Prelude I - Aurora of a Moonlit Sea
The party was tedious, stuffy, and for the most part, she found herself wishing she could be anywhere else. Of course, her ruler had once confided her and her friends that they always had been, and that for the most part, they were mostly for the effete elites to participate in.
She had her own obligations to be here, of course. She was not going to let her highness down. She wanted to stay on the periphery, hopefully to stay unnoticed, save by her friends. It wasn't going to happen, but the hope was there. She was almost relieved when one of her few friends came and offered her a dance. The tomboy was given a relieved smile as they moved to dance. Neither was comfortable with the crowds looking down their nose at the pair, but better to be together than to be fed to the wolves prowling around them. At least some part of this was less of an ordeal.
-|O(
Mizuno Ami yawned a bit as she tapped the alarm clock, shaking her head as the music played in her head. It was a nice dream, she thought, though she wondered just where it came from. Shaking her head, she moved to the bathroom, hoping to fully wake up. It was a struggle for some strange reason today, as the dreams that she had had for most of her life, but could never remember, seemed to be more vivid as of late.
She struggled to the bathroom to try to wake up as the water pounded over her, her hands lathering her body, hesitating as a few calming strokes ran over the twin birthmarks on each of her hips. Touching the formations of stars always seemed to calm her down, as though drawing reassurance from them, though she couldn't for the life of her explain why. The usually calm girl's only outburst of true anger came from being accused of being a thug who got tattooed one day when taking a shower after a gym class. She didn't know where they came from, but a surge of indignation and fury ended up getting her mother called from work to discuss it. They were important to her, even if she could not explain why.
After drying off and preparing for school, she stepped out her door, musing over the dream. Ami was so lost to her contemplation, that she walked past a blonde teen confronting a few kids pestering a cat. She spent most of her first two classes in an uncharacteristic daze, but it didn't seem to get anyone's attention until her world history class, when, on the subject of America's first days, the teacher asked her to name one of the founding fathers.
Ami blinked a moment as she promptly answered “Clover the Clever, student of Starswirl the Bearded.” She paused in confusion as everyone in the classroom promptly stared at her. “What?”
The silence was almost deafening as the teacher and class tried to figure out if the girl was playing a bizarre and very out-of-character trick upon them all.
Ami's extreme embarrassment kept her almost completely quiet for the rest of the day as she struggled to decipher just what she had said and why. Her confusion left her unable to concentrate on her studies, so she decided to just take an early nap and hope that either her brain would return by the time she woke up, or that a sinkhole would suck her straight into the ground.
-|O(
A firm poke to her shoulder hauled Twilight Sparkle from a mostly ineffectual sleep. She blinked a little, seeing her dormmate, Glimmer Hoof, lower her hoof, glaring at her. “Twilight, if you're going to spend all night mumbling, do you mind taking it elsewhere? Professor Noteable wanted to talk to you anyway.
Twilight panicked as she got to her hooves, remembering she asked her history professor, Noteable, for an extra credit test, and the only time he was available was this morning. Stumbling and crashing a couple times before she pulled herself to wakefulness, she shrugged on her saddlebags and rushed toward the professor's office.
Professor Noteable was not overly fond of the lavender filly who rushed into his office, thinking the child spent far too much time over-analyzing anything and everything she came across. However, he also was not willing to offend the overachiever's patron. Nobody in their right mind would want to offend Celestia, tenure or not. He only hoped that the filly didn't burn herself out.
His hope was dimming as the half-coherent filly answered his questions at first, but began to answer in complete gibberish before he asked her to correct herself. The last straw was when he asked her about the first Hearth's Warming Day and of the founders of Equestria as they knew it, and her last words before her head fell on the desk were “General George Washington”.
The school's small infirmary was rather packed, as both Twilight's parents and the Princess had arrived to discuss Twilight's condition. “Not to put too fine a point on it,” the nurse stated, “But unfortunately, Twilight is working herself to exhaustion. My best suggestion would for her to take a vacation. From what her instructors tell me, she is far exceeding any of her classmates, and frankly, she really needs to get away from the school, if only to make her actually rest.”
Celestia nodded softly. “I was afraid of that. I think taking her as my own protege has put her into the mindset that she must exceed any perceived expectations, even if they're only in her own mind.” She lowered her head in thought before nodding. “I think I will give her a special assignment away from Canterlot. Ponyville should be far enough away that she wouldn't come rushing to the school the minute our backs are turned, but not far enough to make her believe we are exiling her.”
Everyone nodded in approval. “A wonderful idea, your highness,” Twilight's mother replied. “She has always been so high strung, maybe some time away from Canterlot would be good for her.”
Celestia looked at her protege and sighed softly. “I envy her a little in this 'task',” she admitted quietly to herself as the filly twitched a bit in her sleep.
-|O(
Ami fled down the corridor, wondering why nothing in her life could be normal.
She had been accepted to a prestigious juku, or cram school only a day or two before, though only by sheer stubbornness on her own behalf and a deception against her mother. She struggled to fight through the exhaustion that sleep did not seem to be able to do much for, and was forced to conceal that exhaustion from her mother, for fear that her mother would not allow her to go to it.
However, the Juku seemed to be an elaborate trap from a monster. It was hard for her to believe, but evidently the gossip had been true. She had only hoped that the other bit of it had been true. The rest of the rumors stated that some mysterious heroine had been able to fight off the fiends. And despite her vaunted mind, she had neither the physique nor any special abilities to fend them off.
A yelp escaped her as an unseen voice called out, “Take this!” Her first thought was that it was another attack, but the voice spoke in a worried plea rather than a threat. She skidded and fell onto her back, a small rod the size of a high-priced executive pen. “Raise it up high!” the voice called again
Against her better judgement, Ami hesitated for a moment then called out words she wasn't even aware she knew, that didn't even register on her mind. A gasp escaped her as a power surged through her body. She muttered, “Celestia save me...”, though was unheard by anyone as she looked at the bizarre outfit that had formed upon her.
In another world, a lavender-colored unicorn twitched in her sleep. The largest of the stars upon her flanks shone ever so slightly with a crescent atop a stylized ankh flickered hesitantly in the midst of it, before fading again.
A chill fog surrounded her, obscuring the fiend's view of her, but she ignored it completely as the pressure built within her head, leaving her completely unaware as the demon was disintegrated by a disc of light blindsiding it from the branching corridor. It didn't matter to her. She was far more concerned with the welter of voices rattling around in her head. She staggered, before bracing herself against a locker with one hand.
“You are Sailor Mercury,” the voice spoke from her side. Ami looked over and blinked in shock to see a black cat with a white crescent above and between her eyes. The cat looked equally confused as she looked at her mistress's new partner. She had seen the symbol glow brightly, but for a moment, Luna swore that the crescent and caduceus mark upon the human's brow before the tiara of her outfit covered it was superimposed over a series of stylized white and purple stars.
A girl in a similar outfit appeared from around a corner, sprinting away from the heap of dust that was their foe and toward Ami and the cat. “Sailor Moon, this is Sailor Mercury.”
Moon was winded, but a slight “I told you so, Luna,” escaped her with a wheeze.
Mercury's expression, on the other hand, was rather troubled, as she turned and fled.
Usagi looked to Luna and blinked before saying, “Maybe she's still upset you thought she was a youma.”
“...can't hold for...”
“...cord will conti...”
“...ma have already breached the palace comp...”
“...have served faithfully...”
Ami ignored the numerous breaches of the laws of physics she committed as she leapt from roof to roof in a blind panic, landing on a window sill and climbing in before collapsing onto her bed, unable to think of anything but the Babel between her ears, assaulting her mind in languages that she had never even heard of, yet could understand completely. Understanding the languages came instinctually. Trying to decipher any meaning from the half-(heard? remembered? she had no answer) gibberish rocking every synapse was a near Sisyphean torture. She clawed at a pillow and shoved it over the back of her head, sobbing softly as exhaustion took her.
-|O(
Twilight Sparkle gasped and fell off of the bed with a thump, gathering the attention of the four other ponies in the room.
“Twilight, dear, are you alright?” her mother asked.
Twilight struggled to her hooves unsteadily, before being steadied by a white hoof to her shoulder. She looked toward it blearily, then froze as she looked at the long foreleg it was attached to. “Your highness...” She rasped out weakly, staring at her nervously and more than a little dazedly.
The monarch looked at her student with concern as she left her steadying hoof where it was. “Are you alright, Twilight?”
Her first instinct was to reply in the affirmative. Her dream-beleaguered mind wanted her to scream no. She finally stammered out, “Just a nightmare, your highness.”
Celestia gently but firmly guided her back to the bed. “Relax, Twilight, please,” she said gently. “Now I want you to rest for a while. When you're feeling better-” At this, Twilight opened her mouth to try to assure the princess that she was always ready to perform any duty she asked of her, but Celestia cut her off, “-and the doctor says that you are fit enough to, I have a special task for you.” Twilight's mouth remained open for a moment, before she closed it, unable and unwilling to contradict her princess. “Here,” Celestia lifted Twilight's abandoned saddlebag and rested it next to her.
Twilight bowed her head to her monarch, embarrassed at her position, but unwilling to disobey the order. Celestia escorted her parents out of the room, talking with them quietly. With a sigh, Twilight opened the saddlebag and pulled out a book, opening it to a chapter discussing an ancient story about the Mare in the Moon...
-|O(
Usagi watched Ami quietly, looking rather worried. It had been several days and the girl had not said a single word unless directly addressed by the teachers. The bags under her eyes were noticeable almost all the way across the classroom, but no one else seemed to notice, or were too polite to say anything. She was worried about the genius, but she didn't know how to get through to her. It didn't help that the only place Usagi saw her was in the classroom itself.
As the closing bell rang, Ami stood and stepped out the door. And before Usagi could see where she went, she lost herself amongst the crowd.
-|O(
Spike watched Twilight Sparkle quietly, looking rather worried. It had been several days, and Twilight had been visibly tense, not to mention utterly focused on those silly old myths about the Mare in the Moon. He tried to enjoy the party the Ponyville crowd put on, but part of him was tied up in the concern for his closest friend. Princess Celestia and the doctor both asked him if he could do his best to get Twilight to relax and maybe make some friends, but the lavender unicorn was so rigidly focused on those musty old legends that he was almost positive she was going to work herself into a padded room.
Spike glared at her while she stared up at the moon through her window, then grabbed her by the tail. “Come on, Twilight. The celebration's about to start.”
Twilight glared back, then sighed, standing and following him to the party with all the demeanor of a convict on death row.
Twilight Sparkle was almost grateful for the mayor's speech, if only to drown out the over-enthusiastic babble from the pink pony next to her. Pinkie Pie? She thought that was her name. Despite her normally perfect memory, extracting anything from the pony's rapid-fire speech was a taxing exercise. The nervousness strained every muscle in her body. Surely Celestia was right, and it was just an old fable. Right?
Then why did every instinct scream at her that something was going to go very very wrong?
Celestia's absence, combined with the swirling mist forming on the balcony caused Twilight to close her eyes and mutter to herself, “Awake, asleep, I just can't win, can I?”
She opened her eyes as the newly formed alicorn gloated. “I know who you are,” she said with a weary but defiant tone. “Nightmare Moon.”
“So... somepony remembers me,” the dark alicorn spoke in a tone of smug satisfaction. “I would assume that you know why I'm here, then?”
Twilight looked at her with a melange of weariness, worry and a hint of exasperation as she replied, “You're here to-”
She was unable to finish, as the alicorn completed her gloating, promising eternal night, before disappearing once more. Twilight sagged for a moment, before turning and fleeing toward the Library.
After tucking Spike in, she started to dig through the books. She knew that the Elements of Harmony were used to stop the Dark Alicorn before, but nothing she was able to find in the Canterlot Library was able to give her any hints. She doubted anything in this backwater town would trump anything back home, but she didn't have any other choices. She was interrupted in her search, however, by an accusing rainbow blur in her face.
As Applejack calmed Rainbow Dash down, she asked Twilight if she knew anything. Twilight sat down, somewhat defeated, as she admitted she didn't know much more than anyone else did, only to be shocked when Pinkie Pie sang out that a reference book to the Elements sat in the most obvious place.
Twilight blinked, then shook her head. “I must be exhausted if it was that obvious.” She moved to flip through the book, murmuring about the five known Elements and their location in the Everfree Forest. She looked up at the quintet before her, as they left the library, heading toward the outskirts of town. “Wait, hold on. You don't have to do this...” she tried to protest, only to be drowned out by their discussion. As they reached the edge of the forest, she said, “Please... I need to do this alone.”
Applejack gave her a firm glance as she replied, “Nothin' doing, sugar cube. We ain't letting any friend of ours going in that spooky place alone.”
Twilight stared at Applejack, twitching a bit. Friend? Are we friends? We barely even know each other... right?
“... The Night will last forever!” Nightmare Moon gloated amidst the shattered Element stones.
Twilight stared at the shards, her brain racing as she tried to figure out what went wrong. What did I do wrong? What was missing? Something was missing. It had to be. It should have worked. She struggled to think of all the possibilities, but came up with nothing over and over again.
The sounds of hoofbeats and familiar voices could be heard behind her. She turned toward them, blinking a bit, as thoughts and realizations triggered one by one.
Applejack asking her to trust her, even if it sounded suicidal.
Fluttershy staving off the the manticore with a seemingly ridiculous show of kindness.
Pinkie Pie cheering them up in the face of the oppressive darkness.
Rarity giving of her own mane to calm the sea serpent.
Rainbow Dash giving up illusory glory in favor of newfound companionship.
And from the depths of a dream, a strangely arranged golden mane and blue eyes, telling her that everyone needed friends. Even if they were different from everyone else. The differences didn't matter. A hard worker. A wallflower. A goofball. A posh creator. An energetic athelete. A lazy but caring... dream figure, she didn't know. A bookworm. None of it mattered. It was one pony, reaching out to another. To another. To another...
Twilight Sparkle couldn't help herself. Despite the exhaustion of the near sleepless week, despite the grave peril, despite her own foolishness, she couldn't help but give a smile that rivaled her tormentor in wicked glee. She had been a stubborn fool. A pony cannot live by grain alone.
She stared back at Nightmare Moon with that grin, casting the alicorn's gloating in her teeth, as she verbalized the connections going through her mind. She ignored the reforging of the Elements around her, not even needing to know their effects upon her friends.
She turned away from Nightmare Moon. Yes, they were... they are her friends, she realized. And maybe having friends wasn't a waste of time. She looked at them with newly conceived affection, and a bit of apology as well. She then turned back toward the dark pony, as she felt the warm surge pour through her body.
Luna blinked as she lifted her head, gazing around blearily, her mind fighting her way through the darkness that enshrouded it. But it was different, not the oppressive, mocking nothingness that had gripped her in an adamantine fist, but rather, a soft, velvet blackness just before one awoke from a horrible dream. Onto that blackness poured rays of light, as she struggled to stand amid shards of discarded armor. She flinched a bit, before staring toward those rays of light of light, toward a face she had not seen in a millenium. She paused, before throwing herself against the light, sobbing in sorrow and relief to be united with family once more.
After a long moment, she pulled away from Celestia to look at her defeaters... her saviors. And she paused as she looked into the eyes of a lavender unicorn. An unspoken plea crossed her expression, before she thanked the rest of the ponies.
As they made their way back to Ponyville, Luna asked Twilight to walk with her for a moment. “You look like you are walking a long road.”
Twilight blinked a little. “Your highness?”
Luna looked at her. “I don't know what it is, but don't be afraid to ask for help. I made that mistake. And you saw what it did.”
Twilight looked back, then nodded softly. “Yes. And I think I'm realizing that now too.”
The princess smiled a little. “Good. If you ever need to ask me anything, don't be afraid to send a letter to me. And... well if it's not too much trouble, would you mind receiving an occasional letter as well?”
The unicorn stared for a moment before stammering, “I'd be honored, your highness.”
Luna nodded her appreciation, then sped up her pace a little to catch up to the rest of the throng.
-|O(
Usagi stared at the rain pounding on the window, one hand idly running through her advisor's fur, her heart a lead weight in her chest. She didn't know what else to do at this point. Ami seemed to pull herself tighter and tighter into her isolation and even the suggestion of friendship was ignored.
“Usagi-chan, you have a visitor!” her mother called. Usagi acknowledged the call, then stood, working her way down the stairs, pausing as she looked at a rainsoaked girl.
“Ami-chan, what are you doing here?” Usagi asked in surprise.
“Hi... Um, Tsukino-san... Can we talk?” Ami replied, then yelped as Usagi practically dragged her up the stairs.
Usagi led Ami to her room, saying, “Please. Just call me Usagi, ok?”
Ami paused, then nodded a bit nervously, “Ok, Usagi-san..” she paused as Usagi gave her an almost pleading look. “Usagi-chan,” she said hesitantly, receiving a broad grin from the blonde girl.
“Ami-chan, this is Luna,” the girl replied, receiving a startled stare at the cat for a moment. “Something wrong?”
Ami shook her head. “No, just that... I had a strange dream last night. That's kind of why I needed to talk to you.” She sat down on the chair Usagi pulled out from under her desk. “I wanted to say I'm sorry. I've been under a lot of stress lately. But I had a dream last night that kind of put things in perspective. And I wanted to apologize for being so horrible to you.”
Usagi smiled. “It's ok, Ami-chan. Things happen. I'm just glad you're feeling better. Friends?” she said, offering a hand.
She looked at the blonde girl for a moment, then took her hand softly. With a bit of deja vu, she said, “Maybe having friends isn't a waste of time.”
Author's Note
This is one of my 4AM Ideas (As in What in the Hay am I doing up this late? And why won't you evil ideas leave me alone?). I figured I'd give this a shot. I have the preludes framed up a bit but It'll need some hammering out to work out the details.
