The Opposing Sides Of Life

Chapter 6: Moving forward

The next day it was dark where Celestia was. The sound of clattering of hooves rang through her head. She could see only her mother and father. Her and her sister Luna were both walking and talking to Strawberry. They were all on their way to reach the middle of the mountain above Canterlot. There was a plateau that overlooked most of the Everfree forest. On the other side of the mountain at the very top in the clouds a group of Pegasi lived there. They traded supplies in Canterlot. Strawberry made many things. She worked in selling goods. She also made them too. She'd met a lot of pegasi and most were from Canterlot but some were also from the Cloud above them. The name wasn't passed around much but it was mainly know as the cloud above Canterlot.  They were talking about magic and flying. The Celestia heard a horrifying  scream.

"Celestia! Wake up!" A familiar voice called.

Celestia jolted awake breathing heavily. She waited a minute and caught her breath. Strawberry was standing in front her. "Where are they? where's mom and dad?" Celestia asked. "Are they?"

"Yes strawberry said." She said with tears coming to her eyes.

"No.. No!" Celestia said starting to cry. "Where's Luna?"

"She's back home. She hasn't said a word at all. She will barely eat or drink anything and she just stares out the window and sleeps. I'm starting to get worried about her."

Celestia stopped crying for a second. "It must be hard for her. I know. It's hard for all of us but let's go home. I will try to at least get her to eat something."

They checked out of the little medical clinic and started walking home. It wasn't a long walk only a few minutes away. Celestia just stared at the ground as she walked. She occasionally glanced up to make sure she didn't walk into anything. "Why did it have to happen?" She asked.

Strawberry was silent for a second. "Well you see Celestia. Remember how you were told that you were sent here by the gods? Well everypony has their time. A time for them to leave and go to the heavens. They must have felt it was their time and maybe the start of a new time. It may have been that way because they chose you in the first place. You are two very different ponies, you and Luna. You must understand that they may have wanted this because now you will have to start the journey of your lives."

"But when is our time?" Celestia asked.

"Well your time.. Even though you two are so much different it makes it that much harder for anyone to tell when that is. We can hardly tell our own times but an Alicorn. Well only the gods will know and decide. Try not to think about it." She said with a hardly noticeable smile.

"Do you think Luna will be ok?" Celestia asked.

"Well we're here so let's go find out." Strawberry replied opening the door.

Luna was sitting on a couch in the middle of a big open room. She was staring out the window. Celestia walked over and sat beside her. "Luna? Are you ok?"

Luna sighed. "No Tia. Why did they have to go? I just can't get that picture out of my head. Dad was just laying there. He was covered in blood. Nopony could help him." They both shivered as the image returned.

Celestia cleared her throat. "Well strawberry told me that everypony has their time. It was chosen by the gods that it was their time to go and it could mean it's time to start our journey. We were put here for a reason. Maybe it is time to star our Journey. You must always remember. If we need guidance just look up to the stars and ask. Dad said him and Mom will always be watching and helping."

"I suppose, thank you Tia. It eases my mind a little." She said. The two sisters were laying side by side watching out the windows for a few hours. They made a few conversations but they were short. It was getting dark out. The sun was just behind the top of the mountain. They decided they would go eat. Strawberry made them some soup. They ate slowly and were silent. Luna couldn't finish her soup. "Tia it's just not the same without mom and dad. It doesn't feel right eating without them."

"I know, But there's nothing we can do. But it's dark and that stars are out so lets go outside." Celestia said. All three of them went outside and looked up at the sky. There were millions of stars but there was one start just below the Northern Star. Luna looked up. "Mom? Dad? Is that you?" Luna asked. Just then a butterfly flew down and landed in front of them. It had white with blue on it. These colors on this butterfly were not normal. It must have been there parents. "Mom, Dad what do we do now? It's hard to know what to do now that your.. gone." She said with her eye's starting to tear up. The butterfly started to flap it's wings and dust fell onto the ground below it as it flew away. The three looked at the ground with amazement. The butterfly left a message. "Dear Celestia and Luna. You must figure what you are to do by yourself. All we can do is give you a hint. Follow what your hearts say and what you believe in. We are not gone. Just Invisible. Take care." Luna looked at Celestia. "Tia did you see that?"

"Yes I did. Tomorrow we will go to the library and get some books. We need to start learning more magic and flying. Then we go and start our journey." Celestia said.

"What journey is that?" Luna asked.

"What ever one we choose." Celestia replied. "Now let's go to sleep."

The next morning it was early. The Birds were singing, there was a warm breeze, and there were a perfect amount of clouds in the sky. It was a beautiful day out and clearly was the work of their mother. Sun always had loved the mornings. She had liked them just like this and Night had always loved the night sky and dusk. He liked it clear and with a cool breeze. Celestia had tried not to think about their parents and what had happened. She barely got any sleep. Luna didn't do much better as she had cried herself to sleep. Even though Celestia and Luna knew that their parents were still there watching them it was still painful to know that they wouldn't ever see them again.

It was late the next morning almost 10:00 am. Celestia had got herself out of bed and woke Luna up. The two got ready and went to get something to eat. Strawberry was no where to be found but there was a note on the table though. Celestia read it aloud.

"Celestia, Luna. I have spent the morning preparing something for you both. On the way to the mountain there was a tall cathedral looking building. That is the College of Canterlot. Meet me there. Ask the mare at the front desk that you wish to see a pony called Star-Sparkle and Me. Come here as soon as possible. P.S. We will eat  after." Celestia read then looked at Luna and paused for a second. "Well shall we get going and see what Strawberry wants us to do?" Luna nodded and they both set out of the college.

They had saw the college before. It was a really tall building. It wasn't made out of wood like the other places in canterlot. It was made out of stone. It looked really old. It had a welcoming feeling. When Celestia and Luna walked past it before they felt the magic. It made them wonder what was in the College. Celestia knew this feeling well. It felt like magic from Luna when she practiced spells but was a thousand times stronger. It was a ways from Strawberry's house. They were tired and hungry. It wasn't helping that they knew there would be food. They wondered what kinda of food the college had. It was for higher society anyways. Naturally Luna wondered if they would have cookies. Maybe magical ones that made them millions of times better than normal ones. When the two girls reached the front of the college they pushed open the giant doors and went inside. Both their jaws had dropped. Inside the walls were covered in white stone there was a small fountain in the middle of the room and everything else was decorated with brass. It was breathtaking. It was just as amazing as when they first saw Canterlot. The two looked around at the decorations and details. They awed at the sights. Then came a voice.

"Hello? What bring's you two here?" Asked a beige colored mare sitting behind a desk. She looked puzzled. Then her eyes opened wide. "You two are Alicorns!" The mare announced. "You must be the two that are meeting Star-Sparkle. You must be ecstatic about meeting him. Only a few have ever met him. I met him only a few times." The mare said in sort of a half pant from talking so fast. She then took a few breaths. "Pardon me. He's on the very top floor down the left hall way. Last door on the right." She finished.

Celestia and Luna just stared at her. "Uhhh thanks..." Celestia said before turning and heading towards the stairs.

"Tia. She seemed strange. Like she seemed friendly but she was acting funny." Luna said.

"Yes I know, It may be because that she saw that we are Alicorns. These ponies know alot about alicorns but probably have never saw one in real life, anyways let's just go to see Strawberry and this Star-Sparkle."

Luna nodded her head in agreement while they started up the stairs. There was alot of stairs and floor of the college looked the same except for some decorations. The first floor had a purple carpet and the second one had a blue one. They had mostly the same plants on each floor but the pictures were different. When they came to the top of the stairs they went down the hallway and looked at all the decorations. They were beautiful. Alot of them looked to be made out of a shiny metal. There were giant pictures of ponies and plants in shiny bowls. They just couldn't take their eyes of the decorations. They had finally come to the last door on the right and knocked. A familiar voice was heard inside.

"Coming!" It shouted. The door opened to reveal Strawberry behind it. "Oh girls! You made it. Well come inside and we shall get started." She said with a smile.

Celestia and Luna walked inside and stood in the middle of the room. There were bookcases everywhere. There were chalk board like the ones they had that school. Well what's left of the school hut. There was writing all over it. Complex math. Words. Everything. Every inch of the room was covered with things that covered related to math or sciences.

"What are we doing here? Where's the food?" Luna asked.

"Well we are going to do some studying on you and you are going to learn a great deal of magic. Think of this as school. Since yours was destroyed this is where you will be learning. Oh and i almost forgot. This is Star-Sparkle." She said pointing a hoof at a middle aged grey pony with a darker grey mane.

He chuckled. "Ahh yes. You must be Celestia and You must be Luna. Nice to meet you!" He said smiling. "Well I didn't believe until now. There actually Alicorns. I didn't think I would ever see one. I am very familiar with Starshine the Great's work. It is very interesting to be presented with this opportunity. Shall we begin then? Do you know any defensive spells?"

"Yes we were taught a couple." Celestia said.

"Ok well then I will put up a shield and hit me with one. As hard as you can. Don't worry if you break my shield I have a spell on it that will make the magic dissipate. Celestia you go first."

Celestia charged her horn for a few seconds then shot at Star-Sparkle with all she had. In an instant it shattered the shield and pink and blue sparks lit up the room in a frenzy. There was a loud bang as it happened. Strawberry and Luna had jumped behind a table in the corner of the room.

Star-Sparkle coughed. "Wow I underestimated you by a long shot. When you magic hit the shield I was able to read it as I planned and I have made a few interesting discoveries. When you charged your magic usually it would just build up. But it multiplied. For a normal Unicorn like myself to gather that much energy for that spell would have taken a minute or two. Not Five seconds. Also when it hit my shield it was very precise. Magic is naturally precise at that range but yours was almost like a pin. This are interesting discoveries for my studies. Anyways Luna why don't you come and try. We will eat after."

Luna's head popped up from behind the table. "Ok." She said trotting over to where Celestia was standing.

"I've made a new shield but this will take a few minutes. I am going to reinforce it alot more this time." Star-Sparkle said with a slight laugh. after a few minutes of silence Star-Sparkle cleared his throat.

"Ok Luna. You may proceed."

Luna closed her eyes and charged up her horn. She gave it a few seconds for the magic to build up then she shot her magic and made contact with the shield. Blue bits of magic went in all directions. Luna stood in her spot horrified. She calmed down as the thick blue smoke that had appeared from the magic meeting the shield disappeared.

"Well. This is interesting. Celestia do you practice magic more than your sister?" Star-sparkle asked.

"Uhh Probably. she usually plays with the other ponies. I like magic though." Celestia said.

"Well that's interesting. Luna is just as strong in magic as you are. These are very important findings. Anyways. Are you two hungry because I know that I am. After I will teach you some useful spells. Does that sound good?"

"Yes I think that would be good." Celestia said.

They all went over to the kitchen that was in Star-sparkle's room. It was a fairly big kitchen.It much nicer than Strawberry's kitchen. There was a box with a door in the corner. Luna stared at it. "What is that thing?"

"What? Oh yes. That is what we call a cooler. It uses a magic spell inside to cool the things. The cold air won't get out because the door seals and keeps it in. It helps keep food fresh." Star-Sparkle said with a smile while making some soup and salad. After they all ate they went back into the main laboratory.

"That was good food. What are we going to do now?" Celestia asked.

"Well we are going to teach you some new things with magic." Star-Sparkle said. "First since I have an idea of what you are both capable of I will start teaching you some things. You both seem to understand basic magic and even how to create basic spells. When I got you to shoot magic bolts it gave me a small mapping of your mind. Since magic is made up of emotions and thoughts what ever is in your mind will have a small trace in your magic as well. So let's get started shall we? Advance magic works a bit different than what you're used to. Basic magic consists of thoughts, emotion, attitude and a little will. Advance is made up of all those but more so the  will and most important the soul. The stronger your will and your soul the more you can achieve. So try this. I want you both to close your eyes and concentrate. Just like when you learned basic magic you must find your soul. What makes you who you are, then when you find that create a simple spell like a light spell and use everything plus your soul to power it."

Celestia and Luna closed their eyes and began to search themselves for their souls. It took only a few minutes. Luna's horn began to glow and she let out a blinding light. Sort of like the one Celestia had done the other night. Strawberry stumbled and fell to the floor. Luna stopped and had ran over to her. "Strawberry im so sorry. Are you okay?" Luna asked.

"Yes im fine I was just startled that's all." She replied.

Luna started to get up when she was then blinded by a white light. She stumbled back and hit her head on something. Everything started to go dark.. Luna was in a dark world, sort of like a void. She was starting to get scared. A figure started to appear and Luna squinted her eyes to see. "H.. Hello?" Luna asked the approaching figure. It was a tall black mare with a purple mane and tail. She got closer to Luna and stopped. She was staring at her. The mare just laughed Maniacally and started to disappear then Luna shot awake panting heavily.

"Luna!" Celestia said. "Thank god you're awake. you've been out for hours." Celestia said with a Sigh of relief.

"Really? Oh..." Luna said still panting.

"What's wrong?" Celestia asked.

"Uhhhh. Nothing. Don't worry about it Tia."

Celestia raised and eyebrow. "Oh?" She paused for a few seconds. "Anyways, are you ready to learn some more magic?" She asked.

"Ya let's do it." Luna said returning to a happy looking state. But Luna wasn't scared for no reason. That mare she saw was giving off something. It felt evil and Luna didn't like it.

They continued the rest of the day learning magic like how to manipulate things and how to channel magic faster and such. It was a good day but by the end Celestia and Luna were fast asleep on the couch. Strawberry and Star-Sparkle had talked a little while longer.

"You know it amazes me how much they learned. They truly have remarkable power and skill. I just hope it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. But It's getting late. You better get them home now." Star-Sparkle said.

Strawberry nodded and gave him a kiss. "Yes I better. And it was nice to talk to you again. Sorry again I haven't been able to lately. I've been really busy. I'll try to stop bye more often. Goodbye." She said as she left the room with Luna and Celestia on her back.