Of Names and Numbers
By Plp855
It was a gloomy and rainy evening as the Ponyville express arrives in Canterlot station, the Pegasi had moved in a large storm for the night and were adding the the final touches before they could leave for the evening. A Lone Twilight Sparkle exits the train heavily laden with Quills and parchment. Her royal escort arrives and is lead by none other then her brother, she smiles brightly and trots toward him.
“Hey BBBFF its been ages, how has Cadence been.” she says as the gives him a hug
“It has been too long, and she is doing just fine I think she want to have a foal.” he says with a wink.
“Really? That's so exiting and sort of depressing, I mean can you imagine me an aunt, now I feel old.” She says with a laugh as they start walking towards the palace.
“Haha very funny but seriously we have been married two years now I'm glad she wants a child I just hope I will be a good father.”
“You will do fine just wait and see soon you will have a 1# dad mug and will be yelling and the neighbors children to keep off your lawn.” She says with a huge grin causing the other two guards to chuckle.
“Good one, way to make me feel old, what about you any ponies in ponyville catch your eye yet?” he says with a wink, causing her to blush and give him a hit in the shoulder.
“That is none of your concern, I'll find somepony when I am ready. She says with a huff.
“Alright alright I'm just worried about you sis.” he says as they walk up to the castle gates.
After entering the castle she is lead to the throne room where both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are waiting with smiles on their faces. Shining and the guards take their leave as Twilight runs up to give Celestia a short nuzzle.
“My faithful student it is so good to see you.” Celestia says as she returns the nuzzle.
“It has been to long Twilight Sparkle.” Luna says with a smile
“Sorry I haven't come to visit more often but things keep going crazy in Ponyville giving me little time to come see you both.” Twilight says as she takes a step back.
“All is well young Twilight we know life can be hectic at times.” Luna says.
“My sister is right, now come dinner is almost ready, the cooks went all out when they learned that their favorite little filly was coming.” Celestia said with a wink as she started moving towards the dining hall. Twilight blushed as she remembered how crazy she would get when she forgot to eat and it was always the kitchen staff that would have to deal with her until she returned to mental stability.
As the three ponies sat at the table the servants brought out a large array fruits and vegetables from around the world. The three sat and ate making small talk that went from politics to juicy gossip and everywhere in between. It was a rare occasion that the princesses could talk freely without the need to keep up appearances. That was until prince Blueblood arrived on the scene cause them become silent.
“Hello Twilight it has been a long time.” He said with a sneer. He never accepted her within the palace when he learned that she was not a noble. He did not even address the princesses because he thought he was better than even them.
“Yes it has Blueblood... not long enough if you ask me” she replied, saying that last part so only the Princesses could hear. When the two had first met her had tried to get her in his bed, that was until he learned that she was a commoner, then he yelled about having to sterilize his castle floor because a commoner was dragging filth in.
After his arrival the talking ended and was replaced with awkward silence. Dinner ended shortly there after and the princesses lead Twilight away from Blueblood and towards a private meeting room where they could sit and talk.
“So Twilight your letter said you wanted to use the library to study but you didn't say what you wanted to study” Celestia asked.
“I recently found an old book in a hidden compartment of the library which made mention of an old form of magic which used runes to focus magic and allow more complex spells to be used without the need for intense focus. The book said that it is no longer used due to the immense amount of magic required to power the spells.”
“Oh yes I remember using rune magic ages ago, but it went out of style as life expectancy increased so ponies had more time to learn more complex spells.” Luna replied.
“Yes that was a very long time ago, I think the only books left in that form of magic are in my private library.” Celestia said. Twilight looked sad for a moment until Celestia said. “But I think I can let you use it if you want to.” this caused Twilight Smile brightly and start jumping in a circle and saying yes over and over again.
“Thank you princess I have always wanted to see what books are in your private library.” Twilight finally calmed down enough to say.
“Good, shall we make our way there then?” Celestia said with a smile.
The trip was fairy short and went deeper into the mountain then moist of the rooms in the castle. They stopped at a simple wooden door that was locked with magic allowing only the princesses and their invited guest through. The path way was well lit and smelled of books and scrolls. Upon entering the main room of the library Twilight nearly fainted when she saw all of the priceless books and tome.
“Now Twilight me and my sister must go set the sun and raise the moon I trust you can find your way around, but be mindful most of these books are one of a kinds with no other copies in existence so please be careful.” Celestia said in a kind tone.
“Of course princess I will be very careful, goodnight Celestia, goodnight Luna.” Twilight said giving a slight bow to each.
Once she was alone she spent the next ten hours searching, reading and taking notes of the subject, while also getting sidetracked and spending some of her time reading random subjects. She finds all new ideas and magic abilities she had never heard of or read about and she was one who spent most of her youth in the largest library in the world. She filled out over ninety page of notes and had even dabbled in some simple runic magic. Of course this could not last forever and a hour or so before dawn Luna comes into the library.
“Twilight are you still up it is nearly time for the sun to rise, you will be in no condition to study further if you don't get some sleep.” Luna chided
“Sorry princess it is just so hard to stop with all of this new knowledge.” She replies bashfully.
“You are not in trouble young one but you need your sleep so go now, these books will be here when you return, but I should warn you not all secrets are meant to be learned some are best kept hidden.” Luna replies cryptically as she levitates some of the books back the the selves.
“Thank you Luna I will take your advise and get some sleep. Is my old room still open?” Twilight responds with a yawn.
“Yes it is now go I will finish up here have a nice rest.”
"Thank you princess"
Twilight leaves the library and takes a short walk back to her room where she lays on the bed and promptly passes out. But her sleep is not as restful as it could be for it is filled with horrid dreams and haunting screams. She sees images of ponies screaming for help but she can't save them, great dragons scream in pain just out of reach. But the worst is when she sees Trixie telling her to run and not look back, and that is exactly what she does she runs and runs but the screaming keep coming from all around her its like a million voices begging for help and screaming in pain.
Twilight awakens with a start as the images of her dream start to fade but one thing stay in her head and that is to run. She plays it off as just a stress induce dream and decides to walks it off. She proceeds to the dining room just in time to catch Celestia starting lunch.
“Twilight so great of you to join me I hope your studying is going well?” Celestia ask
“Oh yes it is going great I'm learning so much, but there is still so much left to learn in there.”
“Well remember you need to go back to Ponyville eventually or your friends will start to miss you.”
“I know it is just that there are so many things I could learn from those old book.”
They eat their meals enjoying each other company, chatting about the past and the future. Eventually they go their separate ways Celestia back to the court and Twilight to read more books.
When she gets to the library she dives back into her reading, taking books at random just to see what secrets might be hidden in them. As she pull off her twenty-third book she see something be hid the shelf. Upon closer inspection she sees that there is a door hidden behind the shelf, she leaves it be for a time and gets back to her books but she is a curios little pony.
“Oh I should just leave it be and forget I saw it, but what if there are more books back there, I don’t want to get in trouble.” Twilight begins trying to rationalize going through the door while pacing in front it the book shelves.
Eventually she gives in and opens the door revealing a long dark tunnel and a winding staircase leading deep into the mountain. The walls give off an creepy red glow yet no heat comes from them. She walks for what feels like a days but could not have been more then one hour.
When she reaches the bottom, before her stands the largest and most immaculately carved door she had ever seen. It is covered with historic seen like the unification, the great dragon wars, the alliance with the griffon clans, and Discords defeat, all the way up to Luna's rebellion and banishment. Sitting in front of the door is a podium with the largest book she had ever seen it was at least twice her size and four times her weight. She stood in awe of both the door and the book unsure of what she should do next, should she leave or should she open the book.
Finally her curiosity gets the better of her again and she magics open the book and starts to read but is greeted by a continuous list of names followed by a number then a year. The beginning names were old far older then the book had any right to be, they went back to the birth of Celestia before ponies had any real society. She started to flip through the pages to see if she knew any of the names from history. Eventually she finds one she knows
Starswirl the Bearded, 204, 30 AU(after unification)
This was the year he vanished from history and nopony knows what happened to him, or at least , nopony would tell the world. She reads on the names start to sound closer to modern names but still different from the norm. she finds a very strange name.
Blaze Eyes the Great, 3005, 72 AD(after Discord)
This was the once great leader of the a powerful Dragon empire which ended upon his death, but some say he never died and is still in hiding. Now she was getting worried the names she knew about refer to ponies and other creatures that had vanished never to be seen again. The next of scared her though.
Entropy, 478031, 138 AD
The legendary lost son of Discord most said he was a myth and he never existed but here he was the child of chaos recorded in this book. Now extremely worried she moves on to the more modern years and starts to recognize more and more names she sees known murders who were put to death and rapist who and vanished from society. There were even the names of some minor nobles who were openly against Celestia's rule and lost their titles. She eventually got to the most recent entries when she sees names of ponies and creatures she knows if not personally but by association she is horrified to see the next few names.
Greenscales the Old, 1968, 1 ALR(after Luna's return)
That was the green dragon that spike stole from when he ran away from home. While she may not have liked him, spike was a fault in that case. The last name in the book sent shivers down her spine.
Trixie Lunamoon, 41, 3 ALR
What had Trixie done that she needed to be put in this book, she had not seen Trixie since the alicorn amulet incident a year ago. There are no more names in the book just open space for more the book is not even halfway filled. She is about to close the book when she hears hoofsteps behind her she turns to see Celestia staring down at Twilight with a sad look on her face. Her face turns grim as Twilight ask her a question.
“Why is this filled the names of missing historical figures and horrid criminals?”
Celestia has tears in her eyes and keeps saying “You never should have come down here” to herself.
Twilight ask once again what the book means, and why should she have never come down here.
Celestia responds in a sad tone with “Immortality comes at a price and it must be paid. Living thousands of years is not cheap.”
Twilight respond with a confused look, until dawns on her that each name had a number and a year. Taking a quick glance down at the book then back to Celestia.
“What do these numbers mean?!” Twilight yells frantically
“You should understand by this point in your life that the more magic a creature contains the longer its natural life will be.” Celestia's response is cold and calculating.
“You mean these are there years remaining when these were recorded?”
“Yes, as a magic creature ages it gains more magic and increases its own life span but nothing is truly immortal even dragons die of old age. Nothing is meant to last live forever”
“What about you and Luna you have both lived for eons even before recorded history”
“Yes we have lived since that book was created almost a million years ago, but Luna and I burn through our magic much faster than ordinary creatures.”
Understanding dawns on Twilight’s eyes
“Lifting the sun and the moon.”
“Yes dear Twilight moving things that we should have no rights moving.”
“But what about Before you when the unicorns moved the sun and moon?”
“Yes they could move them but it took its tole on the unicorn nation, they would need thousands of ponies to moves each one and that would suck the life out of the ponies. Before My sister and I started moving the celestial bodies the life expectancy of a Unicorn was around twenty-five, due of their over use of magic. There is a reason Princess Platinum went to the meetings, her parents had past on and she could not become Queen until she was thirteen.”
“Is that why she is depicted as so childish in the plays?”
“Yes she had yet to find her cutie-mark when the Windigos arrived.”
“I see then if you and Luna took over were do you draw the extra magic power from?” she said with a suspicious glace back at the book.
“While I do not like the practice and I wish I could stop using it we have found an ancient magic devise which can convert the life force of magic creatures into pure magic which we can store and use to move the sun and moon.” Celestia says while taking a step foreword and forcing Twilight take a step back.
“You use the live of ponies to keep yourselves alive!?” Twilight screams
“Yes, and we can not allow anyone to know about this I'm sorry Twilight, but this is bigger then us.”
“What are you going to do, I thought you cared about me?” Twilight cries out.
“I do care about you Twilight but Equestria is more important then my feeling.” She says as the door behind Twilight creaks open revealing a massive cage suspended above an even larger cauldron of bubbling liquid.
“Please Princess I promise not to tell anypony or anyone I can keep a secret I swear.” She was crying waterfalls now as she backed away from the grim faced Celestia.
“I cant do that Twilight I wish I could trust you to do that but one accidental slip, one mention in passing and this country will crumble and the world will end without us moving the celestial bodies.” Celestia responded with tears in her own eyes.
“What about my brother he will come looking for me, cadence will also worry, and my friends they will also want to know what happened to me. See killing me will be more trouble than its worth.” Twilight Pleaded causing Celestia to falter.
“Losing one Element of Harmony will be bad enough... I'll have you, your brother and Candace disappear or something.” Celestia said as she took another step foreword.
“No you cant hurt them they have nothing to with this.”
“You made them apart of this when you brought them up.” Celestia said with renewed vigor.
“No no no please I'll do anything please don't hurt them.” Twilight cried as she is forcibly lifted into the cage and the door is locked.
“I'm sorry my faithful Student but this is bigger than you or me.” Celestia says as the starts to descend towards the liquid. The moment the liquid touches her hoofs she starts screaming in agony, the great doors slowly creak close with a resulting thud muffling the screams. Celestia leaves the chamber and finds the nearest guard.
“Guard find Shining armor and Cadence for me please tell them I have a mission for them.”
“Yes mam.”
Breaking News
Princess Cadence, Prince Shining armor and the Element of Magic, Twilight sparkle announced dead this morning when their camp was found ravened by a wild pack of timber wolves. The three were on their way to the crystal empire but the trains were not running due to the snow and no sky chariots were allowed to risk the flight. Still they went foreword on hoof camping the night in a clearing and were never heard from again. Princess Celestia was the one who found the remains of their camp, we were lucky enough to get word from the princess she said
“This is a trying time for our great country we have lost two of the royal family along with my personal student the element of magic.”
Luna was unavailable for comment as she remains locked in her tower, more on this story later.
Deep within the mountain through the private library past the hidden door and through the glowing tunnel lies an open book with four new additions.
Twilight Sparkle, 798, 4 ALR
Mi Amore Cadenza – unborn, 186 – 12, 4 ALR
Shining Armor, 206, 4 ALR