The Lost World

The Lost World

Chapter 1

By: Bairiko

"Oh Celestia! Pray tell, why art thou still in bed? Surely you would be awake by now to raise the sun," At the inexcusably loud voice of Princess Luna, Celestia jumped out of her bed and stared blankly at her sister.

"Not now Duster...those Gryphons can... tail feather... waffles..." Came the mumbled reply from the ever graceful Princess Celestia, Sovereign of Equestria, who proceeded to fall on her side with a crash, snoring softly amidst the soft fibers of the carpet.

"Come now Tia, time to wake up," Luna said while trotting over and opening the curtains of Celestia's balcony and stepping out, "Equestria and the world need your morning sun after all."

Spread out below Luna could see Equestria in the height of winter, the streetlights flickering across gilded towers and snow covered houses in the hour or so left before dawn, the light not quite managing to reach the top of the castle walls leaving the guards patrolling them in shadows. At the edge of her vision she could just make out the snowy roofs of Ponyville to the south, bordered by the infamous Everfree Forest just beyond it, still menacing even under layers of white. If she looked west she could see the great cloud columns of Cloudsdale floating serenely above the winter wonderland below. Far to the east stood the metropolitan city of Manehatten, though the Lunar princess couldn't see it from where she stood.

"And what a lovely morning it is," She stepped back from the view at the sound of a pony pushing themselves up from the floor behind her.

"Luna, what have I said about shouting in my bedroom?" Asked a very disheveled Celestia as she walked slowly towards her personal coffee pot. "A-a-and about n-not opening m-my window in w-w-winter!"

Amidst the soft laughter of her sister Celestia made her morning coffee and, with a glowing flick of her horn the balcony door was closed again and a new day began over Equestria. The sun promising a bright if somewhat chilly day for some happy foals to play in the snow.

"Come now Celly, winter was once thy favourite time of the year. Surely you would love to see it at sunrise?" Luna said from behind her hoof, trying to muffle the giggles still coming for managing to scare her sister.

"No Luna, winter is your favourite season, not mine. Now, can I help you with anything?" Celestia, contrary to what most ponies would think, was not a morning pony. So being woken up in such a manner by her dear sister wasn't what she considered to be a good start to the day.

As Celestia was putting on her golden accessories and sipping her morning coffee there was a knock at the door. "Princess? Are you awake my lady?"

No, grouched Celestia, the sun raises itself naturally and all I am is a shiny figurehead. "Yes Duster, I am awake, you may come in," she said in her practiced calm and motherly tone.

At the invitation the doors to the room opened and in walked a plain tan coloured Earth pony mare with a black mane. Feather Duster was Celestia's personal assistant, even though she had only been employed at the castle since the fall. When she saw that both Princesses were in the room she immediately bowed down.

"Good morning your majesties, had I known you were busy I would have come back later," Feather Duster said while looking out the window. "But I must remind you your Highness that the Sun Court is due to begin in three hours. Breakfast will be waiting for you when you arrive at the dining hall. If you would follow me please," At this Feather Duster turned around and walked out the door.

"Well, she seems to be rather quick and to the point does she not sister?" Luna looked back at Celestia in time to see her down the last bit of her coffee before slipping on her crown.

"Well come now Tia, time waits for no immortal!" Luna giggled while trotting forward with her sister following behind.

And so the Royal Pony Sisters ate their breakfast together, sisterly banter echoing through the halls. But the time came to begin court for the day so Luna wished her sister a good day before trotting off to bed.

I hope Luna is adjusting as well as she says she is, she rarely appears in public nowadays, but I guess the Night Court is her realm after all. Celestia thought while sitting on her throne, waiting for the first patron to enter.

She didn't have to wait long as shortly after the guards opened the doors at the far end of the hall, admitting one young Pegasus stallion. Once he realized Celestia was watching him his dark blue wings began twitching nervously at his sides as he walked slowly to the base of the throne and dipped into a respectful, if shaky bow. After Celestia beckoned him to rise he began the first of many court requests of the day.

On the other side of the castle Luna trotted along towards her quarters, Feather Duster at her side. Every time they passed a window that looked out over the city Luna would notice Duster stop and gaze out. When Luna looked she saw families either walking along or playing in the park. After a few seconds she would sigh and trot back up to the Princesses side.

How odd, thought Luna she seems distracted by something, but what? Family matters maybe?

"Here we are your Majesty." Duster said, breaking Luna's train of thought. Sure enough they had arrived outside of Luna's bedroom, the two bat-winged Night-guards rigid and unmoving on either side of the door. They snapped to attention and gave a salute when they noticed their Princess walking towards them.

"So we are, thank you for accompanying us Mrs. Duster." Luna said before a yawn overtook her. The guards moved to open the doors but a dark blue magic opened them first. "We wish you a fine day today, good night." And with that the Patron of the Night moved into her room, ready to let the world of dreams into her mind.

Lunch came and went with no problems for Celestia, although she did receive another friendship report from her student, Twilight Sparkle. Celestia smiled as she read about her students latest adventure with her friends, but secretly she couldn't wait for the day Twilight would send her a letter revealing she had finally found her special somepony.

Maybe she is just nervous about it, it wouldn't surprise me. She is a grown mare who has just started making friends. Maybe she is just now noticing stallions for the first time? Thought the Princess before chuckling. Or maybe, just maybe, even mares?

The afternoon court proceedings were just as uneventful as the morning, a hoof-full of civilians coming in to pitch ideas, ask for favours, or even just to say they've seen the Princess in person. Then there were the nobles who were trying to one up themselves in the eyes of Celestia and Luna, in the end however they were just making themselves look foalish.

After Celestia's revenge against Luna for this mornings wake-up call, which included among other things a bottle of itching powder, two litres of hoof polish and a dental drill both sisters met up and walked towards the dining hall once more.

As Celestia and a still very shiny Luna ate a dinner of honey roasted eggplant with a dessert of rose petals, Philomena flew in through a window and perched herself on one of the guards heads and cooed happily at Celestia.

"Oh, hello Philomena. Enjoy your day flying about and playing with everypony in the snow?" Celestia said happily upon seeing her pet phoenix. In truth Celestia knew the playful phoenix had most likely been playing pranks on unsuspecting ponies while playing with the local foals, a habit she developed while Twilight was living in the castle. She was answered with a mischievous caw from the magnificent bird.

"Tia, I must say it still amazes me the patience thy guards have with that bird. Philomena landed on his helmet and he didn't so much as blink!" Luna said. She had seen this same guard run out of the barracks yelling bloody murder last month at the sight of an admittedly rather large spider resting on his pillow.

"Corporal Thunderhead here has been dealing with Philomena almost his entire career, I honestly don't think there's anything she can do that would get to him anymore." Celestia said while offering the bird a bowl of seed. Philomena fluttered off of the corporals head and landed on her outstretched arm, pecking hungrily at the seed.

"Still sister, you would think he would at least flinch." Luna tried to get the phoenix to climb onto her hoof but earned a peck for her troubles.

"Come now Philomena, be nice." After this light scolding, the phoenix chirped unhappily before hopping onto Luna's once more outstretched hoof, where she sat unhappily until Luna started to lightly scratch the back of her neck. "That's better, but dear sister after a while of the same thing it stops affecting you. That and I think Thunderhead's actually asleep." If one were to listen closely they could in fact hear light snores coming from the under the corporals helmet.

"Tia, tell me, do you still keep that box of false insects I got from Ponyville in your room?" Luna asked with an evil grin, a grin that soon spread to the rest of the ponies and one phoenix in the dining room.

And so the day came to an end. The princesses lowered the sun and raised the moon. Philomena flew back to her personal coop in the loft of Canterlot Castle Tower, Feather Duster returned to her home in the city, and a certain corporal went to bed in the barracks with the promise of Princess Luna guarding against any nightmares dinner may have given him.

Princess Celestia had just finished a reply to Twilight's earlier message, subtly implying she would love to hear more of how her relationships with her friends was progressing. She had just sent the letter and was climbing into bed when a knock came from her door.

I wonder what Duster could want right now, Celestia thought, Isn't she at home by now? "Enter."

Instead of the expected assistant the door opened and a Unicorn Royal Guardscolt stood before her. "Princess, your presence is being requested by Professor Neigh."

"Oh? What could the good professor want at this time of night?" Celestia was confused. Although he sometimes taught math and science up at the School for Gifted Unicorns, Professor Bill Neigh's main duties were tending to the Royal Vault built into the mountain Canterlot stood on.

"I do not know your Majesty, although he said something about one of the artifacts...glowing." The guard gulped nervously. Many of the artifacts stored in the Vault were laced with powerful and potentially dangerous magics, having one glow for any unexplained reason was no laughing matter.

All traces of tiredness and confusion vanished from Celestia's face at those words. "Go and alert Princess Luna and have her be ready for an emergency, let's hope it doesn't come to that though." She said before disappearing in a flash of golden light. The guard stood there confused for a moment before galloping towards Luna's quarters.

A bright flash of light illuminated the courtyard at the back of the castle and Princess Celestia stepped towards a set of large, but plain oaken doors, about five pony-lengths wide and ten tall. The two Unicorn guards at the sides and the two Pegasus guards at the top saluting her as she approached.

"You Majesty, the professor is expecting you in the main chamber." The guard on the left said, before signalling the two Pegasi at the top and the other unicorn. The Unicorns grabbed the two halves of the door with their magic and slowly pulled them open, meanwhile the Pegasi at the top waited for a minute. They each nodded to each other before the right hoof one walked into a guard shack and started winching up a portcullis that had been revealed behind the massive doors. Once that obstacle was out of the way the Princess trotted down the newly revealed hallway.

All these crystals really are lovely in the moonlight. Celestia thought as she passed by the walls carved from mammoth pieces of crystal. It does worry me that Chrysalis knew about just how resistant they are to magic.

The crystal walls were indeed almost immune to the effects of magic, which was why the Vault was built in among them in the first place. The crystal could stop even an alicorns magic if used right, which the Changeling queen somehow managed to learn, using the many caves among the mountain to hide Princess Cadence. She even tried to dispose of Twilight Sparkle among them during her failed invasion the year before. It was these properties that made the caves perfect for storing all the most dangerous magical artifacts, keeping them safely in a location where any magical event wouldn't hurt anypony.

At the end of the hallway there was a sharp right turn, followed shortly by a gentle left turn that slowly descended towards the heart of the mountain. At the end of the hallway there stood a massive vault door through which the largest of the artifacts could be moved, but off to the side was a smaller entrance for ponies and the not-so-large artifacts. It was through this side door the princess entered the Canterlot Royal Vault.

"Oh good, you're here your Highness." Celestia looked to her left and saw Professor Neigh approaching her. The older grey stallion was a genius when it came to magical sciences and was one of the ponies the princess hired to teach Twilight when she was a filly. "We don't know what happened, but one of the other scholars said she noticed a crystal begin to glow that wasn't glowing before." The professor said while adjusting his glasses.

"Professor, if it is just one crystal that's doing nothing but glow, why summon me here?" The slight confusion from earlier was beginning to return to the princess.

"If only it were any old crystal your Majesty, but this crystal is secluded from the rest of the collection and placed under a protective glass cover. Come, it's stored in the back of the vault."

What could he mean? The princess thought as they passed countless magical artifacts, some of which looked harmless such as enchanted kitchenware and a surprising number of brooms. And the more obviously dangerous things like the newly recovered Alicorn Amulet. The amulet had been stolen by a corrupt scholar almost a century earlier and had vanished until just recently, turning up in the hooves of one Trixie Lulamoon in Ponyville. The only crystal that matches his description is... Oh.

They entered into a small, almost empty side room. The only contents of the room was a small wooden box decorated with silver leaf. From the glass pane on top a soft blue glow could be seen.

"Here it is your Majesty, the Comm Rock. Do you know why it has such an odd name your Highness? ...Your Highness?" But Prof. Neighs question was ignored as sure enough the one one crystal Celestia never expected to see glow was glowing. Almost unassuming in its small shape, no bigger than an average rock one would find on the beach, the crystal glowed with a shimmering blue light while resting on a plain velvet cushion under a sheet of glass.

"Thank you for showing me this Professor, you are dismissed." Celestia said while lifting the glass with her magic.

"But Princess, is this thing dangerous or-"

"You are dismissed Professor, I shall handle this." At this the professor walked back out the door. After it closed the Princess let her magic touch the crystal resting before her. Instantly her mind was filled with a flash of blue.

"Good evening Princess." A voice Celestia hadn't heard for years sounded just behind her, making her freeze up for just a moment. "I'm sorry that it's been so long since we last had a chance to catch up, but this isn't a social call. Princess, we need to talk."