Being invisible is not something fun. And trust me, I should know. I was an invisble...ee? Invisiblette? Uh, is there even a term for that? Hmm, I guess not. Anyway. I am Sun Bolt, and this is my story.
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It was a dark and stormy night. Well, er, it was actually a clear night. I got up in the middle of the night, feeling a strange pulling. A deep instinct that I have had for as long as I could remember told me I should go to the window. Since following my special 6th sense usually resulted in good things happening, I followed it. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening, but my 6th sense still tugged at the window. I stayed there for a few minutes, but still. Nothing seemed out of place. Then, I noticed it. A large figure was standing there. Just standing, looking straight at me. Now, everypony in cities like Manehattan would be quite creeped out by this, but you have to remember, this was Ponyville, and things like this happened pretty often. I stood there for a few minutes, after which my 6th sense stopped. There was still that strange pulling that I experienced when I woke up. I decided to ignore it, and went back to bed.
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The same old deal. Wake up, brush teeth, eat breakfast. This was my daily routine. I lived alone in my house on the ground. I am a pegasus, but I find the ground calming, away from all the helter-skelter of Cloudsdale. That day was seemingly normal, the strange incident at night in the back of my mind.
After getting ready, I flew up to Cloudsdale to begin my work at the cloud factory. I went past my boss' room at the front of the area. Cloud Chase was a very pleasant pony, everybody liked him. He usually greeted everyone as they came to work, but when I passed him, he didn't say anything. Had I done something wrong? I cautiously said, "Hey, Cloud Chaser." He looked up and replied, "Hey, Sun Bolt." I sighed in relief. His voice didn't have a sharp edge to it. He wasn't angry. He looked around the room, and questioned, "...Where are you?"
"Right here." I smiled and waved a hoof. "Uh... I don't see you." I realized, when I waved my hoof, I couldn't see it.
"Uh, Cloud, can I take the day off?"
"Sure! Um, wherever you are." Cloud Chaser didn't seem fazed by the fact that I was supposedly invisible. Remember, this is Ponyville. I raced back home, and sat down. I looked around at my room. Suddenly, I gasped. My greatest treasure, a green and blue amulet with a rune-like mark on it, found in the the depths of Everfree Forest, was pulsating with light. I quickly grabbed it. It was freezing cold. I dropped it in surprise, but it didn't fall to the floor. It stood there, suspended in mid-air. I fearfully scrambled back towards the wall behind me. The amulet hovered towards me. In my panic, I didn't notice the dark figure from the night before observing through the window. All this time, a wind was blowing around the amulet, creating a whirlwind around it. Suddenly, the whirlwind stopped, the amulet stopped glowing, and it bonked to the floor, unmoving. I cautiously approached it, and it spoke.
"Owwww..."
I jumped back in surprise. It rose again, however, not pulsating nor generating a whirlwind.
"Uh, hello? Is this thing on?" A few bonking sounds. I shakily replied. "Um, yeah. I... I think so..." The voice was somewhat reminiscent of Princess Luna, although somewhat gentler. I cautiously inquired, "Who... are you? And... uh... what are you doing in my amulet?" As I look back now, that sentence sounded quite odd.
"Well, I kind of have a problem."
"I bet your problem is nowhere as near as big as my problem. I'm invisible!"
"If you call having your family separated completely 'not a big problem,' then sure."
"Uhhhhh..."
I raised a hoof , forgetting I was invisible. "Why me though? I'm nothing special..."
"Yes, you are, Sun Bolt. Have you ever questioned your past? About your parents? Why you have your 6th sense? Where you got your cutie mark?" I looked at my flank. My cutie mark was a strange one, what looked like a multicolored tornado.
I looked up again. "So, let me get this straight. You stalk me?" If the pony behind the voice wasn't embodying an amulet, it would have most certainly facehoofed. "No."
"Why are you here?"
"I have come to tell you about your past. "
"And why do you know about my past?"
"Because I am your sister. Your older sister."
"But, I don't have a sister!"
"Can you really prove that? Can you even remember your parents or family at all?"
"...Well... No."
"You know that birthmark on the bottom of your left hoof?" That birthmark was a very special thing, it was what reacted when my 6th sense perked up. "I have it too."
Just to make sure it was not a lucky guess, I questioned, "What is it shaped like?" Without a hesitation, she replied, "A triangle with a star in it." I realized at this moment, I would have use the exact same wording if I had been asked that question. "Who does this amulet belong to?"
A silence.
"... It belongs to our mother... She is lost."
Confused on what that meant, I inquired, "What do you mean lost? Like... Dead?"
"I don't know. In a... struggle... we had, we lost both you, and Mom... She could be dead, but she is the bravest and most persistent pony anyone has ever seen. It's extremely unlikely. When I found out you had the amulet, I took advantage of it. Think about it... a star in space is disintegrating right now. I'm literally burning up a star... Just to talk to you."
"Can I talk to you in person? Like, not through a weird floating amulet?"
"I thought you would ask that. I have actually made preparations. Princess Celestia has sent a carriage and it should arrive in a few minutes."
"Princess Celestia?"
"Well, yeah. I'm childhood friends with Twilight Sparkle."
"You really have it good, don't you?"
"With some things, yeah."
I looked outside. Princess Celestia's carriage was just landing. "Well, the carriage is here... Oh! By the way, what's your name?"
"Star Beam."
"Okay. I will see you in a bit...?"
The amulet dropped to the floor with a clatter. I picked it up and put it on its stand. I got all my stuff ready, along with a large supply of sushi, and got into the carriage. Apparently, the carriage ponies had not been notified that I was invisible. I cleared my throat, and they took off.
After what seemed like hours of flying, the carriage dropped me off in some forest which I did not recognize. It was certainly not Everfree Forest, because it was not dark and gloomy in the slightest. I looked around, then I saw it. On one of the biggest trees I had seen in my entire life was a small door. I entered. The inside of the tree was completely hollowed out, and replaced with a set of stairs. I suddenly realized that the inside of the tree was later than the outside. I gasped, went outside, and looked around. The tree was enchanted in some way which normal unicorns could not achieve. I went upstairs, and my sister greeted me with a hug. "My god, the last time I saw you was when you were just a small foal!" It felt very awkward being simultaneous invisible and being hugged by a person you couldn't for the life of you remember. "...and it still is, seeing you are invisible." I looked at my sister. She was a lavender-magenta purple unicorn, slightly older than me, with a mane style that made her look somewhat "in-charge." "Why are you a unicorn?"
She looked up in surprise, and said, "Mom was a unicorn and Dad was a pegasus."
"That explains it." I paused. "By the way, how did you grab me into a bear hug even though I was invisible?"
"Well... since we are a very special family, we can read each other's minds."
"Two, er, three things about that. One: that's really creepy. Two: why can't I do it? Three: How come you can't use it to read our dad's or mom's mind and find where they are?"
"My my, you are the curious type. One: yes. Two: you can. Three: it only works in close range."
I smiled. "Really? How?"
"Just think about it."
"What? How should I know?" I indignantly replied.
"You misunderstand. 'Think about it' as in 'think about reading my mind.'"
I blushed. "Oh."
I thought about it, and a word flashed across my mind.
APPLE
"Uh, apple?"
"Close, it was 'banana.'" I frowned. "That was really good for a first try." Star Beam smiled warmly. I closed my eyes and concentrated.
MMM... CHEESE
"What? 'Mmm... Cheese?"
I opened my eyes. Star was eating a piece of cheese. She paused, then chuckled. "I'm eating cheese, actually. Good job!"
Happy I had gotten the hang of it, I concentrated to see if I could do it again.
WOULD YOU QUIT IT
I chuckled.
FINE, I thought back.
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"So. What exactly are we going to do about my invisibility? I think we are underreacting slightly. "
"Well, I'm not completely sure... This is nothing like I've seen before."
"What? From the way you do and speak about things, it seems like you know... Everything..."
"Well, I do know a lot... could you explain to me exactly what happened?" I explained the strange night awakening and the dark figure. "What did the figure look like?" I thought for a bit. "I couldn't see its face... The moonlight was bright, but the figure was in the shadow of another house."
"Ah, I see..." Star Beam reminded me of someone, but I just couldn't put my hoof on it. "I think..."
"Therefore you are..."
"Quiet."
"Okay, sheesh."
"I think this could be some kind of curse." She paused for a minute, then inhaled sharply. "No... it can't be..." Star Beam widened her eyes and thought. "No... No! This is bad! This is really bad! We've got to get out of here, quick!" She grabbed me by the hoof and dragged me to a small metal box. We went inside. Star Beam frantically pressed buttons and turned dials, and the whole box started shaking. "What's happening?!" I shouted over the ruckus. I couldn't even hear myself.
WHAT'S HAPPENING?
NO TIME TO EXPLAIN NOW, I NEED TO GET THIS THING MOVING!
I held on to one of the the well placed handles as the box seemed to toss and turn and move at a very fast speed.
"aaaaaa." I screamed muffledly over the ruckus, as my face was stuck on one of the walls. Suddenly, the box stopped moving with a jerk. Pulling my head off the wall, I looked around. She was still twisting and turning various dials. "Where are we?" Without saying anything, Star Beam opened the door and I went outside. We were still in the forest, but the extra-large tree was nowhere in sight. I looked around, searching for the treehouse. I saw a humungous cloud of smoke in the distance, next to a mountain. Then I got a sickly feeling in my stomach. That mountain was the same one which the carriage ponies had landed on. The mountain next to the treehouse.
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"What was that?! Who is responsible for this?!?"
"Calm down, will you? Nothing in there was important. All our important stuff is in our own dimension." I rolled my eyes. "How convenient. Our family has our own dimension, too."
"Yup. It actually works very similarly to radio waves. Think about it." Not meaning to make the same mistake twice, I tried to access our "special dimension." I was able to access anything in the dimension and pull it out. I still cannot explain how it works, but I was but a spirit, able to control things with my mind. My body stayed back in my native dimension. I looked around the new dimension and found a collection of various items.
"Whoa..." All this stuff was very overwhelming, and I was starting to wonder whether I was dreaming or not. I pinched myself using the impossible physics of our universe a few times, only then realizing how stupid of an action that was.
"So back to the point of: who is behind this?" Star Beam immediately replied, "The same pony who separated us..."
"Well, who is this pony?"
"He is the almost the last one of his kind... His name is Oraceus." She spoke with loathing in her voice like I had never heard before. Even though I had only seen her in person for about half an hour. "Wait... You mean that he isn't a pony?"
"He is, but I mean, to have these powers... The only other ponies that have the powers he has are us. You and me, Sun Bolt. And Mom and Dad, if they're still alive."
"Well, what can we do about it?"
"That's actually not the main problem at the moment," Star Beam replied. "You have to remember, you're invisible."
She rolled her eyes. "We need to avoid Oraceus while trying to restore you back to normal."
"How?"
"I think we should talk about it tommorow."
It was getting dark, and we needed to rest in our little metal box, even if we did have magical powers that weren't those of a regular unicorn.
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Being woken up by an alarm in the middle of the night isn't fun. I swung my hoof around, forgetting that it wasn't my clock that was making the alarm. I stood up. "Good morning, sleepyhead!" Star Beam was poring through books for some reason. I groggily looked around. "What time is it?"
Star Beam thought and said, "Eh, maybe 4:30 or so?" She went back to her books. "What's happening right now?"
"We're kinda traveling through space right now." I flopped my head onto a table. "Should I think about that, too?" She rolled her eyes.
"No, we need the TaSTImV to do that, silly."
"What? Tasty?" Star Beam facehoofed for the first time in front of me. Quite surprising. That she hadn't done that more. "No, T-a-S-T-I-m-V. Time and Space Trans-Intermolecular Vehicle."
"Cool. So this box has its own little funky acronym? And man, that's a mouthful..."
"Well, yeah."
"And where we going?"
Star paused. "Absolutely no clue. Does it look like I know how to operate this thing? I only know the fundamentals, nothing else..." True, she did seem like she was pushing and pulling buttons at random... Wait...
"WHAT?! Don't you think you might accidentally press the self-destruct button?!"
Star Beam rolled her eyes. "Our parents weren't stupid enough to put a SELF DESTRUCT button in the TaSTImV."
"Oh. So that's cool. Not only can this thing fly around in the sky, teleport through space AND time, it was also built by kin. That is absolutely AMAZING."
I giggled to myself. "Heeheehee... What next... A black sphere with no physical properties... Designed to travel through a place where time and space don't exist? Outside the universe? BAHAHAHAHA!" Star Beam gave me a funny look. "Actually, that is a good idea..." Star Beam pondered my incoherent rant. "You know who I think can help?" Star Beam replied, "Yup. Princess Celestia."
I sputtered. "Wha... what? How did you know?" She rolled her eyes and pointed a hoof at her head. "Right. Mind-reading."
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Being a sun-raising princess and all, Princess Celestia was surprisingly easy to contact. In her private study, we were sitting down.
She was in the midst of analyzing my condition, with a bit if help finding out where. Actually, since her magic aura was around me, it must have looked like a pegasus-shaped aura around nothing. Which likely looked quite amusing.
Princess Celestia widened her eyes after a few minutes of her analyzation, and awkwardly informed us, "This... Is nothing I have encountered before... This is thousands of years old. Before paper! This is one of the earliest spells ever created..."
"But aren't spells reversible?" Princess Celestia shook her head. "Not if you don't know them."
"You're saying, that we need to first find out who cursed me and why, then we need to somehow, likely impossibly, convince him to lift the spell?"
"Somewhat along the lines of that." I opened my mouth to begin speaking, but the Princess raised her hoof. She got out a box. She silently gave it to me. I opened it. Inside was a small pouch.
"Uh, excuse me, princess, but, what's this?"
Her next words were very cryptic. "Open it when the time comes. You will know when it is time."
The pouch had a triangle with a star in it embossed on it.
