A Long Time Ago...
Knowing that additional layers of robes or coats would merely slow her down, Princess Flurry Heart merely opted for alteration spells that made the frigid air in her immediate area tolerable.
The paths north out of the Crystal Empire towards the Crystal Mountains was the same arctic tundra as any other direction, that quickly gave way to taiga as the landscape approached the northern range. About three miles out of the city, the paths split. The one to the left ascended far slower as it went east to Yakyakistan. The road had not been maintained in quite some time. The other one went right for about a quarter mile before beginning the steep ascent up Mount Everhoof. The road was barely visible, having not been maintained in years.
Right now, two questions were predominantly on the princess' mind; why would Spike be sworn to secrecy concerning the whereabouts of a dreamwalker, and why would they be all the way up here? No one ever came up here, at least not in the last century or so, when she deemed the cave near the top of Mount Everhoof wasn't necessary to guard anymore due to Grogar's Bewitching Bell no longer being up there.
But if whomever this dreamwalker was didn't want to be disturbed, maybe that was the point.
As the forest began to thin and the landscape changed to alpine tundra, Flurry took the opportunity to turn and look back at the city she had spent a century and a half watching over, and more worriedly, the storm slowly twisting overhead.
She really hoped this dreamwalker could help her. Seeing the premonitions for themselves was undoubtedly better than her trying to interpret what she saw repeatedly every night for the past two weeks.
As the trees began to thin out, more of the rising cliffs became visible. The snowfall began to decrease, but the wind picked up as she slowly got higher. When the path became visible again due to lack of snowfall up here, Flurry noticed wagon ruts present in the ground; recent ones.
She didn't understand; there hadn't been a Crystal Guard posted up here for decades. What was a wagon coming up here for? It absolutely wasn't an easy pull. She followed the tracks further up the mountain as it slowly curved to the left around the bend as the trees continued to thin out. Sure enough, there was the old EUP hut, which had been there long before the Crystal Empire had reappeared. To her complete and utter surprise, it looked in good condition, like it had been continually maintained. She traced the tracks as they turned to curve right in front of the front door, then completed the turn back down the way it came. At first she thought that a pony was coming up here to keep the cabin standing, making repairs as necessary, but then she saw smoke rising from the chimney on the right side of the roof.
Somepony was here. Right now. Taking a deep breath, she made sure her crown was on straight before continuing up the path to the cabin. Indeed, there was an axe embedded in the stump out front, with neatly stacked logs in a pile under the front window. Stepping up to the front door, she took a deep breath, and knocked on the front door.
There was nothing after that for a moment, but she couldn't hear much above the ambient howling of the wind. Twenty seconds later, she heard the door's deadbolt unlatch, and the old wooden door was pulled open with a creak.
She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't a pony equal to her height wearing a dark brown hooded cloak. They had a dark blue coat, and a horn longer than you would typically see on fully mature unicorns.
"Princess Flurry Heart. You don't know how long I have waited to see you here on this doorstep," greeted the feminine voice that Flurry had not heard in decades.
Flurry Heart's eyes widened as she realized who was standing in front of her.
"Princess Luna...?"
Even alicorns turn old...
It just takes much longer for it to show in them than in other ponies...
It looks like flurry heart is trying to find a way to stop this premonitions coming true so she went to the mountains to meet this dream Walker but she stopped at a cabin and who lives there is the princess of the night Luna wow I didn't see that coming to be honest with you I wonder what they're going to talk about I guess we'll find out next time
This is probably why Twilight is a non-factor: she grew old and passed on like everypony else......
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Heck even the art the author picked, Luna looks like she has a good few centuries left in her!
Lunnnnnaaaaaa
The first and last princess of the night.
Again, some wonderful work on the flashback chapter. Certainly appreciated the work that went into the exchange, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places.
Certainly liked the description of the scene from Flurry's point of view (including the reason she uses magic to keep herself warm instead of wearing extra layers) and now Luna enters the picture as Flurry is asking for help in figuring out her mental images. Of course, we have yet to see if Flurry, Spike and Luna are going to end up doing something that teleports the Crystal Empire (and themselves) to the present day, just months after the return of magic. Of course, I really hope so. Seeing those three actually interacting with Sunny and her friends would be great to see (in addition to having at least three direct consultants from the Guardians' time to talk to about historical accuracy, there is also us seeing how Luna, Flurry and Spike adapt to the modern era).
Definitely looking forward to more of this.
Lunaaaa!
Kind of expected it, but it's nice to be proven right.
With flurry heart being 197 years old Luna really shouldn’t be looking that old, also can’t believe twilight was that bad at ruling equestria and keeping everyone friends or choosing a successor for it to start collapsing in less than two centuries
Of course, I get so invested in a long story and now have to wait for another update 😅
Dont see Luna aging like that after so short of a time. She had a 'hiatus' where she wouldn't have aged at all.
Pleasantly not surprised.
😄
THERES MORE?!?!?!
Well, first of all. How beautiful Luna looks when she is old! She looks like one of those nice grannies that you meet in quiet places (evidently xd) I have to admit that I am somewhat confused about how you think Alicorns age, on the one hand, Flurry Heart is 197 right? Remembering in canon ... Celestia (and Luna I suppose) are a little over a thousand years old. Now I want to remember how the first time we saw Luna she looked like a teenage girl, and then in the second season she looked almost adult. Well, she would have a more exact timeline if canon doesn't tear her apart for me in Season 5. (Nightmare Moon's first moment). So first, I'll get started. The first version of Luna, is the age at which they became Alicorns, according to the comics, Cadence had a normal adolescence, so we can say that she is only a few years older than Twilight (I wish they had said that Cadence did to win his Alicorn title, aside from his magic). And in the end, we saw that they spent at least 20 or 30 years in the pony state other than Twilight. Twilight looks like Celestia and if I'm right ... Cadence shouldn't grow up too ??? Never mind. The point is, Celestia aged 1200 years or so and eventually passed away. Twilight and Candence only have 200 (unless the situation where the magic will fail has done something, well, it is canonical that they only live longer thanks to their Alicorn magic). Hey, you could say that the lifespan of an Alicorn, with no magic failing, is 1200 or 300, more or less. Hmm, looking at this then. Considering that Twilight looks the same as Celestia in 20-30 years. Luna and Celestia were ruling that amount or a little more before the fight that Nightmare Moon unleashed. So they would be like 1030-something years in the canon. And if this is correct, the time for their bodies to show aging would be 20-30 instead of the normal ponies that would be every 5 or 10 years. So for Celestia to die after 200 years ... It's possible. This also means that Twilight's death could be recent or a few years ago. (That's not counting if they didn't die from illness, really, can Alicorns get sick?)
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I'm not thinking about it too hard. I think that an alicorn's vastly increased lifespan has to do with their magic, and when they lose, or pass on that magic, they begin to age a little more normally.
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I realized in the middle of my rambling XD And that detail is canonical sooooo, yup, the Alicorns are dead in G5 (magic was gone for CENTURIES)
Luna is getting old!