The Crystal Tablets
By Maera Fey
Honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, loyalty – the bearers of those five elements, plus one baby dragon commonly known as Spike, gathered in the Ponyville Library. They all stared at the door of Twilight’s laboratory with both concerned and worried look on their faces.
“Ya' sayin' how long she’s been sittin’ in there, sugarcube?”
“Five days and four nights” Spike replied, close to crying. “Oh, Applejack, I’m so worried about her. She doesn’t sleep and eats hardly anything.” He put his claws on the door of the laboratory. “ All she had for the breakfast was a cup of coffee and she didn’t eat anything since then. I’m afraid that if Twilight doesn’t come out soon–”
Thud!
The door opened widely, crashing the baby dragon into a wall.
“Did it!” Twilight called out with triumph. “I did it! It is finished!”
Pinkie Pie started to jump around her friend. “Uh! Uh! What’s this? What’s this? A new recipe for rainbow cupcakes? Can I try it out? Can I! Can I?”
“Sorry, Pinkie, but it’s not a recipe. It’s a translation.”
The pink mare jumped even higher. “Ooooo! A translation! Omigosh it’s so super-duper-extra-awesome! We gonna throw a party to celebrate this translation of–” She suddenly stopped, freezing in the air, five inches above floor. “A translation of what?”
“Five days ago” the purple unicorn began “Princess Celestia sent me a copy of mysterious crystal tablets which were recently found in the basements of the Crystal Empire Library. The preliminary dating spell indicated that the tablets may be older than the Princess herself. And they are all covered in markings that seem to be some kind of a written language. Unfortunately, nobody was able to decode them… until now!” Twilight unrolled the scroll. “Princess Celestia asked if I could translate them and I could! Isn’t it brilliant!” She levitated the parchment right into Fluttershy’s face.
The Pegasus curled up, starlet. “Um… it’s really… nice…”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and grabbed the scroll. She looked at it critically? “A poem? That’s what all this fuss was about? Booooooooooring!”
“Do not be such a ruffian, Rainbow Dash” said Rarity, beginning to read the text. Applejack peeked over her shoulder.
“Rainbow!” Twilight stomped her hoof. “It is important! This poem proves that the windigos weren’t mindless beasts we believed them to be. They had their own culture and–”
“Not very highly developed culture, if you ask me” the white unicorn cut in. “Those rhymes are simply dreadful, not to mention the rhythm, or rather lack of it.”
“And what the hay is the last line s'pposed to mean?” Applejack added.
“I don’t know yet, girls. But this translation must be sent to the Princess at once. Spike!”
There was no response.
“Spike! SPIKE!!!”
“Aaa… ooo… uughh…”
Twilight Sparkle closed the door of her laboratory. “Ah, here you are, Spike.”
The baby dragon slimed down the wall and fell on the floor.
“Spike, stop fooling around already. You need to send this to Princess Celestia immediately.”
***
Two cars drove at nearly impossible speed. It must have been a miracle that they hadn’t crashed into anything yet. For a long time they went head to head but finally the dark blue car with the moon painted on it began to take the lead.
“Go my mighty carriage!” jelled Luna, frantically pressing buttons of her console controller. “Win! Win for the Lunar Republic!”
Celestia lowered her head and whispered to her sister’s ear: “Bananas.”
Suddenly the Moon-mobile started to fall behind. In the end the white car with the sun painting won by a wide margin.
“Gotcha” said the Princess of the Sunn, grinning.
But Luna wasn’t smiling.
“Why the long face, Luna? You didn’t seriously think I’ll banish you to the Moon once again, did you?”
“I…”
“Oh, Luna.” The older alicorn hugged the Princess of the Night. “You know that I did it… this one thousand years ago thing… to protect Equestria. And I regret it with every second of my life. If only I was stronger. If only I could have defeated Nightmare Moon. But without you I was weak.” She sobbed. “Oh, little sister, it was so dreadful! I would never ever send anypony to the Moon again.”
“Oh, Tia.”
“Oh, Luna.”
Unexpectedly, in a burst of a green flame, a letter appeared.
“Huh.” The younger alicorn blinked. “So soon?”
“I told you Twilight Sparkle was ready.” Celestia unrolled the scroll with her magic and began to read.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I’m more than happy to present you the very first complete translation of the Crystal Tablets. It still isn’t quite finished, though. Many parts need some more polishing and the meaning of several verses remains rather unclear (the last one's especially). Notwithstanding, I didn’t want to be a tardy keep you waiting any longer. I’ll send you the final draft as soon as it’s ready. For the time being, please, enjoy the hitherto outcome of my work. Please, please, please, don’t send me to the Magic Kindergarten.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
PS: Spike is the best, the sweetest, and the most hard-working number one assistant ever and deserves a vacation. And a pay raise.
PS: And Ah didn't learn anythin'! Ha! – Yours Applejack (How ‘bout bucking some apples together? Sunday, after the dusk, the usual spot, eh?)
Alas! The world was coming to an end and
We were dying together with our land
Our hosts – the weaklings on which we were feeding
Shook each other’s hands and were no longer battling
Without any precious hatred left to consume
The windigos were heading for certain doom
In those very last moments of our lives
Out of thin air the holly Box of Blue arrives
As we come closer the ground beneath it shakes
A light appears and the air around it brakes
Beyond that light delicious hatred we sense
Thus when the light sucks us in we don’t defense
Thus we were taken to the land anew
And then the voice came out of the Box of Blue
The message from the gods – the first and the last
Long ago it was and countless winters passed
Yet, the memory of those words remains strong
They were: “Doctor, I just don't know what went wrong.”
“Luna.”
“Yes, sister.”
“Prepare the cannon and bananas. We have ponies to send to the Moon.”
THE END
