AN: Hey guys its me again Ultor here. My friend and I made a story on fimfiction and I felt like posting it here so enjoy it. :D
The First Writings
I write for many reasons; to preserve my past for future generations, to protect my thoughts for later remembrance, and to make sure that which is right, is never forgotten. But I get ahead of myself in my writings it would seem. Allow me to introduce myself to you, I am a performing Pegasus named Chance the Cheat. I know what you're already thinking with a last name like that, but no, it is not a title that I earned for being a con-pony. Cheat is a family name from my father's side, the great Cheats have quite the history, I've even found a few references to them in magic history books. My father tells me that there was more that even dated back to the time before the great harmony, but it's very hard to get a hold on books that tell of those times. I question it at times, but only in the silence of my home, it's a strange city I dwell in. You see, I was born and raised in Las Pegasus, the city of performance, of lights, and of chance. A city that was perfect for me, a city where it all started.
Some information on this city: it is divided by physical lines and lines that the people draw themselves, and rightfully so. The city is divided into four main parts; the section of the Diamonds, the section of the Hearts (Also known as the Bleeding Hearts) the section of the Clubs, and the section of the Spades. As you can see, they are all based off of the suits of the traditional playing cards, as gambling and playing is part of the life-blood and appeal of this city. The Diamonds own and run most of the major shops, be it gift shops, jewelry stores, or small businesses. The Hearts are mostly the medical ponies and emergency workers, be that a firefighter or a rescue worker. The Clubs (as their name may imply) run the clubs of the city, the dance clubs, party houses, and almost anything to do with a good time. All of these groups control a bit of a large area of buildings and business close to the middle point of the city, anything you might ever want and everything you don't can be found there. That area even houses some of the largest names in performance and gambling around.
Yes, I am very aware that I have skipped the group of the Spades, but this is for a very good reason. Nobody is quite sure what they are, not even I am quite sure even now as I write this. The opinions of them vary greatly, but here is what most of them may think. Some believe them to be a syndicate of large names that may hunt those who hinder their plans, to be buried in the end by the spade. Some believe them to be underground police and investigative ponies, taking cases that light will never be shed on, digging up the dirt the city could not bare to see with their namesake. Others think that they're the founders of the great city, hiding in the shadows and observing their success in silence for reasons unknown, maybe they're hunted or hated, nobody knows for sure. Mystery surrounds them, an enticing veil of shadows, mystery, doubt and illusion. A veil that one should not attempt to pierce lightly, nor with a rusty blade.
Now that I've told you most of the working of the city, let's move onto where my humble cog fits into this machine. I am, much like my father, a born and bred performer of the stage and streets. But unlike my dear father, I prefer the streets for many reasons. I enjoy seeing the pony's faces light up face to face, the thrill of fooling them with a trick of mine, but I enjoy it even more so because of another difference between my father and I, magic. You see, my father is a Unicorn, and my mother a Pegasus, a bit of the reason why they named me Chance. They figured that due to their lines and family past, that it was a fifty-fifty chance that I might take onto either of their lines. My mother's line was mostly Pegasi, and my father's mostly Unicorns. They had little to no Earth-pony blood in them, so that was out of the question. And for reasons that need not be said, I would surely not be an Alicorn.
Speculation surrounds what makes an Alicorn, or at least for me it does, I tend to question what others may not, I suppose that's the nature of a magician. I wonder what might make them, could it be royal blood? Who sired the two sisters of Dawn and Dusk(Celestia and Luna)? What are Prince Blueblood's ties to the royal family, how was he admitted into it? Was it birth or marriage or an agreement of some kind? One could go further into questioning where in the world Princess Mi Amore Cadenza or Cadance came from, we know that she was around for some time and didn't simply 'evolve' into an Alicorn. She was a foal-sitter for the legendary mare of Twilight too. And we have two, now three Princess's and a prince, or well two I guess with the royal wedding. Would there not be contesting for the throne? Or for who bears the title? None that is visible, they all seem to share the title and perhaps the responsibilities as well. Is there a King and Queen behind all of this, where they mentioned in the time before the great harmony? Nobody is sure, but perhaps... perhaps it is better that way.
Back to my family however, more specifically my mother and father. My mother met my father as an assistant for one of his grand shows of magic, she was greater in her assistance than he could have ever imagined and they eventually after a few more shows decided to couple up. They were stunning in their performances, my father performs in many ways, practicing magic never before seen, stunning visuals of making pure light constructs move and tell a grand story, and many more. He was great in his magical ability and his talent to push the boundaries of what we thought was possible for Unicorn magic in general. He and I even craft little pet theories of ours, some joking and some serious, one serious one being the birth patterns of ponies. In general, nobody is quite sure what may dictate your birth race, the cake family had a Pegasus and a Unicorn due to their ancestry. We theory that every pony has magic deep within them, we have cutie marks that show our special talent when we discover it for ourselves, and that could hardly be chalked up to genetics. That is, unless you were to argue that magic is part of our genes, in which case you would be kind of right, within our theory anyways.
We have no way, and by we I mean my family, of testing these out and we're sure others may have thought of this before. Our theory mainly consists of the thought that we all have magic deep within ourselves at all times, and perhaps an excess of this magic or simply family potential, that births a Unicorn. They can harness this primal power deep within themselves and manifest it through techniques and inborn knowledge. But now what can we all do with what may be inside of us? We can perhaps pass it on, and it contributes to our cutie mark, but can we manifest it? This is where the theory breaks off with him, but where mine continues in slight secret. Perhaps through certain means, we can make use of this magic within us. My only concern is if unlike Unicorns, our force may run out, or if Unicorns simply have the innate ability to tap into the primal force of magic around us, and not within us. It's a mystery, perhaps one to never be solved. But, I didn't start my writings to share theory, or not entirely anyways. I did it to make sure the truth would always be known.
Allow me to elaborate, my family, more specifically my mother, carries a legend upon its shoulders. This is the legend of a third sister of the royal family, making Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, the fourth sister to come into the family. The legend of the princess of fate, I like to call her 'Lady Luck' in honor of my performing history. She was the princess of the intangible, the forces of chance and the chains of fate that bind us all together. For reasons rather unknown, she was set apart from her sisters of Dawn and Dusk and never spent quite some time with them from what is written. We all know the great tale of the kingdoms past, of the banishment of Luna for one thousand years. This action could indeed be seen as usurping to some, but to our dear lady, it was an act of betrayal, and she feared that she might be next on the list. She distrusted her sister of Dawn and was terribly sad for her sister of Dusk, but after much sadness she began to see reason. Dawn did what she had to do, but Luna simply wanted more attention, more respect and to be understood. This was a harsh reaction to a simple cry for attention in her eyes. She did not know how long the banishment would last, and feared that with family's bond with the elements of harmony being broken, that she might never come back.
The thought of the cold and desolate moon being her sister's home forever, made her terrified for her. Nopony deserved that fate for wanting to be loved, to be known, acknowledged or appreciated. She used her mastery over the chains that bind us all, and arranged an amazingly elaborate scheme to change the course of the very stars in the heavens above, to aide in her sister's escape. She knew that with her combination of the position of the stars and the powers of them both combined, they could break her imprisonment. What she did not know however, was how long until her plans would come to fruition. Now, one could argue that she was in a domain not of her own, powers at play that she could not aptly challenge. One could also argue that there could be a force/ Alicorn that may govern each element ephemeral or not. We have one of night, day, and now love, it wouldn't be too long of a shot to say there were many more. However, I have no way of knowing this for any amount of sureness so I'll go on with what I do know.
When the day finally came that her final stitch in her intricate web had been sown, she sat back and watched it all unfold with time. She watched, from where none are sure, as the final moments occurred, ready to see their family come together once more, to meet up with the sisters who must have forgotten her after all this time. As we all know today, the return of Luna never truly came, instead there was a beast by the name of Nightmare Moon to plunge the world into eternal darkness once more. Our dear lady surely knew that things would not be smooth sailing, oh yes, her sister would be mad, but she would be there to resolve these problems, as a family once more. But no, the night had changed her dear sister, it had taken control of her. She was no longer the sister she had known, and she was the one to release this... this horror unto the world.
As we all are very well aware, Nightmare Moon was taken down by the new bearers of the Elements, led by the Mare of Twilight, the apprentice of Dawn. And so with that, it was that Mare of Twilight that connected Dawn and Dusk once more. This was big news indeed, the elements connected once more, and the return of a royal family member. This news did indeed reach our dear Lady Luck. And joy filled her heart, but still a grim sorrow and shame overtook her. Yes, the problem that she brought upon the world had been remedied, but she was still the one to have caused it in the first place, and not be accident at all. Yes, she had no knowledge that this would happen, but ignorance is a poor excuse for nearly dooming the world to an eternal night. Her sister was forgiven, but she would not be so lucky. If her sister had not truly forgotten her as she had thought, what if she knew that she was indeed the one to release her? What if her ignorance to her actions was a sign of forgiveness, of understanding? What if she was already readying her punishment for when she confessed? Her sister suffered banishment for an outburst, what would she suffer for her transgressions?
As the tale goes, she thought it better in her fear and panic to stay hidden, to suffer a self-banishment from the royal family and all that she knew and loved. One day, she might come back and confess, ready to accept her fate, but as we all know, she has yet to do anything of the sort. She stays in hiding to this day, but where exactly she hides, nobody knows in the slightest. Even I still have few ideas to where she may be, it would be foolish to hide in Canterlot or many major cities close to her home. Surely almost anywhere and Alicorn would be noticed and make large news everywhere, "a fourth sister found" would be everywhere within the hour, to Celestia within the minute.
There is another part of the story that is rather physical, one that I have the honor to hold daily. There is a necklace that is passed down from generation to generation in my mothers side, and she passed it down to me. Ever since I was young I was enthralled with the story, believing it to be truer than water being wet so to say. My other siblings paid little heed to it as much as I, my little sister Roulette did care for it and believed in it, but my elder brother Blackjack did not, or simply didn't show any visible care for it. I suppose I forgot to mention them in the beginning, so I suppose now is as good as time as any to mention them with justice. My little sister is a Pegasus like me, named Roulette and she learned under my mother in the art of performance. My elder brother Blackjack is a Unicorn who learns under my father in the art of magic and some performance as well, but mostly magic it seems. I however, learn from both of them where I can, never quite perfectly fitting into their niches.
The necklace was given to me for never really having one of them to learn everything from and my pure dedication to this legend. The necklace is said to be a single crystalline tear of the Lady herself, it's wiring strands of her chain-like hair, and the chain that holds it all to be woven from her hair and the chains she weaves as well. Now I understand that only so much of this could be true when viewed by someone and that so much of it could be lies or distorted truths. But I choose to believe in it more than anything around me, and I hope to prove it the truth. The necklace doesn't seem to be incredibly magical (though I have no way of measuring it either way for certain) but it does have two odd characteristics, that being that it is seemingly always warmer than my wings, neck, or hooves. The other characteristic being that when shined directly with light, it spews a brilliant array of spectra, many more shades that the color of the tear, that being a deep blue. But the spectra could be just due to it's odd shape and crystalline nature or something of the like, I'm no expert in gems or crystals to say the very least.
My father's family had a tradition of their own, that being to teach the sons their trade of illusions and such. Blackjack has been learning rather well, I help him practice here and there and he aids me in a favor or two. My sister has been learning quite nicely as well, while they both practice on mother or father, I take to the streets to gauge the reactions. I enjoy working up close with the people, earning my money by the honest ways of chance and my trade, it keeps me calm. Sometimes I think that I question things too much, that some things are truly left unquestioned and unanswered. The pressure of this city and my work on the Lady is enough to sometimes drive a pony to madness. It drove me to seclusion in that town at one point, holed up in my study room with books scattered about, notes torn from books. Performing and my walks to my usual coffee shop usually calmed me back then, they were my only saving grace in those times. I suppose I've talked enough about these things. It's time to move on to more seemingly more recent events. Time goes by in a blur since it all began that fateful day.