Mirai Start

by Megatron

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Luna, Original Character
Length: 3091

Celestia looks for answers after banishing her sister to the moon, only to find something... unexpected.

Three days after the climactic battle that results in Nightmare Moon being banished to the moon, Celestia feels lost and confused. In a search for answers, she returns to the Castle of the Two Sisters, only to find herself under the thrall of some powerful forbidden time magic.

Written as part of the No Author Left Unnoticed group's first competition.

Published 2019-09-29 22:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2019-09-29 22:10:02 UTC

A Cruel Angel's Thesis

Celestia rose from her bed after another sleepless night. She'd been kept awake by a never ending torrent of fears and anxieties that swirled around in her mind like a swarm of starving Parasprites. It had been a mere three days since her beloved sister Luna had taken up the new name of Nightmare Moon and attempted to usher in an eternal night. Though brief, the battle between the two had been so intense that from Celestia's perspective, it seemed as though it had lasted for years, a notion that was supported by the utter devastation caused to their old home, the Castle of the Two Sisters. After it was all said and done, Celestia had no choice but to banish Nightmare Moon to the moon itself, an act that while painful, seemed to be the only way to safeguard Equestria.

In the aftermath of battle, she struggled to understand just what had happened. Luna transformed into something else, something sinister before attacking with vicious abandon, but for what reason? It's possible that Nightmare Moon had said it at some point during the battle, but in the heat of the moment, Celestia was far more focused on protecting herself, so she would never be able to remember. Whatever the reason, the outcome was obvious, Celestia had been forced to seal her sister, her own beloved little sister away within the moon likely never to return. She'd been forced to fight against family, and that act created a greater wound in the Princess' heart than she even thought possible.

Looking past the emotional pain of betrayal, Celestia knew full well that she faced a seemingly impossible task. With Luna gone, she would have to rule over the vast country of Equestria alone, raising both the sun and moon while also trying to keep order in a land that was still suffering from the shock of losing a princess. While it was true that most of the day to day issues were managed by the mayors, governors, and other officials, the fact still remained that any and all pressing issues would fall to her and her alone, something which daunted her more than anything else. The next time that a major crisis arose like Discord's arrival or an invasion by the Griffons, would she be able to handle things without her sister's help? The Alicorn doubted it, and that sent shivers down her spine.

Leaving her quarters and walking down the still unfamiliar hallways of Canterlot Castle, the princess made her way to the balcony, so that she could raise the sun and usher in yet another day for the citizens of Equestria. After completing her sacred task, a single idea overtook her, she would have to seek answers or at the very least, closure. Determined, she made arrangements with her assistants so that they could keep things stable while she was away before heading out to her now abandoned home. She honestly didn't know what she would find there, but she had a feeling that whatever it was, it would help her get it together.

After an hour's trip, Celestia arrived at the Castle of the Two Sisters. Upon arriving, the full impact of what she had done finally hit her. The castle was once the pride of Equestrian architecture, standing tall against the surrounding landscape, but now, it was little more than a crumbling ruin. Such was the intensity of their battle, that after only three days, the former capital looked more like the fortresses of the ancient Pony Tribes than a work of modern architecture. Above everything else though, Celestia knew that this castle had been not only her home, but Luna's home, and the fact that they were so eager to utterly destroy the structure was almost as sad as the battle itself. The Alicorn princess shed a single tear in regret before standing tall once again and heading into the ruins.

Though most of the structure had been absolutely devastated, there were still areas that resembled their former glory. When she looked at each of those areas, she saw scenes of her past replay in her mind. Long summer days spent playing hide and seek, cold winter nights curled up near the main fireplace, and rainy evenings sent admiring the clouds as they swept over the land were just a few of the memories that this place held. In all of these memories, she knew that Luna was with her and that now, she'd never be able to experience any of those good times ever again. Just as how she had banished her sister, nature would soon remove this structure from Equestria, consuming the cold stone with new growths of plant life. Considering the circumstances, Celestia believed that allowing nature to seize that castle was probably for the best.

As she walked through the ruins, her hoof bumped into something, and when she looked down to see what it was, she was surprised to see the unmistakable binding of one of her magic tutor's old spell books. As she picked it up with her magic, she shuttered at the sight of the tome's cover. Embedded into the innocent looking brown leather of the book, there was an emblem in the shape of a galaxy which seemed to shimmer with all the colors of the night sky. This was the one tome that she and her sister weren't allowed to read, Celestia never knew why, but it was always stressed that this book was forbidden. She looked at it for what felt like an eternity, before one fateful idea entered into her head, maybe the book would have someway of saving Luna. The idea seemed preposterous, there's no way that some “remove Nightmare Moon and bring back Luna” miracle spell would just exist in some random forbidden tome, and yet, she couldn't help but shake the idea. After much internal debate, she decided to open it, just to take a peek, if she didn't see anything promising right away, she'd close it immediately and never even think about opening it ever again.

Celestia slowed opened up the aged tome, only for the pages to turn out of her control before settling on a page, that wasn't so much a page as it was a hole. Unable to look away, the Princess gazed deep into the sprawling tunnel of flashing green lights that stood before her, stretching on farther than she could possible see. She only got a few minutes to stare at the anomaly however, as she soon felt herself being pulled into the tunnel by an impossibly strong force. As she was somehow thrust into the open book, she felt herself flying through the tunnel at extreme speed before her vision was consumed by a bright flash of white light and her vision went dark.

Noizy Tribe

When she finally came to, Celestia found that they ruined stonework had been replaced by a carpet of fallen leaves. The castle was no where to be seen, and instead, the forest stretched out for as far as the eye could see. As she struggled to grasp her surroundings, she was shocked by a group of Pegasi who swooped in from above the forest canopy. They were all clad in armor not too dissimilar from her own royal guards, though theirs sported a dark black color and was clearly designed for actual combat rather than for display which when combined with the large lances that they carried, made it clear that these were soldiers. Before she could say anything, the Pegasi all pointed their lances towards the Alicorn, killing intent visible in their eyes.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Celestia said outraged.

“I should be the one asking that Unicorn! What was that bright flash and why are you in our territory?” a Pegasi with slightly more elaborate armor said. Given the look of his armor and the fact that he was the one asking questions, he must have been a captain commanding these brigands.

“Your territory? I am your Princess!” Celestia responded, quickly becoming confused.

“Sir look, she has wings!” one of the soldiers said, gesturing to her side. The captain stepped forward to look and to his amazement, she did indeed have wings.

“This is strange, we'll have to take her to King, he'll know what to do,” the captain said.

“King? There isn't a king in Equestria, at least not one that I know of,” Celestia said in response.

“If you don't know about your rightful king, you soon will, now fly with us and don't stray from our path or you're a corpse,” the captain shot back before signaling to his troops. On command, the soldiers raised their lances into a relaxed stance before lining up into a flying formation. Celestia stretched her wings and they all took off, flying high in the sky.

They flew through the clouds before reaching a large cloud with a large fortified building on top of it. Landing before the entrance to the structure, Celestia was ushered inside and after a short walk through a hallway that was dimly lit by a few torches, she was led into a large room dominated by a large throne. In that throne, a red furred Pegasus sat, a golden crown in the shape of Laurel Wreath perched atop his dark mane.

“My liege, I've found the source of the disturbance, and it's... interesting,” the captain said, bowing towards the throne once they reached speaking distance.

“Interesting? All I see is an overgrown Unicorn, hardly-” the king began to say before Celestia stretched out her wings, causing a shocked expression to cross the king's face. “I take it back, this is indeed most interesting, in fact, this stranger may just be the key to our final victory!”

“I don't understand, what's going on? What are you talking about?” Celestia asked, now very confused.

“Why, the long war against the other tribes of course. You're clearly a being of great power, and with your help, I'm sure that we can finally purge this land of the wicked Unicorns and Earth Ponies once and for all! This land will finally belong to us and us alone!”

“What makes you think that I'll help you?”

“Your wings of course, with wings that strong, you must at least be a noble Pegasus at heart, and if you refuse to help in our glorious cause...” with those words, every guard in the room drew closer to Celestia, lances drawn.

The princess weighed her options carefully, she didn't want to take part in a slaughter, but fighting her way out of a fortress would be far from easy, especially since she was still recovering from her battle with Nightmare Moon. Before she could come up with a solution however, a series of multicolored explosions flashed across the room, as a small group of Unicorns emerged from a portal at the other end of the room.

“Get in!” one of the Unicorns shouted after creating another portal next to Celestia. The Alicorn didn't hesitate to jump through the tear in space, happily accepting that way out. Once she was on the other side, several of the Unicorns jumped in after her before closing the portal to seal off their escape. “That was a close one,” the same Unicorn said, looking at Celestia.

“Who are you, why are you doing this?” she asked.

“There's little time, follow me, the Elder Mage will explain,” the Unicorn said, motioning for Celestia to follow him.

As she walked through the halls of the ornate structure she now found herself in, she saw Unicorns practicing many varieties of magic, most of it dark and highly destructive. Eventually, she reached a large well lit room with a single Unicorn looking at a crystal ball. As they drew closer to him, she saw that he was extremely old Stallion with a long white beard that went down to floor and eyes that were completely milky white, being the only features of his face that stood out against the darkness imposed by the large hood that shrouded his form.

“Welcome Celestia, I am glad that we were able to find you,” the Elder Mage said to Celestia without looking away from his crystal ball.

“You know who I am?” Celestia asked.

“But of course, I have seen many things,” he responded, his crystal ball temporarily flickering with magical light with that last line. “I know that you have come from the future, and that you must return as quickly as possible.”

“Do you know how I can go back?”

“Yes, I know I spell that will return you to the future, and I will cast it as best I can,” the old Unicorn said before looking towards Celestia. When he did so, his eyes and the crystal ball suddenly began to glow with the same green light as the tome, and in an instant, Celestia was again consumed by a flash of light followed by a long stretch of darkness.

Rhythm Emotion

After coming to her senses again, Celestia found herself in Canterlot Castle's library. She gave a sigh of relief, knowing that she was finally home. The journey she had just been on was truly insane, being sent back to the Three Tribes period of Equestrian history only to be saved by an ancient Wizard, it was just too much. She couldn't help but reflect on all the hatred and aggression that she saw in that time and notice that it felt all too familiar to her, as the spirit of that greedy king lived on in Nightmare Moon... and herself. The princess quickly stepped out of the library and headed towards the throne room, eager to check up on everything that had passed during her absence. When she entered the room, she saw the last Pony she ever expected standing in the middle of the room, her sister, Luna.

“Ah sister, I see you've returned, was it a successful trip?” Luna asked.

“Luna!? How is this possible, how did you get here!?” Celestia shouted, a mix of fear and joy overtaking her. Before a very confused Luna could reply, the main door to the throne room swung open as a light purple Unicorn ran into the room at full speed.

“Oh thank heavens, I made it just in time,” the Unicorn said, desperately trying to catch her breath.

“Twilight, do you have any idea why my sister is acting so strange?” Luna asked.

“Yes I do, you may want to sit down, this explanation could take a while,” the purple Pony said. The Unicorn explained that she was named Twilight Sparkle and that she would be a student of Celestia's in the future. It turned out that the spell cast by the Elder Mage had indeed sent her forward in time, but since he poorly understood the magic, Celestia had been sent much further into the future than intended. As a result, the Celestia of this time had left the castle and given Twilight instructions to prepare a more refined ritual that would send Celestia back to the correct time. This ritual would take several hours to complete however and during that time, Celestia was not to leave the throne room, for fear of learning to much about her future. Instructions had also been left for Luna to stay as well, something which confused both of them.

As Twilight Sparkle left the room to manage the ritual, Luna looked back at Celestia and asked, “So, you're really from that time, after my... fall?”

“Yes, it was only three days ago for me,” Celestia replied.

“Only three days, no wonder you looked so shocked to see me,” Luna replied.

“If you don't mind me asking, why did you become Nightmare Moon?”

Luna sighed before answering, “I hardly know myself these days, but at the time, I just felt so alone, so... neglected. I do all my work at night you know, and there are so very few Ponies awake at that time, and you were never there either...”

“Luna, I'm so sorry, I had no idea-” Celestia began before being stopped by Luna.

“Please, I've heard your apologies once already and that was good enough, save all that love for your Luna, she's going to need it.”

“Okay, but this means that you manage to escape the moon somehow, whe-” Celestia continued before again being stopped by Luna.

“I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop you there, exactly how I come back is something that you'll just have to experience for yourself when it's time. For now, just now that I never truly hated you, despite what she may say, Nightmare Moon is still your sister deep down inside.”

“I'll never forget that my sister,” Celestia said solemnly before changing the topic. “Well, is there anything going on with you that you can safely tell me?”

“Well, there was something strange at a banquet the other night,” Luna said before the two began to talk and laugh together, just like old times. They were so wrapped up in their conversation, that before they knew it, the ritual was ready and it was time for Celestia to return back to her own time.

Celestia and Luna entered the library, where a large magical array had been carefully sketched out on the ground. Twilight Sparkle motioned for Celestia to stand on the circle, which she did before the purple Unicorn channeled magic towards it, causing the whole array to light up with the same green light that she had come to associate with time magic.

“Goodbye my sister, I can't wait to see you again!” Celestia said, tears forming in her eyes as the light intensified.

“Don't worry, it'll feel like no time at all,” Luna replied, holding back tears of her own. As the light reached peek intensity, Celestia was once again overtaken by a bright flash of light and finally taken back to her proper time.

When she came to, she found herself back in her room, clearly the same as when she had left. As the morning sun filled her room, she couldn't help but smile, while it wouldn't be easy, she knew that she could handle what ever the future held in store and that she would get to see Luna again someday. Until that time finally arrived, she knew that she would at least be able to sleep well, secure in the knowledge that hope still remained.