Chapter 1

A Story Begins

The frigid winter wind was tugging at my mane as I peered over the frozen edge of the castle roof. I was silently observing the ponies occupying themselves with their hearts warming eve celebrations. I watched them for a few more moments before spreading my wings and dropping down to the tower balcony below me. I paused to admire the glass archway before entering. The reflection of a silver pegasus with black and gold hair, blue eyes and a cutie mark of a flying spearhead stared back at me.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I said to my reflection as I slide into the tower, “Ah, Canterlot Castle, a fine example of fourth era architecture.”

The tower was deserted; everypony must be at the celebrations. Even though the tower was empty it was still fully alight with candles and the glow of the setting sun. I walked to the far doorway that opened to the stairs down the tower and put my ear to the key hole. I listened for a minute, then convinced that the hall outside was empty, I opened the door. Four pegasi guards turned their helmeted heads toward me the moment they heard the door open.

“Now that isn’t fair,” I groaned as the guards charged at me “make some noise next time!”

I quickly sidestepped the two lead pegasi and before the others could reach me I took off into the air and down the wide, spiral staircase, through the tower and into the empty palace.

“Get him!” a guard yelled.

Alright, maybe not as empty as I would have hoped. Damn guards were pouring out of every door and corner! I paused for a moment hovering in the hall as more guards filed in around me in both the air and on the ground. I glanced at their stern faces and noticed that none of them were unicorns.

“Oh good,” I relaxed, “was worried for a moment that this was going to be difficult.”

I take off down the hall faster than my pursuers could react, weaving my way through the surprised guards. I frantically examined each door as I flew past.

“Where are the vaults?”

There! The large, gold doors loomed at the end of the hall. I landed, quickly pushed my way through, and locked the door behind me. I looked around at the stain glass windows, each one portraying a moment in pony history. Light from the windows danced on the ground like a river of color.

“Lovely,” I whispered to myself “it is as if they put my whole life onto glass.”

I noticed the window to my right and instantly my mood darkened. An image of a dragon shaped creature with mixed up body parts stared back. Painfull memories started to fill my mind. I struggled to pull my gaze from the window and finally looked away.

At the far end of the room stood a massive gold and silver door, the entrance to the vaults. I ran up to it, and much to my dismay, discovered that it was locked using magic. Just then the door I had locked upon entering flew open revealing three unicorn guards. I decided to throw in some humor before they caught me.

“Would any of you mind helping me open this vault?”

The unicorns stared emotionless at me. Then their horns and eyes glowed a dark violet and I was hit full force with three sleeping spells. I rapidly fell into unconsciousness but before everything went dark I saw the outline of an alicorn standing in the doorway.

* * *

“Good,” a pleasant and familiar female voice said, “you are waking up.”

I opened my eyes and looked around. To my surprise I was not in the dungeons but in the living chambers of Princess Celestia. The princess herself was sitting in front of me next to the roaring fire on a violet and gold cushion. She had a slight smile on her face. I was on a blue cushion with a bowl of apples next to me.

“It is good to see you, though, I had not expected us to meet under these circumstances.”

“Are the dungeons full this time of the year?” I said jokingly.

She shook her head and smiled “I know you won’t try to harm me and even if you wanted to you couldn’t.”

“True,” I laughed. Then in a more serious tone, “I bet you are wondering why I was breaking into your palace.”

“Yes I am. Were you trying to take something from me?”

“I need them,” I looked her in the eyes “I need the elements of harmony.”

She tilted her head in confusion.

“If you need them so badly all you had to do was ask,” she smiled “ever since you helped me and my sister all those years ago.”

“You would have said no when I told you why I need them,” I said sadly.

“What do you need them for?” She looked at me with her deep magenta eyes; those painful eyes.

“I will answer two of your questions at once. You asked me long ago what my story was and why I had lived so long. It seems I neglected to answer fully.”

She nodded, “all you said was that your story was long and full of pain and sorrow.”

“I think it is time to tell you the truth to better answer everything.”

I stood up and walked to the window. Ponies were still celebrating even though the sun had long set and the snow was falling gently from the sky. I took a deep breath and started.

“I haven’t always been a simple pegasus. I was once an alicorn of high standing”

The princess gave a quiet gasp of shock.

“Are you one of the Forgotten?” She asked quietly.

“Yes,” I walked back over to my cushion “but you could get away with calling all alicorns that.”

“Did you know me back then?”

“Oh yes,” I said sadly “we were on talking terms and I knew you more than most”

“I wish I could remember you,” she sighed.

“So do I.”

“So,” she asked eager to change the topic “where does your story begin?”

“Here, I have an idea. Use a spell that allows you to see my memory and thoughts; see the past through my eyes. It will make it easier to tell the story. But I will warn you, the spell restricting your memories may be weakening and there might be realizations that will cause you great pain.”

She nodded her head then timidly leaned forward and placed her horn above my brow. I instantly felt a falling sensation as I recessed back into the time line of my life. But I was not alone, she was with me. Her presence guided me back through the pain. Darkness filled my mind and the falling sensation stopped. But she was still there, still next to me.

* * *

I waited for the sunrise. The cool spring breeze flowed around me. It was a dark morning and the light from the stars barely illuminated the edge of the cliff. I had been sitting there for a few hours.

“If she raises the sun late her father will never let her take over,” I laugh to myself.

Thirty minutes later and the sun had still not risen. She was two hours late. I could hear the residents of a nearby house waking up and wondering why it was still dark.

Then it started. First it was only a dark red glow climbing up the horizon like a drop of watercolor paint expanding on paper. But soon it grew in brightness until I could see the surrounding countryside. Then the whole horizon lit up with a flare of yellow light and golden beauty. I was blinded for a few moments and when my vision returned a most beautiful sight met my eyes. The country was spread out before me with the jeweled city of the alicorns shining in the valley.

Then a star fell out of the sun and headed toward me. I stood up and waited when suddenly the sun started to sink back down. The star stopped and dropped back over the horizon after it. It soon rose again and the star returned to its previous course toward me. When she reached me I was deep in laughter. I open my eyes and there she stood, shaking her head but otherwise smiling.

“I told you I would do it,” she laughed.

“Did you make it go back down?”

She stopped smiling and her cheeks turn red.

“No,” she tried to compose herself “that was purely an accident. I was in such a hurry that I forgot to use the spell that locks the sun in its track through the sky. So are we heading back to the palace or do you have other plans?”

“Sorry Tia, I can't come with you back to the palace,” I stood up and stretched my stiff wings. “My father is expecting me back at the legion headquarters.”

“What for?”

“Don't know, but he made it sound important.” I poke her in the side with my horn and she gives an annoyed huff “you should go back to the palace and find and explanation for messing up your third attempt at a sunrise.”

A look of terror flashed across her face.

“Why do I listen to your ideas?”

“Because you love me,” I poked her in the ribs again.

“That is more or less true but in my book you are still just a friend.”

“You have a book,” I ask comically “I need to find it and make some adjustments.”

“Don't try too hard to win my heart,” she pokes me hard in the side and I wince in pain “you might get hurt.”

She spreads her wings and disappeared in a flash of light.

“Why doesn’t she admit that she is deeply in love with me?”

I remembered that I was late for the meeting with my father. I closed my eyes, thought of my destination and converted myself into pure energy and light. I reopened them and was met by the angry face of the most decorated military leader in all of the Alicorn Empire. General Stormwing of the Second Legion. Also known as that wonderful father of mine.

“Traveler!” he hissed in my face “why are you late?”

“Just watching the sunrise, sir!”

“Did you pressure that poor girl into foaling around with the sun again?”

“Not exactly.”

“Yes or no boy!”

“Yes sir, I did!”

“You are setting a bad example for the Princess. She is younger than you and will follow your influence.”

“She is only a year younger,” I said under my breath.

“What?”

“Nothing sir!”

He looked at me with squinted and critical eyes. He let loose a deep “humph,” and continued.

“King Caelum is calling a council. I want you to join me and the other legion commanders in the Sky Hall.”

“Me sir?” I said shocked.

“Did I mumble boy?”

“No sir!”

“Someday you will follow in my footsteps and become a great leader. So I am promoting you from legate in training to refit and supply lieutenant serving under Tides.”

“A lieutenant,” I said even more shocked.

“Am I still mumbling?” I could tell I was making him want to go out and commit genocide on a population of manticores “If you do well you just might become Tide's replacement.”

“Sounds good to me sir.”

“Good,” he backed away from me “go and get ready. Wear my old set of lieutenant armor and by midday meet me in the courtyard with the others.”

“Yes sir!”

He turned and stormed away. I looked around and notice that we weren’t the only two in the reception hall. Dozens of legionaries and General Stone Mane of the fourth legion stood watching me as if I was an athlete in the great games. I looked at their faces and noticed that they quite enjoyed the previous spectacle.

“I am going to get ready if it isn’t too much for you to move aside please.”

Stonemane smiled and they all started moving about their business. I headed up to my chambers on the the third floor of the headquarters. I opened the door and was met by a pleasant surprise.

“Hello brother!”

My little sister gleefully trotted over to me from her position by the window.

“Hello Azure!” I placed my horn on her forehead in the traditional alicorn meeting ritual between loved ones and family. “ What are you doing back?”

Azure wasn’t my true sister. She was a pegasi that my father found abandoned as a foal in the tribe lands. My father has a soft spot contrary to popular belief. She was recently assigned to be the diplomat to the Pegasi Tribe three years ago and I haven’t heard from her since.

“I cant tell you why until the council.”

“What is happening now in the tribe lands?”

“I said I wasn’t telling you,” she pranced over to the door “get ready brother and I will meet you there.”

“I haven’t seen you for three years and you only talk to me for a few moments.”

“I have to be at the palace early and I can't flash myself there like alicorns can.” she turned to leave but then stopped “Oh, I have a surprise for you.”

“What is it?” I knew she wasn’t going to tell me.

“You will find out soon,” the blue pegasus laughs and trots out of my room.

I quickly put on my father's old ceremonial lieutenants armor. A gold and silver set of plate with a blue front to back frill on the helmet. I head down to the courtyard and look for my father among the seven other generals and their lieutenants.

“Traveler,” he says emotionless as as I walk up to him. His countless medals clicked on his breastplate.

“Sir,” I replied with the same amount of enthusiasm.

“Good morning traveler.”

General Eagleheart of the First Legion strode up to us and relieved the tension between me and my father. It was in my opinion that she loved my father but I knew my father would never fall for her because he promised himself never to love another alicorn when my mother died.

“Good morning ma'am.”

“Are you two ready to go?” she asked “thanks to that sunrise we are running late.”

“Yes we are,” my father replies.

“Gatekeeper,” Eagleheart turned toward an ancient alicorn standing outside of our group. His job was to send us all at once to the palace to prevent alicorns from flashing into the same place and fussing together.

The gatekeeper nodded his head and a bright flash of light emanated from his horn blinding me. It felt as if the world was spinning for a second then it stopped. My vision quickly returned and the spectacular crystal walls of the Sky Hall met my eyes. We moved through a pair of gold doors that shined like sunlight and into the main hall. The massive structure opened up around us and I suddenly felt very small.

The Sky Hall stood ten stories high and was half a mile long. It could sit more than a hundred thousand ponies in an elaborate arena style sitting around the main floor where the council sat. The structure was finely tuned to maximize the echo of whoever stood on the podium in front of the royal thrones.

“Hello again father and Traveler,” Azure trotted up to us in a violet, silk dress and to my surprise she had two other pegasi with her. A strong warlike male in silver armor and a little green filly. The male looked at the alicorn generals with unease.

“Hello my dear” my father smiled.

The other generals filed around us to take their seats.

“Here is the surprise brother,” she beamed “This is Skybreaker, my mate” Sky Breaker bowed to me “and my daughter River Dash.”

I was speechless. My father wasn’t.

“It is good to finally meet you Skybreaker.”

“Likewise to you sir,” Skybreaker gruffly replies in a quick military snap.

I could tell my father was pleased. They started talking about military tactics and I would loved to have listened but my sister was waiting for my response to her news.

“A family?” was my pathetic response.

“Yes a family,” she bends down and nudged River Dash out from behind her front legs where she had been hiding and toward me. “Say hello to your uncle Traveler!”

The little filly stared at me with large terrified eyes, squeaked, then hid back behind her mother.

“Attention everypony,” a voice thundered in the hall “please be seated! The council will start soon!”

My father and I left my sister and took our seats in the front right rows next to the senators. In front of us stood the grand podium and behind that sat the four thrones. An all white alicorn stepped up to the podium.

“All hail King Caelum, Queen Selene, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.”

The royal family walked out of a door behind the thrones and took their seats.

“The counsel has now commenced!” ended the speaker.

King Caelum stood and walked majestically to the podium. His gold hair shining in the natural light of the hall.

“Today my friends,” he said in a voice that shook the hall like thunder “we speak of war. A war that has been raging for hundreds of years between the unicorn and pegasi tribes. We have known long about this war but we have strode to remain uninvolved. But thanks to the findings of Azure, our diplomat to the Pegasi Tribe, we have learned of atrocities being committed. Now we must decide to step in and stop this bloodshed or continue to do nothing. What does the council have to say?”

Like every council meeting I had witnessed before then the Sky Hall erupted into a thunder of debate.

“Well my son,” my father groaned loudly “time to do what all politicians do best. Yell very loud and get nowhere!”

With that said he turned to a senator arguing the dangers of interfering with the war and goes into a yelling contest with him. I realized that I was of no help in the main debate and I stood up and make my way to my sister. I reached her after a long struggle of trying to get through the crowd of angry, yelling alicorns and I saw that her face was twisted with anxiety.

“I hear more voices opposed to intervening,” she sighed loudly “I need to tell them why they must act.”

“Yes, most likely you do,” I replied.

“But I can't make my voice heard!”

I thought for a moment then I decided on a course of action. I gathered all of my magic, energy and not to mention courage into my voice.

“I call Azure, diplomat to the Pegasi tribe to the podium in favorable debate for the intervention against the war!”

The hall went quiet and all eyes turned to me. I suddenly felt very light headed and uneasy with the sudden attention. I almost fell over but I looked at the Princess and I saw her watching me with a smile unlike any I had seen before. That smile was all I needed to get through the next hour.

Little did I know, but that smile would help me get through the darkest hours of my life.

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