Author's Note

A small detail, but Astral's hair description from 1. Prologue has been changed from "deep, rich magenta" to "very dark pink". As far as Astral is concerned this is a good thing, because the previous color was far to bright for her anyways. For the detail nerds out there like myself, the exact hex for her hair color is #841734. If someone wants, in the next AN I can list the exact hexes for her coat and eye color, as well.

Truth be told I'll probably do that anyways.

The reason Astral uses modern vernacular is related to a topic discussed later on in the chapter. You'll know when you see it.

Lastly, as always if anyone has any criticism please PM it to me, as comments are a bit messy of a way to leave criticism.

3. Reunion

Despite whatever her internal clock had in mind, Astral did not want to wake up right now. She groaned, trying her best to block out the sore muscles, pounding migraine and throbbing horn and fall back asleep. It was a losing battle, and she knew it, but why not try?

Regardless of her stubborn refusals, it was in this semi-conscious stupor that she noticed a few things with increasing awareness. First, she was laying on a hard surface. Second, something was holding her down, and it was heavy. Third and most alarmingly, somepony was poking a highly concentrated source of magical energies directly at her jugular.

Astral's eyes snapped open, scanning the visible room, and noted the markings of a vicious battle on the unfamiliar walls and floor. "Whoever was fighting put up one hell of a fight," she thought, quickly formulating battle plans. "Speaking of which, let's have a look, shall we?"Glancing towards the source of her imminent death, Astral caught sight of a particularly unique, flowing, multicolored mane.

"Celestia? What in Tartarus is she doing?" Before she could sputter indignantly or demand to be let up, however, the pony pinning her down shifted her horn forward, needling the tip into her neck. In a quiet yet absolutely resolute tone, Princess Celestia spoke. "What did I get you for your 72nd birthday?"

Astral recognized the question immediately. Despite it's seemingly mundane nature, the two of them had agreed to use it between themselves as a passphrase of sorts, used in times when the identity of either her or Celestia was questionable.

Astral recited the passphrase's continuation, suddenly a lot less concerned with her dignity. "You gave me a recording of Silver String's Strings Concerto in D major, Op. 47. I was quite happy with it though I was not partial to the fanfare with which I received it."

Celestia cut the magic to her horn, and finished the passphrase. "Meanwhile, I found it quite hilarious and vowed to find a way to lure you into another 'painful public event'." She leaned back and off of Astral, moving to a sitting position next to the still prone pony.

Taking it as permission to get to her hooves, Astral pulled her legs beneath her and, for the first time, noticed what should have been a glaringly obvious detail. "'Tia, why am I pink?" she asked, forgetting to actually get up.

Instead of answering, Celestia lunged at Astral's back, wrapping her in a hug and leaning her head on the rose pink pony's withers.

Astral cringed, Celestia had hit a few bruises jumping on her back. "No, really, why am I – 'Tia? Are you okay?" Astral cut herself off, eyes widening in surprise at the wetness she felt on the back her neck.

Like her first question, no response. "She'll talk about whatever it is that has her upset when she's ready," Astral, not without some worry, decided. Instead, she scanned the room, looking for clues to her whereabouts and perhaps Celestia's sudden emotions. Of course there were the marks from battle, but that wasn't the only thing.

The room was massive, easily as large as the throne room in Canterlot. At its head was a massive and incredibly intricate clockwork mechanism, and in the rafters were the workings of the same clockwork mechanism, which were likely the reason she heard a massive shift and tick every few minutes moments. Lining the walls were shelves – some destroyed – of vials, papers, flasks, boxes, virtually anything that could store either items, fluid, or information. Smack dab in front of the massive clockwork was a modest and unassuming desk, covered much the same as the shelves, and at that desk sat a purple Unicorn reading the papers on it.

Astral's first instinct upon seeing the unknown pony was to jump to her hooves and demand what was going on here, but she refrained. If this purple pony was the cause of all this, then there was likely nothing she could do anyways. She wasn't as powerful as Celestia, not even by a long shot, and she doubted Celestia would let her guard down like this in front of anyone but her closest friends.

Unless they were both about to get fried. That'd take anypony'sguard down.

She turned her head back towards Celestia, who was thankfully no longer tearing up into her coat. "'Tia? Are you okay?" she asked again gently, not wanting to upset the Alicorn.

Celestia opened her eyes, looking directly into Astral's. "It's nothing, Astral. It's just – it's good to have you back," replied Celestia, both wistfully and happily.

Astral quirked an eyebrow. "'Good to have me back?' 'Tia, it's probably not even been a year. It certainly doesn't feel like it, at least."

"Astral, I... don't know how to break this to you." Celestia looked away from Astral, trying to find the right words. "You've been gone seven hundred years. I thought you were dead."

Astral's blood nearly, and possibly would have, turned to ice had it not been for the sheer insanity of such a statement. "I– I beg your pardon, but did you say seven hundred years?"

"Yes," replied Celestia, looking back to Astral, "that is what I said."

Astral simply blinked at Celestia. Had it been any other pony, she'd be laughing right now, she'd be having a riot, but this was Celestia. She'd trust Celestia with her life, and if Celestia of all ponies had suddenly decided to start lying for giggles she'd grow a pair of wings.

Deciding that pacing was probably better for digesting such news, Astral stood, Celestia pulling off of her to instead sit. "'Tia, I – I'm afraid I don't understand how that's possible," Astral said, stopping to squint at the floor and scuff it with her forehooves, "I might be long lived, but nearly eight hundred years is a stretch, and I don't feel any older than ninety-two."

Celestia cringed and tilted her head to the side, away from Astral again. "You... may want to look at your back."

Astral raised an eyebrow before looking over her shoulder. "What d– dear mother of the Maker I've got wings. 'Tia, I've got wings," she said with slowly increasing hysteria. "When? How? Do they even work?" – she stretched out her wings – "They work! They're functioning wings! Are they part of a spell?" – again, she tested them, this time with her horn, – "They're real! As in, real-real! I mean, completely, one-hundred percent, real," she finished, the hysteria bleeding into contemplative absence.

Still absentminded, Astral wandered towards the face of the massive clock to look out of its apparatus and over the cityscape below. "If I've got wings, then something happened to put them there," she thought, "and if something put them there, then it'll have to have been big, but the real questions are what, where and when?" Astral had an idea who might know, but failing that she hadn't a clue where to even start looking.

For her own sake, she hoped Celestia could answer all her questions.

Coming up from her thoughts, Astral found herself gazing out over a vast cityscape. Whatever this tower was, it dwarfed every other building in this city, and she could see everything from the tall, spear-like rooftops of the buildings, to the sea on the other side of the city stretching out to the horizon. Even with her questions still burning red hot, she stood and absorbed the view, the sun now halfway down from its zenith and reflecting off the many windows and peaks of the alien architecture.

She didn't know why she stood there or even for how long, but she felt a strange sort of connection to this particular spot, looking out over the aggressive rooftops. It was soothing in a weird, hard-to-describe way, as if someone were trickling cold water on her overheated brain.

Sensing, more than hearing, Celestia and the purple pony approaching Astral spoke up, albeit quietly. "It's quite beautiful, isn't it? Wherever we are, that is."

"I'm not sure I'd call it beautiful, but it's certainly... interesting," replied Celestia, sitting next to Astral and looking out the window as well, before turning to look at her. "You do not remember where you are?"

Astral searched her mind, coming up with a wave of nausea rather than memory. "Nope, I'm getting nothing but nausea," she said, sagging a little as the wave passed, "blegh. Any idea why I feel like throwing up when I try to remember" – she paused, trying to think back to before she woke up – "urgh, anything?"

Instead of answering, Celestia looked over both their shoulders at the purple Alicorn, motioning for her to step forward.

"Alicorn?"thought Astral. "Why am I even surprised?"

Celestia spoke up first, conducting the introductions. "Astral Blossom, this is Twilight Sparkle, my current student, Princess of Friendship, and bearer of the Element of Magic," She said, smiling between the two of them. "Truth being told, she's the one you owe your life to, and the one who can answer most of your questions, including those about your memory," Celestia supplied.

Astral looked from Celestia to Twilight and back again, then back again. "Princess? Do I bow or...?" she asked, honestly not sure.

Twilight almost cringed at the word 'bow'. "That won't be necessary, Astral. Any friend of the Princess's is a friend of mine!" Twilight beamed radiantly, holding out a hoof for Astral to shake.

"Thank you, Twilight," Astral replied, her smile much more reserved, "I'm sure the two of us will make excellent comrades. Before that, though, I wouldlike to drill your brain about what's going on in mybrain, so to speak. Would that be agreeable?"

"Of course! Come on, we should probably go sit somewhere, because to be honest, I kinda need to drill your mind to figure out what's going on so I can tell you what's going on! I've never dealt with a geas before, so this is all new to me." In spite of what Astral considered a very serioussituation, Twilight practically radiated excitement as she trotted away to find a comfortable spot to sit away from the clock's face.

Casting a "help me" look over her shoulder at Celestia, Astral followed behind Twilight, unnerved by the purple pony's joviality and not entirely certain she'd enjoy being the testee for once.

-#-#-

Fifteen minutes of thorough examination later, Twilight had almost finished her questioning, and was just now writing down the final of her observations.

For her part, Astral had answered Twilight's questions to the best of her ability, but all too often her response would be "I don't know" or "I can't remember". As somepony who prided herself on her mental faculties, it was simultaneously terrifying and incredibly frustrating to have one so vital compromised so extensively.

"Well, it's definitely interesting. Everything like speech, magic use, and broad generalities, which seems to include friendships, though not the details of said friendships, are remembered. Then there are the more 'specific' details that you remembered, like your and the Princess's passphrase," said Twilight, her face scrunching in an apparent attempt to interpret her data. "It's a bit early to say for certain, but right now it looks like your memory will come back with time, and maybe a stressful situation or two."

"Lovely, so that's it, then? I'll get my memories back when I get them back?" Astral scoffed, a snarl half formed on her face. Truth being told, she was terrified, not so much angry, but Twilight didn't need to see that. As much as Astral trusted Celestia, she didn't trust Twilight, not yet. As of now, she was Celestia's friend, and while that certainly commanded some of Astral's respect, Twilight was little else to her.

"I'm sorry, I wish there was more I could do to help, but without more observation I can't say what will actually happen," soothed Twilight, "for all we know, your memories will be all back tomorrow morning. When we get back to Canterlot, Princess Luna can probably help you with your memories, if they're still suppressed and you're willing."

Astral's face softened, incredulity written all over it. "Another Princess? Just how many are there?"

"Five now, if we include you, but you didn't know about Luna? I thought with–"

"I can't exactly remember, Twilight," Astral said, suppressing another wave of nausea with a scowl.

"Ah, right. Sorry," Twilight cringed.

Sighing, Astral rubbed her forehead. "Not much we can do about it right now anyways, so why don't I ask a few more questions? I doubt this day can get any worse."