Prologue: The First Three
-- Long ago:
Before there was Celestia, or Luna, or Discord...
Before there was anything in the world but roads and mountains and the Ever Free Forest...
There were the First Three Ponies.
They were bare and thin, and they walked with stoops; they didn't have cutie marks, or know what cutie marks were. They had been born in circumstances that they never explained to each other, and each was like the other, save that one was male. They lived off scraps in the fields, and the few plants that were not poisonous; their constitutions were frail, and their bodies were slow, and they were always at the whim of the beasts.
One day, they came to a mountain, with three paths diverging- one down into a cave, one up along a winding road, and one up to the highest point they had ever seen. Each decided to take their own path.
The first pony took the cave path, and found a strange thing under the earth- a grove of long, sweeping vines, a tree with a glorious golden fruit and a pool of water underneath. In the water was a strange emaciated figure, long dead; the pony had no idea what it was, but felt that she should pay her respects. So she took it out from the water, and though she thirsted and hungered mightily, she drank nothing and ate nothing until she had mourned and buried him.
Then, as she came to drink, the water and the vines and the fruit cried out that they had seen her noble deed, her unselfishness, and had decided to reward her- for her respect to the earth and to the living, they would place parts of themselves into her and all her children, that they might be strong. So the fruit and the water and the vines mixed, and she ate of them, and became strong as an ox, and tied to the land and all its creatures. And she was the first Earth pony.
The second pony took the winding road, and came about halfway up the mountain. There he saw a swirling layer of clouds, pouring down around him; some struck with lightning, and others blew gentle breezes. He thirsted, and so he called out to the clouds, and asked for drink. But the clouds were vain and mad with freedom, and refused him even a drop.
So the second pony devised a plan. He loudly admired the freedom and the glory of the clouds, and asked them to come closer that he might know their beauty better; and the clouds, smitten with his praise, came closer and closer until he leaped at the rainwater pool. They shot lightning at him, but the second pony was fleet and agile, and drank his fill without the thunder touching him. The clouds, though they struck at him, became enamored with his agility, and they decided that upon this pony- quick enough to trick them- would be a blessing until the end of days, that he might always be so quick. And soon he grew wings, and was the lord of all clouds that he surveyed, and was the first Pegasus.
The third pony took the longest path, to the highest point of the world, and there she observed that a piece of bright cold ice had fallen into the peak, and had frozen it to the bone. As she came to it, it spoke to her, and asked her what she wanted- for it was the King, it said, and could grant her anything in the world. Though she recoiled in shock at first, she quickly grew interested, and told it that she wanted to take her proper place in the world. For though the first had been respectful, and the second was cunning, the third was ambitious. So the ice told her thus:
"Should you place me in the sky, all the days of your life, you and your children will be served by me and mine; all I ask in return is that you give us homes in your hearts and in your minds, and that one day you will let us reclaim our own."
The third pony agreed, and took the ice in her mouth and stuck it to the sky. Then, situated there, the ice named itself Star, and snapped off a point of itself, and placed it on her forehead; it became her horn, and she became the first unicorn.
And the First Earth Pony harvested and grew and birthed, and more and more foods grew that were safe for eating.
And the First Pegasus fought and flew and jibed and dodged, and the manticores and the cockatrices fled into the forests.
And the First Unicorn mumbled contracts and flung purple fire, and the Ever Free Forest burnt away, and towns were born.
And they grew and were mighty, and multiplied across the land, and the unicorns forgot their progenitor's deal with the First Star. But the stars remembered. And they still gave their magic to the unicorns, generation after generation.
And the stars, who were capricious, decided that the races should be united, for the three squabbled endlessly. So they chipped ice from the mountain, and made the Windigoes, and sent them to freeze the earth and corral their progeny into the promised land. And the Air and Earth fought the Stars, but they were not mighty enough, and the Wind turned cold, and the Earth bore no crop, until a unicorn burned away the monsters and brought peace.
And the Stars decided that the races needed leaders, heroes and villains; and so it took a spirit and suckled him on their coldness, and filled him with their terrible knowledge, and made of him a monster-tyrant. And when the ponies despaired, their closest numbers brought the spirits the ponies loved- sisters of light and dark- and made them the Princesses. And the Mirror devoted itself to the younger, the Fire to the older; they called themselves sun and moon, and called their Princesses Celestia and Luna, and they toppled the tyrant.
And one day they decided to name a unicorn their heir. So they created tools, extensions of themselves, and sent a few of their number to the land to set events in motion. And things happened as they planned, and they bred an heir.
And the heir was --
The first thing that Luna had thought- once the Nightmare had been summarily excised, and she had cried for her sister, and the birds had put a sort of lei around her neck- was: Why is the Element of Magic a star?
She had seen it before, certainly, but through a haze of envy and wrath and tears, through the oculus of Nightmares. She hadn't been thinking clearly, or at all; the gemstone registered as nothing but a starburst in an odd diadem, the others just irregularly shaped stones of power. But now, thinking clearly if in the throes of sleeplessness, she realized that it was a star. Why?
Then she looked down at Twilight Something's flank (Shimmer?) and realized that it corresponded to her cutie mark. A quick sweep of the other celebrating Element Bearers- the pink one evasive of her gaze, the others fairly clear if in the throes of rejoicing- confirmed that their gems matched. Oh. That made sense.
But that raised a further question: Why was Twilight Sparkle's (Sparkle, that was it) cutie mark a star? She asked for a clarification from Celestia and got only a vague answer- apparently Twilight Sparkle's special talent was magic. But that didn't make sense, did it? The other elements looked like their Bearers' marks, represented their holders' links to Harmony, but Twilight's mark looked like, and resembled, her element- not linking Magic to Twilight Sparkle, but Twilight Sparkle to Magic. And what did stars have to do with magic, or Magic, or Friendship anyway?
And who was Twilight Sparkle, anyway?
Her train of thought shackled from a period of utterly sleepless activity- a thousand years was wearing, even on the constitution of a goddess- Luna stopped thinking about it, and returned to the castle to regenerate. But the question remained a good one:
Who was Twilight Sparkle, anyway?
~~~~---->|<----~~~~
"Magic?" asked Twilight, cocking her head. "What about it?"
"Well, darling, I know I'm not much of a sorceress… but it is a noble art, about which I've never learned much. And I believe you're already aware of my…" Rarity giggled. "Plans. My little fantasies, if you will." She smiled to herself, in momentary reverie, before snapping back to reality. "Who better to ask, to learn from, than the wielder of the Element of Magic, and a personal friend?"
"Really? I thought that every unicorn got basic harnessing tutoring." Twilight's head, still cocked, cocked itself further, to a degree beginning to verge on the alarming. "You know, Patronage 101? Astral Seals and Deals? The Association of Wills?"
Rarity sighed. "Darling, I've spent my life in Ponyville. The only one in town with more than cursory knowledge of spellcraft is you, and the library was only very recently reopened for use. I didn't get magic tutoring."
"Oh, I see. Well, not to brag, but I am fairly well-versed in the field… well, at least as far as I can be in my studies at the moment." Twilight blushed faintly. "Really, I'm not incredibly talented. More of a dabbler. A protege. A-"
"Twilight, you're the protege to Princess Celestia, you've levitated more pounds in one night than I have in my life, and you've worn the embodiment of Magic on your head on no more than two separate occasions. You're far too modest." Rarity patted her on the back. "We all know you'll become an archmage. The question is how long you will keep the position before deciding it dull and taking over Equestria."
"Really, I'm not so great…" But she smiled to herself, and then quickly got the conversation back on track: "So what do you want to know? A prophecy? A spell-ion matrix? Truth-rending incantations?" She bent and began eating her veggie burger, obviously savoring it. "Food conjuration?"
Here was the moment of truth. Rarity swallowed. "Actually, I was going to ask after… tutoring for myself."
Twilight blinked, her burger halfway done. Then she placed it on the plate, gingerly, and extracted another one of her interminable lists, devouring it with her eyes in a fraction of a second before re-raveling and adopting an apologetic look. "I'm terribly sorry, Rarity, but I… can't."
"Oh, darling, with what?"
"What with, Rarity. Grammar." Twilight started, then stopped herself and smiled. "Sorry. Pedantry is a cruel mistress. I'm just… ridiculously busy- no, superlatively busy these days. I've got my alchemical modifications with Zecora, my issues with Winding Whistle's Theory of Pegasus Geissa As Relates To Thunder-" (Rarity could hear the capital letters as they clicked into place) "- and that issue with Pinkie Pie and the murderous ghost sentience Tartarus-bent on ending all that we hold dear under the terrible wheels of fire-"
"Pleeeease?"
"Rarity. You're invading my personal space." She was.
"Pllllleeeeeease?"
"Rarity, I'm using that personal space."
"Ppppplllleeeeeease?"
"Rarity, you are currently defying both social norms and the stigma against redundancy. Also, you're batting your eyes, and I think we're both uncomfortable with that and what it implies."
"Plllllleeeeaeeeeaaaaaaasssssseeeee?"
Twilight sighed. "Fine. Pencil yourself in on my checklist."
"Oh, thank you, Twilight! Heavens, what would I ever do without such a talented magician around?"
"We would be under the eternal reign of the night monarch, and dead of starvation, probably." Twilight smiled wanly, sighed, and finished her side of hay fries before preparing her teleport- accounting for physical anomalies, preparing her exit point. "Well, I've got to go catalogue the guides to necromancy. Good afternoon, Rarity."
"Goodbye, Twilight. Have fun with…" She blinked as something caught up to her. "Necromancy catalogues… what was that business with Pinkie Pie agai-" But with a flash and an inrushing of air, Twilight was-
-in a moment of motionlessness-
-and in the library. She shrugged off the warp-itch and grabbed a copy of Horde Hobbyist, The: Conjuring Undead Armies for Fun and Profit, removing the free packet of dragons' teeth. Then she neatly shelved it under H-15. There was always work to do, and she was the mare to do it.
In her busywork, Twilight didn't notice when a spark- minuscule, white, sparkling- leapt from her beaker into her coffee. Until she took a sip.
~~~~----<><><>----~~~~
In the morning, Twilight normally awoke in a sort of blur; she needed coffee to get herself up. But today, she felt herself wake without a hassle from a beautiful lucid dream- the air had been cool crystal, she could see her breath on the walls, forming diagrams, and a single point of light had been guiding her steps.
Gradually, she came to realize that she had not actually been asleep. A few more moments of introspection gave her the hypothesis that it was not the morning of the fifth, and that she had been awake for several days. A short inspection of the calendar and the Miracle Elixir timers gave her support, and she felt sufficiently qualified to upgrade it to a Theory.
Then, she looked at the silver things at the center of the room and formulated a second hypothesis: that she would probably be wise to switch to a new sort of coffee.
There was an enormous, neat stack of tiny silver-wood-and-stone oddities and parchments in the center of the room, inscribed with sigils she recognized as astrological signs. Spike was laying on them, muttering as the rowan and lodestone orb he was laying on spun slowly in place. A few of them were whirring, full of rage, and a few more let out ticks and clicks as they shot sparks. A small white gear at the bottom, with six spiked teeth, was enveloped in a deep violet aura which was far darker than Twilight's.
"…what?"
Twilight took a few seconds to just observe and compose herself. Her eyes darted vaguely around the room, before she stood and realized that her chair was gone. She was sitting on the necromancy catalogues, which quickly slipped from underneath her flank as she stood. From the sides and back, she could see that the trinkets were mostly made up of wood, which she recognized as parts of her chair and-
She walked out to where the balcony had been, and where now it was mostly not. Yes, she had apparently taken pieces from her balcony to put these things together. Outside, she saw from what was left of the vantage point a note on her door, and levitated it up to the window:
"Twilight, I've knocked and knocked and haven't seen you. So, I must regrettably come another day for lessons. Please notify me beforehand if you are to be absent. Yours, Rarity.
-P.S.: Please tell me what Pinkie Pie is up to the next time we meet. I saw her toting some sort of explosive device, with the strangest cohorts I have ever seen in Ponyville. I fear for our safety as a town."
She had apparently blown off Rarity to build these. And she had no idea what they did. The wise course of action here would be informing the Princess, she thought, and then locking herself in a closet for about half an hour.
But something in her wanted to know more.
She sat down and began decoding the runic inscriptions.
