilight exclaimed. She had met the phoenix several times in the past, but never managed to interact with the avian much before being distracted with books and studies.
The phoenix cocked her head at the unicorn, but chose to stand on the bed stand and watch expectantly.
"You wouldn't believe the day I've had! First, I found out that the Mare in the Moon is going to be released this very night! The princess would not listen to me, however, and sent me on this CRAZY mission to make friends!", Twilight babbled on and on about her day and all the misgivings she had to go through, unable to do research on the Mare in the Moon problem.
"Ah... what am I doing. You can't even talk back to me.", Twilight sighed as she closed the blinds and tried to get some sleep.
If her calculations were correct, something big was going to happen tonight and she wanted to be well rested in order to confront the problems.
"The first trials are coming... I hope you are ready, Chosen one", thought Philomena as she watched the purple unicorn toss about in bed trying to get some sleep.
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Hi Everyone!
This was just an idea bouncing around in my head, begging to be written... Let's see how it flies shall we?
Cheers,
Monaki
