Verso gritted our teeth and closed our eyes, having a much harder time concentrating as the basilisk went in for a bone-crushing hug. As nice as it was, I had the feeling it wasn't really interested in becoming friends. Giant snakes that can petrify people by glancing at them rarely are, I think. Especially when they're hungry.

"Son of a bitch!" Verso cried.
"Eek! I'm being squished!" Lyra called, distressed.

Verso didn't reply and kept concentrating instead, even though I didn't understand why since the grabby-grabby-snaky -I've just thought about it and I'm keeping this name!- was seemingly immune to magic. Then, the GGS hissed loudly and released us, making us fall to the ground. Sadly, Verso didn't quite catch us steadily, so we mostly crashed into the ground, but at least, we weren't held as tightly as before.

"I hate everything..." Verso muttered while we were face to the ground.
"Eek! I'm being squished!" Lyra called, distressed.

Verso grunted and rolled on our back, careful not to crush her any further. Basil the Grabby Snake was still writhing around, sometimes whipping the ground with his body, which looked at least half as dangerous as it was funny. But mostly, it was confusing.

What's happening? Why is it jumping around?
Probably because I stabbed him in multiple places with sharp rocks. Verso laconically answered. Fucking scaled bastard...
"What's happening? Why is it jumping around?" Lyra asked when she finally got out of our pocket and looked at the bouncing snake.
Skies... This is exactly why I hate being on the front... Verso internally groaned. "Stuff."

Lyra blinked and Verso grunted as he sat up, carefully glancing at the big bouncy basilisk, that I finally realised was throwing red stuff all around the place. More importantly, wherever the red liquid landed, it immediately started to smoke and hiss, sounding a bit like bubbling soda.

"Oh, great, even its blood is acid," Verso grumbled as usual. "How in hell did nature allow such a thing to exist in the first place is beyond me." He emitted a small sense field inside us to check on injuries while Lyra fluttered in front of us.
"No, seriously, what happened to the basilisk?"
"Sticks and spells won't break its scales, but rocks have done it for me," he replied without even glancing at her. He then pointed at half-crushed stone spikes that were just under the basilisk. "I just basically stabbed it until it let us go."
"Uh. Well, it worked. What are we doing now?"
"Wait a sec. Still have to get rid of the fucker after all."

He focused a bit and a few more rock spikes grew out of the ground, making Basil hiss even louder. He then looked around and uprooted a rather big tree, broke off its branches to leave only the trunk, magically sharpened one end until he ended up with a giant stake. He blinked, shifted his stare between the big stake and the basilisk a few times and finally mentally cursed.

Recto, I'm sorry, but I have to ask you to go to sleep once again. Same reason as before.
Aw... But I wanna see you stab the snake! Just like in the book!
He blinked again, honestly surprised.Stabbing and hurting things is not a good action, Recto, even when it's a monster. You shouldn't even think about it, and it's definitely not something to enjoy.
But... But it's a meanie!
That isn't an excuse to want it to be hurt, Recto. I'm a bit disappointed.

I felt really, really bad when he told me that. I quietly went sleeping without another word, sniffing.

Skies, there are no words to describe how much I hate myself for even thinking these words. These were maybe the most hypocritical words I have ever uttered, and I nearly brought Recto to tears. I know he is unable to comprehend the concept of pain without crashing down, but skies are these sort of rogue thoughts creepy when they come by. And dangerous too. The main reason that I try to keep him away from the violence we inevitably come by, seeing how I'm destiny's bitch, is of course to prevent him to be hurt himself. But the second one is a bit creepier : he literally has no idea that he can hurt someone else. He could literally torture someone and never even realize it. Until he does, and I don't want to find out what would happen to his mind if he ever realized it. So guilt-tripping him may possibly make me feel like shit, but it's way, way better than letting him stay completely ignorant about it.

Anyway, enough with the self-loathing and justifying myself. You want the story, don't you? Right. So, after I cursed myself for a few seconds, I decided to end it quickly and kill the deadly snake-king. It would probably have been interesting to see how his stare-killing ability worked, but it was a lot too dangerous to freely experiment on while I was in a forest. So I just stabbed it through the heart and got up, cringing at the sensation. We had no serious injuries, miraculously, but I could already feel the bruises forming. By the sky, I was going to find some sort of healing spell as soon as I could.

I started walking down the road, leaving the giant corpse behind me. Of course, that annoying bug still followed me, even though I could understand why she wouldn't want to be left alone in the forest. I had told Twilight that this place sounded like a normal forest to me, but I really didn't take the monsters into account. Shit, I clearly hoped that there weren't anymore of 'magic resilient' creatures like that.

Seeing as we would probably encounter other animals on our way to the castle, I decided to stay alone at the commands for a little while. Which, sadly, meant that I had to bear Thingy's presence.

"Wow, you really killed a basilisk all by yourself!"
"Yeah, I-"
"You totally nailed it!"

I groaned. Here it began.

"Please, don't. I promised Recto no harm would come to you, so I can't realistically threaten to collapse your trachea if you continue with these horrible, horrible puns." She grinned wildly and opened her mouth, probably to make use of the opportunity, but I beat her to the punch. "However, I can still knock you unconscious and just carry you to our destination." She closed her mouth, lightly glaring at me and staying silent.

For a whooping three minutes. Which was honestly more than I had expected.

"So what do humans do when they're bored?" she finally asked.
I sighed. "Depends who you ask, I suppose. Recto tends to make his own fun. I tend to choke annoying people to death."
"Really? What sort of games do you play?"
Is that really all she kept form my answer? "I don't really know. He finds nearly everything amazing and is distracted by pretty much anything. We saw a butterfly a few days ago and he decided to follow it around the town. For two hours. Then, he saw something shiny and started playing with the sun's reflections in windows until Twilight came by and gave me a real reason for interrupting this nonsense."
She giggled. "Sounds like a child."
"I guess it fits."
"But you've got to have hobbies too. You won't make me believe you spend all your time doing nothing."
"I don't. I spend all my time making sure Recto doesn't get hurt."
"Oh. So you're like a mom to him?" she asked with a shit-eating grin.

The darkest glare I had ever given to anyone since we had arrived in Equestria made sure to get rid of that.

"Leave your parent jokes out of the way if you value you life, changeling," I coldly warned her.
She gulped and nodded energetically. I resumed my road watching, doing my best not to pay her any attention. Of course, she continued asking questions. "You didn't answer me. What do you do for fun, mister Verso?"
I sighed. "I used to forment plans to escape from our imprisonment. Now, I experiment with magic, to find other ways to protect us and to dissuade others from attempting to attack us."
"That's not fun."
"Too bad."

She stayed mostly silent for a moment, probably just to think about other annoying questions to ask. And skies, do I hate smalltalk. It was either irrelevant for the story or about some answers I've already given to others, like what I eat and this sort of shit, so I'll just skip that part. Thankfully, we didn't encounter any other critter on our way there. I assume that the basilisk's scent that was certainly still on us was in for something about it, but it's not like I could really check this theory.

Either way, we arrived at the ruins mostly unharmed and just in time before I gave up on civility and forcefully collapsed Thingy's lungs to relieve my hears. It was thankfully still rather early in the night, so we would still have time before us to do whatever we wanted. Not so thankfully, from the very moment I had crossed the bridge that allowed us to access the castle's remnants, I immediately started to feel a now all-too-familiar headache, the same one that I usually feel whenever we're in that dreaded crystal palace.

I hate this place. Its architecture is an abomination of both physics and taste. It seriously looks like it had been made to fit the tastes of a five year old.

Back on track. I sat down and made Thingy guard the surrounding area as I deployed my city-scan spell to make sure no dangerous creature except me was around. And sure enough, I immediately picked all kinds of weird signals : from blank spaces to rooms so full with energy that it was probably dangerous to even enter them, not to mention numerous traps and hidden chambers, the castle was just like I imagined the ruins of a civilisation that relied on magic from day to day.

Of course, my three hundred and sixty degree wide scan revealed an immense cave full of pure magic a few dozen meters under the castle itself, but I wasn't feeling concerned by it just yet. I was in here for two reasons, but neither of them included the exploration of potentially deadly areas. At the very least, I knew where I would have to forbid Recto from going when he would roam free in this place.

I took a moment to decide on my plan of action. I was here first to find about forgotten, or even better, hidden historic or personal records that would have been left here and give me informations about the maybe darker sides of Celestia's and Luna's reign. I didn't honestly expect much, but there was no way a couple of thousand-year old leaders wouldn't have a bunch of skeletons in their closets.

My secondary goal was to find out more about Luna's corruption into Nightmare Moon. Some comments that Twilight and Luna said about the shadow of the things lurking behind the Door had picked up my curiosity. As horrifying as the thought was, they were both obviously at least partly familiar with them. Plus, the entire place simply reeked of the paranoid feelings they tend to leave where they manifest. The correlation between what little I knew about Luna's corruption and this feeling was more than enough to confirm there was at least a little link, as I suspected. Exploring this place and discovering more about this whole affair may help me find a way to deal with them for good, and save us both from the Kay and the Whispers.

I quickly found out a few places within the ruins that looked like they could maybe be a bit more personal to our dear pony overlords. They were all either trapped or hidden, which could only be indicators that they held precious informations. I mused that Recto would probably love them.

Speaking of Recto, it was high time that I let him wake up. So, when I stood up, decided, I went and forced him awake again.

I joined back the conscient world in front of a set of huge wooden doors, with Lyra talking about something I didn't quite catch. Verso was still in control, though, and I felt that he wanted it to stay that way for a little while. I figured he would spend it looking for boring books like maths or something. Way to waste someone's time. At least, the scenery was beautiful, if somewhat creepy. Beyond the door, I could see black spiders with blue stars on their back moving around, as well quite a lot of cobwebs in the upper corners. But the floor and walls seemed to be mostly clean, so that's nice.

Welcome back to the world of the living, Recto. Slept well?
Yeah! So, I guess we arrived, huh? The castle looks a bit freaky. I wonder if there are ghosts in here...
Who knows... he ominously answered. Anyway, I'd like to start by looking for the books I brought us here for in the first place. You'll have plenty of time to explore later, I just want to get it over with. Is that okay with you?
I mentally nodded, still inspecting what little we saw through our eyes. Is that going to take long?
Shouldn't. I'll just give them a good look and read them by memory later. I'd say I'll need an hour top.
Perfect! Then, Lyra and I will be able to play around!
If that's what you want to do, yes. He glanced at Lyra and entered the castle. "Here we go, changeling. Watch where you walk, I sensed a few annoying traps around the place."
"Traps?"
It sound super-fun! You know where they are?
I'll guide you to the less dangerous ones if you want. Now, first stop : the old royal library.

He walked us right into a big room that looked so, so much bigger than miss Twilight's own library. I would have stopped and gazed at the sheer amount of old tomes that rested on the old shelves, but Verso immediately went to scan the titles. Of course, it took him only a few seconds to realize that none of them had their title printed on the side, and he hissed in frustration as he levitated a few of them in front of us to screen the front cover. He opened a few of them that the title indicated to be magic related, and closed them nearly immediately, frustrated when he saw all the complicated words inside. He kept most tomes that talked about history, which was nice, and more than a few about legends and old tales, which was definitely nice.

He wandered around the library, looking for books that interested him, for a solid twenty minutes. When he was finished, he simply looked quickly at every page of the dusty books and put them back where he found them. When this was over, he moved a random chair and a portion of a wall moved out of the way, granting us access to a hidden room that was filled with bookcases and a few cushions. Strangely enough, in the very middle of this hidden room was an empty pedestal that looked like it had been occupied until recently.

Well, it was empty. Not much we can do about it. Still, Verso looked around for other books while Lyra was just gaping and asking questions that Verso didn't even listen to. It took Verso a few minutes to find books he deemed interesting and pry through their pages. After he had put the books back to their places, he kept looking around for a handful of minutes before he hissed in frustration and decided to leave this place behind. We exited the library and headed toward another place within the old castle.

Next, we entered a room with a rather light color scheme and the remnants of what had certainly been a huge bed. There Verso stumbled upon a few other interesting books, but looked around as if he was searching for something in particular again. A big book on another pedestal somehow didn't interest him at all, but Lyra surely was.

"Hey, what's this one?" she asked, her horn lighting up.
"Which... Don't-!" Verso exclaimed when he realized that Lyra was about to grab the large tome.

Sadly, it was to late and Lyra removed it from its pedestal. Immediately, something clicked and the door closed itself. We heard something buzz and the walls started to lightly shine. Verso glared at Lyra, who blushed and looked sheepishly back at him.

"It's a trap," she said matter-of-factly.
"Thanks, Sherlock," Verso replied, annoyed. "But I suppose I should have told you not to touch the big book that had 'My Little Diary' written on the cover and laid in plain sight of anyone that enters the room. I mean, it sure doesn't look like it's a bait or anything."
"Hey, I couldn't read the title from where I am. The damn thing was too high, as if this room had been made for a giant pony or something."
"Oh, it probably was. We're obviously in Celestia's old bedroom."
Lyra blinked. "We're where now?"
"This is probably Princess Celestia's old room from before whatever forced her to leave this place to the Everfree forest. I wonder what event could possibly force them to leave in such a hurry that they left the books behind and never came back..."
"I'm holding Princess Celestia's diary?!"
"No, it's obviously a fake one," he said as he levitated the book to us.

He opened it to a random page and ended on a nearly blank page that read: 'Luna, I told you to stop reading my diary. Have fun escaping this place. If you break anything, I'm going to be really, really angry.' Verso shrugged and threw the mostly useless book on the bed to inspect the door.

"Hey, Thingy, try opening the door."
"What? Why me?"
"Because you trapped us in here, so you get the magical jolt you deserve if there is some sort of more painful trap in here."
"But-"
"No 'buts'. Open the door, changeling."
Hehe, you said-
Please, don't.

Lyra grumbled something that didn't sound nice at all and tried to push the door open with her hoof, meeting little success. She didn't meet more success when she tried to use magic on it, but at least she wasn't hurt in the doing. When she proved to be unable to do anything, Verso tried too and failed in the same way. He sighed and deployed his sense field, feeling the spell that was keeping us imprisoned.

"Looks like some sort of force field. I'll try to break that quickly. There are some components that I don't understand perfectly though... I think we may have sent Celestia a warning message that we broke into her room or something."
"We WHAT?!"

Verso of course didn't reply and put a hand against the wall. The same yellow tendrils he usually uses to destroy shields spread rapidly across the wall and vibrated. Two seconds the later, we heard some sort of glassy noise breaking and the shield disappeared.

And the wall fell down with it.

Verso blinked while Lyra mostly stayed motionless, her jaw hanging low.

"Huh. Well, that's done. Good thing that it wasn't a loadbearing wall or anything. That would have been embarrassing." He shrugged, as if it wasn't a problem at all. "Well then, let's go. I have one last room to check before I let Recto free in here."
"You... You destroyed Princess Celestia's bedroom's wall..."
"Sure did. Are you coming with me or should I let you wait here all alone?"

Her ears shot down and Lyra suddenly looked a bit scared. She gulped and trotted after us, quickly reaching us. A few minutes later, we arrived in front of a set of black doors, at the end of dark blue and silver corridor. Verso pushed them open without hesitation and let ourselves inside another bedroom, that respected the same color scheme as the corridor did. A few paintings here and there had been mostly eaten up by time and neglect, but some tapestries were still mostly intact and displayed constellations in the night sky. A part of the ceiling collapsed and crushed a wooden table or something underneath. Thankfully, there was still a bookcase filled to the brim next to another door on the other side of the room.

When he saw the door, Verso narrowed our eyes, mildly surprised. He casted his sense field again and narrowed our eyes further. He cautiously walked up to the bookcase and glanced a the covers. He opened a few ones and started feeling more confused each time. That was weird. He decided to levitate them all out of the bookcase and opened them all, getting confused and worried at the same time.

"What the fuck does it mean? I can't read any of them!"
That's a bother.
"Really? They seem pretty normal to me," Lyra noted. "Well, they're all horn-written, but it's pretty lisible."
"What are they talking about?"
Lyra squinted her eyes. "I... I think some of them are about some kind of magic, but that's pretty high level and I can't really understand it all. Others are about constellations and their... creations? There's also a bunch of them that are talking about dreams and dream walking... Verso, where are we again?"
"I think it's pretty obvious that we're currently in Luna's old personal room."
"W-What?" Lyra crawled back. "We shouldn't be here!"
"No, we shouldn't be allowed to be here," Verso said, dropping the books and turning to the door. "That shouldn't be here. I can't pick it or anything behind it with my sense field."
That's weird, because I'm pretty sure it is in front of us. Are you sure your field isn't being jammed again?
That could be a possibility. That or someone really doesn't want it to be found.
"What are you talking about? There only a wall there!" Thingy said.
She can't see the door? That's weird.
"No deformation of the light spectrum nor any trace of magic that I can feel. It's almost as if it wouldn't exist if we couldn't see it."

Verso walked up to it and inspected it from a closer viewpoint. It really looked like a normal door to me. A nice, black, perfectly conserved thousand year-old wooden door. Nothing suspicious about it. Nope, not a thing. Verso concentrated, getting ready to face anything that would come at us, and grabbed the handle. It was unusually cold. Verso continued nonetheless and brought the handle down.

I'm not really about what happened next. Heck, neither of us really are. The last thing I remember is that the door opened itself faster than we could anticipate and powerfully collided with our head, near instantly knocking us out.

I don't really like doors anymore.

When I opened the door and it hit me in the fucking face, our body shut down. I was sent back to the horrid antechamber, the lightning storm outside slowly picking up in power since Discord intervention a while ago. At this rate, it wouldn't have been too long before the other bastard would start talking again. More importantly at the moment, though, I couldn't force myself awake.

I've been knocked out quite a few time while we were younger, on Earth, but I could always wake up near instantly after that, even though it usually came with a hellish headache. But I had absolutely no idea about what was going on in the conscious world. As far as I knew, some sort of monster could have crawled out of the door and start devouring Thingy while I was out here sleeping. Of course, it's not like I really cared about that part, but it could also attack me, and that was a big nono in my book.

I went up next to the bed while I was doing my best to do a full-body checkup and figure out what was going wrong. Recto looked like he was fine, if also unconscious himself. I don't really know what to do, having never been unable to wake myself up before. Maybe Luna put up some sort of forced-sleep spell on the door to ward-off intruders? Either way, I had no actual way of doing anything, so I just waited, worried and actually a bit scared.

Roughly ten minutes later, I felt my connection to our body strengthen enough to wake up again. Of course, I immediately did and was assaulted by one heck of a headache, as always. I couldn't talk just yet, but my connection to the rest of my body was slowly powering up, so I knew it would only have been a problem for a handful of seconds.

"Oh, Hive, please wake up!" I heard Thingy plead. "You can't die on me, guy. I'd get in so many trouble..."
Well it's always nice to know someone cares about me... I mentally groaned, rolling my eyes.

I regained control of the rest of my body and immediately coughed by reflex. Problem was, something was right above me, so I headbutted it in the process, making my already unwanted headache all the more insufferable. And I quickly knew what stupid thing I had just hit too.

"Ouch!" Thingy cried. "He headbutted me? Can human corpses headbutt people?"
"Sky, you're stupid..." I groaned, pressing my hands over my head. It felt like my brain was bouncing around inside a crushed-glass-covered case. Not exactly a nice feeling.
"You're alive!" she cried out, jumping over me to strangle me with her forelegs.

She was doing a bit of a crappy job at it, by the way, only encasing my shoulders and torso and leaving my head and neck free as if... Oh. I guess she was just hugging me then. Well, picture me apologetic, because I didn't really realize it back then. My head was killing me and I was probably a bit oxygen deprived at the time, so I wasn't exactly thinking straight. Either way, I pushed her away from me and rolled away from her. I quickly sat up, my balance still a bit off, but I could at least see correctly the threat.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" I growled, flinching at the painful sensation of talking.
"Well, I'm so relieved to know that you're alright... That door thing attacked you and you weren't moving anymore! I was so worried! Are you alright?" she asked as she was getting closer to me.
"Stay the fuck away from me!" I roared, immediately regretting this poor life decision when my brain felt like it would explode. At least, she stayed away, so that's that. "Oh, fucking hell, my head..." I groaned again, pressing the bump that was already forming.

A quick look around informed me that we were still in the same room. The door itself had disappeared, revealing a small alcove with a book on a pedestal inside. I remembered that Thingy couldn't see the door earlier, so I glanced at her and pointed out the alcove.

"You see that?" I asked.
"Yes. It appeared when a door materialised out of nowhere and hit you on the head."
"Okay. Tell me what happened while I was out of commission."
She nodded. "Well, first the door appeared ad hit you. Then, it turned into some sort of dark scary smoke and it... sipped into you, I think. I was trying to wake you up when you headbutted me. And now that I think about it, you didn't even excuse yourself!"
"How long?"
"Huh?
"How long was I out?"
"I don't know. A minute or two, maybe?"

I gritted my teeth. Either I had lost conscience of time while I was out or the 'scary smoke' as she called it was not smoke at all. I closed my eyes for a second and went back into the anteroom. There, I inspected the chains and the Door to check for damage, but it was completely fine. I could only guess that whatever that thing was wasn't powerful enough to get inside and escape. Either way, I was fine for now.

I opened my eyes again and stood up. "Well, I'm fine now. Let's what this book is."
"Are you crazy?" Thingy gasped.
Pretty much, I thought immediately, smiling a little.
"That thing just attacked you! It could still be dangerous."
"And I survived its attack. I don't think I was supposed to, so placing anymore traps would be pointless."

I levitated the book to me and discovered that it was a lot heavier than it had any right to be. A quick scan through my sense field revealed that it was lightly enchanted. Which of course meant that I turned it Thingy's way when I opened it, just in case. When nothing happened, I turned it back to me. The first pages had a childish writing all over them and talked about stupid things, like what the author had for lunch, described with childish comments. It was signed 'Lulu', which further confirmed my impression that I had Luna's thousand year-old diary in my hands. I tried flipping through the pages, only to discover the effect of the enchantment I felt earlier : the damn book had a lot more page than it should, encompassing probably the equivalent of a dozen or so large tomes at least.

I quickly went to its last page and it confirmed my doubts : the last entry was dated from roughly a thousand years ago, when Luna turned into Nightmare Moon to be the sole ruler or Equestria. It simply read "Today is the day. Soon, Celestia will pay for her errors." If that isn't ominous, I don't know what is.

Anyway, it was a lot too voluminous for me to just quickly look at and memorize. And my head was giving me too much of a hard time to stay concentrated enough to not miss details anyway. It was going to last too, so I couldn't just take the book and let Recto roam free. I glanced at Thingy. The changeling. That could turn into a griffon.

"Hey, you think you could carry me back to Ponyville?"
"Why? Do you have trouble walking?"
"No, but my head is hella painful, and I might just faint any moment, so I think getting back there quickly would be a good idea."
"Huh... Well, get on my back. I'll see whether or not I can carry you in the first place."
"I was thinking that you should turn into something that could fly. That would be faster."
She blushed and was suddenly wrapped in green fire. A second later, her horn had disappeared and a pair of wings now popped from her sides. "Well then, come on."

I shrugged and carefully sat on her back, making sure not to hurt her. Long story short, she could carry me. Even better, she could fly with me on her back. So off we went, toward our small home-village, and I made sure to bring Luna's diary back with me. I just knew that it could be useful. We made it there rather quickly, even though I had to point her in the correct direction a few times. Seems like flying over the forest confuses the hell out of ponies and changelings alike. Thankfully, I was either immune or not cartoony enough to be concerned.

She quietly landed on the edge on the forest and changed back to her more usual form. I simply groaned and decided that the first thing I'd ask Twilight in the morning was a magical way of getting rid of headaches. I grabbed the book and started to walk toward the gleaming castle. I estimated that it was around one or two in the morning. A bit earlier than what I first planned, but at least I had found a most things that I went there for. Too bad that this strange door gave me a concussion.

I realized a bit late that I was still being followed by a silent Thingy. "What are you doing?"
"Following you." I glared at her and she put on a sheepish grin. "I don't know what you're up to, but I'm sure it will be fun!"
"... In what regard was anything that happened tonight 'fun'? You seemed pretty traumatized by half of what I've done."
She shrugged. "It was pretty violent or cruel by pony standards, but it's not everyday we get the adrenaline rush of fearing for your life. It's kinda fun."
"... You have problems. And that's coming from a guy who's used to do cruel things on a regular basis." She shrugged again, not replying. "Anyway, I'm heading to bed right now, so get lost or something."
"Oh..." She seemed a bit disappointed. "Well then, good night Verso."
"That's not the sound of you getting away from me."

She flashed me a smile and happily trotted away. I don't think I will ever understand that bug. For my part, I just sighed, massaged my head and walked back to the crystal palace. I deployed another sense field to make sure that nobody was awake inside this thing and quietly walked up to my room. Of course, since the universe seems to enjoy torturing me just anyway possible, the usual headache this place gave me joined forces with my concussion-based one and nearly threw me off-balance. I placed Luna's diary inside our wardrobe and immediately went to sleep. I have rarely been so thankful to reach a bed and just fall unconscious onto it.

I was immediately relieved of both headaches once I arrived in the anteroom. That was nice. What wasn't half as nice, though, was nearly inaudible voice I heard the instant I arrived there.

"Don't think I'll ever let you have a moment of rest, traitor," Kay said through the Door. "Your alliance with Father won't help you for long."

I gulped down. I decided to do my best to just ignore him as much as I could. It wouldn't be overly difficult, since he wasn't really being loud yet. Instead, I walked into the memory room and started to read the books I had memorized. Most of them were just re-hashing some history I already knew, only in more details since they were more contemporary.

But some of them spoke about events that had been forgotten to history, like previous encounters with changeling hives. Oddly enough, it seemed like one queen was already named Chrysalis back then. That could mean that she was either immortal, which could be a real pain in the ass, or that she was named after that other queen. Most of the time, the changeling problem was ended by having the royal guard, Luna or Celestia go over there and defeat the queen. The Chrysalis this book spoke about managed to escape before she was in too much danger, though.

I spent the whole night reviewing these books and comparing them to more recent history books. Kay thankfully stayed silent most of the time, indicating that it was still pretty hard for him to talk at all. On the most part, it had been a nice night.

I woke up and stretched when the sun started to shine right in our face. Our head felt a bit strange, making me feel dizzy, but nothing major. When I looked around, I realized that we were back into our room in miss Twilight's castle. I blinked a few times, still feeling a bit sleepy, and therefore, confused.

"When did we come back here?" I mumbled while I was trying to control a yawn. "I was sure we went to sleep in the castle in the forest..." I gasped, getting a bit more awake. "Maybe it was all just a dream! In fact, we never even went in the forest in the first place! Whoa, I'm having pretty amazing dreams recently."
No, you didn't dream. Verso's voice said. We've been knocked out by the door. I woke myself up long enough to get Ly-... the changeling to bring us back.
"Aw... I wanted to explore!"
I know. I'm sorry, but I was already having trouble staying conscious, so I decided it would be a better idea to come back.

I pouted a moment before I got up and exited our room to get to the kitchen. Neither Twilight nor Spike seemed to be around, strangely enough. They're usually awake a lot earlier than we are. I don't usually wake up early on my own, after all. Lazy-mornings are best mornings.

"Hey, Verso, you know what time it is?"
Ten twenty-seven, judging by the clock right next to us.
I blinked a few times, looking at the clock in question. "Huh. I wonder why they let us sleep so late. Miss Twilight usually wakes us up earlier."
We'll have to ask her when we see her.

I absent-mindedly nodded and grabbed something quick to eat, as well as what miss Twilight kindly bought us to make our very own chocolate milk. No, I'm not addicted. I can stop whenever I want, I just really don't want to. I headed to the dining room, making everything float lazily behind us. I reached the table, sat, and set everything in front of me.

"Good morning to you, Recto," miss Princess Celestia said.
"Mornin'" I replied.

I blinked. Verso blinked. Then I looked up hastily to find miss Princess Celestia on the other end of the table, casually sipping a cup of tea. Next to her, miss Twilight was sitting too, with a cup of the same awful drink in front of her. She didn't looked overly pleased at all. She was glaring at us intensely and looked like she really wanted to say something, but kept her silence instead for some reason. On the other hand, miss Princess Celestia seemed to fairly enjoy being here. She was smiling as warmly as she usually does.

"Uh..."
"Something unusual happened to me this morning," miss Princess Celestia said. "When I woke up to raise the sun, I found out that an old letter had fell on me during my sleep. One that I had visibly written to myself more than a thousand year ago to warn me about unwanted intruders in my private room in my old castle. Isn't that surprising?"
Uh.
"Well, yeah. I mean, it's not everyday that you receive thousand-year-old mail, is it?"
Miss Twilight's eyes narrowed and she opened her mouth to say something, but miss Princess Celestia continued: "Indeed. I quickly remembered that spell that sent me the letter was also supposed to trap said intruder inside my room with a powerful shield. I thought somepony got accidentally imprisoned at some point during the night and immediately went to free him or her."
"That's pretty nice of you."
"Simple matter of urgency. I was quite worried for the poor soul that activated the trap and had to spent the night in a room in ruins. But wasn't I surprised to find that not only had the intruder escaped already, but in doing so had also destroyed a wall and weakened the whole structure of the castle. I'm honestly surprised that it hasn't collapsed yet."
"Aren't ruins supposed to collapse?" I mused aloud. "That's why they're ruins, isn't it?"
"Will you-!" Miss Twilight started to say something, but miss Princess Celestia quieted her by raising a wing to hide her.
"Indeed they are, Recto. But some places in this castle have been enchanted to last through the ages without decaying as much. This castle is filled with old traps and spells that have yet to be disarmed, even though Princess Twilight and her friends have been working toward this goal recently. So I think that you can imagine that somepony breaking into the ruins, destroying one spell that kept part of the castle standing as well as an entire wall is something of a problem. Even more problematic, I think this intruder was there in search of something, even though I don't know either what he or she was searching for, or if he or she had found it."
I looked at miss Twilight, a bit surprised. "You've been restoring an old castle with your friends? Why didn't you tell me? I love old castles!"
"Wha-... That's not the-!"
"Twilight, please, let me handle this," miss Princess Celestia said calmly. Miss Twilight complied, her face getting a bit redder with anger. "The castle holds many artifacts that have been sealed away, Recto. I don't want to know what some ponies may want to do with them, but that is preoccupying."
"Do you mean that they could be dangerous?" Miss Princess Celestia nodded and I gasped. "We've got to find them before they do anything dangerous then!"
"Inded we do," miss Princess Celestia said before sipping her cup again. "Thankfully, I have found some clues in the dust that was raised by the fallen wall. Hoofprints. And also footprints."
"Oh, so you're going to compare every pony's footprints with the ones you found there until you find the intruder. Clever. But isn't that going to take a while?"

Miss Twilight facehoofed. Verso mindpalmed. Miss Princess Celestia kept her patient and warm smile.

"It could. But I think we could shorten the research time by searching who the footprint belongs to. Thankfully, there aren't many creatures that have this shape of walking appendages. In fact, I only know of one."
"Wow." I started applauding her. "Not even a day of research and you've already figured out who the criminal is. That's really impressive! What are you going to do now?"

Miss Twilight looked at me as if she was trying to understand if I was really serious. I don't know why. Miss Princess Celestia really went quickly with her investigation. That was some mastery-level of investigation right there. Whoever was the criminal she was talking about, he clearly had no chance whatsoever to escape.

"I think I will just confront him as soon as possible," miss Princess Celestia explained. "Conveniently, he doesn't live too far from here."
"I hope it goes well for you. Who knows what kind of people would venture into an old castle and start breaking walls for fun?" I started preparing myself a good glass of chocolate milk, thinking this part of the conversation was over. At least, until Verso joined in.
You do realize she is talking about us, right? he asked, sounding somewhat disturbed.
I stopped right in my track. "What are you talking-..." He showed me a few flashback from the earlier night in an instant. "Oh. Oh, yeah! You're right, she is talking about us," I said, nodding, in confirmation. Then, I continued making our breakfast.
"Ha!" miss Twilight exclaimed, making me flinch in surprise and nearly drop the glass of milk I had already prepared. "I knew it!"
"Recto, why did you go to the ruins last night?" miss Princess Celestia asked. "And who was the pony that came with you?"
"It was an adventure! It was really fun too. We saw a big manticore and a basilisk on our way there!"

Miss Twilight was drinking from her cup while I was explaining. When I mentioned the basilisk, she spat everything out in her own cup, covering herself in warm water. She didn't seem to mind, though.

"A basilisk?! There's a basilisk free in the Everfree Forest?"
"Not a free one, no," Verso answered, finally taking over. Miss Princess Celestia's eyes narrowed a bit. "I took care of it. And don't worry for us, we're not hurt. On a totally unrelated note, you know any spells to heal lumps on your head?"
Miss Princess Celestia's horn lit up and the strange dizzy sensation I had since we woke up disappeared. "Tell me more about it." Verso sighed and quickly told them about our encounters with the wildlife on our way to the castle. Miss Princess Celestia nodded when he was finished. "And why did you go to the castle in the first place?"
"I figured that there would be old books there. Some that would talk about events long-forgotten to the common ponies. Besides, it was an adventure of sorts and Recto enjoyed the idea."
"Why didn't you tell me you were going, then? " miss Twilight asked. "Or, hay, why did you decide to go there in the middle of the night? Surely, you could have waited until today for your expedition?"
Because I wanted it to be a secret. Blast you, Thingy... If only you hadn't been a complete moron and kept your hooves to yourself...
"That's not her name," I pointed out.
Miss Twlight blinked. "What are you talking about?"
"Verso keeps calling Lyra 'Thingy'. That's not her name."
She blinked again. "What does this has to do with anything?"
"Well, he says that-"
"Lyra came with us to the castle last night," Verso interrupted me.
Hey, that's rude!
Sorry. I answered her question by reflex.
"Oh? Why is that?" miss Princess Celestia asked.
"She saw us enter into the Everfree Forest because couldn't sleep. She decided that it could be interesting to follow us. Recto allowed her to accompany us."
"And you chose to be accompanied by her rather than asking me?!" miss Twilight asked rather loudly.
Verso gritted our teeth. "Given the choice, I'd have preferred to go there on our own. Sounds more like an adventure."
"That's... That's completely irresponsible!" miss Twilight shouted at us.
"And it's also completely untrue," miss Princess Celestia added, putting her cup down. "You wouldn't place Recto under any danger if you could prevent it, Verso, and going alone in the middle of the night is definitely more dangerous than going with Twilight during the day." Verso gritted our teeth again as she was looking at us in the eyes. "That means you were searching for something, but didn't want us to know." Verso said nothing, and I was confused. He told her about looking for books, didn't he? "What were you truly looking for in my ancient home, Verso?"

A heavy silence fell on the room, as miss Princess Celestia was waiting for him to answer. Miss Twilight's gaze was shifting between us and miss Princess Celestia, looking like she had no idea what to do. Verso took a few, long seconds to answer.

"I went in for information, nothing more. Lyra touched your false diary by accident and activated the trap. I got us free. End of the story."
But what about the strange door in Luna's room?
That's a story she doesn't need to know about.
Oh.
Miss Princess Celestia sighed. "I'm getting tired of this, Verso. What kind of information?"
"I told you. Forgotten History. I wanted to go alone because I know miss bookworm here wouldn't have let me study it in peace."
"Hey!"
Miss Princess Celestia narrowed her eyes again. "Why won't you tell me the truth, Verso?"
"For the same reason I went there without anyone that could pose a threat, Princess."
Miss Princess Celestia narrowed her eyes yet again. She then turned to face miss Twilight. "It seems I'll have to borrow your student for a little while, my dear Twilight. Recto, Verso, finish your meal and go pack a few clothes. You're going with me to Canterlot."
"Wha-"

Miss Twilight didn't have the time to finish, as miss Princess Celestia exploded in light and disappeared. Verso shrugged and hurried up. Miss Twilight tried to ask us some things, but Verso muted her out and ate at an impressive rate. He then excused ourselves from the table, levitated our dishes to the kitchen to be cleaned later and walked back to our room. He packed a bunch of our clothes inside a bag miss Twilight had given us to carry books when we studied outside. While he was busying himself in the wardrobe, I noticed a strange book that wasn't there before. Without a word of explanation, he packed the book too, hiding it between our clothes.

He got back downstairs in an affair of minutes, put our bag down and started to wait, still ignoring miss Twilight. A few moments later, miss Princess Celestia reappeared in an explosion of light, still not smiling as she usually does.

"Are you ready to go?"

Verso nodded and we exploded in light. We appeared in the throne room in Canterlot. A few guards were here, looking at us as if we were about to explode again or something. Miss Princess Celestia appeared next to us and walked to her throne while we waited where we were. When she sat, she glanced down at us and Verso gritted his teeth again, for apparently no reason.

"You have been in Equestria for nearly a month, Verso. And yet, for some reason, you still seem to be unwilling to trust either me, or anypony for that matter. Would you care to explain?"
"You would always trust a dog until he bites you. I'm not someone that waits to be bitten."
"You have no reason to be this distrustful here, Verso. Guards, leave us."
"But, your Majesty..."
"Leave us, please."

The guards quietly went out of the room, some of them glaring at us. Soon, nobody but miss Princess Celestia and us were left in the room.

"Go on, use your detection spell, Verso. We're alone." Verso did so immediately, feeling that, indeed, we were completely alone. "Now, tell me, what were you searching for in the ruins?"
Verso hesitated, but he was keeping me from hearing his thoughts so I don't know what was eating his mind. Nonetheless, he replied only a couple seconds later, keeping his poker face. "I already told you. Informations."
"You aren't going to make me believe that you really put yourself in danger just for that, Verso."
"Too bad. It's the only answer you'll get."
"You aren't in danger any..."
"Bullshit," Verso interrupted her. "You just don't know what endangers me yet. And besides, just because you are no direct threat to me now doesn't mean you won't become one tomorrow."
"I would never..."
"Just as you would never have hurt your sister a millennium ago?"
Miss Princess Celestia narrowed her eyes. "Circumstances were different, Verso. Nightmare Moon took control of her and was threatening to destroy all of Equestria in her madness. I don't see you as a threat to my ponies."
Verso snorted but didn't comment. After a few seconds of a gaze-duel, he decided to change subjects. "So... Why did you bring us here? Surely you wouldn't have told us to get prepared to stay here for a few days only to question me?"
Miss Princess Celestia narrowed her eyes again before she returned to her more usual demeanor, minus the warm smile. "I didn't, of course. Since you are a valuable guest, I wanted to make sure you would be present for the oncoming Grand Galloping Gala."
The Grand whatnow?
"You want us to be present at a party. That's why you ordered us to get prepared to stay here for some time. I... What?"
A party? I love parties! Are there going to be pastries? And games? And chocolate milk? And funny ponies? And chocolate milk? And music? And most importantly, chocolate milk?
"Of course, I know you didn't really have any way to learn how to behave in... let's say, 'higher' parts of the society, which is what the Gala is usually all about. So, during the few days you have left before the party, I have found you somepony to help you learn everything you need to know."
"I-"

Verso was interrupted by some ruckus -this word is fun- we heard was going on just outside the doors. Someone was shouting on someone else something about not needing permission to enter. The shouting guy then asked if the guy he was talking to knew who he was, which initially made me think someone had memory troubles. Then, the doors were swung open by someone and a rather big white unicorn with a blonde mane entered, several guards trying, and mostly failing, to stop him.

"Aunt Celestia!" the unicorn called. "I demand that these good-for-nothing guard be fired immediately! They attempted to stop me from entering while you called me here yourself!"

Verso blinked. Then, he glanced at miss Princess Celestia, doubtful.

"You can't be serious..."
"Recto, Verso, please meet Prince Blueblood, my dear nephew. He'll be your teacher for the next few days."

Author's Note

I'm back once again, and I bring a new chapter with me! I hope you all enjoyed reading this one. Don't expect the next one too soon, though, finals week is coming for me too.
... Knowing me, I'll probably prefer writing about cartoon ponies over studying like I should... Well then, maybe expect it sooner than it has any right to be.
Now, onto some spoilers for what's to come :
Best pony, murder and innovation.

See you all soon(ish) on Chapter 21 !