A Princess' Steed

Chapter One

Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Chris Silverhoof

“Concentrate. Relax. There is no rush to be had when it comes to magic.”

Twilight screwed up her face, eyes narrowing. Her horn shot fuchsia sparks as she fought to contain the magic as Celestia stood at a safe distance, her rainbow mane and tail waving gently with the undulating pulse of magic that kept them forever in motion. The ceiling of the room rose in a dome above them, the walls perfectly curved and smooth down to where they melded with the delicately patterned tiled floor. There were no windows to connect the two alicorns with the outside world, although the room was large enough for them to stretch their wings for a quick flying lap of the room if they so pleased.

While the mentor and the student worked diligently, another alicorn lay on a cushion in the corner, her front hooves crossed over one another. With a coat as black as the darkest night, she seemed to have been born from the night sky herself with her silvery mane and tail cascading finely down her neck and haunches. Her fine muzzle was bowed towards a scroll, the pile of read tomes growing at her side. Her wings she kept furled in close to her body, almost as if she was afraid to spread them wide and take up a greater amount of space. But it was hardly as if she was trying to be unobtrusive.

“Perhaps I could show you a spell from my travels that would assist, Twilight,” Wilda suggested, though the slight quirk to her lips did not radiate sincerity. “I'm sure there is something in my tomes that would allow this spell to go off without a hitch.”

“I can't do it,” Twilight growled, slamming a hoof into the tiles. “It's simply impossible. Celestia, I'm not advanced enough for this kind of alicorn magic. We should have waited to try this spell.”

Celestia shook her head slowly, her horn aglow as she carefully put the broken tiles to rights again and repaired the hindquarters of Starswirl the Bearded, forever immortalised in the tiling of his private spell chamber. Reinforced so that misfired spells would not go out of bounds or affect the wider world of Equestria, it had been a godsend for the inquisitive unicorn on multiple occasions.

“You have the strength, Twilight,” Celestia said gently, resisting the urge to nuzzle her student's flank while under the eagle eye of Wilda. “You do not have to doubt yourself when learning. We all grow at our own pace.”
Rolling her eyes, Twilight's horn crackled.

“Be that as it may, I am lacking the knowledge to do what you have asked of me.”

Celestia could have sighed and smacked her upside the head with her horn, but the alicorn held herself back. Twilight hadn't been an alicorn for all that long – not in the grand scheme of time and Equestria – and it was only to be expected that she still doubted herself. Why, she had a natural ability in magic, for sure, but it seemed that almost all of their heroics had involved utilising magic within Equestria already, which was, regardless, no easy feat at the best of times. She doubted that even she would struggle to re-learn just how to wield the Elements of Harmony if the tree ever deemed it fit to relinquish its need for them ever again. No, many tasks had fallen to Twilight and her friends, all due to their innate skill in wielding strange magic through the bonds of friendship.

But Twilight had to believe in her ability too.

“Again, Twilight. Once more and we shall call it a day for now. There is no sense to be had in exhausting yourself.”

“There is nothing wrong with my energy levels, princess.”

Despite her quick words, Twilight drew herself up, the pony spreading her wings as she drew on her magic to try again. It was not a simple spell, but one that required her complete and utter concentration. Building up the store of magic, sparks poured from her horn and she growled, struggling to contain it as her eyes lit up with pure, alicorn magic, right to the point where it was ready to be unleashed. Celestia held her breath.

“Don't you think –”

Wilda didn't get the chance to finish her sentence. Twilight's head whipped around and the spell exploded, flying skywards into the roof of the dome. It shattered in a shower of sparks that fizzled and crackled with raw magical energy, a deadly rain spattering down upon their unprotected heads. Celestia barely threw up a shield in time, covering the three alicorns, and gasped as tendrils of magic zigzagged wildly through the dome, seeking out what, exactly, she could not tell.

The abruptly unleashed magic understood its purpose, however, even if they did not. Twilight shrieked and ducked needlessly out of the way as blue streaks of light shot out from the walls, converging in the centre of the room above their own little protective shield. Apprehensively, Celestia backed away, her wings mantled above her back as if she was prepared to take flight and face an, as yet, unknown foe at any time. The aged alicorn lifted her chin defiantly, drawing power to her horn as the lights spiralled into a tendril, increasing their speed with every second that passed. Any accomplished magic user could recognise a portal when they saw one. What only remained to be seen was what would emerge through it.

Twilight darted to her side as Wilda clenched her teeth, backing up against the wall until her tail pressed into the side of the dome. But they had no time to mind her as the portal opened.

In another world, a young man lined up to kick a football at an empty goal, his foot swinging back in a slow arc. He knew he wouldn't be at the school for very much longer, coming up to the time where he was looking ahead to the last step in his education: university. Oh, yes, change was well and truly approaching over the horizon and he smiled, satisfied in the knowledge that he'd worked hard for every last bit of it. He welcomed the change. Going forward, he vowed to make all of his change good. For he finally had a hand in his life.

He just never expected to be ripped from the world he knew and thrust into another.

The young man launched himself at the ball and then, suddenly, his world was no more. Multi-coloured lights flashed across his vision and he tried to rub his eyes – had he been struck? Yet there seemed to be something holding his hands down, all sensation lost from his body. He panicked and tried to thrash to no avail, only able to stare on in horror as something indiscernible reached for him – a mass of twisting purple light that seemed to dip in and out of itself in the form of tendrils, moving so swiftly that it was impossible to tell where one line began and the other ended. His jaw shook, clamped shut against his will.

He wasn't even able to scream as Twilight's magic dragged him into the portal, leaving his football sinking into the back of the goal, as neat and handy a shot as he would ever have liked.

And then his old life was no more. Magic swept him along on a river speeding onwards to a source far, far away, forcing him to become what he would need to be, his human form no longer adequate for the life he had led.

Twisting and turning, tumbling head over heels through the vortex, magic from a world that he could not even begin to comprehend reformed his body, stretching out his limbs and repositioning his spine. It should have hurt – he could even see his fingers pressing together, reforming into something hard and solid! – but all the transformation brought was a warm, tingling sensation that trickled down his spine as if he was standing under a pleasantly warm shower. His hands grew hard and unyielding, a grey-black surface covering them completely like a shell. If he'd been a little more rural or perhaps even interested in horses, he would have recognised them as hooves.

A tail stretched out behind him, hair whipping back and forth from an unseen wind, and his neck stretched out as his face bulged, elongating into a muzzle. His eyes moved to the sides of his head, leaving a blind spot in front of his face, and he burst out in a whinny as his new legs flailed, searching for purchase that they could not find.

Twilight gasped and readied her magic as the portal pulsed, a shimmering shape rapidly taking form through its glowing, dancing rays; Celestia flared out her wings as if she could shield her charges from whatever was coming, for nothing could have possibly prepared them for the true result of the misfired spell. The new pony spun and spun and spun, entirely at the whim of the portal and the path he'd been forced onto.

A grey pony shot out through the other side of the portal in the spell chamber and collapsed on the floor, legs trembling too badly for him to even consider holding his body up with them. Hooves skittered and he whinnied, eyes bulging and nostrils flared with a drop of blood trickling forth where a vein had burst. The metallic scent of blood flooded his senses and, on his side, he scrambled to get to his feet, finding little to no purchase, as the smooth tiles would not quite allow him to grip as he needed to. With the whites of his eyes showing in a dangerous ring around the irises, the grey pony squealed and half-kicked out, hurling his body across the room.

“Halt!”

Twilight stepped forward, forcing the shield aside as Celestia warily allowed her to take charge of what her spell had produced. In the moment of crisis, the alicorn held her head high, wings spread as if to make herself look larger than she actually was. The grey pony tried to spin, but Twilight caught him with her magic, holding him slightly off the floor in as upright a position for any normal pony as possible, all four hooves pointing down.

“Who goes there?”

Celestia would have smiled at another time to hear her old student mimic her language so precisely. It was good to know she'd been paying exceptionally close attention all that time ago.

“Who are you?” Twilight probed when the pony, shaking like a leaf, tried to back up, held in place by her magic. “How have you come here? I mean, I know how you've come here, but...how? Where are you from?”

He shook his head, teeth chattering. Twilight sighed.

“Who are you?” She tried again, adopting a gentler tone. “What happened to you...” She looked him over, her lower jaw falling just a little bit slack. “You look like you've been dragged through Tartarus and back. Does your mane always stick up like that?”

Celestia shot her a look and Twilight backed up, holding the faintest glimmer of magic in her horn on the off-chance it was needed. The grey pony whimpered, eyes flicking back and forth from pony to pony, the rest of his body frozen in place.

“Celestia, it's hopeless. Look at him. He's not going to say anything while he's petrified. I could let go of him and I don't think he'd even be able to run away.”

The larger alicorn hesitated, one hoof raised. Twilight, more confidently stepped up to take charge of the situation. Celestia exhaled softly. Her student really had grown in her time with her friends. Sending her away to Ponyville all that time ago had been the best thing, after all.

It was a pity that she couldn’t say the same for the alicorn who was yet to ascend to Twilight’s level of princesshood.

“I say we can get a little more forceful with him,” Wilda suggested, trotting up to Twilight's side. “You're too gentle, Twilight. I could get him to talk.”

“No!” Celestia said, too sharply. “Call the guards. Take him to one of the holding chambers – one of the ones bolstered by magic, please. We will find out just what he is and who he is...” She shook her head. “And what he is doing here. Please, Twilight, take him away with the guards.”

Bobbing her muzzle sharply, Twilight raced from the chamber, towing the floating pony after her. He tried to whinny, but she’d clamped his jaw shut, at least until she set him on his hooves again on the other side of the wall, skittering and scrambling to make use of his new legs. Helpfully, she clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and assisted him with the faintest scrap of her magic, holding him up so that he could find his balance once again. The door swung closed after the peculiar duo with a decisive snap of the lock.

Celestia stared after them, her mind awhirl. The grey pony... He had not just been a pony. There had been something different about him. Leggier than a normal pony, it was almost as if he was the size of one of the created alicorns, yet there was something different about the way his body was put together, his chest and legs more defined. She sighed, wings drooping. She’d have to have a better look at him, but the differences did not bode well for him. Something in his demeanour, however, told her that he was not a threat. She couldn’t have known it for certain, yet instinct screamed that such a scared pony couldn’t possibly have done anything to cause her or anyone else harm.

Call it alicorn intuition.

“Celestia?” Wilda ventured, joining the princess at her side as she stared at the closed door. “I wonder if now may be a good time to speak about the little issue concerning my...ah...studies, shall we say.”

Celestia blinked, looking at her as if she'd forgotten the other alicorn was there at all.

“Studies? You are conducting your own studies, Wilda, as you requested.”

The mare shook her head, mare ruffling up as if stroked by an unseen breeze.

“My cousin has shown exemplary skill with levitation and my family would be honoured if you fast tracked her into magic school or even took her on as your own student –”

“That simply will not be possible.”

Celestia cut across the younger alicorn, her gaze steely.

“Wilda, you are aware of the circumstances surrounding your cousin, the little filly Nightshade Drop. We simply cannot have a student behaving in such a manner at the school - you know how she harassed the other fillies and colts. And,” she added, continuing in a gentler tone than the one she'd been using, “I am sorry, but she did not pass the entrance exam. This skill you spoke of simply did not manifest when called on.”

Wilda's eyes darkened and she lifted one front hoof as if to paw at the tiles, catching herself before completing the motion. She lowered her head, directing her horn at her princess' and mentor's breast.

“She was framed,” Wilda snapped, horn shooting off sparks. “You know this! Everyone does! The school is simply set on keeping my family out and well away from the fortune of learning!”

Celestia shook her head: for her, the conversation was already done. And it was hardly anything that she hadn't heard before. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself, drawing herself up regally. With her taller stature, it was an easy task when faced with the smaller Wilda. Wilda threw herself into pacing the room, jaw clenched and head held at an uncomfortably high angle.

“Wilda, please, calm yourself,” the princess said. “There is no ill will towards your family. Everyone is subject to the same tests.”

Wilda whirled about, eyes glowing purple with the faintest hint of alicorn magic.

“Is that so, Celestia?” She demanded. “And why, may I be so bold as to ask, was it that even I was not accepted into your precious magic school? And look how my magic turned out! You were only interested in me after I'd already proven myself.”

She snorted and struck the ground with one hoof, cracking a tile. For once, Celestia did not rush to repair the treasure.

“I wonder, Celestia, if you do not employ more than a little favouritism when it comes to selecting your students. Or perhaps your eye for true talent has failed to hold its own.”

Refusing to rise to the bait, Celestia stretched out each of her wings in turn, the alicorn's feathers lightly fluffing up as she extended the stiff muscles. Wilda dared her to answer, her eye holding an adversary's challenge as she reared her head back, mane cutting sharply across her muzzle and down her neck. The alicorns faced each another head on, neither willing to break the silence, tension tightening almost palatably in the air between them.

Wilda drew a burst of magic to her horn.

“Celestia? Are you coming?”

Twilight poked her head back into the room, mane sticking up in all directions as if she had raced back down the corridor at a breakneck pace. She looked between Celestia and Wilda, frozen in place as if in a standoff, magic crackling just below the surface. Wilda allowed the magic to drop from her horn and cast Twilight a haughty look that the mare ignored, caught up in a more pressing issue.

“Are you coming? We're waiting for you. The guards don't want to lead him away alone. They're taking this pony to be questioned, like you said.” She gulped. “He says his name is Kevin. I've never heard a name like that – have you, Celestia?”

“No... No, I haven't, Twilight,” the princess acquiesced. “But we must find out more about him, where he's come from.”

She sighed.

“I fear this spell may have more dire consequences than we could have imagined.”

Twilight winced.

“I'll do everything I can to fix it, princess, I promise!”

Wilda took a step away, ears pinned back as Celestia moved all too quickly to comfort her student. It stood in stark contrast to the manner in which the alicorn princess dealt with and considered her. Twilight trembled so badly that the star cutie mark on her hindquarters shook, appearing, for a moment, to be vibrating with magic itself.

“It'll be okay, Twilight,” she murmured, hugging the purple alicorn to her chest, careful to mind her furled wings. “All will come right in the end. We'll send him back to the place he came from...wherever that is. And Equestria will be safe, do not concern yourself, my dear.”

She smiled and winked, hiding her and Twilight behind her wing.

“After all, it is not as if we have not faced far worse foes in Equestria!”

Even Twilight had to giggle, a little of the tension slipping from her back.

“You're right. But it's not good. It's not good at all.”

With her student placated, Celestia turned back to the forgotten Wilda, who had retreated to her cushion and had her book from the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the library levitated before her. She studiously avoided Celestia's eyes.

“No, Wilda, now is not a good time to speak of your cousin,” the princess said quietly. “I would be delighted to reconsider her once her magic blossoms, but right now is not the time to take her on.”

“Of course.” The mare didn't even look up from her text. “I understand.”

Twilight gulped and backed away, eyes wide.

“Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt... But we had better go.”

The purple alicorn laughed nervously, fluttering up a foot off the ground in her anxiety. Eager to have the matter over and done with, or at least in progress, Celestia followed her from the spell casting room at a pace

“Stay as long as you like, Wilda, we shall not disturb you further from your studies – we have already imposed more than enough on you today.”

Celestia extended the figurative olive branch back over her wing as she departed, hooves clip-clopping as the tiles gave way to the corridor's stone, the hallway lined with flaring torches. Maybe it would be enough. She sniffed. The scent of stallion – a very foreign stallion – seemed to have crept into every nook and cranny of the dark corridor, making it impossible to escape his presence. Celestia shook herself, the other alicorn already vanishing from her thoughts. Like Twilight, her thoughts were taking up by more pressing matters to be dealt with than a disgruntled scholar.

They trotted down the corridor at a brisk pace, quickly catching up with the guards who held a shaking pony between them. Left behind in the chamber, Wilda calmly turned the page using her magic and peered down at the text, deciphering a scrawl laid down for studious eyes too many years ago.

“Oh, don't worry,” the alicorn said conversationally to the empty room. “I am quite comfortable right where I am.”

A slow, wicked smile pulled her lips wide and she lit up her horn, letting the glow swell, sparks firing off in all directions. The lamp on the wall swung madly in its bracket, the candle within threatening to peter out from the sudden disturbance. She chuckled lowly, letting her own magical wind whip her mane and tail around her slender body, the mass of swirling hair half-obscuring her muzzle.

“I might even just stay longer than you like.”

Author's Note

Good evening! This story has been commissioned and consists of eleven chapters. Please refrain from targeting the commissioner's ideas for critique, but please feel free to tackle the writing side. I tried to keep this as true to the characters in MLP as possible and I'd love to know what you ladies and gentlemen think!

The story has been written in full and I will post one chapter per day until complete, assuming chapters are approved promptly.

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day!