“T’anks again for helping meh out, girls! This one’s on me!”

They clinked their glasses, then began to eat. Applejack was paying for their lunch this week, as thanks for their help with harvest yesterday, and with the money she had already made selling apples, they were able to treat themselves to the best Ponyville had to offer. Afterwards, they’d treat themselves to the usual at the beauty spa, then disperse.

The six of them were talking about their week. Rarity received an order for twenty velvet dresses for Manehattan, and was rather busy trying to get them all done by the end of the month, but she doubted she’d have any problems. With the Applebucking nearly finished three days ahead of schedule, AJ was going to have some free time before they start milking the cows, so she thought she’d that she’d take Applebloom and her friends to the county fair on Saturday, which Pinkie Pie was also going too, of course. Rainbow Dash had been asked to show up at the Flight Training School in Cloudsdale to show off for the young fillies, as the Best Young Flyer in Equestria.

“How about you, Twilight?” Rarity asked. “Find anything interesting in those books of yours?”

“Actually,” Twilight said, “I did find an interesting picture in the one I'm reading right now. It showed a lot of things, including what appears to be Celestia and Luna at about Sweetie Bell’s age.”

Everyone gasped at that. Rainbow Dash, who had been taking a sip from her soda, sprayed it all over AJ, who scowled at her with an iron intensity.

“Oops... sorry,” Rainbow said.

“The princesses as fillies,” Applejack said. “I wonder what they were like back then...”

“I bet they played tons of cool games!” Pinkie Pie said. “Do you think they had ‘Pin the tail on the Pony’ back then? Or ‘Spin the Bottle’? I bet they were lonely by themselves. Did they have any friends? Was one of them a big, scary dragon? Or maybe something weird, like a six-legged, pink-and-green striped, twenty foot tall walking flower!”

Everyone stared at Pinkie Pie.

“What?” she said. “It must have been ages ago! Who knows what was going on back then or what was what?”

“Well, there was one dragon, about twice as big as Spike,” Twilight said. “But I don’t think they’d get along very well.”

“Awwww!”

“At any rate,” Twilight continued, “It be nice to know what life was like back then, even if it is just speculation. And, really, Celestia and Luna, as kids? That, I got to see!”

All six of them giggled as they each had their own thoughts about what the princesses must have been like as fillies.

The rest of lunch passed quickly, and they didn’t talk much at the spa, simply enjoying the time. They said their goodbyes afterwards, as they each went home.

When Twilight got back to the library, she went immediately to the book she had been reading. She’d been curious as soon as she saw the picture, and talking about it with her friends had only served to amplify that curiosity. She quickly found the page with the picture, along with a title.

Beginnings, it said.

“At the very dawn of the world, life exploded into a vast array of species, many of which can no longer be found on this side of the line between life and death. Among them were those that were both similar and yet different in every way from anything that been born since then, different in that they were immune of the Passage of Time. These were the Immortals, and they were as gods.”

“They quickly discovered that they were drawn towards various parts and places in nature, in which they showed extraordinary talents and proficiency. They quickly claimed these as their domains, and they were zealous in their treatment of them.”

“But as time passed them by, they found that they were missing something. It gnawed at them, as they had considered themselves perfect in their power. They searched and searched, but they could not find out what they were missing. It tore at them so: many went mad, obsessed with finding out what they lacked, and they destroyed many great and wonderful things in their madness.”

“Those that were still in possession of themselves sought to defeat the mad ones, and banish their very beings to beyond the boundary of death. And as they fought, the world trembled before their power, as if to shatter.”

“It was then that they heard a cry, and they looked towards the earth, and they found many mortals quaking in fear and terror before the Immortals power. They pleaded to them, begging them to stop, and in the fear of the mortals voices and eyes, they found out what they had lacked.”

“They could not feel.” Next Chapter: Chapter 3: Questions Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 8 Minutes