An Artifact Unbeknownst
Chapter One: An Artifact Unbeknownst
Another blissful dawn shines through the timber-framed houses of Ponyville. Denizens who naturally woke up early morning greeted one another terrifically in such friendly matter. The small shops would soon open with smiling faces in the hopes of making a decent amount of profit for the day. While at the Golden Oaks Library, a purple-coated pony would slowly open her eyes. She would yawn softly and pleasantly as the sun shown through the library’s small windows. Maneuvering out of her small bed and glancing at the still sleeping yet, ever so adorable Spike before hopping on her four feet and trotting off to a mirror near by. Her horn would glow brightly as a brush would sooth out her mane, then she would brush her bright teeth, gave a bright white smile to herself and galloped downstairs, leaving Spike alone to slumber peacefully.
Ponyville had soon picked up activity. Twilight would greet her local neighbors and friends before arriving at the eloquently built Carousel Boutique, where one of her best friends, the beautiful Rarity, resided. Twilight would knock casually on the door awaiting Rarity to answer and open. While she waited, she continued to see the other ponies continuing on their day. Never a sign of violence or aggravation or a sign of bitterness or anything really that can hinder the glorious day any pony always have. Twilight smiled at the young fillies playing jump rope over by a near tree outside the Boutique. Nothing could make this day possibly horrible.
“Who is it?” A question asked as eloquently as the very design of the Boutique was heard.
“It’s me, Twilight Sparkle. You wanted me to try on some new designs for you.”
Rarity opened the first flap of the door and quickly smiled at her. Rarity was obviously looking stunning as usual. Her clean white coat, carefully fashioned eyelashes, and mane looking as delicate and beautiful as always, Rarity was always prim to the bone.
“Darling, you’re looking as fabulous as usual! I simply can not wait for you to see yourself in these three new designs I made! They’re simply marvelous!” Rarity opened the two small doors allowing Twilight Sparkle to enter her beautiful Boutique.
“It’s really not a problem, Rarity. You know I love your dresses!” Twilight complimented, gazing around the main room.
“Yes, but, I think you’ll simply love them more than any pony else! According to fashion newsletters and, well, my own fortune telling, there is going to be a big boom in Lunar-like styles and who else knows better than in space than you, am I right?” Rarity’s tone was a mixture of nervousness, anxiousness, and pride. Twilight gave a friendly smile and nodded to her question.
“Great!!! I’ll go get them! Stay put!” and like that, Rarity trotted off to the next room. Twilight continued to wander her eyes around the Boutique. The various prototypes and drawings of soon-to-be-made fashion designs were overwhelming for her to gather and collect. Making her wonder how does Rarity keep up with all this? Just as she was going to take a look at her chest full of diamonds, a loud scream would sheer through the ears of Twilight. She hurried into the room where Rarity walked off to only to see her holding her chest leaning against a wall, eyes narrowed into the other room. Twilight took a small peak inside and gasped shockingly. Seems Opalescence, Rarity’s pet cat, unfortunately had an urge to rip up the various designs Rarity had placed for Twilight today.
“Opalescence! What. Have. You. Done?!?!” Rarity was infuriated; her benevolent innocent tone became almost a growl. Opal simply looked at her and shifted away, hissing at her fiercely.
“Opal! What urged you to do such a terrible… terrible thing?!?” Rarity pleaded, picking up a small piece of the ruin fabric. Tears began to slowly spawn in her beautiful eyes, but she realized Twilight was still in the room. She regained her composure and looked to her, sniffing in her nose.
“Um, well, um… Twilight, as you can see, Opal had…“she paused looking back at the atrocity laid out for her. She gulped, her eyes once again tearing up. “Opal had… decimated my beautiful dresses I worked ever so hard to make!!!” from that, she cried and wailed out a fountain of tears. Twilight slowly placed her hoof on Rarity’s shoulder and responded softly “It’s fine, Rarity! I seen your work and I know you’ll remake it… maybe even a better one!” Rarity looked up reluctantly, smiling as few tears ran down her cheeks.
“You’re right, Twilight. If I’m ever going to reach the deadline, I mustn’t waste it on weeping around for the lost of three. Maybe… maybe I can use ideas from those three to create a more elaborative and exquisite dress than ever before!” Her eyes uplifted as she stood on her hooves again and her chin held high. “Thank you, Twilight Sparkle, and sorry I wasted your time here… I guess Opal was just eager and needed something to scratch and play with. I knew I should have gotten her a new ball of yarn.” She giggled nervously, looking at her cat that is now sleeping. Twilight simply smiled once again. “I’ll leave you to it then, Rarity. Seems you have work to do and can’t be bothered.”
Twilight left the Boutique in a sigh. Hearing Rarity describe the dresses actually got her attention. She pondered the thought of the next extravagant dress would be, aimlessly wondering in Sugercube Corner. She gave a shrug and walked in seeing how she has extra time to spare. Inside would be the candy inspired design and decorations which would make any pony’s sweet tooth squeal with joy. Twilight pressed the bell to alert Mr. and Mrs. Cake, who seemed to be taking care of their twins at the moment.
“Hey-a, Twilight! What can I do for you today?” Mr. Cake asked in gleeful joy as Pound Cake fiddled Mr. Cake’s mane.
“Actually, I’m just here to see if Pinkie Pie is home. Where is she, anyway?” Twilight asked, giggling at Pound Cake. Mr. Cake shrugged and looked at Mrs. Cake.
“She didn’t actually say anything. She usually does but this morning she got up, took a few muffins and ran off.” Twilight nodded and waved to the busy parents as she walked outside, only to be spotted by the wild Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash swooped down on the group and looked at Twilight. “Hey, Twi! I was actually meaning to see ya’ today!” Her voice was brash and often usually cracked at some words. Her mane was as usually messy, her coat sky-blue as usual. Nothing ever really changes about Rainbow Dash. Twilight often wonders does she just get up in the morning and dash off without a care in the word on how she looks like. She was also intrigued at the fact Rainbow wanted to meet her today.
“I finished the sixth book of Daring-Do…!” She whispered in her ear to assure no pony else would eavesdrop.
“I thought I may stop by your place and drop it off since I don’t need it anymore!” Rainbow finished. Twilight giggled at the fact she whispered but nodded in response. She looked at her and suddenly something popped in her head.
“Oh, just give it to Spike if I’m not there, and by the way, have you seen Pinkie Pie lately? I wanted to stop by and just say ‘Hi’ before I return to my studies.”
“Hmmmm…” Rainbow pondered, rolling her eyes up to see if she remembers anything. She pointed her hoof at Twilight in a snap. “She’s with Derpy! I saw her and Derpy having some sort of picnic. Want me to say ‘Hi’ for you after my nap?”
Twilight giggled and shook her head. “No need. Just wanted to make sure she’s still around being Pinkie Pie. I did remember Mrs. Cake telling me about her taking a few muffins so I should have assumed better.”
Rainbow nodded and turned her body around. “Well, gotta’ perfect my moves and take my afternoon nap! Later!” Then she dashed off, leaving a feint blur of her rainbow behind her. Twilight smiled and trotted off back to her home. She opened the door and called ‘Spike’ out a few times to see if he would answer. The door to the other room would open with Spike walking out and Fluttershy hovering over him with a book across her chest. She greeted them both warmly as they greeted her back.
“What do you have there, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked delightedly enough to know Fluttershy is borrowing one of her books.
“Um, I hope you don’t mind, but, Angel wants me to make him a little scarf so he can, um, appeal better to the other bunnies around my Cottage.” Fluttershy’s voice was quiet, soft, and nervous… something Twilight is already aware of and understands.
“Well, why not ask Rarity to make him a little tiny scarf?”
“Oh, no… Rarity is far too busy with my simple requests… it’s fine… I-I can make it myself without me bugging her… so I hope you, um, don’t mind me borrowing this book. I mean, you want it back then that’s, um, alright with me…” Twilight giggled softly and responded “Go a head, Fluttershy. You know you can always borrow anything from here.”
Fluttershy gave her a small smile as she hovered out the door, thanking her in the process. Spike closed the door and looked at Twilight. “She was so nervous to ask me for the book it took about the entire morning so I couldn’t really clean or organize anything for you, Twi.”
Twilight nodded and smiled at Spike. “It’s okay. I have a ton of time to spare so I can help you do whatever you were doing today.”
“Well, I did find this one book before Fluttershy came in. Here, let me go get it.” Spike ran off to fetch the book he mentioned, and while he was in the other room Twilight used her magic to take down several books to reorganize. Spike came back in; tugging what seems to be the bookmark into the room. Twilight used her magic to lift the large and old book from Spike. He looked at her and shrugged, bewildered to the fact he has never really seen this book, and only found it in the basement. Twilight inhaled and blew the dust off the book, causing both of them to sneeze. The title was shown, but its writings were completely unfamiliar. Didn’t look at all familiar to ancient Equestrian dialect, and inside it was even more gibberish. Interestingly enough the book contained stale pictures of dragons, and what seemed to be Elves and indescribable demons, also an artifact of what it seems to be a necklace. Words can make sense underneath the picture. Titled ‘Dragon Soul,’ Twilight and Spike looked at each other and shrugged at the word.
“Spike, what you found is interesting. Maybe it’s an ancient Dragon book, even before Celestia’s time.” Twilight inquired.
“I don’t know… the necklace seems too small for fit around a dragon’s neck.”
Twilight looked closer and nodded in agreement. She continued to turn pages of the book, eventually showing a full page picture of a man frightening hood with and a large staff. Underneath the large image would only say ‘the Last Guardian’ and nothing more. What caught the attention of Twilight and Spike is that he was a pony, nor a dragon… or anything else they seen or read about! If it’s as if this picture is from another world! Twilight turned to the end of the book only to see something once again, something they can read. Despite the fact it is in their dialect, it was still illiterate. Twilight attempt to pronounce the strange word, but gave up half way there.
“Spike, what you found is completely bizarre. I don’t think even Princess Celestia knows about it.”
“Yeah, and I don’t know where to put it either! I don’t know what letter it begins with!” Twilight simply smiled and responded “Don’t worry about it. We’ll leave it here and discuss more about this with the other five. Maybe they can give insight to this strange foreign book.”
The day was slowly leaving as the citizens of Ponyville closed up their shops and closed their doors. Twilight, under candle light, couldn’t attempt to rest. She pondered furiously about the ancient illiterate book Spike founded and even more confused on why few of the pictures had words that were understandable. She continued to look at the book, seeing various pages of creatures she never seen before. Titles such as ‘Lord of the Night Elves, the Betrayer, the Spellweaver, the Destroyer, the Lich King’ and it goes on. It’s becoming so confusing to Twilight that she actually falls asleep on the open book. Her body wind blowing out the candle as the day comes to a close.
