A Long Tale Of Sacrifice

The Journey Begins

Fellstar and his companions stayed at Canterlot in some lodging provided by Celestia through the night. When morning came they packed up some supplies by the order of Celestia. When interogated by her followers, she told them that it wasn't as simple as she thought. She researched the night before and came to the conclusion that they'd have to go far away from Canterlot or Ponyville, to Fellstar's original beginning. Alphesedima. A land that is settled by mostly Unicorns, and is older than Celestia's first appearance. That is all Celestia said, leaving them with doubt as to what was next.

They departed Celestia's abode, and moved for the Canterlot Train Station. All of them had to wait for the next train to Ponyville, so they had a few hours to kill. They did this by playing a game. The group was split into two, and they played a game called Blup Ball. There were two goals, much like soccer, but these were covered by a Magical Protection spell. This is why each team had two Dissipaters. These had to be Unicorns, so that they could counter the Magical Protection spell being performed by the teams' Safeguarders. These also were coincidentally Unicorns. Don't worry, this isn't just a game for Unicorns. Earth ponies were Defenders, they were charged with keeping the Scorers safe from the other team's Scorers. The Scorers were usually Pegasi, and they flew the Blup, or the small metallic ball, to the other team's goal to score. It's really simple when you've played it for a while, and it doesn't consume much time in readying the field, which Celestia conjured. They played this game until their train's arrival was near.

"Come on my little ponies, the train will be here soon." As Celestia made this obvious she dissolved the field where they had played on, which had been suspended in the air. The ponies' general excitement was distributed evenly throughout the whole group. Many had not even ever heard of Alphedesima, and all except Celestia had ever met Twilight, though her adventures were much known all over Equestria. They've all heard about Discord, and Nightmare Night, not to mention that she is the most bagic pony anypony knows of. The train ride persisted through to the night.

Earlier In Luna's Tower...

Luna sat in her tower. That was very direct. She sits in this tower on most days, and occasionally speaks with her sister. Her thoughts of worry were gone now, and she was meditating once more. Something broke her silence again, but this time, it wasn't voices that did it. It was the sudden occurance of her memory returning, and she was thrown back into the physical realm of Equestria. Her memory was about what had happened a few days ago, when this same thing happened. Both times she was meditating and both times she was disturbed by outsiders. But the difference this time was that Celestia was involved. She stopped her thoughts to stand up, and she walks over to the window she stood at before. That was when she saw Celestia leaving with the other ponies whom had arrived and disturbed her before. Her surprise was written all over her face as she saw this. She wanted to leave, but thought it best to keep Celestia's mission private. In Canterlot, when the ponies see Celestia AND Luna departing from the city, they know something is up.

"My destiny seems to be intertwined with loneliness once more." Luna may have said this with a light-joking voice, but little did she or anypony realize that somethings happen that you try your best to prevent, but can't do so without sacrifice. Luna walks away from the window and decides to follow them when night has fallen, using her ability to fly and a Tracking spell. Using this she will catch up with them after they've arrived at Twilight's house.

As night falls around Luna, she begins performing her Tracking spell. Spells of Tracking are advanced spells, and require much concentration if you were to go about casting them successfully. She finds Celestia a few miles from where she was, Ponyville she guessed, and left her tower. She stopped outside the entrance to her tower, and looks at the sun as it was setting, admiring Celestia's power strength consistency.

Luna looks up at the sun once more as she spreads her wings in preperation of flight. She flexes her wings back and sends them down in a powerful down stroke. As she sped throught the air, the feathers on her wings kept her flight quiet. The night came down fast, and soon Luna could see the moon once more. The land beneath her was small, and went by slowly, or so it seemed, for she was at a high altitude. Luna's coat protected her from the chilly temperatures associated with hight altitudes, as she reached the outskirts of Ponyville.

In Twilight's Tree-house...

"Twilight, my dear student, let us have some more privacy for the details of your night terror." Said Celestia.

The group of companions had just reached their destination, and gone into Twilight's house to discuss Twilight's plight. Celestia and Twilight Sparkle both walked up the stairs to her room, to talk about the details of her dream.

Luna would cringe if she was here, "this is just great. They go up there and we're stuck here for who knows long waiting for them to get back and lead us to a place that none in this group know too much about and-" It was Electric Shadow. He was cut short by a familiar voice, one full of collectiveness.

"We waited before, I'm sure waiting for them to finish their discussion will not hurt anypony none too badly."

Once more, everypony looks in surprise to find this young Unicorn, who had consouled them earlier. And again Fellstar is taken aback by how mature and calm she was. He never asked her name before, "might as well now" he thought.

"Excuse me, miss-"

"Germanica, my name is Germanica."

"Well, Germanica, my name is Fellstar, and I'm pleased to make your aquaitance." Fellstar said this with much genuine respect. Then he addressed the rest of the group.

"This is the second time this pony has stated a fact so true, yet many choose to see different. We need patience, and we should be lucky to even be in this house." As he said this, a poorly stifled laugh escaped a scaled mouth. Fellstar turns to see a purple dragon, and wonders at the familarity of this character.

The dragon speaks, "It is just a tree-house, it isn't like a castle or anything."

Fellstar is astonished at this dragon's "blatant disregard for a legendary place," as he'd put it. He responds to this dragon's remark.

"I swear I recognize you, I just can't quite place you. Hmm......... you must be...... Spike! You're Twilight's assistant!"

Spike says something about a "number one assistant" under his breath.

Then, out loud, he says, "yes, I am Spike. And I do help Twilight stay organized and help her out. After all, she did hatch me." As he says this, Wolfshadow hears a heavy THUD sound that came from upstairs. Then everypony hears Celestia's voice raised. To them, it sounds bad. They all panick, Spike says something about helping Twilight, and they run upstairs to find Celestia, and Twilight. Fortunately, Twilight is fine, but what surprises them next was that another mare had mysteriously arrived and was sitting on a cushion. This mare had a dark blue coat, and a flowing blue mane. Silver Wind identifies wings AND a horn on this Alicorn, and Darkwing had immediately realized that this was, of course, none other than Luna.

Celestia was amused by this outcome,"and what do we owe you for this pleasure, my little ponies?"

Twilight asked Spike what this was all about, and Spike explained about the noise, and their reactions. Then Luna spoke up.

"I am sorry for the intrusion, my dear sister, but I saw you leave Canterlot earlier today and waited for nightfall, to suppress suspicions." As Luna said this her head bowed down slightly, expressing her regret.

Celestia responds with much kindness in her voice,"I had hoped you would follow me, Luna. I am more at ease knowing you will be there to assist us in our task." Luna's heart lifted at these words.

Luna got a chance to cringe as this question was asked, "and what is this task you speak of?"

Twilight joins the conversation, "we have to go to Alphesedima, and then we have to find the city's library and find a book. It'll be easy, but maybe not so for later." Confusion spread on the faces of the surrounding ponies like butter.

"Twilight was affected by a spell. A spell that I'm sure Fellstar has warned you of. It is ancient, and it is used for deceit and evil. Long ago, when my sister and I first came into power, Equestria's kingdoms were in a time of great strife and chaos. They were plagued by a certain type of magic, Mind Domination. When we came here, we found that many of the leaders were being controlled, and we had to find each caster of the spell individually, and deal with them. It wasn't easy, it was far from it, we lost one of our family members in fact." Many gasped. Well, all gasped except Luna. Celestia continued in spite of rising uncomprehension. "After that, we did our best to recover as many minds as possible. And that's how we ultimately came to rule Equestria. In a period of our weakest, a Unicorn, named Solara, became powerful, and greedy. He demand we turn him into an Alicorn. We saw that his heart was black, and refused. This angered him greatly. He foolishly attacked Luna and I, but his power was not strong enough for the both of us, and we exiled him to Alphesedima. That was our gravest mistake, I now know. There, he must have found some tomes on Mind Domination. We haven't heard from him since his exile, but we've been on the lookout, watching for his return. Now that this has happened, it is now too clear what must be done. We must go to Alphesedima, and find out how to counter this. If we fail, then Equestria will fall completely into darkness, and everypony will be his puppet." This was some hard news for the young and old ponies in the room.

Fellstar couldn't believe it. His home was so ancient, there were so many secrets he didn't know about! That must have been how his father knew how to cast Mind Domination.

"How come you two can't just do what you did to the other casters, the ones before?" Starchord asked a very good question that you had probably asked just a second before.

"The casters before were weaker than him. Celestia explained. "They were also foolish, for they left many traces of their magical activities. But Solara is much more clever, and he is much more powerful. Luna and I believe he is still hiding somewhere in Alphesedima, and he is definitely hiding his magical signature, or else we would've found him already. He is a very malevolent colt, and he should NEVER be underestimated!"

Luna joins in again, "if it wasn't for my older sister, I would have been defeated when he attacked. He is a terrible colt, and deserves the mercy of no pony any longer!" She said this with conviction.

Fellstar's mind starts working properly enough to say something, "so we have to go to Alphesedima, my old home?"

"Yes, and we are going first thing in the morning!" Celestia stated this as fact, so everypony had to accept it as such.

Then she explains the supplies they had to bring with them, "the train will only take us as far as Ellipsa, so we must walk the rest of the way to Alphesedima. That's why we needed all of those cumbersome supplies."

Fellstar remembers his escape from Alphesedima. It was horrid! There isn't a train station in Alphesedima, so he had to gallop all the way to Ellipsa, and board a train illegally to Pronte, where he enrolled as a student at the University of Magical Studies. They only reason he got into the school in the first place was his extensive knowledge regarding magic. "At least my father gave me SOMETHING" he thinks to himself. "Ah, but he did cause a many problems with mother, and of course he was none to nice to me either." The group breaks up to converse with each other as Celestia and Luna go and discuss the journey by themselves.

Everypony broke into two or threes, Starchord with Wolfshadow, Darkwing with Silver Wind, Germanica by herself, Electric Shadow with Thunder Call, and Fellstar finds himself face to face with a purple Unicorn, Twilight of course.

She asks him about Alphesedima, and he finds himself fairly forthcoming. He tells her about his escape, with much surprise to her, and how he was enrolled at the University. He asks her about Gravity spells, and she explains them very clearly, especially when he was confused on how to focus his mind to alter reality, and asks her to "clarify." He finds a deep connection with this mare, and he enjoys the time they have discussing magic. At this time, Fellstar forges a friendship with Twilight Sparkle that seems as perpetual thirty years from now as it did then. Fellstar shares his knowledge on Mind Domination, and Celestia and Luna finish their conversation to tell them that they need to sleep now.

"It's been a long day everypony, and we all need some sleep. Tomorrow we head for Alphesedima!"

And with that, all of the ponies make arrangements on the floor, couch, and anything else remotely comfortable, and fall into deep sleep, thinking of everthing that has happened.

       Around Midnight...

Fellstar closes his eyes once more, trying, in vain, to fall asleep. He stops his tribulations, and gets up. He walks over to the upstairs balcony, and puts his fore-legs on the balcony's rail. He looks up at the stars, and decides to stay awake until dawn, for he knew why he couldn't sleep and he knew it was a false hope. As he does this, a slight movement to his right catches his eye. He looks to his right, and sees Luna, standing on the balcony with him, doing the same as him.

"I was wondering when you'd see me." Luna said, in a light tone.

"I-I'm sorry Princess, it's just that I have a lot on my mind right now, so my situational awareness is low."

"I can see. Why are you still awake, I thought everypony was asleep?"

"I'd ask the same. I can't sleep right now, too much is on my mind. Besides, I enjoy watching the stars at night. They always seem to calm my mind."

"Something, it seems, that we have in common."

"Pardon me, but why are YOU awake? I thought you would be asleep, after all the flying you had to do."

Luna embarrasses Fellstar, "being in exile for a thousand years with nothing to do but sleep and think can have some interesting effects."

Fellstar splutter, "I-I-I did not mean to offend you, Princess. I was just-" He was cut off by Luna's laughter. He blushes a bit.

"It's alright, Fellstar. I understand you query, and I am not offended in any way. Just fairly amused."

Fellstar sighs. "I best try to sleep. I don't want to be tired tomorrow!" Fellstar walks out and lays down on his makeshift bed upstairs. "So much for staying awake until dawn, Fellstar" he laughs to himself.

   Twilight's Balcony...

As Fellstar walks away, embarrassed, Luna stays. She stands there looking up at the moon, her old prison, and sighs a sigh of somepony who is used to being alone. She looks at the craters covering the moon, and remembers them clearly, for she had explore much while on the moon. Luna identifies Perscylafe, one of the many names she gave to the moons' craters. Then her gaze drifts down to the drowsy Ponyville. She remembers this place before her exile. It has changes so much since then, grown......larger, and more active. Everything and everypony has grown MUCH more active, they move faster. Everything is so much more different than before her exile. "But am I really surprised? I've been gone for a thousand years, what did I expect?" She thinks many thoughts, most floating in that direction. Luna stays here until just before daybreak, thinking about so much.

The next morning, everypony gets read to go on their adventure. They are all excited and light-hearted, though if they knew what was to happen, their attitudes may have been different...