Chapters The Illusion Of Sanctity *DO NOT READ YET*
Twilight woke up when it was still dark.
The dim light from her candle was dying, and the room was bathed in flickering orange light, casting wild shadows upon the walls and ceiling. She lay back, resting her head on her pillow, enjoying the play of light. This went on...
And on...
And on...
Finally, the room began to brighten with the pale, weak light of dawn. She sighed as she rolled out of bed. Another day, another book. Or several dozen of them. You just never knew.
She was halfway through the Theology section when she noticed a nondescript brown book under her hooves. Using her magic, she levitated it in front of her face, reading the title out loud:
"Black Sun - The Lie Behind Equestria...Hmm, that sounds interesting..."
She cracked open the book to the first page, coughing slightly as a small cloud of dust rolled out, and settled down to read.
Before you begin to read, know that, if you wish to continue living inside of a lie, you are blameless. Close this book now. Never open it again. Forget about it, and keep your tenuous happiness intact.
However, if you refuse to stop, if you seek the truth beyond the veil, keep reading, and know that, for you, life in this world of secrets can never be the same. Even now, you are being watched...
The Illusion Of Sanctity *DO NOT READ YET*
Spike woke up to the sound of crashing and sobbing. He instantly bolted upright and dashed down the stairs of the library as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him. As he reached the bottom, the first thing he saw was a tearful Twilight throwing various objects against various other objects. As she threw the carved horse head that she had carried all the way from Canterlot into a wall, Spike rushed to her and grabbed ahold of her leg.
"Twilight! What are you doing? What happened?"
Twilight grabbed him off with magic and flung him aside, galloping over to her saddlebags and stuffing various important items into them before galloping as fast as she could out the door and off towards the Everfree forest. He stared helplessly after her, confused and scared.
His cheeks bulged and he unexpectedly burped out a letter, sealed with the red ribbon of the Princess. He carefully unrolled it and began to read. Suddenly, he fell back in shock. The contents of the letter were too horrifying for him to comprehend. He grabbed the scroll and ran headlong to where the shadow of Rainbow Dash's cloud house fell to earth, yelling for her as loud as he could. After a minute of prolonged shouting, the sky blue pegasus peered over the edge of the cloud.
"Ugh! What do you WANT, Spike?!"
The baby dragon wordlessly held up the scroll and Rainbow flashed down to earth. As Spike held the letter up, she began to read it, her eyes widening in horror as she spoke the words aloud.
"As of this day, the unicorn Twilight Sparkle is officially adjudged a traitor to the crown for her acts of treason. If any pony in Equestria sees her, she is to be taken on sight. If alive, she is to be brought before the Princess Celestia and Luna for her final words. If she is killed, then the one who killed her will be rewarded with five million bits for services to the crown.
Princess Celestia "
The pegasus stared at the paper for nearly a minute before suddenly breaking down in sobs and clinging to Spike. A flight of royal guards soared above their heads, and as Pinkie Pie bounced out of Sugarcube Corner, she saw her two friends crying in the street and hopped over to read the scroll near them. Suddenly, her hair became completely straight, and she began to sob too, alongside her two despairing friends.
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The monarch of the sun sat stone-faced in front of the remaining five Elements of Harmony, their desperate pleas to lift Twilight's sentence falling on deaf ears. Once they fell silent, she shook her head slowly, with a solemn finality. Their heads dropped, and they walked slowly out of the Solar Court. On their way out, Celestia heard them speak softly. Applejack said the first sentence.
"Y'all have any idea what Twi was doin' before this insanity started?"
One by one, the ponies shrugged, but Spike piped up softly. "When I woke up, Twilight was going crazy, and then she ran away. I noticed a book, closed, cover down, like it was done, but at the moment, it seemed odd to me that she didn't put it back on the shelf. Maybe we should go see the book?"
The ponies nodded in agreement, then the doors shut. Quickly, Celestia called over Shining Armor, Captain of her guard. She quickly spat out the words "Get to that town as quickly as you can by whatever means necessary, and bring me that book before those ponies get to it." Shining nodded and went to round up a squad of guardsponies, and Celestia allowed herself a sly grin.
Everything was falling into place, just as planned.
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Night found Twilight huddled under a huge tree in the Everfree forest, shaking from the cold and wracked with tears. Her mentor, her teacher, her friend, Princess Celestia was none of those things. Reading the truth off of that page was a cold slap in the face, and now she was hunted, a quarry for those who were in the Lie.
The Lie ate at her now. It was her constant companion. The great Lie, a sinister current running under the land. She could hear it, whispering seductively in her ear. She could feel it, scratching at her fur, trying to burrow under her skin. A great spell woven by Celestia as Equestria came into being, a deception as old as time. She viewed Equestria with horror now, seeing not the beauty, none of the happiness, only the Lie. Looking back at the absurdity of it all, she began to giggle weakly. None of it mattered, did it? Rainbow, Pinkie, AJ, they were all in the Lie. They were all against her. She didn't need them. Soon, her giggling grew louder and higher, reaching a fever pitch reserved for those locked in their own nightmares. She didn't need friends. She didn't need a teacher. She didn't need hope.
All she needed was to escape the Lie.
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Underlying this world is a great magical spell called the Lie, created the same time as the world itself. It gives ponies, griffons, etc., a sort of fog, a mist in front of their eyes, ears, nose and mouth, that blinds them to what Equestria truly is. We are no more than the shadow of a cloud, a fleeting mist on a lake. We are not as perfect as the Princesses would have us believe.
The Illusion Of Sanctity *DO NOT READ YET*
Shivering intensely, Twilight continued to half-walk, half-crawl through the dark forest, searching for something, anything, to give her a new meaning after the Lie had crushed her old. Her mind was moving sluggishly and her hooves were having trouble moving. At last, she could take no more, and collapsed on the grassy verge of a path. The world began to fade in front of her bleary eyes, and the last thing she saw before falling into blissful darkness was a black-and-white striped foreleg.
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The library was just as Spike had left it, not a splinter out of place. A brown book was lying far down on the floor in the exact center of the room when the quintet of ponies walked, trotted, blasted, fluttered and slouched into the giant tree. Spike trailed after them, puffing and wheezing from the run across town. As he entered, the ponies parted around him like some sort of colorful Red Sea, and he pointed silently at the book. Rainbow Dash quickly scooped it up and began to open it when Pinkie spoke up.
"I don't think we should read that."
Everypony (and dragon) turned to her in confusion. It was Rarity that spoke next.
"Why ever not, darling? It could tell us where Twilight's gone!"
Pinkie's straight mane curled around her head as she shook it vigorously. "Don't you get it? Whatever Twilight read in that book was enough to make her leave her home, her friends and even her baby dragon. Do you really want to chance reading that?"
The room was silent for a few seconds, until the most unexpected of ponies piped up. "I think we should go see Zecora," said Fluttershy, "She'll know what to do."
Everypony else looked at her, then each other, then nodded. Rainbow took off into the air, nearly knocking the door off of its hinges as she shot through it. She was followed by the rest of the ponies. To make better time, Spike rode on Applejack, hanging on fr dear life as the cowpony charged forwards, toward the forest of Everfree.
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The intense darkness in the subterranean room was suddenly lit up by a flare of sunlight, illuminating the forms of two alicorns as they talked in hushed tones. The larger one, bright white with a shifting, pastel mane, began to speak.
"I just don't understand. How could she have found a copy of that book? I personally burned every copy in Equestria! How could one end up in a dump like Ponyville?"
The smaller once was deep blue, with a shifting midnight mane covered with the white pinpoints of countless stars. "The Ponyville library may have received one of the few that were shipped out to the Griffon Kingdom, or maybe Saddle Arabia. But that matters not, sister. Now that one of the ponies has learned of the Lie, it is only a matter of time before the rest grow suspicious. All of the ways we have used to make the lesser ponies complacent may be made undone. We must find and annihilate your former student before she spreads the knowledge. Let us hope Shining Armor retrieves the book...and let us hope he does not read it."
Celestia nodded her agreement and conjured the exit to the subterranean room with a flash of sun-colored magic, opening the doorway and stepping through. Luna exited after her, and banished the doorway with her own dark blue magic. They emerged into a hidden room, jutting off of the Solar Court. As they slid unobtrusively into the main chamber, a squadron of guards limped into the room. They kneeled tiredly before the two Princesses. Celestia stepped forward to the leader.
"How goes the search, Lieutenant?"
The white pegasus at the front of the group rose, his voice tired and gravelly. "Oh, we found her all right. She's hiding in the Everfree forest. We tried to take her, but she's got too much magic. She shot down four of us before we could do anything, and The rest of us barely escaped."
Celestia's eyebrows went up at that. To her knowledge, Twilight had never hurt another living creature unless absolutely necessary. The Lie was rolling back far more quickly than she had anticipated. If the unicorn wasn't stopped soon, she could put everything at risk. She nodded her head at the lieutenant, dismissing him. He nodded in return and left the court.
As soon as he was gone, a mint-green unicorn slid out silently from behind a pillar, cloaked in a darker green. She spoke in a quiet, sibilant voice, "The Elements of Harmony have retrieved the book. However, they have not read it, worrying about hot it may do to them. Instead, they have taken it to the zebra Zecora, in the Everfree forest, to figure out what has happened to their friend. " She spoke the last word scornfully, as if disgusted with it.
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Twilight's eyes slowly lolled open, taking in their surroundings. The inside of a large tree, lit by candles and a large fire in the center, underneath a metal cauldron full of an unidentifiable green liquid. As she watched, a hoof came into her field of view, placing a small gourd of the green liquid in front of her, and she heard a familiar voice, speaking in rhyme.
"Drink this potion up, Twilight,
And soon you'll be quite alright."
The unicorn coughed and sat up, using her magic to pick up the gourd, swishing the liquid inside. She tipped back her head and sipped the contents of the gourd away. It had a bitter, but not unpleasant, flavor, and something about it felt wholesome. She spoke, her voice raspy and dry, "How long have I been here, Zecora?"
The zebra came and took the empty gourd, replacing it on a shelf with several others, then turnd back to the unicorn.
"By my count, Twilight dear,
It's been three days since I brought you here."
Twilight lay down again, thinking. Three days...she had learned the Lie almost a week ago. That suddenly made her think about something.
"Zecora? Do you see the-"
She was cut off as the door burst open and five ponies (and a dragon) raced in. The orange-and-yellow one with the freckle yelled out, "Zecora! Twi ran off and we cain't find her anywhere! She..."
She trailed off as she saw the purple unicorn lying on a pile of soft fabrics on the floor, her eyes bloodshot and wide with fear as she stared at the group of ponies. Rainbow blasted forward to embrace her, only to be grabbed by magenta magic and thrown to the floor. For the first time, she noticed the look of terror in her friend's eyes, her delighted grin changed to a frown.
"Twilight?"
Zecora interceded, stepping between the pegasus and the unicorn, shaking her head sadly.
"Your friend, I fear, has seen the truth.
This goes far beyond fixing a chipped tooth.
Please, your advancement stop,
Or everypony in this room she'll drop!"
Making sure to stay still, Applejack turned to Zecora curiously. "What do you mean, 'seen the truth'? Does it have something to do with this book?"
She removed the book from her hat and showed it to Zecora, who merely nodded and took it.
"My friends, do not read this book,
Or just like Twilight you will look.
Forget about her, return to your lives,
Do not lie upon this bed of knives."
Applejack, forgetting Zecora's warning, stepped forward aggressively, pawing the ground with her hoof, growling softly. "Look, Zecora, I don't care WHAT you're sayin'. Twi's my FRIEND, y'hear? And the Apple Family NEVER leaves their friends in the lurch!" She turned to Twilight, asking her directly, "Twilight, do you want us to read this book?"
Twilight nodded aggressively, while Zecora produced her stick from what seemed like thin air.
"I will not let you tread this path.
Go now, or face my wrath!"
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The Lie is easiest to see in the city of Canterlot. Simply go up to one of the many tea shops, sneak behind the counter, and attempt to touch all the different kinds of tea. You will realize that the tea simply is not there. Those that are able to touch it are an illusion as well, simply part of the Lie. Rarely, some are born seeing the Lie for what it truly is. This is most common among the race of zebras, since their race is adept at seeing through magic. Once you begin to see, you will continue seeing. You cannot choose.
The Illusion Of Sanctity *DO NOT READ YET*
Dawn fell on Zecora's hut, revealing a scene with shattered windows, broken keepsakes, and a single orange pony left standing, holding a small, leatherbound book. She was covered in bruises and minor contusions, had a lump the size of an egg on her forehead, and one of her eyes was swollen shut completely. Her breathing was heavy, and she kept her weight off of her back left hoof.
"Ah did it, Twi. Ah got the book. Now, let's see if this is really as bad as everypony says."
She opened the book and began to read, occasionally mouthing a word or two, her eyes shifting, following the text. Night crept upon them, and yet she still read, her forehead beaded in sweat, her eyes wide and worried. The sun rose once again, and as she finished the last page and closed the book, she understood. She understood why Twilight had run. She slowly sat down, dropping the book, and began to cry. Next to her Zecora groaned weekly as she began to regain consciousness. The only sign of wakefulness from the ponies was a few fluttering wings and eyelashes rolling up to reveal glazed, sleeping eyes. Applejack quietly creft over and sat beside Twilight, tears still streaming down her face, her eyes seeing the ultimate truth.
Zecora moaned again, her eyes slowly opening. In time, she sat up, and saw the book, lying on the ground half open where Applejack had dropped it. Her gaze roved around the hut, and she saw the pony, lying next to Twilight, tear stains on her face, sleeping soundly. She shook her head sadly.
"Silly pony, I told you so.
Once you wake, you two must go.
I cannot help you anymore,
Your friends must not know this horror."
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Rainbow Dash woke up, her head swimming from a blow with Zecora's stick, and looked around. One, two, three, four, five-she pointed at herself-and six. Where was AJ? Where was Twilight? And where was Zecora?
BAM
BAM
BAM
She whipped around as the door wast knocked in by an unknown shod hoof, just seconds before a gruff voice called out, "Twilight Sparkle! We know you're in there!"
Unable to speak, Rainbow simply watched in mute horror as the voice got louder and the knocking more pronounced, until finally, the pony outside simply kicked the door in. A squadron of the Elite Guard burst into the hut, quickly surrounding the one conscious pony.
The pony who appeared to be the leader threw his spear to the ground, yelling. "Damn! We almost had her! She must have just left!" For the first time, he appeared to notice who was in the hut and looked at the quintet of mares. "Hey, aren't you the Elements of Harmony? Where's the orange one?
Finally, Dash's tongue could move enough to frame a word. "Gone," she said thickly, "dunno where."
The white stallion threw his helmet to the ground, sighing. "Well, you girls-oh, and the dragon-will have to come with me once you all recover. Don't worry, we won't hurt you. The Princess will probably just ask you a few questions."
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In the Solar Court, Celestial sat on her throne, musing. The chief question in her mind at the moment was where Shining Armor had gone. She hadn't heard anything from him since she dispatched him to retrieve the book. As she was turning this quandary over in her head, the door suddenly opened, letting in a group of guards and four of the Elements of Harmony (and a dragon). She slid gracefully onto her hooves, stepping down from the ornate chair.
"What news, Second Lieutenant?"
The pony in charge shook his head. "We have evidence that she were indeed with Zecora, your Highness, but she managed to elude us, as did the zebra herself. These five were there as well."
Celestia frowned. "What of Applejack? Where is the Element of Honesty?"
The guard shook his head. "We don't know, Princess. We presume she escaped with the others. There was a book on the floor, however. Is this of any importance?
Celestia twitched. "Do you have this book?" The guard nodded and produced a book from his saddlebags. She took it with her magic and floated it over to her, looking carefully through it. On the last page she found what she was looking for: a long, thin thread of bright yellow mane fur, obviously coming from Applejack. She nodded to herself and, with a pulse of magic from her horn, quickly incinerated the book, burning it to ashes. Then she stepped up to the four brightly-colored mares (and the dragon), giving them a smile. "So, girls, please tell me what happened."
Spike grumbled softly.
Rainbow Dash stepped forward, hesitating ever so slightly, then more confidently,and began speaking.
"Spike says Twiliight was reading like she always does a few days ago, until he woke up and found her crying and throwing things. When he tried to talk to her, she ran off into the Everfree forest and didn't come back. After we tried to stop you from making Twilight a traitor, we went back to the library and found the book. Pinkie told us. We shouldn't read it, so we took it to Zecora's instead. We found Twi there and started fighting with Zecora over the book. She knocked us out and when I woke up, guards were banging on the door."
Celestial nodded slowly, digesting the schedule of events, then began to think of ways she could turn it to her advantage. She forced back a malevolent grin that was trying to push itself onto her face and dismissed the guards, leaving herself alone with the four mares (and a dragon). She began to speak again, this time in a soothing, almost mesmerizing voice.
"You five have certainly been through a lot, haven't you? You look like you could use a nice long sleep..."
As she spoke, the ponies eyelids began to sag ever so slightly. Spike looked around in confusion as the princess continued. "Just go to sleep...sweet dreams, my little ponies...aren't you feeling so sleepy right now?" Rarity's eyes finally slid shut, and she collapsed in sleep, shortly followed by Pinkie and Fluttershy. Rainbow's eyes, however, continued to flutter at half-mast and Celestia frowned in annoyance as Spike slapped her, snapping her out of it. The pegasus' head snapped up and she looked around wildly. "Wha...? What just happened?"
Celestia stepped towards them menacingly, her eyes narrowed. They flicked over to Spike. So, dragons were immune to hypnotism...She needed to ensnare Rainbow again before they could escape. But as she began speaking, the dragon yelled at the top of his lungs to the pony, "RUN!"
Rainbow grabbed up Spike and blasted off of her hooves, the wind drowning out Celestia's voice as she smashed through the stained-glass window of Celestia and Luna, a rainbow trailing behind her as she carried the baby dragon away. Celestial glared at her rapidly receding form for a few more seconds before trotting over to the sleeping forms of the other three ponies she spoke softly, "When you wake up, your bodies will be under my control, but your minds will still be your own. You will be forced to end your friends' lives with your on hooves. Do you understand?
Their sleeping forms nodded dreamily. She clopped her hooves together and yelled, "Wake up!"
They jolted awake, their bodies responding not to themselves, but to her. As Rarity's hooves went out from under her, she looked up at the princess, confused and disoriented.
Celestia finally allowed her malevolent grin to show through as she said one sentence that filled them with horror.
"Now, my puppets, you are going too kill Twilight Sparkle."
As they turned around and began to walk towards the door, they couldn't even cry.
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The true Equestria looks much the same as the Lie, and yet, ever so different. Some things that were there are not. Some things that were never there are revealed. And through it all, you see the undercurrent of hatred running. Ponies are not friends. They are the bitterest of enemies, and the two Princesses rule them with the iron hooves of a tyrant. There are other, more subtle, differences. A broken house here, a mountain there, all of them never there in the world of the Lie.
The Illusion Of Sanctity *DO NOT READ YET*
A unicorn slid silently in between the trees of the dark forest, her violet mane shrouded in a black cloak. Her white coat was streaked in mud and sweat, and her normally impeccably kept hooves were caked with dirt, grime and leaves. She continued forwards doggedly, her body moving with a will all its own. Nearby, a similarly cloaked figure was moving with the same eerie silence, her pink mane bereft of its usual puffiness. Finally, above them flew a third cloaked figure, though it was cloaked instead in grey and blue, the better to hide against the sky. They gradually grew closer, converging upon a single point. The hut was still in a state of chaos, and three pairs of hoofprints were clearly visible, leading off into the trail-less Everfree.
The trio of ponies, without any sort of communication, began walking at the same time, quickly increasing their pace into a gallop, following the prints in the mud as it started to pour, fat drops of water falling from the sky. The white unicorn, unable to stand the strain on her mind any longer, plunged into the blackness of oblivion as her body continued, its eyes glazing over as it continued inexorably toward its final goal.
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At the moment, its final goal was, in fact, the two ponies and one zebra who currently sat, staring into the flickering light of a small fire. The cave roof they were sheltering under acted as a sort of funnel, continually drawing the smoke up, until it slid out of the entrance and dispersed into the sky. One of the ponies, a purple unicorn mare, was asleep, the days she spent in the forest, half-witted and dying of thirst, taking their toll as she continued to sleep like a stone. The other pony was awake, and the orange mare was conversing with the zebra in worried tones.
"So, Zecora, you're tellin' me that this is the real Equestria, and everything else we've been seeing is just one of them fancy magic tricks? I guess it's gotta be true...I mean, i can see it with my own two eyes."
Zecora nodded, then nodded again, all the while talking in her rhyming way.
"It has always been this way,
Since the start of Celestia's day.
You can see the pain running through our land
and are yet unable to take a stand...
The alicorn sisters,
they speak in whispers
of things no creature should have to hear.
Beware, for there is much to fear."
Applejack mulled the words over in her head, storing them away like a barrel of cider, then yawned.
"Well, ahm gonna hit the hay. It's been one heck of a day, and I think we all need a good sleep.
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Rainbow Dash spun, bucking the stallion in the chin with as much force as she could muster, knocking him off his hooves. Spike nearly went flying off her back, but caught hold of her mane just in time, jerking her head painfully to the side as yet more guards closed in. They were surrounded on all sides, pegasi holding them down with the threat of spears so Rainbow couldn't take off. She began to slow down, despair weighing heavily upon her. She grabbed Spike off her back, held him in her hooves, gave him a weak, half-hearted grin and threw him as hard as she could. Then she quietly drew herself up, waiting for the inevitable.
The despair suddenly began to weigh less.
She could feel it flowing out, the space it occupied being filled by something else, something...different. A light feeling, that made her feel as though she were flying while her hooves were still rooted to the earth. She struggled for some seconds to recall what the feeling was called as the Canterlot guards closed in on her, when it made itself clear in her mind. The feeling was the feeling of freedom. Then once again it changed, turning into a feeling of white-hot power, a feeling of distilled rage, mingled with bliss, and rolled into a bundle with hope, hatred and sadness. An entirely new feeling, implacable, unnameable, and filling her with energy. She began to feel as though she would turn to ash, and yet the feeling continued to rise. Her eyes shut. She could take no more.
At that moment, a word sprang unbidden into her mind, racing up her throat and out of her mouth as she shook from the strain of the energy.
"SPECTRA!"
The feeling rushed out as quickly as it had came, condensing into shafts of rainbow light around her, pulling them forward, condensing them into a ball of every color which suspended in front of her. Not knowing why she did it, she stepped forward and punched the orb with all her strength. it cracked, and suddenly a blast of light, not dissimilar to a sonic rainboom in appearance, burst forth from the light, the ball flying into a million shards as a dome of pure rainbow power expanded around her, blasting the guards, simply vaporizing them where they stood.
As the smoke cleared, Rainbow Dash looked around, seeing only empty armor and discarded weapons. She looked to the sky, rubbing her eyes as it began to flicker, and the mountains around her began to swim. The pegasus staggered, tottered and finally pitched forward, her consciousness fading like a candle flame.
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"Hey, Bonbon! I'll be in Manehattan for a few days. There's a new harp that I'm going to buy!"
"Alright, Lyra! I'll see you then!"
As the green unicorn walked out the door, she nonchalantly slipped a dark green cloak into her saddlebags, making sure it was properly hidden. She had no wish for others to learn of her "night job". She set out at a brisk trot for the Everfree, making for the path near Fluttershy's cottage, which was suddenly and inexplicably vacant. The animals were being fed by a new pony in town, a unicorn filly a little older than Applebloom, named Larksong. Her cutie mark was a songbird, and she could charm animals, other ponies, even trees, into helping and obeying her by singing to them. She was a definite cause for worry for Lyra. She often stared suspiciously, sometimes snooping about for rumors. Lyra didn't get where she was from being careless. It was possible that the filly could be a Lokisian, thought the mare, and stayed well clear of the cottage as she trotted into the dark forest.
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The Princess of the Night sighed as the moon slipped over the horizon, ushering in the dawn. She retired to her chambers in the castle, casting three Lunar-magical locks upon the door to ensure she was undisturbed. When she was sure she was alone, she sank down upon her bed, sighing heavily. Though the goal was of utmost importance, her sister's tactics worried her. Mind control spells were of the highest level of forbidden magics, and the cruel freedom of mind she had left with her subjects was most unlike Tia. For the first time since Equestria's inception, Luna began to doubt.
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Among the creatures of this world, some are born with the innate ability to see through the Lie from the day they are born. Named after the ancient Horse god of tricks and lies, they are known as Lokisians. They present the greatest threat to the Princess' rule, as they know all of their deceits related to Equestria, and due to their exposure to the magic, can sense where magic has tampered with the world. Unicorns are the most common Lokisians among ponies, due to the magical nature of the affliction
