Dusk: The Beginning of Twilight

Dusk: The Beginning of Twilight Sparkle

Chapter 2:

BronyInDenial

When Canterlot swung into view, it grew bigger at a pace Twilight had never seen before. The carriage was speeding like they were trying to outrun Discord. ‘Which maybe we are...’, Twilight thought.

When the carriage passed straight over the Royal Courtyard, Twilight opened her mouth to ask the pegasi where the carriage was headed. Nopony answered her, but no later had the carriage half-landed, half-crashed on Princess Celestia’s balcony.

“Blehh...,” Twilight said, peeling herself off of the carriage. Looking up, she saw Celestia walking towards the closed balcony doors, with Luna not far behind. “Princess! What happened? Who’s trying to take over Equestria? Why did you--?”

“Twilight-.” Before Celestia could continue, the Ponyville librarian kept rambling on.

“-theycamesofastandididntknowhat-”

“Twilight Sp-”

“-andithoughtthatyouwouldreall-”

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”

“Yes, Princess?”, Twilight asked, shrinking down.

“We invited you to Canterlot so we could talk to you. I apologize if the Royal Guard rushed you; they definitely weren’t supposed to crash here.” The team of pegasi gave Celestia sheepish grins as she glared at them. “So while they FIX THE ONLY CHARIOT WE HAVE, why don’t you join Luna and I for lunch.

Twilight beamed; she hadn’t spent a whole lunch with Princess Celestia since she had moved to Ponyville.

Twilight soon found herself seated in front of the Princesses and a dandelion salad roughly the size of a chariot wheel. Comparisons were rough, due to the fact that the nearest chariot wheels lay in dozens of pieces.

Celestia had ordered the guards to bring a banquet table into her bedroom, which Twilight found odd. Usually. the Princess would hold another court during lunchtime and eat then. It was supposed to help the public find something in Celestia that they could relate to.

After finishing a third of her colossal salad, Twilight looked up at the Princess and asked about the same issue. “You really didn’t cancel court today just for me, did you Princess?”

“I did indeed, Twilight. What we have to discuss is far more important than tax reform,” Celestia replied.

Twilight looked up at her mentor, confused. “But what about everypony else?”

“Then they will just have to come back another time,” Celestia said firmly, using her horn to pick up a painfully small tea sandwich.

        After a few moments of silence, Luna was the first to speak. “Sister, I can hold court whilst you lecture your student,” she said, looking at the white alicorn hopefully.

        Looking up at her sister, Celestia shook her head. “No... No. You need to stay.” Motioning for a servant to come over, she continued. “Have the guard evacuate this wing of the castle. Nopony is to approach this room until I say otherwise.”

        The servant contradicted the Princess for the only time in her life. “Is that really wise, Your Majesty? To leave a quarter of the castle comp--”

“Yes.”

Taking a step back, the servant spoke quickly. “I shall do as you say.”

After Celestia made sure that her bedroom door was shut, her horn glowed as she cast a sealing spell on the room.

“What is so important that you are the only pony in Equestria who knows about it?” Luna inquired.

Celestia took a deep breath before continuing. “Today... w-we need to talk about immortality.”

Twilight, fearing the worst, jumped straight over the table and onto Celestia. “Princess! Are you dying? How couldyouevendie?Thatdoesn’tmakeanysense!Youcan’tdieprin-”

“Twilight.”

Celestia spoke so loudly that she was thankful for casting the sealing spell. “I, nor Luna, is dying, at least as far as I know. And I would know if we were.”

Twilight’s ears fell as she sat back on her haunches, landing straight in her salad bowl. “I-I’m sorry Princess,” she said, too embarassed to continue.

Luna watched this with a raised eyebrow. “Everypony already knows about immortality. What new facts are there to know?”

Celestia shook her head. “Not new facts; rather, old ones long forgotten.”

Twilight noticed that the princess took another deep breath before speaking again. She kept doing it, almost reflexively, so Twilight made a mental note to ask her about it later.

“Our parents, Ouranos and Gaia, eternal alicorns of the heavens, are the only true alicorns.”

Twilhight blinked, akin to a double take, except for what she had heard. “But that means you--”

Celestia continued without stopping. “They were created during the creation of the universe. Luna and I, being their children, also live forever.”

Twilight had given up dissuading her mentor from her lecture, and moved back onto her cushion to listen to the rambling princess.

“Because of our ancestry, we, as alicorns are greatly more in tune with the raw magic of the universe than most other ponies. It is what gives me the strength to move the sun, and same with Luna and the moon.” Looking down at her student, Celestia noticed that Twilight looked confused. “Do you understand?”

“I- I think so.”

“Good. The most important thing to remember is that we are alicorns because we live forever, and not that we live forever because we are alicorns.”

“Wait-- what?” Twilight asked, cocking her head to one side.

“The magic of the universe is part of our souls. Its life is tied to ours. As long as the universe lives, we live. Since the universe cannot die, we live forever.

“The magic also manifests itself in other ways. Our posession of both a horn and wings, our flowing hair, our large stature; all of these are caused by our bond with the universe.”

Twilight sat up eagerly, happy to be finally having a lesson with her teacher again.

“Every few eons, a pony is born with the gift to see the magic of the universe. To use it like it was another hoof. Princess Cadance was born seven hundred years ago. It was pure chance that she was of royal blood. She was the first noble to be born with this gift.

“The first pony ever to naturally have this gift was born over seventeen hundred years ago. Luna, can you remember who?” Celestia asked.

Luna, knowing the entirety of what Celestia was saying, had sat back and was examining her hooves until her sister’s question snapped her out of her bored stupor. “I believe that it was Star Swirl the Bearded,” she said, not even looking up.

Twilight gasped. “Star Swirl the Bearded? Bet he was only a unicorn! And he died before the Middle Ages!”

“He used an illusion spell to hide his wings, and he wouldn’t get many visitors, living in the Everfree Forest. As for his death, well,” Celestia sighed, looking down, “he created a spell so powerful, it ripped apart space-time sucking him and his house into the void. By the time I got there, it had already sucked in a large part of the forest. The Everfree Lake is where his house once stood.” Her face brightening the slightest bit, “Or we think it killed him. I like to think otherwise, as he was once my student.”

Twilight paused, trying to piece two and two together. “So you brought me to Canterlot... because you wanted to teach me... about Star Swirl the Bearded... really badly?”