Chapters Tale of Stars and Monsters
Twilight was troubled to say the least. She was pacing her bedroom worriedly trying to calm herself. She was expecting a very important book that was vital to her recent studies, and it was late getting to her.
She just didn’t know what could have happened. The mail had been delivered several hours earlier, but the book had failed to appear with the rest of the post. It just didn't make sense! It was supposed to arrive today and she hadn't received any delay notice or heard about any problem that could have caused such a delay.
However this didn't stop Twilight Sparkle from imagining the worst. At this point she was begging to worry that the order had gotten screwed up, or the book lost on the way. Also among the list of fears was bandits, book eating monsters, rouge blizzard causing the book to be used as fuel for a fire, and jealous wizards destroying all copies of the book just to set her back in her work. She was worrying Spike.
"Twilight, calm down I'm sure it's just a small delay. It'll probably be here tomorrow and you'll feel silly for getting this worked up over it."
"How could you know that? What if it never comes and I can't do my research on celestial movement. What if I don't finish and all of Equestria is set back scientifically for a thousand years!"
"I seriously doubt that's gonna happen.” Spike was starting to feel another "Twilight Panic Attack" coming on and was starting to mentally prepare a letter to the princess when there was a knock on the door.
"I'll just go get that," he said walking to the door.
When he opened the door he was surprised to see a grey pegasus with a blond mane standing beyond the threshold holding a large tome in her mouth. She appeared to be distraught and embarrassed so he assumed that she had gotten the mail mixed up and was here to apologize and make her delivery.
"Please tell me that's Twilight's book Derpy, she's driving me crazy!"
"Yeth thir," Derpy tried before spitting the book out into her fore hooves. "I mean, yes sir Spike I'm sorry for any trouble I caused you and Miss Sparkle."
"It's cool Derpy. At least you got it here in one piece before Twilight caused any chaos from over worrying."
"Yeah, heh heh. I guess she can get a little too worked up some times."
"A little ? She nearly destroyed the town because she thought she'd get in trouble for a late paper! Anyway I guess I should let her know it's here." he took a deep breath before shouting up the stairs, "TWILIGHT, YOUR NEW BOOK IS HERE!!"
Twilight's ear pricked up and she nearly threw Spike out of her way in the rush to the door. "It here! The new copy of The Modern Study of the Night Sky ! I can finally start my research knowing every reference work is properly up to date."
"Sorry about the delay Ms Sparkle. I just saw the title and assumed my copy had arrived early. I didn't realize my mistake until I had gotten home and took a good look at the address. I came here as soon as I noticed and I haven't even opened it."
"Wait, you ordered a copy? I didn't know you were interested in astronomy. When did that happen? Most ponies in this town think it's boring unless there's a meteor shower or comet."
"It was a hobby I picked up from my time at Manehatten University."
"You went to MU?! What was it like? What did you study?"
"It was very nice, a wonderful atmosphere of knowledge and learning! I have my degree in Ancient Languages, focusing on obscure ones before the founding of Equestria. I moved here because my brother works in the area and my sister married a constable and had a child. I didn't think it was right to go wandering the planet and miss my niece growing up. It's not what I wanted from life but seeing her all the time certainly makes up for it, as well as the artifacts that get sent in for me to decipher now and then."
"Wow, it's so great to see another scholar around. Ooh, idea . . . would you be interested in stargazing with me and sharing notes? It would be a lot of fun and give us an opportunity to get to know each other and discuss all sorts of topics like science and history!"
"That sounds wonderful Miss Sparkle."
"You can just call me Twilight."
"Alright Twilight, so what is it the made you so eager to have this book on time?"
"Well, I'm working on a new theory about the movement of stars and I wanted to make sure that I have the most recent findings to help with my data collecting and to make sure there weren't any conflicting theories that would disprove mine. If I'm right then it could be a significant finding and help better calculate where things will be from night to night. It could revolutionize the entire world of astronomy."
"That's amazing! Why don't we start by me looking over your notes and data while you read through the book to see what's new and then we can start documenting everything tonight. My sister is on the weather team and told me it would be a cloudless night."
"As long as you’re finished with your own work that sounds like a great idea."
"Then let's get started.”
Author's Note
I'm apologize for any roughness. I don't have a proofreader so if anyone would like to volunteer I would be very grateful for the help. I'm using this to test my writing skills because I hope to start on a book soon so please leave any and all criticisms and advice.
Tale of Stars and Monsters
Chapter 1 - After Party Discovery
One year later.
The glory of a day off, it was a leisure that Spike rarely got to enjoy. He was sitting on the couch licking a ruby like it was a jawbreaker. His pet phoenix was sitting on his head sharpening its claws on his spines.
“Isn’t this a great day PeeWee? No chores, no disasters, and Twilight’s with the other’s on a “Pony Pet Play Date”, nothing to do but relax.” As he said this he leaned back and closed his eyes, eventually sticking the ruby in his mouth like a pacifier.
As he was just drifting off he thought he heard a yell from outside. As soon as he drifted off there was a loud bang as the door crashed in. He spit out the ruby so fast it stuck in the wall above a dizzy gray pegasus.
“Derpy! what’s going on? Are you alright?!”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just got a little too excited. The new copy of The Modern Study of the Night Sky is in today! Where’s Twilight?”
“She’s at the park, its Pony Pet Play Date day. Just try to be careful, you don’t want to hurt somepony.”
“Sure thing sir-dragon-sir,” she said as she took off towards the park. She flew as fast as she could but made sure to take Spike’s advice. It was a good thing she did as she almost plowed a few ponies into the ground.
Finally the park came into view and along with it a familiar owl, pegasus, and turtle. She flew straight toward them until she could see a splash of lavender and pink among the grass and flowers. She flew straight to Twilight and tackled her to the ground in excitement. “It’s here, it’s here!”
“Wah! Derpy what’s going on? What’s here, what are you doing here?” Twilight was confused as to why her friend/ co-researcher had tackled her.
“The book, the new copy of The Modern Study of the Night Sky is here. I thought we should read it together to see if they printed our theory!” This got Twilight’s attention, as well as the rest of her friends’.
“What theory, you two have a theory, what kind of theory, is it about candy? I have candy theories. Like: if you eat enough candy will you start to see in candy?” One guess who this is. The perky pink pony was jumping around the two on the ground, who were starting to get dizzy.
“That makes no sense Pinkie, all eating a lot of candy would do is make you sick. Our theory is about the movement of stars and planets.”
“BORING, just read the book already so we can get back to the fun stuff. Your about to make Tank fall asleep.” The criticisms of Rainbow Dash got the two astronomers moving while everyone looked on excitedly. They quickly opened the book and skimmed through it looking for their work, a mixture of anticipation and nervousness on their faces.
Twilight’s friends looked on with different expressions, from excited to bored. Eventually Twilight and Derpy looked up from the massive text with shining eyes and bright smiles. “They printed it,” came from seven mouths simultaneously.
That is when Pinkie inhaled longer than anyone thought possible before shouting an obvious, “PARTY!!!”
Before anypony knew what was happening the entire town had been taken to Sugar Cube Corner to celebrate. Streamers, balloons, and cakes reading “Congratulations Twilight and Derpy littered the building and there wasn’t a head without at least one party hat attached, in Rarity’s case a rather well designed hat that she had made a few months previously as a precaution against such occurrences.
Music blared as everypony sat still in shock trying to digest what just happened and Pinkie explained what the party was for. Eventually they all just decided to go with it and enjoy themselves, especially as their pink host started to worry that the party wasn’t fun and began changing things at random to fix it. Everyone started dancing and chatting, some still wet from the shower they had been taking and others wearing strange new party outfits courtesy of a panicked Pinkie, and all the guests congratulated the two honored guests.
As she was shaking hooves with the mayor Twilight saw a quartet of ponies headed toward Derpy with large proud smiles. Most surprising was an almost exact copy of Derpy herself, down to the bubble cutie mark. As Twilight stared transfixed at this oddity Derpy greeted the group with hugs and thanks then turned to her partner and laughed at her expression.
“Hahaha… Twilight your face is priceless!” she continued to laugh until she saw the growing fury on Twilight’s face. “Hehe… I forgot to tell you I have a twin didn’t I. Um, this is my sister, Ditzy Do,” Ditzy smiled and waved to Twilight. Then Derpy pointed to a green stallion with a light blue mane and an iron bar cutie mark, “My brother-in-law Constable Goody Do, and my niece Dinky.” Twilight looked down to see a cute little unicorn filly with big golden eyes smiling up at her and waving a doll’s hoof at her. “Finally, we have my older brother, Doctor Klutzy Hooves.”
`The stallion she pointed to last was light brown with a dark brown mane, his cutie mark was of an hour glass; Twilight recognized him from around town. “Hello Doctor Hooves, it’s a pleasure to meet a fellow P.H.D. holder. Might I ask what your degree is in? From your cutie mark I would imagine some sort of advanced science.”
“Actually, I’m a psychiatrist. The hourglass displays my chess abilities, I happen to be a grandmaster.” He had a gentle and relaxing voice that Twilight was confident helped in his profession. “I’m honored to meet you Miss Sparkle, I have a few friends who attended Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and have heard of your skills and intellect.”
“The honor’s mine,” Twilight replied with a blush from the compliment, “though I have noticed a rather… interesting naming convention that your parents seem to have chose.”
Ditzy decided to field this question for her siblings. “That’s what happens when two slap-stick comedians get married and have foals. Plus, we all tend to be a teensy bit accident prone at times,” she stopped and sighed deeply before continuing. “Unfortunately the town hall wasn’t the first building one of us wrecked.” The three siblings looked down with sad and embarrassed looks. Twilight and Goody immediately went to work trying to cheer the trio with the help of Pinkie who had appeared the second she sensed sadness at her party.
Eventually the party wound down and ponies started to leave. Twilight stayed for as long as she could, but eventually she had to take Spike back and put him to bed. The little dragon was fast asleep with a party hat speared on his tail from where he’d crashed into the pile of discarded party wear when he finally reached his limit and the late hour took hold. She bid a last farewell to all her remaining friends and set out into the night.
As she walked she reflected on how the night had gone and how good it felt to wind down with Derpy after months of anticipation, waiting to see if their work got published. This night had been just what they needed, though Derpy and Pinkie drinking too much spiked punch and somehow making a pueblo out of frosting had pushed things a bit. Over-all, the night had been fun and she had gotten to know her research partner on a more casual level.
She looked to the sky to reflect on what brought this all on and noticed something odd. A small circle of stars had formed around what should have just been a lone speck, and it seemed to expand and contract. It also seemed to blink off every few minutes, though at the speed it happened it could have just been her eyes blinking instead. As she watched the stars continued to slowly grow and the circle expanded faster than should have been possible.
There was research to be done.
Author's Note
Sorry for the two month gap between chapters, I've been dealing with a lot of life issues and adjustments. I hope you all enjoy and I promise to get the nexst chapter out quickly.
Feel free to criticize and let me know about any mistakes or improvements that could be made. The main plot will strt in the next chapter so look forward to that.
Thanks for reading!
Tale of Stars and Monsters
Spike was glad he had plans for tonight. Usually reading stories to foals would be fairly boring for the young dragon, but with Twilight’s current state it was looking like a great way to spend the evening.
After Pinkie’s party the week before Twilight had spent a few nights studying the skies looking for a strange phenomenon, and she had found it every night constantly getting clearer. Spike had to admit that it was pretty weird, a circle of red stars that would rotate around an unknown center. Once she had verified that it wasn’t a trick of the mind after the party and had measured its growth rate she had started studying physics and astronomy texts like a mad pony.
As Twilight’s number one assistant, Spike had been the one drafted into fetching everything she needed. At first it was easy, just books on theories and formulas, but as those left more questions she had started on historical texts where past astronomers had recorded their own studies. It had all gone downhill from there. As the books kept leaving questions unanswered, none had any mention of such an occurrence, she had started looking further and further into the past. She had already read every astronomer’s recordings and was now into the times of the astrologers.
She hadn’t slept in two days by this point, and Spike was on edge. Luckily he had agreed to tonight’s story time at the party, he hadn’t been out since. So it was with great relief that the drake walked into Sugar Cube Corner holding a large colorful book under his arm.
“Oh, hello Spike,” greeted Mr. Cake. “We weren’t expecting you for another half hour, Mrs. Cake is upstairs giving Pumpkin and Pound a bath.”
“That’s alright I was hoping to grab a cupcake first anyway. I’m starved!”
“Sure thing, Pinkie can you grab a cupcake for Spike,” the stallion called back to the kitchen.
“I’m on it!” replied a bubbly voice from the back. A few seconds later a pink ball flew out of the kitchen door, spun around the two confused males, and then screeched to a halt next to them. It then popped open in a burst of glitter revealing Pinkie Pie, holding a cupcake with topaz crumbles out to Spike. After he hesitantly took it she pulled out a push broom, cleaning up the glitter.
Drake and stallion stood dazed for a moment before shrugging it off and continuing their business. For Spike this meant sitting at a booth eating his tasty dinner and waiting for the twins to come down for story time. He was joined by his pink friend after a moment.
“Hey Spike! I haven’t seen you or Twilight in forever. What have you two been doing all week?”
“Hi Pinkie, Twilight’s been obsessing over some weird sky thing so I’ve been trapped in the library with her all week. It’s nice to finally get out and do something besides fetching and re-shelving books. Anything interesting been going on in town?”
“Nope, thing have been calm all week,” the cheery baker said. She then started looking around and leaned across to Spike whispering, “Too calm if you ask me.”
“Isn’t calm a good thing? With all the crazy things that have happened since me and Twi moved in I’d say that no major catastrophes makes up for a boring week.”
“Yeah, I guess so. That doesn’t mean I can’t think of ways to make things interesting, like a water balloon cannon!”
“Riiiiight, good luck with that . . . I guess.” Spike then looked up at the stairs where a blue earth pony mare was bringing down two foals, one unicorn and one pegasus. “Looks like the twins are ready for some pony tales.”
He walked over to where Mrs. Cake was putting Pumpkin and Pound down. “Hey little buddies, hi Mrs. Cake. Are we all set for story time?”
“Yes sir, they’re clean, fed, and ready to go;” the mother replied. The twins agreed in nods and baby babblings.
With his audience ready Spike pulled a chair over and sat down opening the book on his lap. He looked through the table of contents to find something to keep both him and the twins interested. He recognized most of them, including the tale of the “Mare in the Moon,” which had taken a large dip in popularity and had become a bit taboo after Princess Luna’s return. Eventually he came across one he had never seen before and caught his interest.
“Hmm, for tonight let’s go with the Akhal-Teke legend about the ‘Beast of the Red Spiral’. Ahem . . .
“Long ago, far to the East, there lived the tribe of the Turkmene. They lived simple lives in the desert and in the mountains. It wasn’t the most hospitable of places so they grew magically strong among all three races of ponies. They also studied the land and sky in great detail so that they would know the best places to find and grow food and how to get back no matter how far they traveled by navigating with the stars to an accuracy of a few decameters.
“One day a star-mapper, one of the most important ponies in the tribe, noticed a strange anomaly in the night sky. It was a red ring that grew in size every day. Noticing that this meant it was approaching the world he alerted the tribe to the possible threat.
“They immediately set to preparing for a large impact that would cause a sandstorm of massive proportions. They built a large wall around their homes, gathered large supplies of food, fortified the dwellings, and fashioned enough sand gear for the whole tribe. It was all in vain though.
“As the day of impact approached the red ring seemed to slow, until it stopped right above the planet. Then as they watched the ring that took up the edge of the sky they noticed the horrifying truth, the red ring was a series of large eyes. There above them was a massive beast that began to open it huge maw and suck the molten core of the planet out. They could see rivers of fire flowing from volcanoes into its mouth and the ground beneath them quaked as the mountains began to split.
“While others would have huddled in fear the Turkmene began to plot a way to defeat the terrible creature. They quickly realized that there was no time for an attack to fully defeat the beast; as such a thing would take decades, possibly centuries, to charge. So they set a much more risky plan in action.
“Quickly half the tribe started to create the base of the spell to vanquish the monster, so that it could charge in their absence, while the rest prepared to cast the massive foe away. As they finished they put the young inside the relative safety of the dwellings as the adults began the ritual to draw all the magical energies from all the three races out and form it into a massive spell. As the spell finished it absorbed the ponies themselves and launched at the Star Beast, as the young would come to call it. When it struck it launched the creature deep into s[pace and put it to sleep so that it would not be a threat for long enough that the true spell could charge.
“Days later the young of the tribe emerged from the houses and began to work on the pinnacle of the tribes works, a great maze protecting the runes of the Great Spell. Eventually the tribe was absorbed into larger civilizations, but they continued to spread the legend of what happened so that when the Beast returned the spell could be activated by a great mage.”
Spike looked up from the book to see the twins had gotten bored and fallen asleep, but he didn’t care. He recognized the red ring from the story. He quickly hopped out of his chair said goodnight to Pinkie and the Cakes and rushed home to tell twilight about his discovery.
Author's Note
Hey everyone, I am so sorry about the massive delay. Life hit hard with my depression getting bad, then a new job, and then a move to a new apartment. Everything's settled now, but I won't be promising quick updates just in case. I hope you enjoy.
P.S. both Akhal-Teke and Turkmene are actual horse breeds from the Turkmenistan area.
P.P.S. please leave a comment with a down vote so I know where to improve.
Thanks to everyone for reading and extra to those who favorite. Expect bigger chapters as the story starts to pick up.