1000 Years Ago
by PartyCannonInc
Prologue
Canterlot, Twilight’s Room
April 8th, 1003 Celestia’s Reign
9:23 PM
Twilight Sparkle, newly crowned Princess of Friendship, could not sleep. It wasn’t because of her new wings. It wasn’t because of the excitement that took place the day before. It wasn’t even the fact that Pinkie Pie, Ponyville’s top party planner, downed Twilight in a mixture of honey and melted chocolate at the ‘Alicorn Party.’
Twilight couldn’t sleep as she thought of reasons why the legendary unicorn, Starswirl the Bearded, would write such a spell.
In her mind, the purple alicorn went over the words of the spell again: From one to another, another to one. A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled.
Twilight shifted on her bed, her large wings twitching uncomfortably. I can’t think like this. The purple mare stood up, and made her way off the bed. As her hooves touched the cold, hard ground, Twilight started to wonder if leaving the warmth of the sheets and pillows was worth it…
Mare up Twilight! The alicorn shook off the shivers that ran down her spine, and silently walked to the door. Careful to make no noise, she pushed it open.
Creak. The door groaned in the night air. Twilight stiffened, then remembered that Spike could sleep through an explosion if he wanted to.
Twilight trotted down the long hallway. Paintings she long since memorized seemed to darken and sleep in the cold night. Twilight gulped. She wondered if things seemed scarier when she was alone, and wondered what a park or the Cakes’ bakery looked like at night.
Twilight walked a little faster now, not stopping until she finally reached the entrance door. Luna’s night guards were stationed outside.
One of them turned to the alicorn. “Twilight!” The purple alicorn jumped a little, then softened up when she realized it was just a unicorn guard. “Good to see you!” He then leaned close. “Whatcha’ doing?”
“Oh, you know, just a little night reading!” Twilight said quickly. The unicorn nodded, then resumed his duty.
The alicorn sighed and continued down the path to the Canterlot Archives.
Canterlot, Canterlot Archives
In the Starswirl the Bearded Wing, there are bookshelves surrounding a giant hourglass. Behind the hourglass, 4 tables sit, waiting for somepony to read on them. On the table farthest to the left, a brown stallion looked at a Time Spell scroll, despite the fact that he was an earth pony. On the table a wee bit right from the center, Twilight was flipping through an autobiography of Starswirl the Bearded.
Technically, it wasn’t an autobiography. It was more like a diary or journal, something to work on when Starswirl didn’t have work (except for to find something to work on). Here, the legendary unicorn wrote down all his thoughts and what was going on.
The only thing that refrained the Pony Press from releasing the book for all of Equestria to see was the fact that it was completely and utterly not finished.
Twilight was aghast when she found out.
The last page that bore any writing on it was torn in half, too. Twilight hesitantly used her magic to make the indent on the next page more noticeable, and read the entry.
September 3rd, 162 DR.
Thou shall be thy last entry. Thee mare of love, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, is gone forever. I shall go out to thee ends of thy Equis to find thou.
Adieu, Starswirl
Twilight imagined Starswirl going out to find her. She sighed with her dream, then shook her head and stood up. She couldn’t get carried away!
Twilight was worried. She had never heard of Princess Gardenia, not in any of the history books she read.
She would go to the history wing and try to find out what happened all those years ago. This would be the first time she had gone there.
Twilight levitated the book to the shelf she found it on, and trotted out of the Wing.
Canterlot, History Wing
The alicorn entered the History Wing to find Princess Luna sitting on a table, reading a book called Mare in the Moon. She looked distraught, and her eyes reflected a great sadness. Twilight could almost see the ethereal mane slowly turning back to its normal, light blue form.
Suddenly, Luna looked up. “Twilight Sparkle. We are pleased at thy presence.” Twilight eyed the book. “We see thee observing thy book. We just wanted to know why we turned into thy Nightmare Moon.”
Twilight saw pain flash in Luna’s eyes, and confronted her. “I’m sorry, but shouldn’t you know why you turned into, uh, Nightmare Moon?”
“No.”
The answer was blunt. Twilight huffed, and Luna smirked.
“Would you care to tell why?” Twilight asked.
“Our memories are foggy considering thou time.” Luna sighed, then stared at Twilight. “And what is thy doing here and thee hour?”
“I also wanted to know what happened 1000 years ago.”
“Oh. Does thou want to accompany us to thy Royal Retellings of Equestria?”
Twilight drew a blank. “I’m sorry, the whatful whatings of what?”
“Thy Royal Retellings of Equestria. Strange that thy has not heard of it.” Luna stood up, her graceful figure towering over Twilight. “Shall we go?”
Twilight reluctantly said, “Okay.” Luna proceeded to walk to a statue of Luna and Celestia.
The purple alicorn’s jaw dropped as Luna’s horn shined with a prismatic aura. Harmony, peace, war, and death emanated from the rainbow colored magic. Twilight was forced to tears, then blessed with happiness all at the same time.
Luna, Lady of the Night, Princess of the Moon, cast a beam of magic that was transformed into a portal in between the two stone goddesses. The moon goddess looked down at the awestruck Twilight and took her hoof.
Together they walked into the portal.
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It was a dark room. Twilight didn’t know where they were, what they were in, or even WHEN they were.
So naturally, Twilight asked the first thing that came to mind, “What is this place?”
Luna put a hoof to her mouth. Twilight accepted the gesture and shut the wave of questions inside her mind.
“Book, open.” Luna commanded. Suddenly, a gigantic book was set in front of them.
Twilight immediately noticed that something was wrong. “It’s blank.” Luna stared at her.
“Really, we hadn’t noticed,” she chortled. She turned to the book once more and said, “Show us what took place in Canterlot, 162 Discord’s Reign and 1 Celestia’s Reign.”
“That is a dark time.” Twilight looked around, trying to find the source of the smooth voice, then realized that it came from the book. “Are you sure you want to continue?”
“Yes.” Twilight couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw a flicker of fear when Luna said that one word.
Pages turned, time bended, all of reality was forced to succumb to the magical book as Luna and Twilight saw a moving image of Canterlot Castle.
The images continued to flow until it turned into a story.
This is what they found.
1000 Years Ago
by PartyCannonInc
Cadence
Canterlot, Canterlot Castle
August 19th, 162 DR
3:09 PM
“Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, get back here this instant!” The sound of an alicorn’s fury roared throughout Canterlot Castle. The midnight blue alicorn, whom the big mouth and loud voice belonged to, stormed through the large and decorative hallways. Any guard that met the fierce ruler was grabbed by a angry blue aura and tossed aside. It was safe to say that they were rather fearful of the alicorn, whose name was Princess Luna, and would do anything to get out of the castle in that particular moment.
But there was one pony who wasn’t scared of the thundering Princess of the Night: Princess Cadence. Laughing, she skipped and flew this way and that, making Luna lose track of her in the labyrinth of a castle.
Why she was being chased, she was rather clear of. To put it short, Luna’s hair was now an repulsive mustard color. Hey, it wasn’t Cadence’s fault that Starswirl had kept 101 Spells for Pranking the Unlucky Pony open.
And now here is Starswirl, opening the door to his gigantic study to see what all the ruckus is about. After all, there was enough chaos outside the boundaries of Canterlot and in the country of Discord.
Now there were two ponies giving chase, one a warrior princess and the other an immortal scholar. Surely Cadence would be scared.
But she wasn’t.
So it happened that this was a daily routine: Cadence use her magical princess powers to pull a shamelessly hilarious prank, the poor pony whom it was put upon would yell and scream (they were usually nobles who thought that even eating without a fork was putrid), and eventually Cadence would have to apologize before Princess Celestia, only to have it happen again the next day.
Yup, Cadence was surely one to look out for those days.
The pink alicorn princess slammed herself on the door, opened the handle, ushered inside, and locked it all in one swift motion.
She was rather good at this, considering the majority of the last twenty-three years of her life was spent on such actions. In fact, this happened so much, and Celestia grew so tired of getting Cadence to say sorry every day that the Princess of the Day started to prank other ponies alongside Cadence.
Too bad she missed this one.
Celestia currently was in the throne room, stuck reading land disputes between the Zebrican Ambassadors and the Canterlot Nobles. She was still trying to get the Zebras to let some ponies stay in their country. Discord was never one to mess with the zebras. The way they always found a way to rhyme perfectly without messing up disgusted him. Of course, the Zebricans couldn’t go all the way over to Canterlot. They were sending each other formal letters, via teleportation (or, if you are on the other side to the spectrum, magical brews in great big bubbly cauldrons).
That’s how it was these days, ponies shaking in their little hooves whenever they came close to the border between Chaos Country and Canterlot. Discord was no tyrant. He was an all-powerful tyrant. He could do anything he pleased. Day by day, several ponies would go missing near the edge of Canterlot, all used for Discord’s evil, yet mischievous, schemes. That was how monsters were made. But of course, Starswirl, Cadence’s mentor, would go in a lecture about it and make something that sounded so cool become so boring.
The clopping of hoofsteps sounded through the hallway. Suddenly, a voice joined in.
“Ugh, where is that little filly?” It was feminine voice, tinted with the authority (but not the volume; thank goodness) of the Royal Canterlot Voice. Luna. Cadence gulped just the slightest.
“You can go back to your duties. I’ll go find her, Princess.” This was Starswirl.
Starswirl trotted off in the opposite direction at a brisk pace while Luna went back to the throne room. After making sure the Princess of the Night wasn’t here anymore, the elderly unicorn doubled back and knocked his hoof on Cadence’s door.
“I know you’re in there, Cadence.”
Cadence, after a moment’s hesitation, unlocked the door and let her mentor inside. Afterward, she took a seat on her fluffed and outrageously pink bed.
“Locator spell,” Starswirl said while opening a pocket and revealing a scroll for said spell. “Really useful for finding hidden princesses.”
Cadence sat still.
Starswirl walked up to the filly princess and sat on the bed. “After all, with all the ruckus you’re making, we don’t even need a Discord!”
Cadence turned her head to stare at Starswirl. She could sense mixed feelings inside of him, the awkwardness most prominent. “You’re never one to crack a joke. What’s going on here?”
Starswirl sat still.
“Celestia getting up to you again?”
He sighed, shaking his head. “I swear, you know exactly what’s going inside my big and wise brain.”
“You’re one to talk.”
“Hey!” Starswirl huffed mockingly. “I’ll have you know that I was made immortal for my spells and theories!”
“Of course, Mr. All-Knowing Teacher.” Cadence grinned. “And it’s only because you and Luna are in love,” she said in a sing-songy voice, dragging out the last word like a fermata on two slurred whole notes.
Starswirl started to drool. With a sudden shake of the head, he commanded, “Well, let’s get to your lesson.” He hopped off the bed, trotting up to the door.
“You’re dodging my question.”
He turned round on his hooves. Cadence was sure that she had got him, until Starswirl answered. “That was a statement, not a question. Only proves that you’ve”-he booped her on the nose-“got more to learn.”
“Everypony knows that the proper way to dodge a question is to answer a related question, not completely ignore it.”
Starswirl let out a groan. “I’ve already got Celestia battering me with this junk, and now you too? Sweet Discord, save me from these unholy alicorns!”
A creak and a growl sounded in the roof.
“Never mind.”
Canterlot, Royal Greenhouse
“This is Apis mellifera,” Starswirl stated as he levitated a confused honeybee from the swarm and in front of Cadence’s face. “The Honeybee.”
Cadence took one glance at the poor creature, who struggled to jump out of the blue aura. “He doesn’t like it. He’s scared.”
Starswirl stared at the scrambling honeybee. “Well, now, I guess he is.” Cadence nudged him. “Oh, of course.” The magic stopped short, and the bee fell straight down. Cadence caught him on the wing.
“Off you go,” she whispered.
“I just don’t understand,” shouted Starswirl while looking at the dirt ground. “One day you can understand animals and the next you have a knack for seeing the stars! What am I missing?” He turned his head to look at the pink princess. “Cadence, you are such a mystery.”
“It’s not the end of the world,” exclaimed Cadence. In just ten nanoseconds, she realized her mistake and put her hoof to her mouth.
“Not the end of the world?” Starswirl bristled. “The sooner we find what the hay you’re good at, the sooner we can challenge and destroy Discord! Have you any idea what life is like in the cities?”
Cadence cowered back into the edge of a pot. With a deep breath, she stood up, chest puffed and eyebrows arched. “Such language!”
Starswirl glanced nervously around, and, with a sigh, exclaimed, “I just don’t know what went wrong!”
Cadence let out a hearty, cheerful laugh. “Let’s get back to the lesson, Mr. All-Knowing Teacher.”
“Don’t make a habit of that.”
“Oh I won’t.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.” Unluckily for Starswirl (/ Mr. All-Knowing Teacher), Cadence had her hoof behind her back. “Come on, Mr. All Knowing Teacher.”
“Excuse me?”
With a devious smile, Cadence snickered and said, “Kinged you,” while Starswirl let out an exasperated sigh and dramatic eye roll that was well worth an Oscolt Award if they existed.
“Princesses,” muttered Starswirl.
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“When shall we strike?” A misty voice echoed in the dark, eagerly awaiting a signal.
“Start phase one, my dear. We’re in for some chaos.” The host of the second malicious voice grinned darkly. In a whip of air and an squee of jubilance, the first seeped through the tiny cracks in the walls and up to Canterlot, putting to sleep all who saw it. “Sweet nightmares, my friends,” she cackled as each one fell with a thud on the ground. She headed toward the Castle, and into the kitchen, adding a new page to the cookbook.
Canterlot, Royal Dining Hall
August 20th, 162 DR
6:03 PM
Princess Celestia looked down at the pitiful amount of fresh vegetables on her silver and gold plate. Fearful, she asked the waitress, “Is this all that’s left?”
The waitress bowed, a bit shocked that the princess had asked her and not some other higher in the rank, and replied, “We’ve been holding on as long as we can, but Discord’s magic is destroying the plants in both our gardens and Everfree Refuge.”
“Not much of a refuge now, isn’t it? I had hoped that my childhood home would be safe.”
“Is that all?” The waitress asked anxiously.
“Yes. You may go.” Celestia looked down at her plate of food. Oh, I do hope this will pass. She looked at Starswirl and Cadence, her advisor and her youngest sister. I fear for both of them.
Suddenly, the two double doors opened with a bang, revealing the angered Princess Luna and a nervous wreck of a soldier.
“Princess, we can’t find any sign of the Elements!” He reasoned. “They’re all the way out!”
Luna turned on the soldier. “Do you have any idea what is going on out there? The citizens need you. You can live a coward, or die a hero. What would you choose?”
The soldier opened his mouth to speak, until Luna zipped it shut using her magic.
“I don’t want to hear it. Tell the others to decide,” she ordered. “I trust that they will choose the right decision.”
In a hurry, the soldier scampered off.
Starswirl put a hoof on Luna’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, my star,” Luna apologized.
“It’s quite all right, dear,” answered Starswirl.
Quietly, Celestia leaned over to whisper in Cadence’s ear while the two lovers were busy. “Why don’t you pour yourself a drink? You’re too young for wine anyways.” Cadence was relieved for the break. The love filling the air was getting too sappy sweet for her. How could Celestia bear it?
While Cadence scurried to the kitchen, Celestia used her extensive knowledge of ‘house-magic’ to double the capacity of Luna’s glass, and poured Cadence’s wine into Luna’s. Her sister needed to calm down and take a breather, that was for sure.
Canterlot, Castle Kitchen
A light blue glow levitated The Uncanny Drink to the ground. Cadence opened the books, flipping the pages until she came to a stop on Drink of True Love. Cadence tilted her head, curious, and started reading the page. The mixture of ingredients sounded very strange, but tasty. Cadence was sure that the title meant that she would be enamored with the liquid.
Take a tuft of cloud.
Cadence peered into the Cake Ingredients cabinet and delicately took two pieces of the soft cloud, eating one. She levitated a bowl to the floor, setting it down with a clank. She looked around as the sound resonated through the enormous kitchen, then, after making sure Princess Luna wasn’t coming for her, placed the nimbus gently into the ceramic.
A bright rainbow’s glow.
Cadence was sure that they had rainbows somewhere. Going back to the same cabinet, she saw a prismatic liquid safely tucked away in a glass jar. She tried to use her magic to open the lid, but it would not budge. She bit it, threw it, pried it, set fire to it, and even froze it. The jar would not open.
That was, until Cadence saw the jar opener.
It was made out of straw and dried hay, but it’s strength was amplified by magic. Cadence was sure that she hadn’t seen it before.
So, with a twist of the jar opener, the lid came off and clattered to the floor.
The rainbow inside quickly whizzed into the air, dancing around in a flurry. Cadence quickly took flight, grabbed the rainbow with her teeth, and shoved it in the bowl. It settled in the cloud.
Stir with a pegasus feather, fast, not slow.
Cadence looked skeptical. A Pegasus Feather? She wasn’t sure that was legal. Oh well.
Biting her lip, she quickly plucked one of her pink feathers. The pain seared through her wing, and she tried her best to subside it while mixing up the cloud and rainbow.
Serve.
Cadence squinted her eyes. Serve? That was it? She was sure that she saw faded words.
I’ll just serve it with ice, Cadence quickly remedied her dire situation.
She levitated open a ice box and dropped the ice in a glass. Steadily, she poured the drink into the cup. She ignored the way that the concoction slowly turned ice blue.
Smiling, she picked up the glass with her magical blue aura and trotted out the door. Entering the dining hall, she set the glass down, careful not to spill a single drop.
She took a sip, eyes closed so that she could taste it without being distracted by all the love between her mentor and the regal princess of the night.
She opened her eyes at the unorthodox flavor.
“Oh my, where have you been all my life?” Cadence exclaimed.
“Cadence, are you okay?” Starswirl asked nervously, eyes darting back and forth.
“Oh, let’s not talk about me.” Cadence’s mouth curved just slightly, her eyes fixed on Starswirl. She put a hoof on Starswirl’s chest, licking her lips.
“Let’s talk about us.”
