"Mama, do you think the princess will like me?" Aurora smiled, jumping up and down happily. The young filly was waiting for her turn, half nervous and half excited "Of course she will! You're smart, pretty, and you have your cutie mark. You're going to nail this" just as her mother said that, Princess Celestia stepped out from the room, everypony bowing to her "I bear great news! Let it be known right now that Twilight Sparkle shall be my new student!"
All the young colts and fillies looked at each other in confusion, and then to their parents to which they ran up to talk to the Princess "Princess Celestia, we shouldn't be too hasty. What about the others? Our foals haven't even had the chance to show you what they've got" she thought for a minute "I've seen what other ponies haven't been able to achieve today. Twilight Sparkle is the student I've been looking for. I see greatness in her, and the others I see greatness in as well, but with all due respect, I must decline all other auditions...I have made my mind. I don't want to disappointed her when she's still fresh from hearing such great news. You understand when you see the one don't you? I went on my instincts"
Everypony in the room looked sad, even Aurora who had practiced for ages "I understand. Thank you for at least taking the time to see our foals" Aurora looked confused as she looked up at her mother and then to Celestia who returned to the room. Just as she left, she could see a glimpse of the chosen pony's face, embedding it into her mind "Never forget..."
"Never forget alright!" She slammed a beam of magic at a nearby tree, making it topple over and crash "Celestia made up her mind before anypony else had the chance! And it was all because of that no-talent pony!" She shot another beam at the same tree, making it burst into flames "I could've been the new Princess. Twilight Sparkle didn't even have her cutie mark! And she seemed more clumsy than the other ponies! What could she have possibly done that was so fantastic?!"
For weeks now, Aurora had been practicing and training, starting off with weak spells before moving onto the harder and stronger ones. It was pure strength and integrity that pushed her, making her capable of using different spells at the same time and even spells she knew Twilight hadn't even known. She trained until her hooves could no longer hold her up and her horn was sore from spell casting. But this was becoming serious for her. It was like she was training to defeat Princess Celestia herself. Blythe on their hand didn't mind hanging out less and less with her either. This was something Aurora had to do to prove her point "I just wish she didn't work herself so hard. She could injure something..." She tried for the most part not to get in the way of her friend but it was so hard when she came home exhausted and hurting. Yet, something told her that Aurora must do this alone without anyone doubting her, especially her best friend.
One day as Aurora left for her usual work out, she noticed Blythe wasn't moving to go to the train station "You have to make up an excuse on your own. I'm working from here today. So far, I noticed there are a lot more chambers than we originally thought, extending way under ground. We've only covered the first floor. And we've recovered some artifacts so they told me to read up on the history of the Crystal Empire. You better get going. The challenge is only week away and you need to practice and then rest. Off you go then" Aurora tilted her head "Alright then. I'll see you as usual. Bye!"
Blythe watched her leave for a moment or two before retuning to the book she was reading "I've gone through these so many times and they're the oldest books I could find that date back to King Sombra's rule. There's nothing that tells of why he built an underground castle" It was common knowledge that King Sombra burned all of the books. Even the ones written secretly were burned by somepony. She sighed, closing the book and turning to her side, seeing the fragments of letters recovered from the excavation "I know I promised the team...but I just have to!" She began to read them but all of them just were letters to family and about how terrible King Sombra was. But one of them was interesting. "Dear Starlett Rose, his treasure never leaves that room. Only certain servants are allowed in, one of them being me. All is good, but I fear for our safety the more possessive he becomes. Today he nearly killed a servant for just trying to look inside. Its like someone is driving him to insanity" the note was burned at insanity. She tilted her head "Treasure?! Is this the lead we've been looking for?! So he's hiding some sort of treasure down there! He probably didn't want anypony to steal it so he made a maze! That explains everything except...what was so important about it?"
The brown mare flicked her tail in frustration. Something was special about it. What was so important? She just had to know, even if it killed her she would find out. She stood up and put the note in her pack and took the rest of notes with her that she didn't read, running done to the train station to tell her team the good news.
Aurora came back to Canterlot station after realizing she forgot to grab her pack, bewildered when she saw her best friend rushing towards her "Blythe! What are you in such a hurry for?" She jumped up and down, pulling her aside "I have some great news! You know how we've been wondering what King Sombra might have built the underground castle for? Well, I know I promised the team I wouldn't read them without them but I was desperate for a lead so I took a peak and...ahhh! It turns out he's hiding some sort of treasure down there! I suspect it has to have something to do with the down fall of his rule and the disappearance of the Crystal Empire!"
Aurora, chuckled before nodding " That's great! But the tricky part is figuring out which hall they're talking about. You said there was a maze of rooms right?" Blythe smiled and jumped up and down before looking around for the train that went to the Crystal Empire "Its so exciting! I can just imagine me and my team finding even more secrets and adding it to the Equestrian History Museum here in Canterlot! The Princesses will be so thrilled...especially my so to be Princess friend" she gently nudged her side, Aurora blushing "You know it! My training is complete once I master this one last spell. Then I'll be able to take down Princess Twilight Sparkle once and for all. But I'll need a lot of sleep these next few days. I'll be back in 3 hours. I'll see you but first, I have to get my pack"
The white mare disappeared in the distance as the train for the Crystal Empire neared. Blythe boarded and sat down in the way back, going through the rest of the letters. Another one caught her eye this time "Once its worn, if the user's dream is strong, it will come true but destruction will soon follow through. Beware of the -" 'Hmmm its smudged...but the treasure we find. Is this what its talking about? It can't be...it just can't...but if its true then I have to take it directly to Princess Cadence' The more she read through the letters, the more excited she became. Soon the train was close so Blythe packed the letters away "Though it does make sense. That treasure probably made him become King and then destruction followed through by Celestia defeating him and making the Crystal Empire disappear..." The light brown mare got off and trotted all the way to the Castle, seeing her team in front finishing up from a hard day of work "Hey guys! I have some great news!"
A/N
Hey guys!
Its me! I know the last few chapters were shorter than this one but I'm working on making them longer. But this one I think most should be as long as this one. Also, reviews would be awesome. I hope you all love my story! Its my first so I was excited. Anyways, I have drawings of my OCs I'm going to post on my DA so you can get a better picture of what they look like. Just stay tuned on my profile to see the link to my DA. For now, Peace out!