A Fated Venture

Starswirl’s Epilogue:

I do not know how much time passed between these events and my receiving of the package. Nor do I know who sent them, or how they sent them to me using the teleportation channel I had set up for Venture. I do not even know why they sent them, why the package is wrapped as it is, or why most of her poems were ruined. But I have every reason to believe the story is true.

Immediately after reading the letters, I found transportation to Griffonica. At the time the journey took well over six months. When I asked about the Circular Forest, the Griffons told me of a large fire, a few years prior, coming from the valley in the mountains to the northwest, which was seen all over the country. A group of Clawthenian soldiers escorted me to the forest’s remains. The whole thing was reduced to a perfect black circle. None of the former wildlife, nor the evidence of the Spiral Ponies remains.

However, the spiral pattern where the path was can still be seen. It culminates at another perfect circle, this one being a pit 20 meters in diameter and 50 meters deep. There is no longer anything inside the pit, though the black substance the pit has still not been identified. From what I hear, even now, almost thirty years later, the scorched earth where the Spiral Forest once was still remains. Not a single blade of grass has grown there.

I have spent many nights lying awake, horrified about Venture’s tale and saddened by her loss. I’ll admit that I’ve even had considerable difficulty making and keeping friends ever since. I can’t help but wonder what she found where she is. If she hadn’t made that spell, if she hadn’t wanted to leave the school, if her cutie mark didn’t point west, would any of this had happened. Sometimes I even catch myself thinking that maybe this tragedy was what her cutie mark signaled, that this whole event might have been her destiny all along.

More than that, I’m scared. But that’s why I have my rules. The rules are there to protect the students, and the rules are there to protect me. Even as a magic user and seeker of knowledge, I’m well aware now that there are things out there we certainly don’t want to find. The rules exists to keep me from finding them. Because Venture certainly has made me curious. And I’m scared we’ll start to look.