Disclaimer: I don't own My Little Ponies or anything related to it. That belongs to Hasbro or whoever it is that owns it.
It was a quiet morning as Twilight awoke from her slumber. Suppressing a yawn, she moved towards the open window of her room, closing her eyes as the cool morning breeze blew against her face. The whole city of Canterlot still seemed to be fast asleep. It didn’t surprise her, really. The festivities from the night before had not stopped once her brother and Princess Cadance had taken off to begin their journey together. There was excitement in the air and spirits were high amongst the citizens of Canterlot after their hard-fought battle had come to an end, and none of the ponies gathered had wanted to leave. It had been Pinkie Pie who insisted that the party go on even without the bride and groom, and no one would talk her out of taking the wedding reception and turning it into an all-out Ponyville bash. And so the celebrations had continued well into the night. The recollection of events seemed like a blur in Twilight’s mind, but she could make out enough of the party to know that it had been a blast.
The rumbling of her stomach broke through her trail of thought. Now that she was awake, she decided that getting a bite to eat would not be such a bad idea. Moving away from the window she crossed the room, the wooden door becoming surrounded in a purple glow as it slowly opened and she stepped out of her quarters. One of the castle guards stood just outside the door, his body rigid and his eyes staring ahead into the distance. He did not seem familiar to Twilight, who had never learned the identity of all the ponies that served under Princess Celestia. Even so, she offered him a courteous smile as she passed by.
“Good morning,” Twilight said. Remembering the early hour of the morning she asked, “You haven’t been standing out here all night, have you?”
The armored pony nodded. “We guards have our duty to do, ma’am. We’ve increased patrols on every corner of the castle just to be safe. No more disguised intruders will be sneaking up on us from now on.”
“That’s good to hear. I’ll just be going along, then. I don’t want to interrupt your watch.”
Twilight began to move down the hall when the guard called her back. Confused, she turned back to him and frowned.
“Yes?”
“Princess Celestia has a message for you. She requested your presence in the throne room as soon as you had awoken.”
Twilight’s mood quickly brightened up, and she suppressed a smile as she thanked the guard and went on her way. A sense of excitement was coursing through her as she continued down the halls, moving at a quick trot in anticipation of arriving at the throne room. It had been so long since she had been able to spend time with Princess Celestia, and as she walked she began to wonder why the princess had requested her presence. Was there something regarding her studies that they needed to discuss? If that was the case, maybe they would be able to talk about it over breakfast. There were a few new findings on friendship that she had recently learned, and she had been waiting for a chance to go over them in detail with the princess. Now seemed like the perfect time to try.
Spike’s voice seemed to groan in the back of Twilight’s mind, the thought bringing a smile to her face. She could easily imagine the young dragon rolling his eyes and scoffing as she explained to him the fascinating discoveries she had made. He might have been her number one assistant, but he clearly lacked the passion that consumed her when it came to her studies. It had been Spike who had pushed her into coming to Canterlot, not wanting for her to miss out on a unique occasion simply because she was upset with her brother. Looking back on all that had happened, she was glad that she had listened to him. The wedding had been a good chance for her to see her family again and get reacquainted with Princess Cadence, but now that it was over, she could not wait to return to Ponyville and continue with her studies.
The large double doors leading to the throne room came into view, an armored pegasus standing at either side of the entrance. Moving as one they each pushed a side of the door and granted her entrance, the red carpet below her stretching onward and stopping just before the throne. No sooner had the door been opened that Twilight’s eyes fell on Princess Celestia, the regal alicorn seeming to be in deep conversation with Princess Luna. Twilight made her way over to them, surprised to see both sisters together so early in the morning. She had expected Princess Luna to take off once the night had ended. Noticing the grave look on their faces made her wonder what they were talking about. Still, she kept her distance, not wanting to intrude in their conversation.
Princess Celestia noticed Twilight and, interrupting Princess Luna, took a step towards her student and smiled.
“Good morning, Twilight. I’m glad to see that you’re awake. If you could please join us, there is something we would like to discuss with you.”
Feeling calmer now that she had been addressed, Twilight moved closer to the two sisters. Princess Celestia had seemed happy to see her, but as Twilight turned to Princess Luna, she believed that the sentiment was not shared. There was a serious look on Princess Luna’s face that told her the two sisters had not been speaking of happy subjects before her arrival.
Bowing to her mentor, Twilight said, “I was told that you wanted to see me, Princess Celestia. I came as soon as I could.” Turning to Princess Luna, she repeated the gesture. “It’s good to see you during the day, Princess Luna.”
“I will not be staying long,” Princess Luna said. She sounded completely awake, yet Twilight could make out dark bags under her eyes. “My dominion has ended with the night. I must rest, but there are urgent matters that must be taken care of before I take my leave.”
“Luna and I have been discussing yesterday’s events, Twilight,” Princess Celestia told her student. The white alicorn closed her eyes, a pained expression crossing her features, and Twilight knew that she was reliving the events of the day before. “The changeling attack took us all by surprise. We were outnumbered and defenseless against them. What is worse, I was completely powerless to save my subjects or help any of you.”
Princess Luna frowned. “We have already spoken of this, sister. You are being too hard on yourself. It is no use thinking what could have gone differently. We must now focus on what our next step will be.”
“Next step?” Twilight’s eyes widened as she turned from one princess to the other. All of a sudden she did not like the topic she had walked in on. “What exactly are you talking about?”
The two princesses gazed at each other momentarily. Princess Luna nodded to her sister, and Princess Celestia turned back to Twilight.
“Yesterday’s attack left one thing clear to both Luna and me, Twilight. Something must be done about the changelings. If left unchecked, they might return to Canterlot and attempt another takeover. Worse still, they might try to subdue places which cannot defend themselves as well as Canterlot. It is for this reason that we must decide what measures we shall take against them to ensure the safety of all of Equestria.”
Twilight heard the words and felt a hint of fear spread through her. She had never heard Princess Celestia speak like this before, as though she were taking the necessary actions to prevent a war. Equestria might never have been perfect, but conflicts were rarely elevated to a large scale. Disputes were quick to be fixed, and everyone accepted Princess Celestia as the ruler of Equestria.
What sort of danger, then, could the changelings’ presence represent that threatened the safety of all Equestria?
Pushing away the more unnerving possibilities from her mind, Twilight turned to Princess Celestia.
“Why do you need me here to discuss these plans?”
For a moment Princess Celestia remained silent, the seconds slowly ticking by as she seemed to contemplate the matter. Twilight remained frozen where she stood, the suspense building within her as she waited for an answer.
“Tell her, sister,” came Princess Luna’s voice next to Twilight. The words caused Princess Celestia to snap back to reality and sigh in defeat. She moved closer to Twilight, offering the purple unicorn a smile that quickly disappeared as she spoke.
“I called you here because I need to ask you something difficult, Twilight, something I should not have to ask of you or anyone else. However, seeing the difficulty of the situation, I must agree with Luna. We have no choice.”
The tone was urgent, and it was clear to Twilight that Princess Celestia had long considered the words she was now speaking. She did not know what she could do to help, but at that moment the only thing that seemed to matter was doing anything within her power to help relieve the burden from Princess Celestia, even if it meant agreeing to a dangerous task.
“Don’t worry, Princess Celestia,” Twilight said, being quick to reassure her mentor. “I’ll do whatever I can to be of help.”
The smile that greeted her was not genuine, but strained and forced, and it brought no comfort to Twilight seeing it delivered by her mentor. Still, she tried to return the gesture as she braced herself for the princess’ command, believing that, as long as they worked together, they would be able to to ensure Equestria's continued safety.
The next words that were spoken, however, were not the ones she had expected to hear.
Author's Note
Hello to all of you who are reading this. To the few fans out there who have been following this story, you have my thanks. I'm pretty sure the one question on your mind is, "When is the next update?" Well, it's been almost two years now since I've updated this or any other story on FiMFiction, so I felt that it was time to make the official announcement. While it pains me to admit it, I've never been able to keep a consistent schedule with my stories. Because of this, I've been withholding on updating any of the three ongoing stories since I would only keep viewers waiting three or more months before they were able to read the next chapter. This was in no way fair to any of the readers who were giving my stories a chance. While there is no valid excuse, things have been very busy for me in real life. I'll spare you all the details, but these last two years have been a roller coaster of a ride. Then again, that's just the way things go sometimes.
Regardless, I felt that it was time to finally come clean. I had been postponing on doing this for a very long time because I didn't want to face the fact that this was it. However, the time has come to admit the truth.
There will not be any new updates, and Whence Blows the Wind is now officially discontinued.
I know this is not what some of you would like to hear, but it's something that needs to be done. As it stands, I have no time to continue working on this or any of the other stories I've posted. I would rather be honest and say when I can't do something than lull any readers with false assurances that I am working on a story I've clearly left behind. While I had high hopes for this tale, I am not in a position to continue working on it.
I'm sorry for anyone who had been patiently awaiting more chapters. Really, I wish I could give you a better ending than "the story is over just as it begins". Sadly, I can't. If I could I would have already done so.
Maybe in a few years I'll look back and begin working on this story again, but I will not leave any of you now with promises waiting to be broken. Until such a time, there is only one thing left to say: thank you all for sticking by me and for showing interest in this story. While this story in no way had the following of "My Little Dashie", "Fallout Equestria", or any other huge publication, it had people who were interested enough to give it a chance, and that meant everything to me. To quote Stephen King, "He who speaks without an attentive ear is mute." Without any of you there would not even be a story. For that reason, from the bottom of my heart, you all have my gratitude.
I guess that's all there really is to say. Take care, keep being awesome, and God bless!
What's that? You want to hear more? Really? Okay then. I guess it's time I got to saying what I really wanted to announce.
APRIL FOOLS
Honestly, did I really fool anyone? Didn't think so.
Alright then. While pretty much everything I posted is true (especially the part about how grateful I am), the truth really is that I haven't been posting anything because I don't like not having a consistent schedule for updates. For that reason I am announcing now that the three incomplete stories I have up on this site will continue to be updated come this summer. That means early June will see the next update. Why June and not now? Because I am finishing my bachelor's degree in science now, and I would still be unable to continue updating regularly. This will give me the time I need to make sure that the stories are the best they can be.
The first story that will be updated is Whence Blows the Wind. I will continue updating for that story until it is completed. I only ever posted a prologue for this story, but I've long been working on how I want the story to flow. After it's done I will begin updating Countdown to Destruction once again and then finishing up with Another Singularity (be honest, did any of you really even like the premise for this story?).
One thing to keep in mind is that these stories will be updated as they were originally conceived. This means that nothing past season 2 will be appearing in Countdown to Destruction nor Whence Blows the Wind. One reason why updates were constantly pushed back was that I was always trying to fit in the newest characters and scenarios into my story to try an make it as close to canon as possible. In the end it only backfired and caused me to become increasingly frustrated with my writing. So let's just consider every story as AU and not having anything to do with what's going on now with the actual show.
That's all for now. I'll be doing my best to keep working on the stories and coming up with an update schedule for the summer. I hope you look forward to what's to come. Thanks again for giving my stories a chance. I hope you won't be disappointed.
Time to Say Goodbye
