Chapters

Celestia's Letters #1
Day One: First Steps
Day Two: Questions
Celestia's Letters #2

Celestia's Letters #1
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School of (Restoring) Harmony

Celestia's Letters #1

The penultimate day of the Summer Sun Festival was coming to a close, and while thousands of ponies were tucking into their beds below, their princess could not help but pace in circles in her private tower of the castle. She continued her route frantically checking the astronomical clock that sat in her study, but the results never changed.

“One year...” she thought to herself. “Will it be enough?”

She couldn’t bear the uncertainty, but she knew better than to risk the future by peering into it. She needed help. Some comfort of familiarity that could provide her reassurance that this would all be okay. But she wouldn’t find that here in her study. She would have to look beyond her room, beyond her castle, beyond her ever-shrinking kingdom to find somepony, anypony who would understand what she was going through.

She descended every step of her palace’s stairs quietly by hornlight, walking the lonely halls until she reached the very bottom floor of the building - at least as the public knew it. There she found a hidden door, and went deeper still into the mountains until she reached the Royal Vaults, unlocking the complex door with her magic and stepping inside. Among all the treasures and dangerous artifacts she had collected over the years, with her sister and alone, one room could hold the answers she sought.

As she strode through the hall of mirrors, she found herself surrounded by reminders of her greatest mistake. A banner still hung from the far wall, of sun and moon entwined in an eclipse. A gift from Luna - and the first warning to the other universes that once hid behind these mirrors. Now they sat with only faint glimmers of magic sustaining their shattered panes, offering mere glimpses into other worlds. Celestia passed one she had long admired, and saw within it a version of herself that had her sister back, saved by her most faithful student a few years ago. A simpler, happier world, but one so different from the one she found herself trapped in. She reached out as if to touch it, to try to escape to a happier ending, but only sharpened glass met her hoof, gently cutting a bitter reminder that she could not leave. For what they had done, she and her sister had been cut off over a millennia ago, most universes shattering the mirrors from their side to isolate and trap them in a mix of fear and disgust.

But a few still glowed with true connections, still held hope of reaching other worlds. One was functional but dormant, a reminder of her second greatest failure and another loss that still stung. Still more were filled with roiling chaos, divergences that were still forming, new branches of this reality that could have given her the best chance of finding peace - if only they would settle into specific realities. Whatever events were so crucial they would form these new worlds had yet to pass, so she could only wait. But one loomed near her surrounded with dozens of layers of magical wards even she was not certain she could safely dismantle, but humming with power. If this was the only mirror that remained she could safely use, so be it. She summoned her writing supplies, and began a letter.

“Dear Princess Celestia.” She chuckled to herself. She had wanted to open a letter with that for a long time. “Or do you still prefer Solar Flare? I know it has been long since I last wrote you. I know it is difficult to maintain communication through letters and we have never been particularly close. But I must share my feelings, and I know you still check for these letters from time to time. As unfortunate as it is you may be my only friend left I can write to about these… struggles I am facing.”

She struggled to find the words to continue. Was there really anything for them to relate over, after their paths had diverged so much? Maybe not, but she had to keep trying.

“Tomorrow marks the 999th year since I banished Luna. But I am afraid that it also begins the countdown to the end. Only a few years before our fights boiled into war we used the elements before to cast out Sombra and the entire Crystal Empire from the world. A millennia later, he reappeared, and now wages war across the north. We used them to petrify Discord, and a thousand years later his statue shatters and he runs free, leaving Equestria to cause chaos elsewhere only because it has become “too sad and pathetic” for him to have any fun. It’s become clear that even the elements have a limit on how long their power can contain a creature, and my time is running out.”

Her pacing continued as she thought of the elements. She hadn’t even seen them since she banished Luna, leaving them where they fell to the ground. Should she retrieve them? No. Not yet. The Castle was… too painful to revisit.

“I know you claim you don’t care for her, you were happy to subjugate her to your will… but if you truly are a version of me you must at least have some care for your sister. You mastered your elements better than I ever could. Please tell me there’s some chance they could still save her, if I can only find the right ponies to use them. Please give me just a shred of hope for the future.”

She stared at the letter thinking of all the things she could say to herself. She already knew how Solar Flare would respond.

“Take command, be strong, conquer and master the world around you as it all belongs to you, “ she’d say. “Become like me. Stop holding back.”

But Celestia knew she did not have that strength in her to even hold back anymore. She had let her magic wither and fall out of practice, even as she tried her best to teach others. Her will had been worn down by the years, and if she had to face Nightmare Moon again alone, she wasn’t certain she could even muster enough to bother resisting at all. Perhaps this was her fate, to surrender the world to her sister and hope she would be spared and allowed to live in her shadow.

Celestia had nothing more to say so she simply signed off the letter “Yours truly, Princess Celestia.” and sealed it in a letter. Carefully she levitated it to a device which flung it through the mirror, independent of her magic. She would have to wait and see if she got a response tomorrow.

Drained and disheartened, Celestia began the long journey out of the vaults and back up the stairs to the palace. She had a big day tomorrow, a new school to open, and so many students to meet after all. Maybe when she had met them she would feel better, more confident in this desperate plan.

But as she left the vault in darkness, the mirrors filled with chaos began to shimmer gently. New timelines began to materialize within them, each marked with a flash as somewhere in this world, nearer than she could ever imagine, a Star was born.

Day One: First Steps
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School of (Restoring) Harmony

Day One: First Steps

Bright lights nearly blinded Azure Star as she struggled against her own mind. Her head was pounding. She heard coils charging, a gentle hum slowly buzzing to a higher and higher pitch. She tried to channel her magic but felt it drain from her horn and into something else.

“Stop Fighting. Don’t quail. It will do you no favors. To be honest with you Azure, I should have done what I am now doing at the very beginning. This project was always going to fail under his machinations. They were too different from mine. I’m sorry I didn’t see that until now.”

Azure couldn’t recognize the face in front of her, the lights keeping her from focusing. She struggled to move her limbs, but metal restraints kept her from squirming. She tried to surge her magic desperately, but no matter how much she mustered it was all drained in an instant, intensifying the hum.

“No. No magic. You’re not ruining this.”

Tears clouded the filly’s eyes as she struggled to figure out what to do. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, couldn’t cast a spell. She felt utterly powerless, and betrayed for a reason she couldn’t quite recall. Her mind raced to remember but the whir of machines nearby kept her from focusing for more than a moment.

“Just listen to me Azure. You are my proudest creation, my magnum opus. You were always supposed to be a… unifier, guiding star, a better way forward. Not a machine to remove equinity.”

Azure continued to struggle. Some more words were uttered but she couldn’t make them out. She could smell a gas pouring in from a mask on her snout, probably the source of her mental haze. But for just a moment it stopped, and she could hear clearly.

“Do better. Live. Forget us.”

The light burned like the sun exploding, and the hum screeched to a piercing, shattering whine. In a moment, everything stopped.

Azure struggled to get her head back together. It was still throbbing, spinning, as she struggled to stand. Stand? That couldn’t be right. She was just strapped down in metal and-

“Azure?”

Azure tried to adjust to the voice. This one was different. Sweeter. Higher pitched. Less frightening. She tried to focus on it, to pull herself into the present.

“Azure? She’s here!”

She snapped to her senses and looked at her surroundings. She wasn’t in a laboratory, or anywhere underground. There was blue sky above her, with gentle clouds only obscured by an occasional pegasus flying overhead. High above her a large white one seemed to be slowly circling in a gentle descent. It was graceful, familiar, and perhaps just a slight bit sinister, like a vulture looking them over, sizing up who was most alive. Azure pondered for a moment that if only she had wings would fit right in up there, her deep blue mane blending in with the sky and her cloudy coat almost matching the giant circling above her.

Azure tried to focus closer. Touch. She felt a hoof on her back, gently shaking her. It was from an even smaller pony, a dark purple mare with big green eyes that seemed to glow from under her heavy black hood. Dusk’s Dim. She had met her earlier. Right. Azure had met a lot of the ponies around her. She was starting to settle back into the present.

“I’m here Dusky. Sorry, just got lost in thought. Some sort of memory I guess?”

“Then let's go! Off to meet the Princess! EEEE!” Dusky skree-ed happily, before quickly silencing herself in anxiety.

Before she could even respond Azure was being dragged along by Dusky quickly past marble pillars and carefully trimmed topiary, until they reached a hastily built stage. The extra large Pegasus finally landed on the stage and Azure could see that she was not a pegasus after all, on account of the massive horn on her brow. Alicorn. The word carried the weight of the world in her thoughts, but she couldn’t quite piece together the reason. Behind her came another Alicorn, and soon a mixture of other ponies gathered on the back of the stage, all of them but the second Alicorn older than the ponies watching them.

Everyone around her seemed just as transfixed on the princess as Azure was, when she revealed a magenta young mare riding on her back, that hopped off with a confident stride. The surprise passenger posed so everypony could see her features. Lavender and periwinkle mane braided down the back, a golden circlet and arm band, and every single fleck of fur perfectly in place, the only thing uneven or “imperfect” being her two different eyes, one matching each mane color.

“Who are you exactly?” Azure inquired.

”Gold Crown! Top student at Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns, master of the wizarding sciences, heir to the Gold family fortune, and perhaps the best young tennis prodigy Canterlot has seen for generations!” Crown harrumphed, in indignation. “I am what a perfect student of magic should look like personified! And you? Who are you exactly?”

“Azure Star.”

“Huh. Never heard of you so maybe you should-” A regal hoof fell on her back gently and cut her off.

“Crown. Stop.”

The princess towered over the girl, who could only grumble and turn away from Azure as she walked off the stage to join the crowd. Azure snickered a little watching her go down. She didn’t know why but she didn’t care for her tone. But as soon as Crown was standing with the rest of the crowd, she was forced to turn back to the giant pony in front of her with unease. Just looking at her up close filled Azure with a gnawing mix of emotions. She knew her. Celestia, ruler of Canterlot, hero to much of ponykind, daily mover of the heavenly bodies, and imprisoner of Nightmare moon. Azure had first seen her earlier that day, as a crackling static image in a glowing magical star, sent to recruit young ponies for a grand project of hers. In that moment, the first one Azure could even really remember in any clarity, she seemed heavenly, a transcendent being calling out to her with great purpose.

But seeing her so close, Azure found herself twisting up inside. A swirling morass of rage, fear, and melancholy filled her. Bitterness that made her feel uncomfortable. She snorted on instinct but as she breathed back in she found that even at this mild distance, she could smell her. It didn’t line up with anything she could claim to know but the scent seemed to only incite the fury inside again, yet at the same moment brought her back to that moment in the fields, watching and listening to her offer, feeling hope and warmth. This was the mare with the answers she sought. But something more than that burned under the surface. A painful longing, mixed and confused in all sorts of ways. She had to understand her, had to figure out what this all meant. But she knew it would be rude to speak up, so Azure sat silently stewing in herself and listened closely to every word she had to say.

“Thank you. I am so proud to see so many faces and I know you’re all- wait we are missing someone. I cannot start unless everyone has been accepted, but I know the stars all found their targets…” Azure could read the worry on the Princess's face, but couldn’t quite figure out why one missing student could be so important.

She did not have to wait long however, as it was only a few moments before, the final student arrived. A blue and brass Pegasus, the left half of their body covered in metal and machines, with visible gears turning in their abdomen through glassy plates. They landed in the crowd without any ceremony, seemingly unflappable. Azure stared in curiosity at this strange half-pegasus. Something in her couldn’t bring her to ascribe anything more specific to them. They seemed to notice her intensive staring, and choked up for a moment before speaking.

“Sorry, I wanted to accept but I needed to speak to my father about it. I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything important.”

The pony spoke in a monotone and dry voice with a slight buzz, and seemed to shuffle away from what must have seemed a strange mare giving them looks to the back of the crowd.

“Good, everyone is here now.” Celestia cleared her throat and started projecting her voice loudly. “I am proud to see so many faces, so many willing at least in some way to take their place in helping Equestria!”

Dusky was the second to interrupt her today. “You said we'd get one wish right?”

“Yes. Yes I did. I will do all in my power to grant you each one wish of your choosing, but first you will need to be here for a while… at the School of Harmony!” Celestia gave a big gesture to the buildings around them, trying to have showmanship but surprisingly nervous on stage for a princess. “I promise I’ll keep my word ,but I need to make sure you will all do your best first!” Celestia’s confidence faltered. Azure didn’t know how but she could tell the little tells, slight twitches and stutters that revealed she was nervous. “What I am asking you to do will not be easy, but I am sure you can do it!”

Some of the crowd grumbled annoyed, others sounding disappointed and even enraged to find out they would have to wait for their promised wishes, but a few seemed understanding. Azure couldn’t hide her own disappointment, but she hadn’t come here just for a wish. She was excited just to help the Princess with whatever she needed. As the crowd finally died down Celestia re-centered herself and continued her presentation.

“I know you were excited, I really do! But wishes are not an easy thing to grant, even for me, and I need to know you’re serious. This school is a commitment, an investment in a better future for all ponykind. But you accepted my offer, and while you are here I expect you to give it a chance. The rules here are simple: show respect, be kind, learn what you can, work together and help those who need you. From time to time I will ask of you all to go on missions for the good of all Ponies. To help others and do for them what is asked of you. I know you all come from different nations, different races, but I need you to work together and prove that coexistence is possible!”

Some of the students grumbled again, but Azure didn’t understand it. Were things really that bad that they needed to be told to tolerate each other? The thought unsettled her.

“But with that said I am afraid I am very busy, so I will leave you in the capable hooves of your new teachers and faculty. Know that I have nothing but faith in all of you!”

Without warning she took flight, taking one look at all of her students for a moment before flying off to the west. Azure tried to reach out, call out her name but something in her throat held her back. Her hoof fell and she had to watch as several more ponies stepped forward to introduce themselves. Teachers, apparently. Each came and went but Azure seemed transfixed on the smaller Alicorn. She didn’t recognize this one, but if she was the same, maybe she would be the key to getting the Princess back? As if on demand, she walked up, last on the stage.

“Hello. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle. I will be your magic teacher for the semester.” Twilight spoke in a monotone voice that made it sound like she was dead inside.

Most of the students seemed to gasp in surprise, taken aback by this revelation. Azure didn’t get it but she could sense the tension in her words, as if she had a knife to her back forcing her to speak them. Many of the Unicorns and a couple of the others bowed to her as Twilight looked over the crowds, seeking to learn about them but in the way one looks at an oncoming storm they'll need to trudge through. Azure was more surprised that she was teaching them at all, she couldn’t be more than a year older than the oldest students herself.

“There are other Princesses?” Azure inquired.

“Yes, there are several. My brother is even… was even betrothed to one at one point.”

Azure noted that and the nerve it hit for later. She continued to interrupt by speaking up.

“This place must be pretty important if you're having even a princess as a teacher! But what exactly are we expected to do? There were a lot of promises but I think we could use more... precisely laid out expectations? What kinds of missions will we be going on? How often? Can we talk to the other Princess? What are we trying to achieve exactly”

“It was laid out fairly well by Celestia, but I'll tell you what she told me. 'You are all being sent to better yourselves, find 'harmony', make allies and friends and to build a better future. Students will be tasked to also go through missions with a team leader chosen from each house, and always with at least one member of each house participating. They are not soldiers but combat may be inevitable, so they will be trained to protect themselves and others. Please treat them more like young diplomats than mercenaries, being trained to help settle conflicts without violence before they escalate. If all goes well the whole of the equestrian continent could even be re-unified properly within a few years! You will all learn, train, hone your skills and... make 'friends' together before the year is done.'”

She said friends with such contempt that everypony present could feel it. Azure had a sneaking suspicion from the looks on most of the other teachers' faces that that these orders extended beyond students, and they weren’t all happy about it. She tried to ask a question about what the houses would be, but was quickly buried by questions from the other students in a mad crab bucket. The noise continued to build until the Princess could take no more.

“ENOUGH!” Twilight snapped at them all. “You all have plenty of questions and I’m sure your OTHER educators will answer them. In the meantime, I have class prep to get back to.”

With that, she flew back into the large building clearly marked as the school’s library, where a small dragon was waiting. Azure waited for the chaos to calm down before finally asking her own question.

“So what are the houses exactly?”

A grizzled Red Pegasus with a sharp black mane and heavy set of armor was the first to answer. Azure had remembered her being introduced as Commander Stormfront, who would be teaching them self defense.

“You’ll be sorted into Unicorn, Pegasus, and Earth Pony houses.”

“Wait, this is a school dedicated to spreading the idea of coexistence and you’re sorting the students by their races? Isn’t that the opposite of helpful?” Azure seemed almost indignant.

“You really don’t know anything do you.” Crown just rolled her eyes at her ignorance.

“Ponies are… not very tolerant of what they aren’t familiar with. Just having the buildings next to each other is progress compared to how most nations treat other pony-kinds.” Dusky chimed in, still close.

“Oh…” Azure simply added. “I hadn’t realized it was that bad out here”.

Out here? Azure didn’t even understand why she added that herself. She really wasn’t from around here was she? Everything was so familiar yet new to her. She ruminated for a moment but quickly noticed most of the students dispersing, only a few hanging around the stage. Dusky, Crown, a few ponies she had met earlier in the day that were talking among themselves, and a strange mare in a witch hat were still hanging around. The moment she locked eyes with the witch and got a good look, she felt as if she had sprung a trap. The Violet mare charged towards her and stopped just shy of her face. There Azure could see in full her eyes, pink with white pupils and gold Sclera. Her Crimson mane was a shaggy mess, and what at a distance looked to be boots on her forelegs were clearly clawed paws attached where hooves should go. She gave Azure a big grin baring fangs that definitely didn’t belong on any Earth Pony.

“Well who are you cutie?~” The witch winked at Azure, trying desperately to get her attention despite being a few inches from her face.

“Azure Star, and this is Dusk’s Dim. You?”

“Cackling Crane, witch of the east! MWAHAHAHA!!” Cackle made sure to pose dramatically with her wicked laughter. “But you can call me Cackle!”

Azure wondered what she meant by east. Her accent was not like most of the students, something that Azure recognized as “Mareman”. Maremany was to the east of Canterlot, on a different continent even so it all checked out. There was only one thing Azure couldn't figure out looking at her.

“So I've been having trouble figuring things out today, are you named after the bird or the construction equipment?”

Azure’s question caused Cackle to totally pause for a second, throwing off her entire aggressive vibe.

“The bird I think?”

“That makes sense! Where did you get that outfit? It seems like almost everyone around her has clothes!”

Azure almost felt insecure. Over half the student body had come accessorized with clothes. All she had was a ratty saddlebag. Even the witch hat was at least distinct.

“Well I’m a witch!! I need some nice clothes to look the part! Best witch is a sexy witch and the best sexy witches are also evil~” She loomed over Azure menacingly. Azure only tilted her head slightly in confusion

“So what is a witch anyways? Is that why you look so… different from other earth ponies?”

“A witch is someone who can do… THIS!!” Cackle screamed as she tore her face off, revealing a terrifying skull face. “MWAHAHAHA!”

The sight of this sent azure running, screaming, terrified at what kind of a pony could survive without a face on. After a few minutes of running in circles, she nearly collapsed and stopped, trying to catch her breath.

“That’s… crazy…”

As she looked back she saw Cackle had her face back. Illusion magic, Azure thought, sure that was the most likely answer. She noticed that Dusky hadn’t run, and was only laughing at the trick Cackle had played. Clearly it couldn’t be that dangerous if she was willing to laugh about it.

“You both seem happy! Is school supposed to be fun?”

“I enjoyed mine for the most part, I love studying!” Dusky perked up.

Cackle burst out laughing at that.

“Ah yes, being forced into a secondary school is definitely something everypony loves like that, especially those who clearly skipped it for a few years already. Personally I can’t wait to have so many ponies to play with, and to have so many captive victims~.”

She wriggled in place, seemingly a bit too excited by this, causing everypony else in the area to step back, which only made her more excited. Dusky was the first to break the tension, too excited to contain herself.

“Well I’m just excited to study under one of the greatest mages who’s ever lived! I still can’t believe TWILIGHT SPARKLE is gonna teach us magic!” Dusky could barely contain another high pitched squee.

Azure considered that statement. She didn't know a ton about the greatest mage who ever lived but she found a small memory of Twilight being a student of Celestia, a researcher of the works of Starswirl The Bearded, and that she had been an exceptional mage since magic kindergarten. She didn't know why she remembered this now and not earlier. Memory was a funny thing.

“Thinking back, she does seem pretty cool, and probably knows a ton about magic! I can't wait to get to know her better.”

“Well, I'd love to meet her properly. She didn't talk much. Pretty mares like that really should stick around more~.” Cackle couldn’t help herself but interfere.

“You seem excited too! With any luck the school part will be fun, right?”

“Hahaha! Yes, very fun! In all sorts of ways~!”

Most of the other students were quiet, giving a variety of strange looks and prompting Cackle to lower her stance and retreat inward with nervous laughter.

“Hey! Does anypony else want to meet up and make friends” Azure Shouted.

Most students mostly kept their distance. Something about Cackle and Dusky seemed to be putting them off, and Azure’s enthusiasm was bordering on insincere, to them at least. Only one pony stepped forward at her offer, an earthy brown earth pony with an olive mane that seemed content to blend into the crowd as she got close.

“I’m uh… Elixir Mix. Uh you can call me Eli though --- if you’d like I mean!” The wallflower practically whispered.

Azure constructed a spectral hand of pure magic to shake her hoof. She wasn’t really sure why but that seemed like the polite thing to do, even if Eli seemed confused by it.

“Well I’m Azure Star! I’m new!”

Eli cocked an eyebrow at that, as if trying to figure out what she meant as she shook the floating hand.

“We’re… we’re all new. This is the first day.”

“I meant it's my first day in general! Ever, I think? At least that I can remember…” Azure's mind dwelled on her memory from earlier. She strained for something past it but nothing came up.

“Wait, like in a 'born yesterday' sort of way?” Eli’s curiosity had clearly been piqued by the strange Unicorn in front of her. Somehow she shot up and became bolder, as if the mystery had pulled her out of her fears.

“Well yeah, I woke up, saw a sky city, got almost hit by a shooting star, and now I'm here! I don’t have any memories before that.”

“So you really have no memories from before today? Hmm. Are you sure you didn't just lose them? You look to be at least a teenager, can’t have grown up that quick…” Eli started walking around her, looking her up and down for any signs of damage.

“Well... no? I remember some things. Like I can talk, so clearly I know at least one language. Actually, thinking about it I think I know a few. But I don't know how I know them. So maybe I did have memories before? But I don’t know where they went.” Her mind hung on the flashing before. Was that relevant? Were they taken from her? That was a frightening thought. Perhaps she should keep it to herself for now, until she knew she could trust these ponies.

Cackle slunk over to force her way back into the conversation.

“Maybe she's maybe of magic! I could explore that with her~.”

“Well if she is then i would love to study her too, if she’d let me!” Eli managed to say, trying to not be pushed out of her own puzzle.

Azure shrank away partially at this, nervous as they all eyed her up. “I don't know. I would love to know more but I don't know if I'm some 'thing' to study. Maybe I just... forgot? Yeah, maybe!”

“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything. Please know I’d never wanna de-equinize you. You can trust me, that I won’t hurt you if you let me learn, but I won't push it too much either.” Eli seemed to recognize her anxieties and stepped back not to crowd Azure.

“Same. I’m happy to look into you however I can as long as you're okay with it~.” Cackle tried her best to put on a serious face, but couldn’t.

Azure could almost sense a twinge of hesitation to the sultry tone there, as if she was really trying not to do it.

“ I guess? what exactly would you want to do??”

“Gather samples, test for anything unusual, and talk with you about what you can find I guess? I’m more of an alchemist than a doctor but I can try!” Eli was laden with potions, pulling a few out and looking them over to see if any might help in this situation.

“-and all I want is to learn the more intimate details~!” Cackle was trying. She really was.

Eli glared with contempt at the unhelpful Pony beside her.

“Sure? Do you think maybe the teachers could help too? They're probably pretty smart, right?” Azure wasn’t sure how wise it was to let a student who wasn’t actually a doctor to take samples from her.

“Maybe. But I got bad vibes from Princess Twilight. It isn’t even day one and she already yelled at us…” The moment anything not related to science came up, Eli seemed to deflate into nervousness again.

“I guess I was too focused on how stressed she seemed. I'm sure she didn't mean anything personal by it." Azure tried to comfort Eli with a gentle pat.

Cackle pressed up against Azure trying to get her to talk. “Stressed? How could you tell?”

“I don't know. She just seemed... overwhelmed? I don't think she wanted to be around all of us at once. She didn't seem excited when explaining her part in this place, it almost felt like she’s being forced to be here. I’m not sure she’s as excited about making friends as we are.”

“Oh gods! Please let the big princess be a shy girl that’d be so fun~.” Cackle giggled to herself.

Azure carefully studied this reaction, and the strangely emphasized tone of voice. She noticed Eli’s constant side-eyes towards the mare, and was finally starting to piece together something to say on the matter.

“You talk funny. It makes other ponies uncomfortable for some reason.”

“Yeah, 'funny'. You know what else is funny, you innocent little Fraulein? This!”

Cackle laughed maniacally as her body started to fall to pieces, until there was a pile of her laughing on the ground. Azure could only stare in confusion at the mess before her, but tried to put on a brave face and didn’t run away this time.

“Aw boo. I’ll try harder next time, cutie~.”

“Those Parlor tricks really are impressive - for an Earth Pony,” a familiar voice chided from nearby.

Azure turned and saw Golden not far from where she had been, sitting with a book and taking notes but eyes darting between all of the ponies present, focused like a predator. Azure walked over to her. She had rode in on the Princess’s back --- if anypony could get her to come back maybe it was Crown?

“Hi Crown! Do you want to get to know each other? I mean, you said yourself you were pretty important right?”

“Get to know each other? Fine. I can do that, for all of your sake. You know my name, but don’t seem to be respecting the weight that it carries, so let me make things clearer. In Canterlot, there is only one thing that matters, and that’s power. Prestige and status give a power of their own. I come from a wealthy family, and have a number of titles that I can leverage over the average unicorn, and especially any Earth Ponies.” Crown glared at Eli and Cackle not far from them, Cackle clearly trying to scare Eli and finding it all too easy. “But above all else Canterlot values Magical power, and in that I’m easily the best in my age bracket. So what can you tell me that would actually be worth my time, little thing?”

“About what? Myself? The world? The Stars?”

“Context clues, sweet Celestia you're slow. Yourself obviously!”

“I woke up just over an hour ago? It's a bit fuzzy. The others think I'm either something that was made or just forgot my memory. I'm sorry, I can't tell you a lot more about myself other than that because, well you know, I don't know. But I think I'm magical too!”

“Oh you're magical too?” Crown couldn’t contain her condescending laugh. “Well I’d hope so, you ARE a unicorn after all.”

Crown could hardly believe it. Was this girl for real? Coming up to her as dumb as she was and thinking she had any right to talk to her? It was absurd.

“I guess I am! Does that help? I saw the other ponies doing stuff that was magical earlier. Cackle was changing her body, and Dusky told me she has her own ghost!” It occurred to Azure that at that moment she still didn’t actually know what house Dusky was a part of. She had no horn so couldn’t be a Unicorn, and hadn’t shown wings, but the cloak made it hard to tell and a quick tally of the students suggested she had to have them for there to be a perfect balance.

“Yes I guess some of the non-unicorns do seem to have magic - somehow. But they will need to work hard to capture a tenth of our full potential, just to get a taste of what unicorns can do. And I am at the top percentile of that, so they’ve got no chance to catch up!” Crown just grinned, full of a smothering pride.

“Oooh, what can you do?”

Azure seemed genuinely excited. If this was one of the best mages of her generation, she could probably help figure out what happened to her in no time.

“Well I can put anyone in their place for one”

Crown booped Azure on the nose, and all at once Azure could feel her mind going numb and falling apart. What little she could remember felt far away and difficult to grasp as she felt her mind slipping away. It was as if the haze from earlier had returned in full force, and Azure felt the same confusion and fear bubbling to the surface. Crown just cackled at her stumbling around.

“Now dance like a monkey! Dance!”

Azure froze up. She felt a wave of magic flow over her, clearly some spell Crown had intended to cast, but it didn’t take. But the threat of it was real enough to trigger something within her, a spike of cold violent indignation that quickly built within her gut. A light started to flood into her horn building up slowly as she collected magical energy into a single point. She stood dead silent, trying to bring some words to the surface but unable to sputter out more than an incoherent 'Guh' sound.

“What are you doing? You’re not dancing. I told you to listen to me. Do it!” Crown snarled at her.

Azure couldn’t respond. She remained frozen in place, her hooves too heavy to move as she continued to gather energy. Her mind had no room left to answer, the very spell Crown had flung at her keeping her from reigning herself in. Crown tried to fire another spell at her, to bend her mind into submission, but it passed over Azure’s mind without taking root.

“Stop that! If you dare to cast a spell on me I swear I will-”

Azure’s silence continued as her eyes began to glow with power, 4 pointed stars manifesting in them as she fully charged a painfully bright orb at the tip of her horn. In an instant it blasted forth as a beam of light, slamming Golden into the side of a nearby building. Azure tried to speak again, but the voice seemed alien even to her.

"Cease Hostilities!" Azure tried to force more through but the haze kept dragging her thoughts away from her.

“Excuse me! Well, you want a duel miss Azure Star? You think that will scare me? Perhaps you should take a nap right where you belong! Sleep!”

Another spell shot off Crown’s horn and in an instant Azure could feel this was different. A wave of lethargy passed over her, and once again everything went dark.

When Azure came to her senses, her mind felt much better, but her body felt battered and exhausted. She tried to look around, but saw only darkness. A wretched smell surrounded her, and as she squirmed through some resistant material she could feel a hard metal surface beneath her. In the darkness her feelings were swelling, still filled with bitter violence and anger from before. She hated these feelings, but hating them only fueled them.

As Azure considered her own surge of violent instincts, a light broke through and a hoof came down as a lid above her opened. She took it, and was quickly pulled out by Dusky.

“Oh. Thank you.”

“You ok?” Dusky asked her, gagging from the smell but still trying her best.

“No.”

“Most ponies don't get fished out of the dumpster okay so that checks out”

“How did I get in a dumpster?”

“Oh, uh… Crown threw you in after you passed out. Said it was where 'trash tier unicorns' belonged. But you should have seen how angry a lot of the other students got! Well most of them. I had to practically hold Cackle back from clawing her face off! Why don’t you come along and we’ll… uh… Azzy, you okay?”

That was too much for Azure. Tension continued to build in her gut. Azure didn’t understand what was going on, but felt an instinct urging her to hunt, to pursue, to identify the threat and take it down or take it out. She looked around and saw the others, some looking annoyed, others, ready to help, and a few just keeping their heads down. She thought inward. Where could she find her enemy?

In a sudden flash she got her answer. Memories of the wealthy and powerful, in so many meetings, showing off all they had. Audacious displays of wealth to make the worse off envious of them. Crown would either have retreated to somewhere private, or be in the most aggressively public space possible.

Azure scanned the public area again, looking into the crowds. To the east, a crowd was forming around a building. She did not care to take in its details. She ran, an unconscious spell cast to warp space with every step and bring her closer to her destination, until she barged in. Behind her a small posse followed, excited to see how this was resolved.

“Wait, don’t just run in and get yourself hurt!” Dusky shouted. Azure ignored it.

Crown and Eli were sitting together at a table, along with someone Azure didn’t recognize. Seeing Eli there only made her more angry. How could she be talking with that, that jerk! No. She didn’t care about her. She wanted to hurt Crown. She could feel the gnawing inside welling up. Was it childish? Perhaps. She didn’t care about that either. She would have retribution, and make amends for her humiliation. Her horn sparked to life as three bolts of shimmering blue magic with a crackling black glow darted off and struck Crown. Crown stumbled as she climbed up from the ground, adjusting her hair back to its prim perfection.

“Well if it isn't the dumpster diving upstart! Can't take a joke I see. You lost, the duel’s over! But fine, if you can’t take defeat gracefully then let's end this! I’ll beat you down as many times as it takes for you to get the message!”

Sudden bolts of lighting flew out of an array of magic that manifested almost as fast as the flashes, electrifying Azure. As soon as the spell hit, Crown dove for cover behind one of the tables in the room. Azure struggled to stand but something pushed her on. She could not allow herself to lose like this. Crown shouted from behind her cover.

“Elixir! As soon as you can, toss me a potion!”

“But I-okay.” Eli conceded instantly, cowering to Crown's orders.

Azure shot Eli a glare of fury. Eli seemed to recognize that if she interfered she might get hurt too, and just ducked under another table.

Azure began to cry openly, tears streaming down her face as the glow from before returned, this time more punctuated by that black aura. She didn’t know why but being thrown out like trash set her off in pure fury.

“I'm... I'm not just some GARBAGE to be THROWN AWAY!” Defeat dragged her voice down to an unusually low register.

She refused to take chances and dove past the table, firing more darts into Crown. They saturated her sides and as the magic dissipated Azure could see open wounds left behind as Crown collapsed unconscious.

“Ah! Oh no she’s gonna be so mad!” Eli nearly fell over stumbling over and administering some alchemical solution into Crown’s wounds.

As soon as Azure knew she was down, the crackling aura vanished, and anxiety grew in her. Seeing Crown lie there weakly she realized Crown was hardly any older than her, probably just as young and stupid. Azure panicked, and ran, space still warping as she rushed past the crowd around the school looking for somewhere to hide.

Azure kept running, ignoring the sounds of a blast of magic behind her. She was frustrated, alone, angry, terrified, and above all ashamed, and she needed to hide. As she ran in a big circle around the grounds she spotted a tower, and ducked in. The stairways went up almost 8 stories, until at the top she found herself in an observatory, covered in star charts, with a giant dome open to the sky above. She sat in a dark corner, hiding from everything, overwhelmed by it all.

“Stupid... everyone! Shouldn't have come here. Shouldn’t have fought! Shouldn’t have… “

She sniffled miserably, until she was startled by a hug from behind.

“Hey, it's okay. You're not stupid." A voice came from the pony hugging her.

“What?! Who’s there!?”

Azure pulled away from being touched, shifting her back towards the corner, as much as a round building can have a corner. Before her sat a unicorn mare with jet black fur, a hood covering her white and dark gray mane, and a look of absolute compassion on her face. Azure noted how sharp but gentle her purple eyes were, and felt oddly at ease.

“It's me, Night Gaze. I see you're hurt, I just want to help.”

“I guess? I just. I don't know anything. But these ponies don't seem to care! I mean Dusky was nice I guess... but nopony else did anything to help.”

Azure sniffled, feeling pathetic for hoping anyone else would have finished her battle for her.

“When you went down literally everyone was upset --- well pretty much --- some just didn't know what to do. I would have helped but I didn't know if I could without... I should have helped. Dusky said she had it and Eli, well Eli was terrified and immediately started to grovel not to hurt her the moment Crown shot her a look. I swear that witch would have skinned the would-be princess alive if it wasn't her running off though."

Azure just grumbled when Eli was mentioned.

“I can't imagine she's going to stop any wars if she starts cowering and submitting the first time someone acts mean to her. But I guess I can't say I'll do much better, hurting ponies like that. I just don't know where I am. I don't know WHO I am. And I got so mad to but treated like I didn’t belong just because of that. But I didn't want to hurt her either! Something just took over and then I wanted to in that moment. But I also still didn't? That doesn't make any sense does it?” Azure couldn't figure out her own feelings right now. How could Night?

“It makes sense, you said some weird stuff. I saw 3 of them pull out notebooks when it happened. I do get it, the rage at being attacked for no reason, when you feel belittled and when you get treated badly by people who don't even know you. We all just met and we don't know each other, and there's always time to try and fix things. Where I come from, our faith tells us no sin is without redemption and no person is without grace. Anyone can be good. The issue is 'can', but most people have reasons to act how they do even when they fail to be their best self. Fear, rage, anxiety, defensiveness, and sadness. Don't take today personally, aim for a better tomorrow and try to think about where people’s actions are coming from, and you might learn who they really are.”

“That sounds nice. I guess I could give the others a chance. They probably didn't mean anything, and it sounds like more helped than I was there to see.”

Azure pondered this mention of "faith", trying to delve into her memories again. Suddenly more flooded in, as magic surged around her. Two perspectives, filled with loss, a deep longing for something so far away. But through the melancholy she could understand what she was seeing. The mare before her was a cultist of Luna, the princess sent to the moon for her “Betrayal" of Equestria and its people. She spoke up again with this context.

“Yeah, I guess others might know how I feel. But why did you keep asking them about your faith? Like if it would be allowed? It sounds so nice.”

“Many ponies don't like our faith. They see us as wanting 'doom' for Equestria, wanting a traitor and tyrant back in power. There is a sect who do believe that, but we have denounced them as heretics to our true cause. We believe in who Luna was, not what she became. A dream maker, therapist, emotional healer and matriarch of her people. She fell to feeling unloved, to envy and rage, to thinking she was unwanted and unneeded. Like any of us could, if we were in her position. We just want her to find peace and we want to give that same empathy she deserved and never had.”

“That doesn't sound so bad. I'm happy they let you stay.”

“Everyone belongs, everyone deserves empathy, everyone deserves a chance to be better. Even, if not especially, ourselves. Hopefully we can start to share that message through the school, some day.”

Azure grumbled something about Golden, but couldn’t even fully articulate it. She was so tired. Or maybe in pain? She flopped on the ground, realizing the burns on her from Crown’s Lightning were stinging. Somehow she knew this should have hurt her more than it was.

“Yeah. What is this place anyways?” Azure started to look around the place and take it all in.

Night walked over and put her horn on Azure’s side, letting it glow as magic soothed her wounds.

“It’s an observatory. Our faith regards them as sacred sites because they let us see her, and hopefully let her see us in return.”

“Oh I'm good with that stuff I think. The stars I mean, and charting them. It's in my name. And this thing. Cutie Mark right?” Azure poked the 4 pointed blue star on her flank that seemed to almost twinkle under its own magic.

“Heh, cutie marks yeah. They can mean a lot, but they show us who we are, a gift from destiny and the stars themselves.” That line seemed deeply ironic to Azure, who noticed the robes that Night was wearing covered her own mark.

“Maybe at some point I'll meet this destiny then!” Azure proudly declared.

She went over to the observatory’s main telescope, and began checking it over. It was pointed precisely to where the moon would rise shortly. She tried to center herself again, looking over the rest of the room. Star charts, books on space, and even the roof was a giant map of constellations. She looked over the charts, trying to figure out what they were depicting, as the phenomenon from earlier repeated, sending her out of her own body, and into something else. She could feel herself, but not herself, and knew in some way that while this was true, it was also just a vision. She could see white legs beneath her, feel the tears trailing down her face, the ennui and despair within herself. She looked up and could see the stars, spinning in the heavens. Nearly a thousand years of movement in but a moment, and all the charts tracking every night for most of them. She stumbled out of it in a confused haze, snapping back to reality.

“This place has been used before us... for so long.” Her tone was sadder now, still carrying the melancholy of those memories.

“How can you tell?”

“I can feel it. The pull to the Moon. I can see the past, a Millennia of stars being tracked all at once, and I know all their names. They've changed so much and yet... barely moved at all. Are we supposed to be here?”

“What do you mean, we’re allowed anywhere in the school that isn't listed as restricted. But are you saying you can see the past?”

“Not all of it. Not all the time. I don't really know what triggers it yet, just a weird quirk of my magic I guess. Not that it's helped me remember my own life very much. Always gets stuck at the same spot.”

“Maybe it will with some help. Let the moon guide you.”

“Worth a shot I guess!”

Azure sat at the telescope and waited for the moon to rise, to see if its presence would help at all. When it did she marveled at its beauty, and felt a spark of magic within her come alive, but found no more memories flooding into her.

“No, nothing right now. It doesn't say anything. It's pretty though.”

She watched it for a moment longer, enjoying the company of her friend, before a realization hit her.

“We probably were supposed to do something with the others! I hope we didn't miss anything important.”

“Well we are both heading to 'unicorn' house so let's go together then.” Night performed a brief ritual, dedicating herself to the rising moon, then packed her things to head down alongside Azure.

They headed down together, and were immediately scooped up by Stormfront as they stepped out of the building.

“There you are soldiers. I mean, students. Sorry, gonna take a bit to get used to that. Lets get you to your dorms!"

She carried them to a trio of buildings, each with a long central hallway open to the outside air, and 3 doors on each side of. 6 rooms each, for 18 students. Azure looked over her shoulder, glancing back to the Moon over the observatory, and then back to her new friend. Night gave a simple prayer before picking one of the doors. Azure picked another one. It was simply furnished inside, a bed against the wall, a set of drawers, and a window. In short order the rest were picked, but Azure didn’t have time to fuss over her neighbors. The night was upon them, and she curled up on her lonely bed, drifting off to sleep in blissful ignorance of the true suffering it meant to be an Oracle.

Day Two: Questions
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School of (Restoring) Harmony

Day Two: Questions

Azure struggled to remember where she was as she found herself walking in a dark forest, or at least the smallest chunk of a grove. She took a closer look at the trees around her and realized that they were a mere illusion, nothing existed past a few feet of her. Nothing except the moon. Its light bore down on her with an unnatural weight that pulled on her, and it was obviously much too large for the tiny slice of forest she was standing on. Against the sky surrounding it the moonglow seemed almost intense as the sun, but when she looked at it she could not pull her eyes away. Within the rocky formation of craters ponies called “The Mare In The Moon”, a sharp blue-green eye was staring at her.

Azure tried to move slowly around her limited space and could feel the eye tracking her. It was different from the rest of the space around her, something about it felt more real, more alive. She reached up towards it and saw the craters fill with a viscous black fluid, which began to drip down to the bottom of the moon. Time began to accelerate at a breakneck pace, the sun rising into the sky and sinking back down as drops of the black pooled on the ground beneath the moon which never moved. Azure struggled to count but found at the pace everything happened she only became dizzy, and so she just focused on the moon. Somehow she didn’t need to see it all. Her mind told her the answer, an obvious one. Three hundred sixty six sunrises, and just as many drops off the moon. When the last one fell the Eye fell loose with it, and the sun went down a final time. When it set, time came to a crashing halt, leaving her stuck again in a single moment. Azure could only watch as the inky shadows started to pull themselves together, the lone eye doubling as a strange creature took form and stood before her.

Azure didn’t understand the feelings she was experiencing. Tension, fear, anxiety, yes. Those made sense. But there was something else. Excitement. Yearning. The eyes looking at her felt so familiar in all their anger and sadness. Their predatory slits didn’t cause her the fear they should have, just an overwhelming pain and longing that seemed to intensify gravity with every passing moment. Her hoof outstretched, she tried to approach the creature, feeling something she could not comprehend burning inside, some deep and unrealized need to reach it. To touch it. The creature watched her struggle to get close under the intense pressure, and just as she was about to at last press her hoof to it --

The ringing of a loud bell shook Azure awake, causing her to jolt up in her bed, and quickly roll off. Of course it was a dream. Azure knew it wasn’t worth lingering on fanciful dreams but found it difficult. What exactly was supposed to happen in one year? Who was that creature? She had an inkling of familiarity but needed to jog her memory. But the chirp of birds outside and the murmur of movement in the neighboring room made it clear she didn’t have time to dwell on dreams forever.

Azure just shook herself awake and looked around to ground herself. She hadn’t taken in the full extent of the room given to her last night, and wanted to see what she had to work with. The bed was simple, wooden frame, white sheets and blanket. The walls were white too actually, with a beautiful marbled pattern up a few meters and then interrupted by bars of a gold looking metal, probably for ventilation. The ceiling was made of some sort of purple tiling, and the floor a polished but much more dull grey stone. A single small window high on the wall opposite the door allowed light in, but Azure could see the vents above allowed passive light to bounce into the room as well. Aside from the bed there was a simple dresser, presumably for those students that actually had clothes. The whole place was somewhere between ornate and austere. She could appreciate the effort. Maybe the students were expected to personalize them over time? She had nothing to add to hers right now, so she just grabbed her bag and left the room.

The hall, she noticed, was much the same as the rooms in architecture. Fitting given the shared wall, but here the wall continued further past the vents into a high arched marble ceiling. Encased glowing crystals gave a dim hum of light from above, which was almost imperceptible compared to the morning light. The hall itself was open at both ends to the outside, no doors or attempt to contain the outside. Azure tried to grapple with this exposure to the elements before remembering that anywhere with access to cooperative Pegasi could control their own weather.

Looking at the students themselves, Azure noticed the other Unicorns were all up and about. One of them with a fiery coat and mane rocketed off on a blast of magical fire out of the hall, and a brown one with a guitar seemed to still be asleep as an animated bed of clay slowly carried him towards some destination. Crown saw Azure and immediately shot her a scowl before leaving herself. The only one that seemed excited to see Azure was Night, who strode over to her immediately.

“Blessed morning, Miss Star. How did you sleep? I hope it was a good night for you after the hardships of yesterday?” Night was the first to speak to her, and Azure was happy to see her, despite struggling for a moment with her formal and flowery tone.

“Not great. I had a strange dream. I saw the face on the moon start dripping black drops all over the place until something formed from it and just stared at me. I think something important is going to happen in exactly a year? I don’t know, maybe I was looking at it a bit too late at the observatory or something. I just felt like it was more real than the rest of the dream. How about you?”

“Luna’s light! That might be a prophecy! Perhaps you saw a vision! Of her! Did you say exactly a year?” Night frantically pulled out a scrap of paper to take notes and check the date.

“Or, like they said, it was only a dream. I dreamed of a grand adventure with allies in tow. Does that mean it’s destined to pass? Perhaps, but only because I’ll make it so.” A deep voice joined the conversation from behind them both.

Azure looked to find the source of the response. It was a pony that looked somewhat similar to herself but much larger, a Stallion with a light blue coat, short blue and purple mane that seemed perfectly trimmed, and wearing a full suit of armor. She had seen him the other day but couldn’t recall who he was.

“But I forget my manners. I am Gallant Sheen, son of Shield Sheen and knight in training for the Royal Order of The Dragon.”

Gallant bowed to her, in a stiff ceremonial way that she could tell was more about protocol than respect.

“From what I hear you’re named Azure Star, yes? I would suggest you do not waste your attention on the ramblings of a mad-mare cultist”

“I am not mad, nor is our faith a cult! I am just excited by the prospect of any news on our Lady of the Night!” Night stomped her hoof in frustration.

Gallant tried to keep his composure but clearly broke for just a moment to giggle and snicker at her innocence.

“Well your… “Deity” is the subject of much controversy in Canterlot even to this day. It is only by her sister’s decree that your faith is still legal and tolerated in her territory. It would be for the best if you did not wear it so brazenly.” His tone was stiff and judgemental as he looked over Night’s garb.

Something about this made Azure upset. How tolerated is a faith if you are told to hide it in public?

“That might be true but I will not deny my faith, no matter where I am or what others think of it. Besides, any news of her is worth the risk. And you heard what she said. If it’s exactly a year that would be the thousand year anniversary of her banishment! What if it’s a sign!” She turned to Azure, face still beaming with an excitement that Azure did not want to disappoint. “Have you had any prophetic dreams before?”

“I can't remember any other dreams so I don't really have a good frame of reference. I can’t say it isn’t a vision but I can’t say it is either. I’m sorry.” Azure hung her head in shame that she did not have any answers.

“See? She doesn’t know and we need to help her figure it out!”

“I see you need to calm down and not confuse our friend.” Gallant tried to pat Azure’s mane patronizingly, which was quite easy as he was nearly a foot taller than her.

“Our-wait does that mean we're friends?!” Azure’s eyes lit up to stars again, but there were no signs of preparing an attack, just a pure unbridled excitement.

“Well we did have quite the heart to heart last night, it would be odd to at least not try to be friends. Besides, you’re probably one of the only ponies who hasn’t taken a jab at my faith yet.” Night hugged Azure close, and unlike last night she accepted it. It was actually pretty nice.

“We are in the same house while we are at the school. While this is true, we must all function as a unit, and bear our heraldry with pride and distinction. So yes, we must at least try to be “friends”, regardless of any prior affiliations, or transgressions.” Gallant gave Azure a stern glare she couldn’t understand, and huffed slightly as he turned back to Night. “Even cultists who worship traitors.”

“Well it's good to have friends. Maybe we should talk to the other Unico-”

Azure was rudely interrupted by the crackling of a magical speaker on the ceiling.

"Attention all students! The first day of class is about to begin. Breakfast will be served in the cafeteria, and a map of the facility is also there for those who need it. You will head to the main class room after breakfast and remain there until a teacher leads you to another room or dismisses you. Please have a great first day!" The speaker crackled out as abruptly as it started up.

“Wait, what if we don't know where the cafeteria is?” Azure was surprised at the assumption they could use a map if they didn’t know where it was.

“Well that would probably be because both of you ran away before we got a tour of the school. But that would make sense for you given the wounds after your duel. If you retrace your steps from yesterday you will surely find that you have already been there.”

“I have? What duel?”

“Yes, you have. You caused quite a commotion yesterday, fighting in the Cafeteria, injuring the Princess’s protege and fleeing the scene. Your unprovoked retaliation violated the rules of an honor duel, and it’s surprising you haven’t faced disciplinary action yet. It’s a rather dishonorable act that I’d encourage you to avoid in the future if you want to reflect well on our house.”

“Honor duel? Is that what she thought that was?” Azure seemed genuinely confused. Gallant continued his glare for a few moments, before breaking it in a sudden shift to sincerity.

“Was it not? Did you not agree to it?”

“No! She started casting spells on me and I had to fight back!” Azure was filled with indignation at the implications. Did he think she agreed to get thrown in the trash? She didn’t want a fight until she was forced to.

“If this is true then the dishonor is on her. Coming from such an esteemed family I thought she would know better than to illegally first strike. Perhaps she does though, and avoided pressing the issue of you retaliating because she knew she was in the wrong. My condolences for any harshness, but you should strive to learn more about Canterlot’s culture before interacting with her. Outsider unicorns tend to have difficulty integrating into our society, if you do not approach her prepared she will crush you on the social front.” Gallant’s entire demeanor had shifted, from the stern gaze of a knight looking at a dishonorable knave to that of a chivalrous knight who was ready to protect a slighted maiden. Azure wasn’t sure if this was better.

“Thank you, Gallant, I’ll try to learn more in the future. Should we all go to breakfast as a group?”

“I’d like that.” Night chimed in.

“May as well. To the Mess then.” Gallant led the way, unable to stifle a sigh as the cultist followed along.

Azure went with them to breakfast, her dream slipping to the back of her mind. She noticed Night staying very close to her as they all walked, and she stayed close in turn. It was quickly becoming apparent that even other Unicorns were going to be difficult to befriend, but if she at least had one she could keep her spirits high.

The cafeteria was actually the closest building to the dorms, and azure probably would have checked it first anyways. The building was much wider than it was tall, and while it followed the same marble and gold aesthetic as the rest of the school, something about it seemed almost repurposed. White tiles inside created a beautiful walkway along the grey floors, large windows in the walls flooded the place with light, and at either ends of the arched roof were giant stained glass mosaics. One depicted Celestia raising the sun, and was fittingly lit by the actual rising sun behind it. The other depicted an Alicorn that Azure couldn’t recognize but felt like a fitting parallel, backed by a crescent moon, and dull in the shadow of the building’s roof. Between them was another purple roof, supported by heavy wooden rafters, where Azure could see one of the Pegasus students had chosen to eat. At the back of the room opposite the entrance was a long counter setup with a variety of foods that filled the air with salty-sweet smells. A passageway behind it clearly led to some sort of kitchen, and a bearded old stallion was hard at work moving food from the back onto the counter.

Azure grabbed a bowl of humble oats and looked for a seat. Most of the space was taken up by three long tables, each labeled with a mark that seemed to indicate a specific house, and a fourth one overlooking them all, where Azure could see some of the teachers already eating. The Earth Ponies had already filled their table and were chatting loudly among themselves, while the Pegasi seemed more focused on quietly eating their meals and sizing each other up. Crown had gotten to the Unicorn table ahead of her with the other two unicorns, taking a position near the end of the table with the other two sitting on the same side. Azure snorted a bit upon seeing her but considered the layout and got an idea.

“No offense to anyone but I still think this whole setup is missing the point. Isolating ourselves from the other houses isn’t going to help us make friends.”

Azure dragged the chair across from Crown to the head of the table, preventing anypony from sitting across from her and isolating her in some small act of spite. Not to be outdone, Crown simply got up and relocated her chair in response to the opposite end of the table, staring Azure down across it. Night sat next to Azure but spoke up on her confusion.

“An unorthodox seating arrangement I’ll admit, but perhaps it’s for the best we keep you two apart for now. What was that about missing the point? Are you not doing the same by re-organizing the unicorn table?”

“I meant the separate tables. If we're supposed to be working on bringing peace and harmony to all sorts of different ponies, why are we expected to sit apart from each other?”

“The Princess wants us to be more cooperative, that's true. But the tensions and disagreements between the races of ponykind are many. Even within Canterlot only the most exceptional Earth Ponies are ever allowed even into the middle rings of the city unless they’re under the direct employ of the Princess. The Earth Ponies here are being given a privilege unthinkable in any other academy in the nation.” Gallant took the last free seat, now stuck next to Night.

“I guess, but we could still have a better table. A bigger table. That's round! So everyone can see each other!” Azure chewed her food between statements, eating rudely right off her plate in a way that Crown clearly noticed.

“Oh of course you eat like a savage too. Found someone to teach you how to live in Canterlot like a real unicorn?”

“Leave her alone Miss Crown” Night spoke up, before Azure could even utter a word in her own defence.

“The best teaching moments are learned through experience, and without it miss born yesterday here is such a malleable fresh mind to mold! If you just let her make a fool of herself now, she always will.”

Azure thought about that. She hadn’t told Crown about her situation but she wasn’t far away when it was being explained. Was her book filled with notes on her? That was an unsettling idea to consider. At least the other two were glaring at Crown as well now. As much as she hated to admit she was right, Azure didn’t want to look like a fool and tried to think of something fancy. In a spark of inspiration she checked her bag and pulled out a spoon!

“Right! This! Would this be more “proper” to eat with?”

Crown chuckled at it. “It’s the bare minimum. Do you usually carry your own silverware around with you?”

“My dad would say it’s always good to be prepared.” Night remained in her corner but was curious as well. “It’s a valid question though. You don’t recall your history, maybe it’s a clue?”

Crown looked at it, her horn faintly glowing as her aura covered it. “Hmm. It’s magic.”

“What? How can you tell?” Azure tried to snatch it back only for Crown to jerk it up.

“Because I’m the best! But also because I’ve seen spoons like this before. It’s meant to purify food and drinks. It could be used to make bad water drinkable if you’re wandering around the wilderness, but they’re more frequently used to purify poisons under threat of assassination.”

“Really? That’s pretty cool right?”

“That’s not the word I’d use. If a Unicorn has one of these it means one of two things --- You’re a vagabond who can’t find a place to stay and needs to risk drinking rainwater --- or you believe somepony is trying to kill you. So which were you?” Crown gently bapped Azure’s nose with it before letting it fall to her plate.

Azure tried to think of a good answer but still didn’t have one. She didn’t wake up in some high society soiree yesterday, but in the middle of the woods. She didn’t want to admit that being a homeless vagabond looked like the more likely answer.

“Well at least it’s useful. I could do a lot with a spoon like that. Maybe there’s one out there that heats up your soup as you eat it too.” Night playfully nudged her.

“If not I'll have to make one. Or maybe a frying pan that does the same! Wait, do you think they'll teach us how to make Magic Items? Everyone can benefit from a little magic here and there right? We could use them to help ponies across the world!” Azure tried to deflect her anxieties with the first thoughts that came to her head.

“Don’t insult the great Twilight Sparkle by even insinuating that that was in question! With her as our teacher we will learn magic item creation for sure!” Crown shook the table pressing her forehooves into it to half stand on it.

Azure was surprised. This was the first time she’d heard Crown speak praise to anyone but herself.

“Then maybe she'll know what the other one is for too!”

“The other one?” Crown craned her neck over.

“This!”

Azure reached into her bag and pulled out another object. It was a small circular device made of an off-copper metal. It was adorned with tiny turquoise dots that glowed a gentle green, and 4 small starpoints jutting out of it. A circular insert at the top contained a perfectly polished grey stone that hummed with magic. Azure pressed the top of it and it popped open to reveal an interior, with a starry black space that seemed magically animated surrounding the inner side of the inlay to frame the grey stone. Inside a simple needle spun, with various markings and symbols to measure its position as an unknown map manifested under the glass.

“This was the only other thing in my bag. I don’t know what it does. But it has to be really important.”

Crown Eyed it curiously.

“It’s beautiful.” Night marveled at the starry field inside it transfixed on the shifting patterns.

“It’s certainly something magical… but I don’t recognize it. And that’s not something that happens often, I’ll give you that much. ” Crown seemed genuinely perturbed by this device.

“I need to go get ready for class.” Gallant stammered as he quickly got up and left, not even bothering to pick up his plates.

Azure watched him leave, noting his anxiety and frantic speed. Deep down she believed that couldn’t be a coincidence, but whatever he knew, she could press him for later.

“That was weird. Well if you can’t, maybe Princess Twilight will be able to identify it? I wonder if she's teaching us today.”

“Probably. It's on the schedule.” Crown slunk back into her seat, obviously annoyed at the implication that the Princess would do better, even if she couldn’t contest it.

“There's a schedule? Where?”

“On the map on that board? Do you know anything?” Crown pointed at a board on the wall near the entrance.

Azure tried to brush off Crown’s remarks and went over to the board. Law, Math, Economics? Were they being trained to be accountants? Strategy seemed to contradict the claim about not being child soldiers, History made sense, a rotating cycle of Humanities, Lunch far too late in the day, a rotating science and… rotating magic.

“Aww... Magic's at the end of the day. I guess we'll get there eventually.”

“Well, while there are stories that truly exceptional Ponies of other races can manage to develop something resembling spellcraft, Unicorns like us remain the only true masters of magic. If I had to guess the only reason they put it at the end is so the other students could leave early and focus on things they might stand an actual chance at.” Crown’s tone was a mix of disinterested and matter of fact, as if this was simply the fact of things. Azure wasn’t so sure, she had seen what Cackle could do and knew that had to be some sort of magic, and she was an Earth Pony. Probably.

“But they expect us all to learn all the rest of this? It’s so broad!”

“Welcome to school! Tons of work that you don't care about and might never use. But forget any of it and watch what happens to your grades.” Crown got up and headed towards the classroom. Azure realized it was probably time she did as well.

The classroom, if it could even be called a room, was not what Azure was expecting. Rather than using any of the towers she had seen around the school grounds, it was a rounded area in the exact center, almost like a theater. Desks were arranged in a semicircle all facing a central desk for whatever teacher was instructing at the moment, with a large blackboard behind them. The whole area was surrounded by more marble pillars, which supported a carved ring of stone to frame the entire area. At four points the gaps were larger, allowing entry to the ring of Desks, and above these gaps were four bells rigged to tiny magical devices. Brick walkways connected each of the four entrances to the other buildings at the school, and the rest of the area around the pillars were lined with aromatic flowers. Azure admired the lecture spaces design but couldn’t get past the total lack of actual walls or a roof. The designers must have had absolute confidence in their ability to control the weather here to declare this the primary classroom. Azure had begun to suspect that the strange design choices of this place were clues to some previous use, that the only explanation was this place had never been intended to be a school at all.

Azure took a seat, paying little mind to where it was. She knew Law was first and intended to study it hard, knowing it would probably be important to the actual mission of the school. She also wanted to know what rules she shouldn't break while attending or visiting any other nation, especially those of Canterlot.The first teacher to show up was a lanky light gray Unicorn Stallion, wearing an odd garment and a distinguished medal on his chest.

“Good Morning Class. I am Chancellor Neighsay of the Equestrian Education Committee. But you will be calling me Professor Neighsay. I know what you’re thinking, ‘Professor, aren’t you overqualified for this position?’. It’s true, I climbed the ladder well out of teaching students personally and to administration long ago. But when I heard that our dear Princess Celestia was starting a school and intended to recruit outsiders from beyond Canterlot’s borders, well I had to INSIST upon taking a very personal role in the project and making sure everything was done by the book. Now, at each of your desks you will find a textbook, An Introduction To Canterlot Law. Open it up and we will begin here. You cannot understand the differences in laws in other nations without having a… solid frame of reference first.”

Azure learned to hate law class very quickly. Every single thing she learned made her angry, and she was objecting to the foundations of just about every rule in Canterlot. Hierarchical living standards based on what Ring you lived in? Exclusion of non-casters, even among Unicorns? Serfdom for earth Ponies in the outermost rings, with only a few exceptions. The entire Kingdom seemed barbaric and behind the times, even if she couldn’t remember her own frame of reference.

Math was hardly better but for a radically different reason. She was dreading having to memorize her T Tables again but was confused to find the teacher introducing them to simple geometry. He tried to use some sort of mnemonic song to teach them about ratios but it was so far behind she just let her imagination wander. These simple shapes were boring but could be fit together into something more interesting. Pieces coming together like parts of a puzzle, building machines, like clockwork. It wasn’t until she was halfway through reconstructing a stopwatch in her brain that she noticed the student next to her was the half-mechanical pegasus from yesterday, and that their mechanical heart was ticking loud enough she could hear it for the last thirty minutes. The ringing must have inspired her.

As the bells around the room rang in concert again and other students got up to take a break, she leaned closer to them to talk.

“Hey. You were the Pegasus who was late yesterday right?” Azure couldn’t help but notice her strange language, even in her own mind. This was the only pony in the entire school who she could not ascribe a gender. Their appearance was somewhat masculine, and she didn’t mean to de-equinize them, but something in her soul told her to wait and find out.

“Oh, hey. Apologies, I wasn't expecting you to sit next to me. Nice to see you I guess.” Their voice continued to click and buzz, their joints giving off a faint creak as they adjusted to finish writing their notes. Through the stoic tone she could detect a hint of surprise.

She looked at them, trying to keep the small talk going. “That last class was kinda rough right? Just woke up yesterday and even I felt like that was a bit too easy. And I hate math!”

“I can't say I agree, math and science are my best subjects! I’m thinking of seeing if I can turn my heart off when we get to literature and other arts. But for most ponies that was perfectly acceptable for the age-range of students at this school. You would have to have had a very advanced education to get nothing out of it.” Their mechanical eye shifted and focused, scrutinizing Azure for her comment.

Azure could sense their anxiety. Even if the metal half of their face remained stoic, their mechanical heart was ticking faster, and their eyes were doubting about the room. Was she making them uncomfortable?

“You okay, whoever you are? I didn't get your name yesterday.”

“Oh. I’m Cog Wheeler. Refer to me as They or Them if you would be so kind. I know it’s not uncommon but I’m not exactly a normal sort of pony. I’ll be fine. I’m just surprised you’d choose to sit near me of all ponies.” Their joints faintly creaked as they tensed up.

“I’m Azure Star! Happy to meet you Cog! And I assure you that won’t be a problem.” She pretended not to notice his tension. Maybe they were just not used to strangers or unicorns?

“Huh, it usually is for a lot of ponies, especially new ones. I heard you were an amnesiac of some sort. It’s… interesting that you still remember your name. Remember anything else?” Cog’s discomfort only grew with every line she spoke.

“Not really. Just some bad memories, but they’re too hazy to make out.”

“Oh, that’s very unfortunate. Well best of luck with that.” Cog sounded sincere, and yet something about it was off.

Azure could hear the ticking slow down, see the eye growing more stable, the living pupil becoming less dilated as they looked at her. Were they happy she couldn’t remember anything? She studied carefully what this strange horse would say next, and Cog could feel the pressure of scrutiny had shifted to them now.

“So uh, Azure, have you made any friends here so far?” Cog mumbled awkwardly, trying to keep the conversation going.

“Just Night and Gallant. Maybe Dusky and Cackle from yesterday? I should talk to them later.” Azure seemed to be considering what constituted a friend. “Maybe you now?”

“Oh, that’s a good start. I was quite worried when I saw how unfriendly ponies could be to each other, with all the fighting.” Cog deflected the question about themselves immediately.

“Was my fight really that bad?”

“It wasn’t just you. You must not have seen it but one of the other Pegasi, Spear Point, and an Earth Pony, Iron Sight, also got into a fight yesterday. Iron nearly got impaled and put a bullet in Spear’s leg.” They said this in such a matter of fact way that Azure could hardly believe it. Did nopony take this seriously?

“How did he get a gun at the school?!”

“He brought it with him. Apparently any method of self defense is allowed as long as we don’t use them on other students. He’ll be out of class for today and working with the nurse on talking through his issues while she patches him up.” Cog was shrugging this off, and Azure quickly realized everypony else shuffling around them seemed just as disinterested in the violence.

“That’s crazy! Why would they do that to each other?” She had to be surprised if nopony else would.

“Iron’s from Dust and Spear’s from Empyrean.” Another dry delivery, as if the implications were self-evident.

“So?” Azure didn’t understand. It wasn’t self evident at all.

“You really don’t remember anything do you? They’re countries, one dominated by Pegasi and the other by Earth Ponies. They’ve been at war for a few months, but this is really only the latest in a series of conflicts stretching back a century. I suppose they were fighting for the honor of their homelands, or personal pride.” Cog scoffed the last part out, putting little stock in their pride or honor.

“I didn’t even know there was a war. Things seemed so peaceful around here.” Azure looked around. Clear skies, chirping birds, silence. Not a sign of violence in the air.

“Canterlot has always been isolated from the rigors of war. Nopony wants to upset the mare who controls the sun each day, too much of a risk. But the rest of the world isn’t like that. It’s a mess, Azzy. Everypony for themselves, fighting for land and pride and sometimes just to fight. We have a lot of work ahead of us.” Cog pulled out a new notebook and immediately got to work drawing some sort of schematic, driven and motivated by this thought.

Azure ignored the nickname and thought about what was being said. She hadn’t really thought much about what kinds of problems they’d be solving. Were they expected to go into active warzones? Is that why they needed self defense lessons?

Cog continued working on something on their desk as Azure thought about this throughout economics. Here too she could start to see the cracks Cog was talking about. The Earth Pony teaching them talked about money as if it was the meaning of life, glorifying how important securing funds for projects would be to accomplishing anything significant in their short lifetimes. They talked about supply and demand like fighting beasts, one constantly trying to wrest control from the other. It was unpleasant and she began to feel like she would have to take her situation seriously if she was ever going to survive in this world. Lucky for her, strategy was next.

Rather than a new teacher coming in to teach them all, Commander Stromfront ordered the students to gather inside a separate building for Strategy. Following the path past the library they were directed to a large tower, this one with battlements on its roof. The tower didn’t seem to fit in with the other buildings on the inside, having a far more spartan grey stone along the inner walls, with wooden seats arranged around a pit filled with sand. Weapons lined racks on the wall in a variety of shapes and sizes, but all had been blunted or made of wood, presumably for the student’s safety.

Azure took a seat near the front, and watched as the others filed in. The Pegasi seemed to prefer the elevated seats at the back, while mostly Earth Ponies sat in the front with her, and the Unicorns somewhere in between. When all the students had been gathered, the Commander spoke loudly and assertively.

“Welcome to strategy! This class is meant to keep you safe and alive, but to me this is a class about the way of life. The hunter who hesitates is prey and the hunter who stays passive is easier prey. The rule of the universe is to lead with confidence, take the world by force, and move with knowledge. Your wits and your swords are both weapons that will keep you alive at the end of the day if you use them right!”

Azure raised her hoof to ask a question.

“Yes, unicorn?”

“Aren't ponies usually prey animals, not hunters?”

“In the past maybe, but we have evolved and changed, the world has grown more dangerous and we need to be ever vigilant. What would you do if a Hydra chased you down? Cower and accept your death? Or would you fight back and stab at its heart!?” Stormfront gesticulated every word she spoke with her spear, putting on quite the show.

“Are monsters really that common?” Azure was starting to get worried. She didn’t sign up to fight Hydras at all.

“Attacks have been getting more and more frequent recently, and besides, that’s nothing compared to the threats you might face from other ponies. Not every pony you meet will believe in the school’s mission. Several entire nations have refused to send in missions on the principle that it was an absurd idea to begin with. You can’t expect them to show you any kindness just because you’re students here.”

“Are you sure we’re not soldiers? Because it sounds like we’re being trained to fight even in nations that don’t want us there, and that would make us child soldiers wouldn’t it?”

“Well for one by the standards of Canterlot you should all be legal adults to be here. Young yes but… adults as far as their society is concerned. And for two, Soldiers are trained to kill without question. The Princess was very clear I was not to teach you to kill without question. You’re only authorized to use lethal force as an absolute final option if there is no other way to save lives. You’re more supposed to be ‘heroes of the people’ than footsoldiers.”

“Heroes? Like Nights? Do we get to learn how to use swords, or wear big fancy armor? Fight Princesses and save dragons?” Azure murmured to herself. Maybe she had that one backwards.

“There’s nothing about dragons to save, the princesses are your leaders... though tyranny is to be fought against wherever you find it. But yes, you will learn how to use weapons and armor to protect yourself, as well as the strategies needed to coordinate others in both the field of battle and in complex operations like uh. Hmm. Avalanche rescue I guess? Look kid, I haven’t written the full lesson plan yet. But you’ve gotta trust that I’m trying to teach you the teamwork and confidence you need to succeed in all walks of life, not just for fighting.” Stormfront just put a hoof on Azure’s back and tried to assure her that this was important.

“Where do we start?”

“We start with your final! By the end of this year I expect you to come up with a strategy to beat me in combat. You will take everything you learn in this course and you will do your best to subdue me. Those that can will pass, those that can't will fail.”

“I haven't been told what happens if we fail a class. What happens if we can't beat you in a year?” Azure was starting to become nervous about her prospects of ever beating this mare.

“Well, first the shame of defeat. But second, Celestia will be informed that I do not think you are worthy of continuing in her project.”

“Then you'll just have to do your best to help us through, right?

“I will. With that said, your questions have taken up a lot of my time, so let's move onto the basics before I give you a chance to see what your target is early. Best of luck, unicorn.”

Azure stayed quiet after that. Was she serious? A year to beat a fully grown military veteran in single combat or risk getting expelled? She couldn’t afford to slack here.

Strategy was tense but since there was no actual fighting yet, Azure managed it just fine. When Stormfront was done she led the students back to their one classroom for history. Azure was particularly excited about this class. If she could uncover the world’s history maybe it could clue her in on her own? As she came back she noticed students rearranging their seating positions and figured she could do the same, sitting next to Dusky.

“Hey Dusky! I couldn't catch you after everything that happened yesterday. How's your day been?”

“Great so far! I’m super excited for History! I’m gonna try to focus on the class but we can compare notes after okay?” Dusk perked up, happy to see a friendly face. She was still wearing the same heavy cloak from yesterday, but her tail could be seen faintly wagging beneath it. This puzzled Azure a bit. Did ponies usually wag their tails in excitement? Maybe not, but it seemed Dusky was an exception.

Before they could continue their conversation, the teacher walked in, a yellow mare in a purple cloak with black mane and large red rimmed glasses.

“EEEE! Sorry! Sorry. I’m just a fan of your books. I used to take them out of our library so much the other kids got mad at me!”

Dusky tried to stay calm in her seat but was practically bouncing with excitement.

“Yes. I suppose there is no way around it. My name is A.K. Yearling. I have been hired to be your History teacher. And yes I’ve published a few books for children to help make ends meet. But I do have actual degrees in history and archeology from the University of Vanhoover, so please try to take this class seriously.”

Dusky tried her best to follow through and listened intently. Something about her enthusiasm was infectious, and Azure wanted to participate, but she had to at least listen first to understand where to start.

“Well to start with, can I assume all of you know the story of ancient Equestria?” Yearling began by drawing a map of the nation on the board.

Azure’s skin crawled hearing the sound of chalk scraping, some tension in her spine tingling at the scratching. She had to speak up just to stop her.

“No. I don’t recall it.” Azure wasn’t being dishonest, but several other students groaned as she invited the teacher to retread an old story.

“I’ll keep it short and simple then. Over a thousand years ago, the leaders of the 3 great kingdoms, Unicornia, Empyrean, and the Republic of Ponyland, came together and declared the foundation of a joint kingdom of Equestria. But recognizing that an equal federation of the 3 tribes would struggle to survive if any one ruler ever gained power over the others and upset the balance. They called upon Starswirl the Bearded to find a solution. He concluded that Equestria would need an Alicorn ruler to keep the peace, as they were the living embodiment of all 3 tribes in one pony. He reached out to…” She hesitated for a moment. “Somewhere, and was delivered 2 Alicorn Fillies to raise and train for the job. By the time they were old enough to take the throne, the Kingdom of Equestria had expanded to include most of the continent and some lands beyond, becoming the largest nation of Ponykind, and some argue the largest empire in history.”

Azure kept taking notes frantically. This all seemed to be falling back into place, feeling familiar as she remembered it all. Two Alicorn Princesses? Where were they from exactly? Why had she hesitated? Azure was too focused on writing the questions to ask them, so Yearling just continued.

“The reign of Princesses Celestia and Luna was relatively peaceful for over a hundred years. Equestria thrived and ponies began to warm up to the idea of unity, of all kinds of pony living together. But the peace could not last. Princess Luna, feeling like her night time was neglected, became bitter and jealous of her sister, and allowed herself to become the dark and terrible Nightmare Moon. The ensuing civil war broke up much of the kingdom of Equestria as various groups who had their own grievances with the monarchy declared independence or allegiance to Nightmare Moon. The fighting lasted for five years before Celestia could gather the Elements of Harmony and banished her sister to the moon, but many of the breakaway nations decided to retain their independence rather than submit to the Equestrian crown again, and even some loyalist nations petitioned for independence in the aftermath of the conflict. To this day only the nations of Cannonadia and Canterlot remain as nominal members of the reorganized ‘Equestrian Commonwealth’, but only Canterlot is actively ruled by Princess Celestia. Any questions?”

“Why didn’t you go into more depth on the other groups that aligned with Luna and her grievances?” Dusky asked, shooting a hoof up. “There were all sorts of ponies and non-ponies that followed her! What happened to them during the aftermath?”

“Well as I said most of the breakaways tried to maintain their independence, and as Celestia was too tired from the fighting she allowed them to as soon as Nightmare Moon was gone. If you’re referring to the monsters like Manticores and Serpents, they were either driven into the wilderness or fled to Typhonia.” Yearling knew where this would lead and shot that question down quickly.

Dusky seemed to squirm, not content with this answer. Azure just scooched closer to offer support. The rest of the class continued like this, with other students intervening with their own questions and points. By the time the bells rang again, Yearling was drained and grumbled something in frustration as she left.

“Well, that was informative at least. Not sure if Miss Yearling likes teaching all that much. Did you at least have fun despite all the arguing?” Azure turned to her cloaked friend trying to gauge her reaction.

“Oh, no I had more fun! The debates made it even more interesting. I can tell who here got to learn real history and who’s been fed propaganda from their own countries! I can’t wait to see how the next one goes!” Dusky squirmed happily but seemed to be struggling against something as far as Azure could tell, leaving her movements awkward.

“I enjoyed it too. I actually think I used to like history a lot. Guess I’m getting a better grasp on my own likes and interests again.” Azure managed a genuine chuckle. She actually did like learning more. She had so many questions to ask, so much more to learn. Something about Alicorns in particular was calling out to her. But something about Dusky was demanding her attention even more, and she reluctantly forced herself to keep eye contact even as her instincts told her to look away.

“That’s great! I’m happy you're relearning yourself. I get that it can be hard to feel out of place.” Dusky offered a hoof of genuine support. She tried as well to keep eye contact but Azure could tell that it was making her just as uncomfortable. Both broke and looked away, and Azure opened her notebook up on Dusky’s desk to give them both something else to look at.

“While we wait for the teacher, why don’t you tell me some more about yourself? What are some of your interests? We could see if that sparks anything in me. I mean memory-wise.” Azure was slightly flustered at her turn of phrase. Maybe she was getting too paranoid.

“I’d love that! Well, I like history, mythology, mycology, magicology, theology, entomology, etymology, geography, geology, gemology which is totally different, zoology, equinology, and draconic history!” Dusky managed the entire list with a single breath, which was impressive in its own way.

“A lot of -ologies! I know a bit about a few of them. Especially dragons! I don’t know everything about their history but I think I can speak their language.” Azure halfheartedly boasted.

“You speak DRAGON?! I’ve been trying to find a book on that forever!”

Azure pondered the matter but realized her instinct was indeed correct. Somehow, in the recesses of her mind was the draconic language, and a few others she couldn’t place the origins of learning.

“Yes! Why, is that not common? Could it be a clue?! I've got Griffish too!”

“Maybe! You’d have to have been educated in Canterlot or the Kirin lands to learn Drakish as a Unicorn, unless you had family that knew it. Griffish is more common in Griffonstone and the Griffish Isles though. There isn’t any overlap in everyday use, so one has to be from a parent or tutor.” Dusky tried to figure this out, but a family or private tutor could be found almost anywhere. She didn’t have a real lead off this, but didn’t want to disappoint Azzy but admitting it.

Azure considered this for a moment. She hadn’t been forced to think of family so far but trying to just filled her with more longing. A void that ate at her, and pressed her to keep learning. But obsessing over it would get her nowhere. Better to focus on the present.

“You seemed excited by me knowing it. Do you not? I could try to teach you if you want, might help us learn more about them if we find any ancient dragon scrolls, or runestones, or actual dragons!” Azure gestured wildly with conjured magic shapes, evoking missions of raiding ancient ruins and digging up secret treasure troves.

“Yes! I’d love that!” Dusky practically fluttered off the ground jumping up in joy. It was so infectious Azure couldn’t help but spring up and match the energy.

“I'll try my best to teach you then! But you'll have to teach me about mythology and history. I can’t remember much of it, only…” She pondered her answer for a moment “Astrology? And I guess some magic. And languages.”

“Trading information is the best part of school! And Teamwork is always fun!” Dusky’s enthusiasm continued to pulse, but the comment on magic seemed to affect her in some way. She calmed down and after a few moments of silence spoke again.

“You’re really lucky you know. Having magic like that. I tried so long to learn it despite not being a Unicorn. But no amount of reading old books seems to have worked past casting rituals. It’s hard to accept that you really do have it so much easier and we just don’t. But maybe if I see it in action things will be different. Maybe you could be the key.” Dusk’s words were layered with a mixture of sadness and hope. Azure had not considered yet the full extent of her own magic, or how valuable it might appear to somepony deprived of it. But the more she thought about it the more she realized she couldn’t squander it. She had to put it to use, to help in any way she could.

“Yeah. Yeah! I’ll help you figure out something by the end of the year, I’m sure of it. Even if it’s a simple cantrip, I know you’ll get it.” Azure lifted her hoof to the air for a high hoof, and Dusky responded in kind.

The two of them stayed together through Alchemy, though Azure struggled to pay much attention. Thinking of Elixirs just reminded her of Eli’s betrayal, of rushing to aid of Crown over her. Dusky didn’t notice, and stayed right where she was, even as most of the other non-unicorns left when the time came for magic class. Azure watched them leave and tried to focus on her instead. Eli had left the room and it was hard to hold onto her anger without its subject being present. Trying to impress and help a friend would get her much further than dwelling on hatred.

Eventually, Princess Twilight made it into the classroom, looking disheveled and quickly passing out books to everypony still present. Azure could see her frantic pace and slightly frayed mane. Her assessment from the other day seemed to be correct; Twilight was not excited to see her students. Azure wondered why she seemed so unprepared, as there was only one class to teach and it was at the end of the day. A second thought convinced her to be more charitable. Twilight was, after all, only a few years older than her, and she couldn’t see herself teaching a class any time soon. She must have been exceptionally gifted to be offered a position here. Azure thought more about that and started to put everything together. The students had arrived the very same day they were recruited, what if the teachers were as well? It would explain the rather ad-hoc nature of everything, including the obviously repurposed buildings. Suddenly she couldn’t judge the frazzled mare in front of her, realizing that she was probably just a young girl who had the job of teacher thrust upon her without warning just as quickly as she herself had become a student.

“Alright, you know who I am, let's get this over with. Your first class will be on the basics of magic. In its simplest form, applied magic is the study of using the magic inside yourself to achieve magical effects on the world or your body. All ponies have some form of magic inside them - yes, even Earth Ponies and Pegasi. This magic however has a different quality, a sort of… frequency to it that determines what it can be used to accomplish. Earth Ponies excel at channeling their inner magic into their body to perform feats of strength, Pegasi use it to fly and control the weather, and Unicorns use it for spellcasting.”

“What about Rituals?” Dusky asked.

“Rituals are an art form derived from externalized magic, which is the practice of using the inner magic from objects or the world around you to perform magic. They are difficult to develop but I suppose any kind of pony could do them if they had the right instructions and materials.”

“If you can externalize magic does that mean non unicorns could become spellcasters if they knew how to draw on their environment? Or had the right magical artifacts? Or got some magic from a friend? Maybe a giant ghost bat?”

“A What? Look, I don’t have time for this, I have my own studies to do. Just read chapter 1 for tomorrow okay?” Twilight didn’t wait for any other students to respond before immediately flying off towards the library.

“Miss Twilight! Wait!” Azure tried desperately to reach for her, but it was too little too late. “Aww, I really needed to talk to her.”

“You'll get her next time. For now it looks like we have reading to do!” Dusky clutched the new textbook close before putting it in her saddlebag.

“I hope so. I still don't know what this magic thing actually does.”

“Wait, magic thing? Show me!”

“Yeah, this Compass looking device!” Azure pulled out her compass from earlier and presented it. “I can just feel the energy radiating off it. It has to do something but even Crown couldn’t recognize it.”

“We can do some research and try to figure it out ourselves!”

“You know what? You’re right. If she won't help we can do it on our own! That's what good students do right!”

“Of course! We can impress her if we take initiative!” Dusky started to bounce around excitedly, her eyes big and full of excitement. It didn’t take long for Azure’s to match, lighting up again as she joined the happy taps.

“To the library then! Wait, actually do you know anypony else who you think might be able to help first? A bigger study group can cover more books

“Well most unicorns can do a little magic so most should be able to help some. There’s also our local witch.” Dusky looked across the room to where Cackle had been torturing one of the other Unicorn students with another bizarre illusion.

“She scares me but Cackle seems to have some sort of magical power. Maybe you should talk to her. I'll try to get Night Gaze, she seemed friendly enough! I'll meet you at the Library!”

Dusky saluted her and immediately zipped towards the witch girl, and Azure ran to catch Night, who had already started heading back towards the observatory. It wasn’t long before she had caught up though, using her own magic to bend space and catch up.

“Hey Night!”

“Oh, hello there Azure. Do you need something?” Night was a bit surprised but not unhappy to see her.

“Yeah! I know you probably have stuff to do tonight, but me, Dusky, and maybe Cackle are going to go to the library to research me and my magical thing from earlier. Do you want to come?” She kept in stride until they stopped just outside the observatory.

“My magic is more based on faith than academic study. Your compass really was beautiful, I’d love to know more about it, but I’d rather not get in the way if I can’t help.” Night hesitated, her hoof on the door. She wasn’t sure if she’d be helpful, but she did want to know more.

“That's okay. It'd be nice just to have someone else there to pour over the books and chat with us honestly.”

“Then I can make some time for you before my moon rise prayer. Lead the way.” Something about Azure’s earnesty got through to her. Night took her hoof off the door to the observatory and turned to her.

“Great! If you need to step out for that just let us know!” Azure gave an earnest smile and trotted off towards the library with her.

The school library was utterly massive, built in the same white stone as the rest of the school but with much more space dedicated to windows, which were stained purple glass. It stood two layers tall but from the outside there appeared to be an additional room at the very top with a large dome. As Azure stepped inside she noticed the soft birch floors, a change from the usual stone. Directly ahead was a staircase to the second floor, to her right was a long desk in front of a wall of drawers, and to the left was an area recessed into the ground with a few tables, chairs, and even cushions. Further past the large desk she saw a sign pointing to private reading rooms, and noticed light and flashes of sparks coming from one, no doubt another student practicing magic. Straight back past the stairs were rows and rows of books. The place had to have thousands, if not tens of thousands of books across two floors. Looking up she noticed the second floor did not extend to cover the recessed seating area or immediately above the check-out, giving the place a rather open feeling to match its brightness. Looking further she noticed an additional platform at the top to allow access to a third floor, but Azure couldn’t see any way to reach it without wings. She turned her focus back to the set of tables ready for studying to her left, and found Dusky was already there waiting.

“Hey! Do you think there’s anything important on the third floor? It might be difficult for us to access. Could you fly up there if we needed to Dusky?”

“Oh, I’d rather not fly. I’m not very good at it and sort of scared of heights.” Dusky was clearly embarrassed to admit this.

“It's okay if you're not a fan of heights, I’m not really either. Maybe I could just use magic to grab some books. Did you speak to Cackle?” Azure tried to brush it off but she was a little curious.

“I told her and she said she’d meet us here “when we least expect it". So I guess she’ll show up later?”

“Well that's foreboding. But sure. Let's start with what we know! This is all that was in my bag, and that means they’re the only clues I have to figure out my past.” Azure put the compass and her spoon on the table to present them. “The Spoon purifies fluids. The compass is unknown but has some sort of magical aura. Let’s look for books to figure out what it is!” Azure reached out her hoof over the middle of the table, and soon Dusky and Night put theirs in as well.

The three mares ran about the library in an erratic search, quickly gathering a pile of books on magical items and their history. Dusky was the first to find a book with an actual picture of a similar device.

“Oh oh oh! Look! I found something! This picture is almost the same. Well this one’s more silver than copper but close enough right?

“What does it say!” Azure climbed over the table and into her seat to see, earning the glare of several other students trying to make use of the library for her rambunctious behavior.

“Well, it looks like it’s something called a wayfinder. There’s a few variants but this seems to be just one of the basic ones without anything too special about it. On their own they’re basically just fancy compasses… but when combined with magical gemstones they can draw out its full magical power! But it doesn’t say anything about the map projected into the bottom.”

“What about who makes them?” Night chimed in. “If we know where it came from we could trace its path to get to you.”

“It looks like they belonged to some sort of Knightly Order called the “Royal Vanguards?”

“Knights? Strange. I don't think I'm a Knight. Maybe I knew one. Is it really just a compass? Where was I supposed to go if that Star didn't find me? North?” Azure was disappointed. Despite its beauty this one clue wasn’t anything all that special after all. “Well what about the stone, this one has to do something right?”

“Well actually there’s a whole chart! This one-” Dusky couldn’t even finish her sentence before a fire burst on the table in front of them, and out of it crawled a skeleton of a horse, looking over them. Azure was so startled she kicked back causing the seat with her and Dusky in it to fall over. Night nearly jumped to the next floor, but immediately ran to make sure the other two were okay.

“HAHAHAHAHA! Oh I certainly got you this time!” Flesh seemingly flowed out of the bones and around the skeleton, organs filling in as skin finally stretched over and hair regrew. The quickly reforming body reached down to the ground and booped Azure on her nose, winking as its eyelids finally grew back. It was Cackle. “Got ya~“

Cackle laid on the table in a far to sensual position trying to show off her rebuilt body to the girls, as they gathered their bearings and righted the chairs.

“Oh, it's Cackle. I should have known I'd seen that skull before.” Azure tried to gather her composure. “You know generally when you agree to help ponies find something, you show up before they’ve already found what they’re looking for.”

“Guilty as charged~! That’s how I know it was when you least expected me!” She pressed a claw to the fluff of her chest.

Azure just looked closely, poking the claw with her hoof to feel that it was real.

“How do you keep doing that anyways? Are you actually changing your shape every time you scare me?”

“Oh, so forward to go grabbing my claws already! But I don’t mind~. It’s all natural! I was born from a beast of tartarus and crawled my way out of the pit of beasts!” Cackle laughed, and moved another of her claws to trace along Azure’s cheek.

“But don’t worry. I won’t hurt you. Unless you want me to, or I’m in a biting mood~.” Cackle grinned, showcasing fangs in her mouth as her eyes subtly glowed behind their black sclera. Azure didn’t understand how to feel about this. Clearly she was the first to overstep Cackle’s privacy by touching her but this felt like a rather extreme way of paying her back. Right? She looked to the others for some guidance on how to react.

“If what you say is true, and you are a creature of Tartarus, then I should inform you that you always have a place with my faith if you should ever need assistance. Luna was always there for the creatures others called monsters, and so too are her true followers.” Night offered her a respectful bow, still clearly unsettled by her appearance no matter how polite she tried to be.

“You’re being kind of aggressive with how you’re touching her Cackle. And to be honest with everything yesterday you’re kind of making ponies uncomfortable.” Dusky did not bother with niceties.

“Look, I know why I’m here, and I know what I want. If you’re jealous though, don’t worry. There’s plenty of Cackle to share with everypony.~” Cackle pulled them all into a hug and sat in one of the chairs leaving them all squeezed together, something which none of them seemed to know how to respond to.

“But fine, you want to do magic research? What do we have so far?”

Cackle released the trio, and immediately Dusky and Night hopped off and grabbed new seats. Azure stayed. She didn’t understand why, but she didn’t really mind the close contact, no matter how inappropriate it clearly was. Cackle was clearly having some effect on her, but she couldn’t decipher what it was. She’d stay for now.

“Well… that this is a wayfinder used by an order of knights called the Royal Vanguards? Dusky was about to explain what the stone did.” Azure pointed at the device.

“Knights? Interesting, you must be full of secrets then. Maybe the pretty little princess has money? That would make things convenient for all of us~.” Cackle patted her head.

“Anyways…” Dusky interrupted “The one you found is depleted. A few of the gemstones they used were limited use and when all the magic burned out they’d end up like this. Usually those were more powerful ones but it looks like yours was already expended. Sorry to disappoint.”

Dusky sounded disappointed herself. Azure couldn’t help but wonder if she too was hoping for some exciting magical artifact of legend.

“Well, even if it’s basically useless, it’s still a pretty compass. And besides we have a clue on where to look next at least! And if I use that to focus my magic on I might be able to get some more information!” Azure started to concentrate inward, focusing her magic.

“What are you thinking my pretty little pony~?” Cackle could see the magic charging and watched her horn curiously.

Azure focused on that one phrase, the ‘Royal Vanguards’, letting it bounce through her mind as she stared at the open wayfinder. She tried to do what she did in the observatory again, to step out of the present and into the past. What did this have to do with her? Who were the royal vanguards? Why did she have this thing at all?

Time faded to nothing around her. Azure lost a grip on herself, and awoke again to find herself walking through memories in a body not her own once again. She saw herself as a knight, fighting alongside others of her banner. A hero at first, saving lives, fighting for justice and a better world, but eventually becoming something so much worse. Corrupted. A soldier committing atrocities in the name of what others said was the greater good. She saw herself unable to save everypony from the horrors of the world or from themselves, watched them all fall into deeper and deeper misery. Each mission, each adventure grew darker as she bounced between them, until she saw herself gathering mechanical parts and heading to the Princess herself, begging for support on some project. She saw the princess deny her, and all the anger and anguish that caused, the lashing out and frustration and begging that got nowhere. She saw herself looking at a wayfinder that looked identical to her own, only to put it away one final time, before heading out on what she knew to be their final mission. She saw every one of their banners burning, and she saw herself laughing over the flames.

Azure winced as she came back to reality. The longing of last time was so different to the anger and despair she felt this time.

“No. no that's all wrong. Right? Dusky, what happened to these knights? Where are they now?” Azure turned to her desperate for some validation that that wasn’t real.

“It says that about a decade ago all their bases were attacked, burned to the ground. A few members survived but the order is all but extinct. The book just ends with the author lamenting that there are no more heroes like the ones from the old days any more.” Dusky showed it to them, just as she said.

“That's odd. Who wrote this book? How old is it?”

“A former member of their court "Shield Sheen". Says it was only published a few years ago.”

“Gallant’s Dad? That certainly explains why Gallant ran away as soon as I pulled this out. Maybe he saw something similar that belonged to his dad. I could probably ask to meet him but I think I know who I really need to ask.” Azure’s distress was obvious.

She was trying to process everything she had borne witness to. It felt so real and yet she knew these memories were not hers. Whose were they then? Her friends all put a hoof around her, trying to comfort her, but she still didn’t feel at peace. She didn’t need comfort, she needed answers.

“When I do that, I can see memories. But I don’t know whose eyes I'm seeing through. I don’t know if it’s always the same when I do it. No. It can’t be. But it’s starting to scare me. Do we have access to the Princess? Can we talk to her? I'm sure she's very busy but I have questions that are important. I mean, I think they’re important at least.” Azure looked drained and despondent, as if she had lived a lifetime of misery all at once.

“She said she would be able to be called if it were necessary. But It seems that this really might be from how you’re acting.” Night tried to assure her that her feelings were valid.

“Let's go call the princess!” Dusky cried out at the top of her lungs.

“Let’s do that. So is there a special place? A mirror or orb or something?” Azure tried to perk up even if her half folded ears betrayed her. She really was a little excited by the prospect of talking to her one on one, she just wished it was under better circumstances.

“I think she said it was-” Cackle was cut off before she could finish by the loud stomp of Twilight landing next to them, a modestly sized dragon following behind her.

“What part of this being a Library do you four not understand? Fires, climbing on the furniture, now screaming? If you want to use the library you need to follow the rules. Stay quiet, stay off the furniture, and definitely don’t set anything on fire!” Twilight snorted and her mane flared up for a moment as if it was ready to catch aflame before she started to take deep breaths, reeling herself in.

“Sorry, we’ll try to be quiet next time. Wait, have you been here the whole time?” Azure hadn’t seen her here earlier. Was she above them?

“Twilight and I live here, in that room up there” the dragon casually added, pointing to the platform above. “I’m Spike by the way, her faithful assistant. I think I heard you say you wanted to call the Princess or something?”

“D-dragon! So cool!” Dusky sat frozen and transfixed by the dragon in front of her.

Spike proudly puffed up his chest, happy to present himself as a royal’s assistant, but was instantly shot down by a glare from Twilight.

“Spike, don’t humor them.” Twilight shifted her glare back towards the group as the other students quickly re-organized the books and table to be more orderly, or at least tried to look busy.

“Hi Spike, I'm Azure Sture. And yeah, I want to ask her some questions, if she wouldn't mind. It’s really important that I do this. Or at least I think it is.” Azure was still nervous. Twilight was clearly upset to be interrupted, how mad would Celestia be?

“Letter or a call? Yeah, I can do both.” He stood somehow even more smugly than before.

“A call might be faster. I have a lot to say.”

“Right! Follow me then!” Spike marched towards the private rooms, proud to show off his power..

“Spike! Fine, I’m too tired to worry about this right now. If she asks, this was your idea okay? Leave me out of it.” Twilight sighed and followed along.

The group all gathered in the unoccupied private room, squashed together as they tried to give Spike space to perform his ritual. Spike excitedly arranged a set of candles and connected them with an elaborate chalk outline, before lighting them each with a breath of his own. Azure watched mesmerized, only realizing when he was really done that maybe not everypony needed to be here for this. Oh well. Too late to kick them all out now.

“Wow! Dragon magic is really something!”

Dusky circled it carefully trying to memorize the pattern. Spike just smiled, genuinely happy to receive praise for once.

“I used to only be able to send letters but the Princess taught me this ritual in case somepony needed to contact her in an absolute emergency. Really cool that I get to do it on the first day though.”

Spike drew the last sigil and with a final burst of green fire, a flaming portal manifested in the center. In an instant it snapped into clarity, and they could all see Princess Celestia, working on some paperwork at a massive desk of her own.

“Oh! Hello my little ponies, is there something I can help you with? It’s only been one day, is everything okay at the school? I hope you haven’t had any more fighting issues? I heard there was some conflict but don’t worry, I’ve instructed the guards to keep a closer eye on everyone and ensure no students harm each other.” Celestia was perfectly composed as ever as she turned to the portal, looking over them all.

She smiled seeing them all squished together. It was a good sign that ponies from each house had come together, and her student was helping them. Azure felt a strange bliss just seeing her smile, but knew her time must be important. She wasted none of it, getting right to the business at hand.

“Princess Celestia, your Highness, I need your help. I need answers. I am trying to be a good enough student for this school. But I just can't focus well without understanding who I am. I can't remember anything more than moments before you summoned me here, and yet I seem to know things. My past isn’t there, but other ponies’ keep creeping into my mind. Memories that aren't my own come to me in flashes, bursts, or elaborate visions. I remember watching the stars for a thousand years in the observatory and charting every movement, and I remember fighting in your name in a different body. In my dreams I could see the dark side of the moon dripping down from the sky and starting a clock counting down for exactly a year, and I saw the Mare In The Moon staring back at me.”

Azure was struggling to keep her composure. For some reason the reality of her situation hadn’t settled in until now. She didn’t know anything important at all. She offered the only clue she had and held up the Wayfinder to show it to her.

“I don't know what's going on with me. I don't know who I am. Why do I see these things? Where do I come from? What happened to the Vanguards? What did that pony who came to you with the machines ask you that made them so… angry?” Azure was desperate and afraid. Celestia wouldn’t kick her out for asking something personal would she?

Celestia froze up on the other side of the portal. She had been pouring herself a fresh cup of tea when they called, but it started to overflow as she tried to take it all in.

“That certainly is a lot. I don’t know if I can help you with all of it. To access the memories of other ponies is a very rare form of magic. I’m not sure how you lost yours. Your dream of the moon dripping out could just be a normal dream but it’s probably best you keep it to yourself for now, and start documenting any other dreams you have and send me updates on them. Maybe-No. For now we’ll wait and see. As for your last question… “ She got herself under control and cleaned up the spilled tea with a simple flash of magic.

“I can only think of one Vanguard who ever approached me in such a way. His name was Clockmaker. He had grown disillusioned with their mission and thought the world would be better if I used the Elements of Harmony to empower some sort of machine designed to remove free will from ponies he considered evil so they could no longer make “wrong” choices. I refused and had him removed from the order until he was able to think clearly but he took it as a personal attack and retaliated against them, nearly destroying the entire order. He vanished after but he is still to be considered a highly dangerous individual. For your own safety I have to ask that you not research the Vanguards any further. This is a very serious matter that I will look into. Until then… Twilight, I’d like you to work with her to help recover her memories.” Celestia turned to her student, looking her down assertively.

“What? I only just started teaching and now you I have to help her too? I have so much to catch up on still, I’ve only barely read the first volumes on teaching students and-”

“You can handle this, my faithful student. It would be good for you to try to make friends, even with your students. And no invasive medical procedures, okay? Start with talking and magic.” Celestia tried to regain her calm and playful royal demeanor, but Azure could tell there was something shaking her underneath it. Twilight stayed quiet and accepted her teacher’s decision.

“I’m sorry if I overloaded you with questions. I just really needed some answers. I guess these will have to do for now.” Azure bowed in apology.

“I’m afraid it may be. Trust in Twilight, and trust in me, miss Star. You’ll figure this out together.” Celestia offered a nod back.

“Thank you, your highness. I'll try to work with her. and I'll do my best to make the school proud.”

“I am already proud of every one of you for taking the chance to be here together. It’s good to see that ponies from different tribes are already making friends! But if you need me I amd always here, and I wish you well with discovering your past. All I ask is that you keep me informed on any future visions, or memories like those in the observatory.” Celie beamed as she looked over the eclectic mix of ponies present.

“I will.” Azure wiped her tears away.

In a flash the portal vanished and the candles went dark. Twilight finally relaxed her tense body and spike started collecting the materials he had brought down for the ritual.

“Well I guess that's the best I can do for today.” Azure genuinely did feel better. That wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.

“You’ll learn in time.” Night patted her back to reassure her.

“We can always work to learn more together AND PLUS YOU GET TO STUDY WITH TWILIGHT SPARKLE! EEEEEEEE!” Dusky was so excited Azure would have thought she was the one who got to study with her if she hadn’t been told otherwise herself.

“Yaaaay. I have to spend even more of my time working with a student I don’t even know. At least the magical mystery is something that I can focus on. Just try not to intrude on my life too much.” Twilight grumpily left, flying back up to her perch above the library.

“She doesn’t seem all that enthusiastic herself.” Azure wasn’t sure. What was that about an

“She’s still the princess of Magic and Knowledge! If anypony can figure out your powers it's her!”

“I hope so. But enough about me! Friends aren't just selfish. I'd be happy to help the rest of you with anything important you have going on for the rest of the evening! I've had enough of my own excitement for one day.” Azure sighed as they left the private room fully, and watched Spike fly off as well. Night was the first to speak up.

“It is not selfish to talk when you need help, we’re happy to. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help this evening but it was definitely exciting. I never expected the Princess to be so forthcoming to us students. But no, the only thing I need to do now is go to the observatory. I have to prepare for my ritual before the sun goes down, which should be any minute now.” Night hugged the 3 of them and took her leave, running towards the observatory tower across the school grounds.

“I’ll remember that you offered but I'm here for you. I’m fine to keep doing whatever you want.” Dusky just smiled at her.

Azure was struggling to understand this pony. Was she really just that nice? Didn’t she have anything else to do? Or was she looking a gift horse in the mouth? Maybe she shouldn’t complain about having someone who wanted to stick around.

As Azure tried to grapple with this Dusky’s behavior, she noticed Eli out of the corner of her eye, watching them. Azure was too tired to be all that angry. Even Crown had been at least somewhat helpful to her this morning. Being vengeful wasn’t in her nature, but she still had to tip the scales in some way to feel closure.

“Hey Cackle. See Eli over there? She seemed a little skittish yesterday. I bet you could have a lot of fun scaring her. And if you're the kind of witch that makes spooky brews in a cauldron she might enjoy talking about that after.”

“I do love cooking things up in my cauldron. Alright, I’ll take your bait. Just don’t be a stranger if I go spook other ponies, friend~” Cackle giggled and ran like a beast after Eli, sure to cause her a fright. Azure really did hope they could bond over potions after, but she had had enough of Cackle’s weird aura for one evening too. That left only one friend left.

“Just us now.” Azure giggled a bit and went back to their own little corner.

“I guess so.” Dusky stayed close as they walked back to their little table.

“Well, I did offer to teach you Drakish right? That’s something I could do for you! Just to pay you back for being here.”

“You don’t need to pay me back. I like helping ponies. This has been fun, and exciting! But if you really want I’d still like to learn.”

“Right. Where do we begin. Grammar rules I suppose…”

Azure tried her best to teach Dusky the very basics, and the two ended up spending hours working on it. Before long the sun was down and replaced with the moon, and the conversation had shifted entirely from learning a language to an array of topics. Eventually most of the other students left the library. When it was just the two of them they moved closer to the windows to get better access to the moon’s bright light. Dusky spotted a colony of bats overhead and diverged into a twenty minute infodump of “cool bat facts”.

“You really know a lot about bats, Dusk. I guess they’re kind of like dragons too in a way. They have remarkably similar wing structures after all!” Azure was surprised by how much her friend knew about them. Bats weren’t really relevant to her mission, but even she was curious to learn more now.

“Exactly! Some biologists even believe warbats may be a form of wyvern hybrid that evolved into its own species! I don't entirely believe that, but it was an interesting study to read.” Dusky immediately grabbed another book to pull up her citations.

“Really! I've always wondered how Dragons got their wings. Most people call them lizards, even though they're not cold blooded, but if they were really reptiles it'd make more evolutionary sense to have feathery wings like birds do right? And at the same time you'd think ponies would have wings closer to bats, as fellow flying mammals, but they ended up with bird wings somehow? It's all very strange, that we still don't know how it got all topsy turvy like that.”

“I mean there are ponies with bat wings! O-or at least stories of them. And w-they have a long history with both wild bats and dragons! I almost feel like it may have been some strange convergent evolution!” Dusky’s excitement was thrown off for just a moment, and she struggled to address that idea tactfully.

“If they are real I’d love to meet them someday. You know I was thinking about the rumors of Sea-Ponies after Miss Twilight's class. Sure we know a lot about the three big tribes of ponykind but there’s tales of all these other groups out there that we know so little about. I know there's a lot of bad blood to sort out between the more common types of ponies to settle first, but maybe once the school's really started to make progress we could get other types of ponies involved too! Maybe even some non-ponies! Who knows how many creatures are really out there past the horizon.” Azure put away the books she had long since stopped using and moved some cushions to gaze out the windows at the moonlight sky.

Dusky didn’t know how to respond to this and took her time to think of the perfect response.

“There's all kinds out there. And there’s always more to learn about each other.” Dusky smiled and joined her on the cushions.

Another pause hung before Azure spoke up again.

“Dusky. Thanks for making the first day a little less rough. Sorry to dump all my issues on you gals like that earlier. It's just a little rough not knowing who I am or where I really belong. But I think I'll get through it with everypony's help. For now I belong right here.” Azure turned and found it easier to look at Dusky’s eyes than before. Something about them still seemed off, dilated in the moonlight and the green in them seemed to almost glow, lighting up her face.

“No problem Azzy. It's not dumping, it's sharing and it's what friends do.” Dusk just confidently pulled the larger mare next to her closer as they both sat there, now just watching the stars. The night was beautiful, and they lingered in the library well past everyone else except the two that lived there. Azure just enjoyed the moment for as long as she could before the long day caught up with her and she couldn’t help but Yawn.

“It’s getting late. Maybe we should head to bed.” She had cold hooves as she struggled to get up.

“Yeah. This was fun though!” Dusky relented and eventually got up to head out.

“It was. Catch you tomorrow!”

Azure went back to her room with a big dumb grin on her face and just slumped into her bed, looking up out her own tiny window. Someday she’d understand what the moon wanted with her. Someday she’d understand what it all meant. But until then, she’d just think of how excited she was to see her friends tomorrow.

Author's Note

Quite a long chapter! The next one should be much shorter, don't worry! Hope everyone enjoys, and as always feel free to comment.

Celestia's Letters #2
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School of (Restoring) Harmony

Celestia's Letters #2

Celestia paced her room anxiously that night. Something was deeply wrong. She could feel it in her deepest reaches, something was amiss with that student. She couldn’t keep her thoughts straight, at least not if she kept moving. She wandered circles around the small area dedicated to her study, wearing a pattern into the ornate rug and extinguishing the fire, getting sick of the endless cycle of hot and cold as she walked closer and further to it. She’d rather sit in the cold to think.

She took a seat at her desk to stop the nervous movement, and looked over its dark wood to an ornate brass paper holder. She sighed. Writing wouldn’t change much but it usually made her feel better. Maybe, if she was lucky, she might actually get some small clue from her counterpart this time. She could only hope as she started to write.

“Greetings again Solar Flare.” She spoke to herself. “No, that's too formal. What if she reads them far apart? ‘My Dear Counterpart’? No, she knows I’m not that fond of her.”

For all her experience, Celestia found herself struggling right now. Thoughts of what she had learned distracted her.

“Solar. I need your help.” No time for formalities. She wouldn’t mince words on this.

“My school has officially started sessions, and all the students have been gathered. I want to hope for the best but growing pains have already started to show. Fighting on the first day was expected. But I’ve come across a problem I was not prepared for.”

She wondered for a moment if it was really wise to share so much with an inter-dimensional despot. But if nothing else she had to be honest with herself, even other versions of herself.

“One of the students, Azure Star, is a complete mystery. I’ve tried to look into her background but there is no evidence of her ever existing in Canterlot or any of our allies. I even tried to reach out to Opaline of all ponies but she denies the Prench having any knowledge of such a pony’s existence. I thought it might help because her body type was lithe and stretched, like elite Prench Unicorn’s or-”

She didn’t want to finish that line. She didn’t want to think about what it meant. She didn’t want to include the subtle sparks glimmering in Azure’s blue mane or her blue-green eyes that looked so familiar. Solar Flare didn’t need to know that. If she found one, she would see it.

“It’s not typical to find a unicorn whose lineage is undocumented, but it’s the things she said that have me truly worried.”

Celestia thought about her own statement. It had grown unsettling how obsessed the Unicorns across each nation were with their bloodlines. Opaline’s table of ranks and obsession with Pedigree in Prance were starting to look more like Pony Husbandry than anything else these days, and the Griffish Isles weren’t far behind. Even Canterlot’s system of rings had gotten worse and worse since its introduction during the Interregnum. She’d have to do something about that later. Right now she had bigger concerns.

“Azure appears to be having visions. She described to me a prophetic dream that foretold the return of my sister, after her thousand years of exile. I know it was a vision because I had the same dream that night. She described seeing visions of the pass, charting the stars from the Observatory for a thousand years. The fact that I had done so myself, slipping up there every night to chart Luna’s progress is something I told no one, showed no one. But I cleansed the place of emotional residue before I opened the school. Even a powerful psychometric could not tap into it unless. ”

Celestia tried to fight back tears welling up in her eyes. She pulled out a picture hidden in her desk of her former protege, Sunset Shimmer. She looked to one still proudly on display of Cadance, and even at the pile of letters Twilight had sent her since leaving the palace two days ago. What if she was right? What would this mean? What about the other visions? She buried her face in her hooves and screamed into them. But the letter wasn’t finished, so she had to keep writing.

“I do not know if you will find a variant of her existing in your world. But please, if you find her there, or in any other reality, let me know. I need you to tell me this isn’t what I think it is. I need to know what to do about her. Please, Solar. Anything you find. -Celestia.”

She sat at her desk and thought about the letter. She considered for a moment if it wouldn’t be better to restart her fireplace and burn it. Asked herself why she neglected to mention Clockmaker and that his memories too had seeped into Azure’s mind. None of this was adding up. But she needed information, so she folded the letter, stuffed it into an envelope, stamped it and readied to deliver it to Solar Flare’s mirror. As she walked past her balcony, she looked up, to the heights of the mountains Canterlot was built on, to a secluded peak not far from the castle, barely visible unless you knew where to look, at the white walled haven and the shining observatory tower that adorned it.

“Best of luck. Twilight. I’m leaving this in your hooves for now.”