Legacy of the Past

*tap tap tap*

The sound was loud but light on the wooden door of the library. A gray pegasus with a bright blond mane and unique, wall-eyed look in her gold eyes with a mailbag stood, waiting patiently with a smile on her face as she waited for either Twilight Sparkle or her dragon assistant Spike to answer.

She heard movement on the other side and the door swung open to reveal a rather frazzled looking lavender unicorn, her mane ruffled and she looked stressed.

"Oh," She said, recognizing the pegasus instantly. "Hello Derp- I mean Ditzy!"

Ditzy continued smiling. "It's no problem Twilight, please, you can call me Derpy! I don't mind."

"A-are you sure?" The unicorn asked hesitantly. "I know there are a lot of ponies who use that nickname as more of a-"

"Pfft" Ditzy waved a hoof, her left one, dismissively. "I just ignore those guys. Really, a lot of ponies get so hung-up over names and titles, they tend to forget about the pony and who she is and what she has accomplished. But they're not that important in my eyes, you just ignore the ones who want to use your name against you and move on."

"Wow..." Twilight said, "that's very interesting, Derp- I mean, Ditzy, ugh!"

Ditzy chuckled. "It's fine, anyways, I've got mail for you!"

She brought her face in her bag and pulled out some letters, seemingly at random.

"Oh, thanks, can you bring it in?" The unicorn asked, stepping aside to let Ditzy in.

She briefly wondered why Twilight didn't just levitate them to her but figured there must have been a good reason. Shrugging, she stepped inside the library, where she saw an assortment of scribbled parchments sprawled across the whole floor. Placing the letters on a nearby table she looked around, curious.

"Sorry about the mess," Twilight said. "Spike's at Rarity's and I've been doing some serious research."

"I thought you were always doing research?"

"Well, not on this scale no..."

Ditzy picked up a nearby piece or parchment and looked briefly at its contents.

...a growing number of scientists believe that the stars are all, in fact, distant suns similar to the one Princess Celestia controls. Although there is no evidence of this, many authors have taken this concept and ran with it for their stories, using theoretical science as its main theme and to explain the extraordinary things that happen in their books. The dubbed 'Science-Fiction' novels had become a growing hit within the 800s of Celestia's reign...

"So what are you studying this time?" The mailmare asked.

"Well, I was reading an old science-fiction story, and it had a lot of interesting concepts, so I'm trying to find out if any of them are true and, if so, if we could try to actually get up there in space."

Twilight glanced down at some parchment notes, and sighed.

"But it's very difficult, there are many theories, but none of them are proven and, lately, it seems many ponies have forgotten  about them. I was trying to find out if we could send ships into space and, if we could, how they would work."

Twilight began rubbing her forehead and her face was scrunched up.

"Are you alright?" Ditzy asked, but she had a suspicion what it was.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bad headache that doesn't seem to be going away."

Ditzy nodded, her suspicion correct, it was almost like a sixth sense to her, ever since Dinky came into her life. It probably also explained why Twilight didn't grab the letters with her magic.

"You should get some rest." She said, her motherly instinct taking over. "It won't do you any good trying to research with a headache."

Twilight considered protesting, but the pain in her head seemed to have won, and she nodded slowly, making her way to her room.

"Grab a wet cloth and place it over your head-"

"I know, I know how to deal with headaches the non-magical way." Twilight said, then looked back to her. "What about the mess? I can't leave the library like this."

"I'll take care of it," The mailmare said. "I've got some free time on my hooves."

Twilght nodded, smiling. "Alright, thanks a lot."

"No problem!" Ditzy said cheerfully, a wide smile on her face.

"It's just this whole thing has been eating at me..." Twilight mumbled as she entered her room.

After the unicorn laid down, Ditzy moved about, collecting the parchment and placing them in neat piles. But as she cleaned up the library, she kept eyeing and empty parchment scroll and a feathery pen next to an ink container. One considering thought, and an internal battle began in her mind. She stopped and thought.

Should I? I don't know... What's the harm? It could be nothing, or it could be major. Ugh, I don't know... The wall-eyed pegasus glanced at the parchment and then at Twilight's door, and sighed. Lightly flapping her wings, she flew towards the parchment and grabbed the pen, dipping it in the ink.

I'm no expert on this, she thought as she began writing. Then again, I guess here I would be considered an expert.

She wrote, explaining the subject of ships in space, the distance of all objects in space, and briefly mentioning some methods of Faster-Than-Light travel she knew worked. What life in space is like, and explaining all the necessary functions and systems required on a ship but making sure not to explain how to create them. When she had finished, she had become so caught in writing, having to look deep in memories she hadn't thought about it a long time, that she had briefly forgotten who she was, and written down a different name. Her old name, her original name that she had been born with. When she saw her mistake, her heart began pounding and she quickly scribbled over the two words, shrouding it in black ink, and began regretting what she had written. But once the name was completely, both in the black ink on the parchment and in the black depths of her locked away memories, her heart began calming down.

Sighing again, she turned and grabbed her bag, leaving the library.

Well, mistake or not, I hope this helps you, Twilight...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight awoke a few hours later, her head feeling like it had never been hurt. She cautiously stood up, and saw the wet cloth on the floor, it must have fallen off while she slept. Hesitantly, she tried levitating the cloth and a purple aura formed around it and it lifted off the ground. She smiled, relieved, she really was better. She made her way down the stairs and saw that, while some of the mess was cleaned up, it seemed Ditzy had left half of the notes on the floor. But Ditzy was a forgetful pony, so Twilight wasn't surprised, in fact, she was quite pleased with how much she had gotten done.

She made her way to pick a parchment, when she noticed another one on a table that seemed to have been recently written. Making her way over to it, she began reading what was on it, and her eyes widened.

Where on earth did this come from!? She thought as she read it. It was a theory on space travel and how ships in space work. But it didn't sound like theory, but fact. It was written so confidently and casually at the same time, like it was common knowledge!

Twilight glanced down at the bottom of the parchment and saw what could've been a name but it was covered in dried ink, scribbled out.

I don't believe this, who could've- A brief flicker of Ditzy passed through her head and Twilight slowly turned to the door where the pegasus had almost certainly left through. No, she couldn't have. But, it was recently written, who else could have written? But, how did she come across this knowledge? Why not just tell me?

The questions kept pouring through Twilight's mind as she thought. but eventually she gave up. Ditzy didn't seem like the pony who knew a lot about space and, if she did, how she knew about it. But Twilight came to the conclusion that if Ditzy was the one to have written this, she probably also didn't want it to be known that she knew this. Although that spurred further questions from Twilight, she accepted the conclusion she deduced for now and went back to reading.