Prisoner

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8

Prologue

The sun was half over the horizon by now, giving its warmth and light to the new day. The air was filled with a chill from the recent snowfall and the sound of hooves from the workers. Earth ponies were the earliest outside and already half cleaned the Town square from most of the snow before the pegasi and unicorns started showing up. Most unicorns didn't pay attention to the workers, occasionally some berating them though for not clearing some of the snow on their path quick enough. The pegasi tried not to talk with their earth brethren, knowing what hard work is and knowing their pain but not wishing to get any bad attention from the unicorn populace.

It was apparent which race was in control, if not by the behavior, then by the clothes each wore. Most unicorns wore elegant and stylish clothes, trying to stay up with the newest fashion and show their worth. The pegasi were a lot less into fashion, wearing more everyday clothes for work. The poor earth ponies could only afford to wear rags and dirty clothes to keep themselves decent these days. There were always exceptions in the races, some being lower or higher then the rest, but it was consistent enough for the main masses.

The Town square was one of the biggest open areas in the city, even if Canterlot wasn't that big at first glance. The pavement was made of stone tiles as two fountains stood far from each other, between them being the centre of the city. The square was surrounded by all kinds of buildings: a few restaurants, a barbershop and a couple of clothing boutiques, a museum of history near the corner, and the rest occupied by spacious houses for the richest unicorns to live in. There were four entrances to the square, one leading directly the great castle of the fair Princess of their land.

There was also the occasional pair of guards patrolling to keep the peace in town. And right when a pair arrived to replace the night patrol, there seemed to be a commotion raising on the other side of the square. A couple of unicorns foul-mouthing a worker who was limping on one of her back legs. The new guards nodded to the night patrolling ones, letting them know they would handle it, and headed straight towards the commotion. The pair was a unicorn and pegasus guards, wearing the royal armor that consisted of a golden helmet, a golden breast and back plates that were open towards the legs and of four golden greaves. Each guard having special additions for their race, being a hole on the helmet for the horn for the unicorn and back holes on the armor for the pegasus.

"What seems to be the problem, citizens?" The pegasus asked when they were finally in hearing distance.

"Ah, guards. Thy arrival is most timely!" one of the unicorns stated, an orange coated stallion in a white tuxedo and boots.

"This useless worm is not performing it's duty!" his companion added, a purple coated mare in an elegant dress and tiny high-heeled shoes, pointing an accusing hoof at the grey earth pony. The guards turned to her and waited for a reply.

"Pl-please, fair guards! I-I'm trying a-as fast as I c-can. Bu-but one of my l-legs is broken.." she seemed to gulp down after saying it, afraid of something.
"a-and the c-cold weather is on-only making it wo-w-worse..."

"Excuses worthy of a lazy worm! Guards, it is most likely bluffing to avoid any further labor. It must be punished!" the unicorn mare cried out. The unicorn guard simply sighed while the pegasus looked at the grey pony. Both understood she wasn't lying and why she was afraid, ponies who couldn't perform their duty were either thrown into the cold dungeon or cast out of town.

"We shall deal with this problem. You are free to go." The pegasus guard finally spoken, as the unicorn pair simply humpfed and turned to leave with the guards looking at the earth pony and beginning to question to get more information on her condition before giving their decision. Suddenly, a tiny spark of light appeared between the two fountains, earning a few confused looks from the nearby passing ponies. The spark was small, but it soon started to grow in size and the light it shined grew in strength as well, soon getting the attention of all everyone in the Town square. The wind quickly picked up and the ponies closest to the fountains moved back from the light, confused and afraid of what it might be. The Princess is the only one who could create such light during her teleportations, but hers were quick and momentary, while this lasted already for at least a minute.

This unusual ball of light grew to the point of blinding bright, everyone averting their eyes to keep their sight, and the wind slowly started to die down and the light began to fade, giving the impression that whatever has happened ended, with many ponies looking at the centre of the square. In the spacious area between the two fountains now laid a pony. Some initially thought of a unicorn, before paying attention to its size. This pony was bigger then anyone in the square at the moment. Its size could probably be compared only to the Princess herself. Most ponies were in awe at that realization while the others continued to observe this unexpected visitor.

The giant pony's fur colour was pure black, reminding some of the tale of the Two Royal Sisters. It was an alicorn no doubt, having both a long horn and pair of wings. Yet its mane and tail were very different from that of the tale, representing dancing blue flames rather then the night sky filled with stars. And it definitely showed, as the uncleaned snow near the fountains melted in seconds and the water already starting to disappear as well. What was also peculiar about this alicorn was that it didn't have a cutie mark. Lastly, unlike the story told, it was definitely a stallion.

It seemed to be unconscious at the moment, since the only movement it gave was the raising of its chest. The pony was laying on its side, its head pointing towards the royal castle. The unicorn guard elbowed the pegasus and said firmly "Inform the Princess. Now." The pegasus guard didn't hesitate and flied into the sky, heading directly towards the castle. The ponies were whispering to each other about this strange new arrival of an unknown alicorn, even the earth ponies couldn't continue working and just looked and talked between themselves about this strange occurrence.

And then everyone heard a sound. Everyone became quiet as they heard the groan coming from the alicorn, the guard stood on a distance in front of the pony and noticed that it's eyes were starting to twitch. It was waking up and he was clueless on this alicorn's behavior, if it would be a friend or foe. But he knew he needed to buy some time before the princess was informed. So he stood there, looking as the alicorn slowly sat up, opening its eyes with hesitation. The alicorn then looked at himself slowly, raising a hoof and looking at it, before the hoof reached up to its horn, touching it lightly. It was quite the bizarre scene. It looked back at its wings, which unfurled and furled back in before it noticed the crowded square.

It didn't do any sudden movement, not even standing up, as it took in his surroundings. The alicorn was very silent, and it unnerved a lot of ponies. Most seemed to glance between the alicorn and the guard, as if expecting him to do something. He understood that and simply gulped before deciding to break the silence.

"Who goes there?" The alicorn finally looked at him with its half closed red eyes.

"So you do speak...." Was it's only reply. His voice was cold and collected, and somewhat deep. The alicorn looked like fell in deep thought, ignoring everything around it now. The ponies in the square began to whisper among themselves, trying to make sure he wouldn't hear them.

"You are intruding on the fair Princess Celestia's lands. I repeat, state thy name." The guard said, trying to sound stern, thought it was apparent he was nervous of this strange guest.

"Princess?... A monarchy?..." Was all that the alicorn said, sounding genuinely confused. The guard was now confused himself. Someone who hasn't heard of the fair Princess? The ruler of all of Equestria? And of all ponies, an alicorn not knowing her? Just exactly from where did this guest arrive?

However, soon everyone heard the flapping of wings in the sky, as at least fifteen pegasi guards flew besides the royal princess herself. Everyone could also hear a loud trot from the direction of the castle, the royal guards following her by land. The unicorn was very relieved it wasn't alone anymore, but more then confused on why would the princess herself show up for this intruder. Celestia gracefully landed not far from the unicorn, the pegasi following her and surrounding her with themselves to ensure her protection. The unicorn and earth pony guards soon arrived as well, filling the town square with atleast fifty guards in total. The ponies bowed to their princess, though still trying to glance at the new guest as well. The two alicorns simply eyed each other, one with sheer disbelief while the other with genuine curiosity.

"We art Princess Celestia, ruler of these lands. It is impossible for any other alicorn to exist, we and our sister art the only pure blooded ponies who could be born with these traits. Please, state thy name." The royal alicorn finally broke the silence. She still seemed to be in awe of such a sight as another alicorn. And he seemed to have noticed it, and finally stood up from his place, standing straight on his four legs, even if a bit unsure, and looking directly at the princess, his blue flaming mane and tail following the cold breeze.

Chapter 1

The sun had already been at its peak for the day, heading down ever so slowly back towards the horizon on the other side as the royal sisters walked alongside each other. Celestia was more then glad to finally see her sister after such a long time, even if she did took the form of a filly because of her lack of power. And still, she did grow slightly over the day, her mane becoming darker and slightly translucent. She would soon be as tall and beautiful as the sun princess remembered her.

"Thy kindness knows no bounds, dearest sister..." The moon princess finally spoke, breaking the silence of their walk.

"I'm simply happy to finally see you. Luna, if only there was any other way to solve that problem.... The least I can do is help you now." Celestia replied, nuzzling to her sister's neck lightly.

"Let us... not talk about our past mistakes... please.." The royal filly replied with a heavy sigh.

"Of course, sorry. Let me show you your room." The alicorn quickly agreed, guiding her towards the right wing of the castle, leading her to the tower opposite of her own where her room was. The Summer Sun Celebration, while not going as she planned, did turn out for the better. Her star pupil proved to be the Element of Magic, and gather the rest of the elements without even knowing it at first, and the six girls returned her beloved sister back to her normal self. Everything was finally at peace. Hm...

She shook the next thought out of her head. Only once Luna was fully rested would she bring up such news. The last thing she wanted was for her sister to become worried. She looked at her and smiled warmly, finding her adorable in her current state. Luna, guessing her sister's thoughts, turned away shyly but not saying anything. Celestia simply looked ahead to the royal dark doors that led to her sister's bedroom. It was the only memory left to her over these past long years, so she made sure that it wouldn't be disturbed much by anyone else. She used her magic to open the doors slowly, letting Luna in first to look around.

"I tried to keep it as clean as it was." Was all she said when she followed her sister. There was a great bookcase that was filled with Luna's favorite subjects: astronomy, dreams, tales and many more. It almost filled the entire wall, opposite to which stood a large dark blue bed, a small drawer standing next to it, a royal couch near the middle of the room next to a table with an unlit candle. In front of them, the windows on the opposite wall, led to the balcony where the sun was crawling ever so close to the horizon. In one of the corners stood a table with two quills and one ink vial, though most probably empty. There was a small stack of scrolls on the table, fresh and new, ready to be used.

Her sister slowly looked around, letting the nostalgia rush into her, as a smile appeared on her face when she looked up to Celestia.

"Thank thee, dearest sister." She said, snuggling to her leg. The sun princess sat down and tried to hug her small sister as close as she could.

"Please, rest. You need your strength. I'll handle the moon for tonight, and we'll see if you'll be in shape tomorrow." She said, the moon princess nodding lightly, as she turned back to her room, going towards the bed and, while having a bit of trouble, getting on it, laying under the covers. She hasn't slept in a normal bed for far too long, and it showed. Celestia could only smile, looking at her sister fall asleep without any trouble. She quietly walked out, closing the door behind her and gone back down the long hallway.

She assigned a couple of Luna's personal guards to stand by her door in case she would wake up and help her with anything she would need. The sun still hasn't reached the horizon, so she had some extra time before performing her daily duties. She had to discuss the arrangement of the Grand Galloping Gala that would occur in about nine days or so with the decorators. But that would take more then just an hour or so, surely she could think of some other small task that wouldn't take as long.

Ah yes, Twilight. The sun princess still needed to get a few tickets for her and her assistant. It wouldn't be quite the same without her prized pupil. As she continued on her path down the hallway, nodding lightly to the group of passing guards and servants, she thought a bit more about the unicorn. Now that she was so far away, she finally managed to find time and meet new ponies, and even befriend them. The princess saw all six of them when she was freed from her own banishment put by Nightmare Moon. The life in Twilight's eyes was just so filled with happiness, she couldn't take her back. It would be a bit dull, but the alicorn knew that she wouldn't be alone with Luna finally here.

Yes, the lavender unicorn might want to bring her friends along for the Gala. Perhaps the girls could liven it up a bit as well. Then, an idea occurred to her. Twilight was now going to study the magic of friendship. This could be a perfect first lesson for her! It probably won't take her pupil long to figure out to send back a letter to her and asking a ticket for the rest of the girls. Twilight was a smart mare after all, such choices would be a foal's play for her. But then the princess realized she had been having an internal monologue once again and completely missed track of time.

The sun princess held up the closest passing guard and asked him to reserve for her at least eight tickets for the Grand Galloping Gala for special guests. You never knew when one ticket could rip. With that, the alicorn hurried back towards her own room. She even noticed how she had to pass the ball room; she didn't even remember walking past it! Celestia really needed company to keep her mind weighted down to earth. The princess had to pass a certain double door entrance which made her halt for just a few seconds, enough to look back at them before turning forward and continued her not-so-graceful trot back towards her room. She only had a few more minutes to spare before the sunset needed to start.

Celestia made it just in time, passing by her bed, bookcase, several drawers and a mirror before reaching the window that led to her own balcony. She sat on it, taking a breather. Just a few more seconds to spare. She hated being late for such an important duty, but sometimes she just couldn't help it. Her horn began to glow, her magic reaching out and surrounding the large celestial body as it finally gone under the horizon, the last rays of light illuminating the sky in a light orange colour for a few more seconds before disappearing.

Next, the princess redirected her magic to the east, getting hold of the waiting moon. It was much lighter and it was easy to gently pull it up to the horizon just enough for it to start moving in the same pattern. The moon brought with itself the stars which coated the open sky, giving it the beauty her days could never provide. And for the first time in so long, the alicorn saw the moon without the image of the mare on the moon. It brought a smile to her, lifting her spirit.

So that was it for the day. Her duties had been finished and she was left to ponder at the nagging feeling that didn't go away for some reason. As if something was forgotten... Oh, yes..... Now she definitely had the time to remember. The new alicorn. She slowly turned back to her room and walked inside, closing the window behind her and slowly walked out of her room. The princess didn't hurry anywhere, passing by her guards and looking for the double doors. The only truly new addition to the castle in the last five hundred years. It didn't take her long to find it.

The doors weren't very big, just enough for the princess herself to pass through them. It was located on the opposite side of the castle from the entrance, made sure that no guests would ever be allowed inside. She didn't think she would need any guards to patrol near the door, just the hallways itself. The doors were metallic construction and of a deep blue colour. Anyone else could have mistaken them for belonging to her sister, but the sun princess knew better. She opened the doors completely, revealing about a normal sized room, if compared to a normal house. It was completely empty, save for three unlit torches hanging on each wall, and a large symbol occupying more then half of the room laying in the centre. A teleportation symbol.

It has been a while she last visited him. Three years ago? Four? She couldn't remember at this point. She had hoped he would reconsider, but she wouldn't forcefully take him out of his own new home. The princess had an urge to see him and if he was alright, she cared about all of her subjects, even those who were closer to her status, but the alicorn decided against it. Luna would need to know eventually. Once she had rested enough, they both would go see him. With those thoughts, she finally walked outside of the room, closing the doors. She gave them once last look before turning to the hallway, nodding to the passing guard and heading to her bedroom.

Chapter 2

"I'm really sorry, princess Celestia. If only I thought about it a bit more logically, we would of made it to the Gala in time."

"It's alright, my faithful student. At least you did manage to get here at the tail end. I'll make sure to send the tickets to you and your friends in advance next time." The sun princess replied as they walked down one of the hallways of the castle. Twilight and her friends arrived only a few minutes before the actual Gala had ended, which the alicorn blamed herself for. So giving her student only two tickets at first was a bad idea after all. Who knew? But a lesson was a lesson regardless.

All of her pupil's friends were invited to spend the night in the castle, a private room for each mare, while Twilight herself had her old room all to herself. But unlike the rest, she decided to stick to her mentor and spend some time talking with her.

"Ponyville is such a lively place, princess! I really hope you could visit it sometime. It's a lot more fun and refreshing then the busy streets here in Canterlot." Twilight tried to change the subject. The alicorn only smiled.

"Perhaps, my dear student. But for a couple of months I will be quite busy. I will inform you when I'll be visiting in a week's notice." She replied, looking at the lavender unicorn.

"Thank you princess. I will be looking forward to it." Her companion said with a smile and looked ahead.

"Oh, is this princess Luna's room?" She asked, making the sun princess look up with confusion. They didn't go into her wing of the castle, did they? But then she noticed the double doors in question and shook her head lightly.

"No no, Twilight, her room is in the right wing of the castle, we are still only on the ground level where the entrance is."

"Oh yea... Say, what is this room then? Does it hold some of her possessions? You did tell me before that it was an important room." She said, looking at the deep blue double doors with curiosity. There were only a handful of rooms Twilight never visited in her life spent at the castle, and that room was one of them.

"Well.... No, I couldn't say it does. Still, I would like it to remain private. Maybe one day I'll show you what is inside." The sun princess replied after thinking about the consequences of showing it to her.

"Of course, princess." Her student replied without hesitation, always sure of her mentor's judgment.

"If it's not much of a problem, could I get permission to enter the library archives, princess?"

"At this time of night, my faithful student? Wouldn't you rather rest with your friends?" Celestia was taken by surprise by her sudden request.

"And miss the opportunity to read several books about ancient magic? Not a chance!" The unicorn cried out with great enthusiasm. A chuckle escaped the princess's lips as she looked down on the eager mare.

"Of course, Twilight. You know that the castle library is always open to you."

"Thank you very much, princess Celestia!-"

"Just make sure not to stay up too late." She added, which made the lavender unicorn blush slightly.

"I'll.... try my best. Eheh..." That was as good a promise as any to come from her bookwormish student. She smiled to her as they kept walking towards the stairs that lead to the balcony of the second floor. From there they said their good nights to each other as Celestia turned to the left wing of the castle, while Twilight gone to the centre, searching the hallway with the library. It didn't take her long to find it, knowing the castle's inside like the back of her hoof, as she nodded to the guard stationed near the door after he let her inside.

Bookshelf next to bookshelf formed long lines into the darkly lit room of the library all stacked with books of modern age, covering every possible subject. There were at least eight lines that stretched for at least a quarter of the spacious room before there was a pass for more shelves to stand. There was a reception desk that rounded in half a circle not far from the entrance with a couple of librarians, one of them reading some book while the other was busy writing something on a scroll, perhaps refreshing his memory of the amount of books they had checked out. Apart from that, there were a few more books on the table beside the reading librarian, a door that led to their private room and a few spare quills.

The librarians both lifted their head lightly and nodded at the sight of Twilight, they were very accustomed to the girl at this point and invited her in without any formalities. She walked up to the desk and looked up to the unicorn reading a book.

"I would like to visit the archives of the library. I asked for permission." The librarian didn't seem all that surprised, putting his book down.

"Of course, miss Twilight. Let me get you your gem first." He said, turning around and opening the door to their private room. While she waited, she looked around. There was hardly any free wall space around, aside from behind the reception desk and above the entrance doors, but it still had a clock to show the time above the reception. As of that moment, it was midnight. She noted for the first time that there was a red rug now leading between the fourth and fifth rows of shelves from the reception. Probably for those new to the library to not get lost easily. At least that's the only reason Twilight could think of.

The librarian soon came back, holding a yellow small gem that had a small firm string hanging off of it. He levitated it to the lavender unicorn and she masterfully picked it up with her own levitating spell.

"Could you also please call me when it will be about 3AM?" The unicorn nodded with a light smile before he picked up his book again, Twilight noticed it was a book on the history of art. She decided that she should find a copy as well for her own library. She thanked the librarian and then was off towards the back of the library. There was a door at the end of the carpet, which gave Twilight another thought on the carpet's purpose, and opened the door, leading into a black room. Her horn started to glow lightly, pulsing some magic into the gem, and with time it started to illuminate her path and the books.

Twilight knew for a fact that this room was much, much larger then the library itself, holding Equestria's entire history inside of it. She also knew that while there was a table with a candle in several parts of the room, the only way to go through the darkness was with the special gems the librarians provided. The light from the gems didn't harm the aged books as much as any other solution they had, but it would be tiring for any unicorn not specialized in magic to constantly keep the gem glowing, so they were forced to add the candles for the unicorns when they would be reading something.

Of course, the archives were designed with only unicorns in mind. Anyone else would need the librarians themselves to escort them through the archives. Twilight didn't think too long about that as she was searching through the bookcases, trying to find the section she wanted. She decided to look for new spells to work on, and maybe find some more information about the teleportation spell to perfect it. And maybe find out if it had some subconscious activation trigger when under pressure.

She soon stumbled on the section of spells, picking up a few random books to try her luck and walking towards one of the tables. She lit the candle with her magic and turned off the gem. Using her magic, she levitated one of the books closer to her and opened it up, reading up on the various spells and their history.

"Wait a minute...." She said to herself, noticing a familiar spell on one of the pages, turning to it without any delay. 'Want it, Need it'. She suddenly realized what book she was reading. The unicorn quickly turned several pages away without looking where she turned, trying to forget the rush of.... uncomfortable memories. She definitely needed to be crazy to cast such a spell again.

"Maybe I should just move on..." She thought to herself, looking at the other couple of books. Before closing hers, she did notice what spell it stopped on. It described itself as creating soft and calming music out of any noise, from the rustle of leafs and the crack of wheat to the trotting of hooves. She found it very interesting and, though compelled to just close the book, decided to hold just on this spell and learn a bit more about it.

It didn't take long to memorize the spell, closing the book and sliding it aside and picking up the next one. To the unicorn's surprise, it was a book of spells used in offence, and the book itself had a resemblance to a war history. It didn't stop her from checking the book out regardless. There was definitely a wide variety of spells she never thought about before, at least half or more concentrated on creating basic elements with magic while the other on controlling said elements around you. There was another quirk about the book that seemed odd. Some of the fire spells didn't have a creator.

Twilight searched through the book a little, and any other spell definitely had a creator, going even as far as having Starswirl the Bearded for some of the most complex spells. Yet, some fire spells only directed to a history book Twilight never heard about before when addressing the spell creator. She decided to look into this strange occurrence and find the mentioned book. She blew out the candle and gave her gem some magic energy to let it brighten the dark room again, picking her books up and moving back to where she picked them up. She put the untouched book and the unwanted book back in their place, keeping the war book to herself and going on a hunt for the history section or the archives.

To her surprise, however, it seemed to be harder to find then she initially thought. She did, however, strike luck and find it eventually, just to be cut off from starting her search by a voice behind her.

"Is it thou, Twilight Sparkle?" The voice was familiar, though sounded a bit more mature then before. The unicorn turned around, just to see the princess of the night herself slowly walking towards her, wearing a gem herself. The lunar princess has grown close to Celestia's size by then, her mane and coat becoming darker in colour. The mane now had stars sparkle inside of it, the edges of her mane translucent.

"Princess Luna!" The unicorn said in surprise. She definitely didn't expect to see her.

"Greetings, Twilight Sparkle. We art most pleased to find thou here at this hour. We would also like to give out thanks to thee and thy friends for risking thine lives in rescuing us." The moon princess said, bowing lightly, which made the unicorn a little confused and blush, against her better judgment.

"You really don't need to thank us, princess. It was our duty to lift your curse and free you!" She said a little nervously. It wasn't on their thoughts when she and her friends were in the Everfree forest, but she didn't want to flat out say that to the princess.

"Curse.... Yes..... Let us leave it at that." Luna didn't seem very thrilled about the subject, looking at the floor. The unicorn scolded herself mentally before trying to change the subject.

"So, um, princess, what lead you here? I was just reading up on some old magic spells." She said, hoping the princess would take the bait and talk about something less depressing for herself.

"Hm? Well, there art two reasons. We were studying our country's history during our absence; learn of what we had missed. Did thou, our loyal subject, have the same interest as we?" She asked the lavender unicorn with curiosity in her voice.

"Well, I would learn more about history eventually, yes, but right now I just wanted to examine a particular book. Some of the spells I found were pointing towards a history book called 'Sharp turns of Equestria'. I never even heard of such a book before!" She said, a bit ticked off at how the spells simply forced her to find reference from a different source rather then tell her who made them. However, she soon noticed Luna's confused look.

"It is quite strange of thou to mention this book. We have taken it into our personal chamber for further study just the night before." That message definitely took Twilight by surprise. She sat down on her hind legs where she was standing and blinked a few times.

"Huh... Guess I won't be finding my answers tonight then..." She then slowly said, not particularly to the princess, but more to herself. "Sorry for being so rude, princess Luna." The unicorn finally said, looking up at the alicorn.

"Rude? Thou have not done anything that could be considered rude, Twilight Sparkle." The moon princess replied more calmly, giving a light smile before seeming to remember something.

"Ah yes, we were asked to inform thou of the time. It hath been 3AM as we entered the library."

"Oh wow, it's that late already? Guess I lost more time then I thought when looking for the books..." She replied, standing back up. "Thank you for telling me, Princess Luna. I need to wake up early tomorrow for our train so I'll be going. I hope to see you again; it was refreshing to actually talk to you." She said with a smile, an infectious one from the looks of things.

"It hath been good to meet thou as well, dear Twilight Sparkle. Perhaps we could meet again soon. Good night."

Twilight wished her a good night as well and walked back towards the spells section, putting the book she had been levitating this whole time back in its place. She remembered it's name and gone down between the shelves, solving the archive maze to get to the door without much trouble. Once there, she stopped giving magic to the gem and pushed the door, walking out and going down the red carpet. It was already half past three, so she was already falling behind her own schedule. She returned the gem to the librarians and they quickly exchanged parting words before she left.

She found her old room right next to Pinkie's, the girls all asleep at this point. It was left like she loved it, not too fancy but still having a certain feeling to it. She yawned audibly once inside, her body's needs finally getting the upper hoof. She climbed into her bed and loved the feeling of the soft mattress under her body, combined with the puffy pillow and warm cover. It drowned out the last thought that was in her head that appeared during her trip back to her room as it echoed one last time before sleep dispelling it completely.

"I didn't notice Princess Luna at the Gala..."

Chapter 3

"Good morning, sister. I hope it was a pleasant night for you."

"As always."

"Good. Then, shall we start?"

"Mm...Perhaps....Could we discuss something first?"

"Oh? Why yes, what is on your mind?"

"Twilight Sparkle."

"My faithful student?"

"Yes. Thy student hath been looking for a specific book just yesterday."

"I don't see th-"

"This book. It contains hints of his existence."

"..."

"Yes, his. All we could gather was a spellbook referencing him."

"Hm..."

"...Thou plan on telling her?"

".....Eventually...Of all the others...She deserves to know, and perhaps the only one he'd accept talking to..."

"Then we shalt not halt her progress. Or would thou want us to help her?"

"Hm..... Perhaps...Perhaps, yes...... But not too much..."

"We understand. We shall not push her, simply show the right direction. But we have procrastinated for long enough, shall we begin?"

Twilight woke up with the first morning rays of light, stretching in her bed and looking out the window. She felt refreshed, even with the short nap she had. Everyone needed to wake up early, since their train would arrive in two hours or so, as much as the unicorn would like to stay in the castle and talk with her mentor. After a few more seconds of laying in her warm and soft bed she stood up, using her magic to fix the sheets and start packing a few books she brought along. Though, after a few minutes fussing with her books, she remembered about last night, slowly stopping everything she was doing to think.

She didn't know when she would visit again, and it was impossible to take the books from the archives even a step outside of the castle as well. She knew that book would be haunting her. Since the rest of the girls were still asleep, or at least she thought they were, she should ask if there was a second copy of the history book. The unicorn left her room, nodding to the patrolling guards who returned it silently, and was going to turn into the hallway that led to the library before noticing Princess Luna just passing it, going towards her direction.

"Good morning, Twilight Sparkle. We hope thy sleep was not restless." The alicorn spoke, stopping close to Twilight. The unicorn had a feeling that Luna had something to tell her, judging by her behavior.

"Good morning, Princess Luna. It was relaxing. Did you want to talk about something?" The royal alicorn smiled lightly at the forwardness of the young girl.

"Indeed. We had a talk with our sister, and we thought we could aid thou in thine studies."

"Oh, thank you. But honestly, since yesterday, all I been thinking about was that history book. I never seen spells referencing other books before, why did that tradition die out?" She asked the moon princess.

"We.... art not sure.... Our absence hath been...... quite lengthy....." She replied with a sigh.

"Oh..... um, right.... Well-l-l, maybe when I next visit I'll check it out?" The unicorn said with a sheepish smile, remembering that Luna was on a moon vacation for a while.

"Mm... Perhaps that would be for the best. Winter is only a couple of months away, thou art welcome to visit us in our castle then." She said, eager to change the subject it seemed.

"And... about thine book...." She added after a few minutes of thought.
"We..... Might know more about the creator..... But we need more time to study..." She said, looking at the confused unicorn.

"Oh, you don't really have to, princess. It would be very nice of you though." Twilight replied.
"From what I read, only fire spells were referencing the creator. Maybe she studied in the pyrokinetic field of magic?"

"We wilt take that into consideration." The lunar princess replied, nodding lightly.

"Well, it has been nice talking with you, Princess Luna. I should go wake up the girls, we still need a train to catch."

"Then we shalt not hold thou any longer. We hope thou have an eventful month ahead." The princess said, smiling lightly to the unicorn, and continued to go down to her section of the castle, most likely to get to her bedroom.

Twilight turned back towards the rooms her friends were staying in. To think, Princess Luna herself would be helping her look into this mystery! Then again, she probably could ask her mentor about the book, but it was more interesting this way. Speaking of which, after the girls, she should go see the princess one last time before departing. Hmm.... What was that last thing Luna said..... Eventful month? Heh, Ponyville was a fairly quiet and peaceful town. Nothing could really go wrong there, could it?

Twilight groaned as her head fell on the pillow of her bunk bed. Why did she remember that thought of all things? It was like a kick to the gut. The train was moving pretty fast, leaving the snow covered Ponyville half an hour ago with Twilight recollecting her experiences and adventures with her friends.

First there was Applejack acting incredibly stubborn, refusing any help during Applebuck Season; the visit of Rainbow Dash's old friend Gilda; the showmare Trixie arriving to town; their climb up a mountain to face off a dragon; her first ever slumber party with Rarity and Applejack; learning about Poison Joke the hard way while meeting Zecora, and, the most embarrassing one, the parasprite attack, during a Royal Visit. Quiet and peaceful. Well, horsefeathers to that theory.

It's not to say she didn't have any fun though, it definitely was very exciting, and she felt like she was growing closer to her friends each day, even if a little. The unicorn also overheard that winter wrap-up would be in a week or so, she could try helping everypony.

She looked up from her pillow, noticing the outside of the window changing from the plains and forests of white to the rocky cliffside. The train was finally going up to mountain to Canterlot. It wouldn't be long until she would finally reach her destination, so she began to think about her oncoming studies and, hopefully, answers.

Twilight studied any and every book she could lay her hoofs on about pyrokinetic magic and was very disappointed to find so few mentions of it. The effects of that field of magic hardly brought any good, and most were based on combat and offence. Only a couple of magicians in all of Equestria truly studies it at this day and age, and basic fire magic was only taught to the royal unicorn guards in Canterlot. However, some of her history books she found on the matter pointed out that at some point fire magic was banned completely, although the reason wasn't mentioned.

Still, the subject intrigued the unicorn enough to learn something more about pyrokinetic magic. She was being extra careful though, since living in a tree house, that had a large amount of books, was probably a bad place to toy around with fire. So her studies on the magic itself were relatively slow. Only thing she learned for certain was how to create a very small flame and how to keep it levitating in the air. She thought that, after winter was over, she would go out into the plains, far from the village, and practice there instead.

She felt the train stop, surprising and jolting her from the thought. She looked back into the window and saw that is was the station, the train had arrived. Was she really that preoccupied by her thoughts? She shook her head and got up. No time to think, she needed to get to the castle. Getting off the train was fairly simple, following the main road that lead towards the castle. There weren't many ponies on the streets, the cold weather keeping most of the high society indoors or at gatherings. There were exceptions of course, but not much.

In about half an hour she was approaching the castle, the guards nodding to her and letting her pass. They didn't look very thrilled to stand around the cold weather, Twilight noted. She entered the castle and was about to walk towards the throne room before noticing a maid passing by. She was a green pegasus, and Twilight couldn't recall seeing her before, so she must have been new here.

"Excuse me." Twilight said, gaining the maid's attention. She seemed quite surprised to see Twilight.

"Um, yes, miss? Were you granted permission to come in?" She asked carefully, not wanting to botch up and being polite to this new stranger.

"Actually, I'm always allowed to come inside. You see, I'm princess Celestia's personal student. My name is Twilight Sparkle." The lavender unicorn replied confidently. That seemed to spark an interest in the maid, as if she heard the name before.

"Oh, my apologies miss Sparkle." She lightly bowed.
"But, please excuse me for my curiosity, but weren't you the mare who defeated Nightmare Moon?" At that, Twilight lightly blushed at her 'claimed victory', looking away a bit

"Well, I wouldn't say I did it on my own. It was a team effort after all." She finally said, calming down after saying it. She could see the pegasus' wings slightly unfurl, and the great amount of concentration she did to keep her wings from opening up completely, even if her voice betrayed lightly her excitement.

"Oh! So it was you! And to top it, her Majesty's personal student!" She did shake her head lightly, gathering herself up.
"But excuse me, my name is Ness, I am fairly new at working at the castle." She bowed lightly again.

"It's alright. Ness, could you tell me where my mentor is right now?" At that, the pegasus looked a little worried.

"Oh, well, her Majesty is holding a royal meeting currently, and she asked all of the staff not to disturb her." The unicorn frowned a bit and thought for a few seconds. If the princess was busy, it probably would be best to just go study at the moment. Unless....

"Hmm... Well, what about Princess Luna?" A curious look appeared on Ness's face when she mentioned the princess, which gave a hint that maybe she would have more luck there.

"It's... funny you should ask, her Royal Highness, princess Luna, woke up about twenty minutes ago and headed for the library." Twilight mentally cheered at her success, smiling on the outside instead.

"Thank you, Ness. I will go talk to her then. Sorry for holding you up."

"Oh! It was no trouble at all, Miss Sparkle." The pegasus lightly bowed, again.

"Just call me Twilight." The pegasus stood back up and nodded with a light smile and continued to trot down the hallway. Twilight glances at her flank before she was too far, noticing a cup and a silver tray.

"Hmm, must be good at serving tea.

Chapter 4

The door slowly opened, giving a barely audible creak, as the lavender unicorn entered the archives and closed the door carefully. Her gem was already glowing, illuminating the bookshelves and her path. She tried to remember the path towards the spell sections first, finding it in mere minutes and smiling at her mysterious book still being in its place. She picked it up with her magic, sliding it out and holding near her head, and began to walk further, remembering the path to the history section.

However, before she could advance much further in her search, Twilight saw a small light of a candle around the corner. She remembered about the princess, and decided to go say hello first. She moved slowly between the shelves, from the cover of the books she could only guess it was the culinary section. She soon walked out into a spacious area that had several tables with a single candle on each. One of them was occupied.

The lunar princess was sitting with her back turned to the mare, her star-filled mane flowing independently and slowly just above her similar tail. She seemed to be looking at a book, though it didn't look like she was reading it, at least Twilight never heard any pages flipped. She slowly walked towards the princess, letting her gem's glow slowly die down.

"Hello, Princess!"

"Good evening, Twilight Sparkle. It hath been quite some time." Luna replied, not turning her gaze away from the book.

"Is... something wrong?" The lavender mare asked, getting a bit concerned about the princess's condition.

"We art.... well. Perhaps, puzzled...." She replied, following with a sigh. Something definitely didn't feel right, and it was starting to tug on Twilight's concerned harder.

"Puzzled? About what? Did you find something?" The questions in her mind started to spill out in a small rush, and it would have surely picked up if the princess wouldn't have raised her hoof in the mare's direction.

"Not much." The princess announces.
"Only one other book, an autobiography, mentioned this pony."

".....That's it? Why would there be so little information about her..." She asked out loud. The princess finally looked back at the unicorn.

"Let us not assume genders, Twilight Sparkle." While taken aback, the mare did see a point in Luna's statement. Starswirl the Bearded was one of the greatest ponies known in history, and he was a colt.

"My apologies, Princess Luna." Twilight said, looking at the ground for a few seconds before looking back at the lunar mare, who once again looked down on something in her front hooves.
"Could I please see these mentions of this magician?" She decided to use that term, since it was obvious it had to be a unicorn. It seemed like Luna had accepted that term and simply dragged what was in her hooves on a free spot on the table next to her. Twilight finally saw that it was a book, a pretty heavy looking one at that.

"This book was originally written to represent all the conflicts and trouble raising in Equestria, starting from.. our rebellion." Even with the pause, the princess seemed a bit less depressed when talking about it. Maybe the past months finally let her relax and accept what she had done.
"It was deemed far too big for the general public. While it was said the original would still be available for historians, it had disappeared, leaving only the rewritten, shorter work. But...." She paused again, looking at the pages of the book, Twilight using the opportunity to come closer and sitting in front of it to look for herself.
"...it seems to skip one event with a mere mention." With those words, she sighed with disappointment. The princess really looked like she wanted to know herself what happened.

The unicorn looked through the page, stopping on the date that was almost five hundred years ago. It told of a wicked wizard that used its magic to fool princess Celestia and cause havoc, yet there was no specific crime named. It was incredibly surreal, for a historian book to lack such details. It also briefly mentioned his knowledge in fire magic and how the princess defeated this imposter. There was no name, no description, no nothing! For such a crime like fooling the princess, the writer skipped over it like it was not important at all!

"This doesn't make any sense!" She finally almost yelled, looking at the book. She looked at the event before and after, and both had highly detailed descriptions, one of being a political debate while the other of a...

Twilight stopped to look closer at this one.
"Ban on all fire magic?" She asked, looking up at Luna who simply observed her.

"Yes, it was initiated after the previous incident." She said, not paying too much attention to it.

"But.... what does banning fire magic have to do with the wizard?" The lavender mare asked again.

"Mm.... while that is strange, we dost not think it is connected. Perhaps there was an accident in betwixt the two events?"

"Then... why wasn't it recorded?" Twilight looked over the banning event once more. She read before that there was a ban in history, but never thought it'd be close to the creator of the fire spells. Huh...

"Isn't there a reason for the ban? In it's own section?" The lunar princess finally caught up, looking a bit curious over it.

"N-no... I can't find it at least...." The lavender unicorn replied. It was true, through the entire event, there was no reason for the ban. It was lifted a hundred years after it was put, there were several meeting of the council with Celestia over it before the ban, and during the entire time, there seemed to be some shift in society.

"Twilight..." The mare looked over at the princess on the call, noticing concern in her voice.
"Now that thou pointed it out.... the other book starts to make a bit more sense..."

"Other book? The autobiography?" Twilight asked, puzzled by Luna's sudden statement.

"Yes...." She took out a second book from under her wing, a much smaller one. It was written by a pony named Prime Justice. Luna floated the book on the table and opened it with her magic, turning the pages until she stopped, going back a couple and looking over at Twilight.

"This pony. Prime. He did not once name what gatherings he attended. Yet, there is an interesting part about our mage."

She lent the book over to the unicorn, the magic's colour switching from blue to purple as she picked the book with her own levitation spell, and gently put it on top of the history book. She then began to read to herself the text, skipping over most of the discussions until something caught her eye.

**
I did not think of looking at the Princess until something seemed amiss. Her eyes. While her whole demeanor showed no signs, her eyes looked quite tired. Old, if I may allow to apply such description to our fair Princess. I did not give much thought to it, knowing what hath been done not long ago. However, she hath slipped something during another debate between general Spear and the newly appointed advisor Scrolls. They were debating on should there be a ban on fire and earth magic, the fields hardly touched at the time. Somepony said the spawn only knew two fields of magic, and the princess muttered something. I could only read her lips on the last word, three. Perhaps she knew better, after all, but decided not to show. I could hardly blame her, with these times.
**

The unicorn looked up from the book, confusion on her face.
"Fire and earth magic fields weren't yet analyzed?" She looked at the lunar princess, holding the point of what she read in the back of her head for this more confusing matter. The princess simply gave her a deadpan look.

"Apparently so." She simply answered. The mare didn't understand at first what was the problem until her gears started turning just a few times and realization dawned upon her.

"Oh! Oh, oh.... Right..... moon and.. and.... alright, very sorry...." She sheepishly smiled, feeling very unnerved at the situation she created for herself.

"Honestly, Twilight Sparkle. We would think of thou remembering such details easily." She huffed and then shook her head lightly, returning to her calm expression.
"But in all seriousness. We had asked our dear sister, yet she did not want to share much information regarding the incident." She said quietly. There was a pause, in which Twilight wanted to try understand what that meant, and then heard the lunar princess's voice.

"Instead, she showed us..."

Twilight's face grew confused, then for a split second excited, and returning back to a puzzled look.
"Wait... show you? A memory spell?" Luna's eyes met with the unicorn’s.

"No.... Show us the mage...."

...

Twilight's brain had literally stopped all thought process, letting the information sink in first. Celestia obviously knew much more about this incident then Luna, so it would be obvious to ask her for the moon princess. She did. Celestia told her something, but not much. Her mentor decided to show her something instead. She showed Luna the mage, -at this point, Twilight's brain re-doubled its working process-, which meant...

" THIS PONY'S STILL ALIVE?!"

The princess backed away from Twilight thanks to her sudden outburst. For a few seconds the lavender mare had been sitting with a blank stare, which Luna didn't take as a good sign, but now she at least knew her sister's pupil was fine and well, if not full of surprises. The moon princess tried to calm down, closing her eyes, holding a hoof to her chest and breathing deeply, not noticing how the unicorn was staring intently at her, disbelief sparking in her eyes.

"Y-yes, Twilight Sparkle. Please, refrain thyself from such unexpected outbursts, our heart's working condition is still to our liking." She sighed, slowly opening her eyes, noticing how the mare's look had not changed.

"B-b-but how?!" She asked, not as loud as before, which Luna was thankful for, turning her whole body completely to the princess.

"That would be hard for me to answer." The princess ominously replied. Twilight didn't catch her tone though, she was too busy trying to understand how could a pony live that long. Could a lifespan be prolonged? Could this mage be cursed with a petrification spell? Was there a blessing the princess could give to stop the natural process of aging? What?!

The growing headache from all these thoughts was starting to show, since the mare saw the princess becoming worried.
"Twilight Sparkle? Art thou alright?" The unicorn raised her front hooves to rub her temples from the growing headache.

"I don't think I will be..." She weakly replied, surprised at her own voice sounding so fragile. Since when was she so dramatic? Did Rarity influence her in any way?

"Perhaps thou need to rest. It is quite late. But please, promise us at least this much." The princess said, waiting for the mare to turn her head towards Luna before finishing.
"Do not tell our sister of the information we provided to thou."

That caught Twilight as odd. Why wouldn't she want Celestia to know about her finding? Did Luna tell her something she shouldn't have? But the growing amount of questions didn't help her growing headache so she simply nodded.
"Alright. I promise."

"Then let us escort thou to thine room." She said, standing up from her spot at the table and blowing out the nearly exhausted candle, her gem shining brightly while they walked through the shelves filled with books. Twilight didn't bother checking where they walked, her head was already full. The biggest and overwhelming thought still being the statement she screamed out earlier. She did, however, take notice of the opening door before her, the princess walking out and letting Twilight through. As she followed, she reflected on the thought one last time.

"This pony is still alive...."

The door slowly closed, giving a scarcely audible creak.

Chapter 5

It was still dark when she opened her eyes a bit. That only led to one of two conclusions: either she went to bed early, or the curtains were closed. Upon further inspection, she could see a very faint light from the window, moonlight to be exact. Alright then, to she went to bed early. Now her only thought was why. Trying to recollect her thoughts of the evening, she remembered being on a train, going to the castle, meeting a maid....talking to Luna.... and the princess lead her to her room. She looked around to make sure her dirty thoughts stayed just that, as thoughts, and not finding a dark blue alicorn anywhere confirmed it. She sighed in relief.

She kept trying to remember the conversation she had with the princess, but it kept escaping her. Perhaps her still partially asleep brain was to blame, but that didn't stop her from calling herself a few names for not being able to remember it. She knew she made a promise as well, but couldn't remember it either. After several more minutes of intense mental workout, she sighed in defeat. Perhaps it would come to her when she'd get out of bed and start her day.... But what time was it anyway?

The drowsy unicorn slowly sat up on her bed, trying to find a clock anywhere. But everything seemed so.... different. There was a large rug below, only one bookcase stood on the opposite wall, a table with a chair near the bed, a full pony sized mirror not far from the balcony- wait, what? Twilight blinked a few times. Since when did she have a mirror that large in her room? Or a balcony, for that matter?..... Was she in her own room? With those thoughts, the haze in her mind quickly started to disappear, letting the unicorn wake up quickly from her state.

It definitely wasn't her room, nor was it any room she particularly recognized. But the layout overall felt familiar to her, like she seen it often before. It didn't take her long to realize where she was and chuckled, any hint of nervousness lifting completely. She was in one of the guest rooms. After some thought, it all started to make sense in her mind. Princess Luna never knew about Twilight's room, so she just lead her to a guest room instead. Everything finally made logical sense, and all was right with the world. Well, almost.

Thinking of Luna made Twilight remember parts of the conversation in the library, as well as her promise. So, they found out there was some pony who was very good with magic.... at least, in the pyrokinetic field of it. And that this pony....for whatever reason...was still alive. Said by anyone else but either of the princess', she would brush it off as over exaggeration. But Luna herself told her, and ignoring what she said would be a pretty stupid idea, considering she mentioned Celestia herself showing her. Speaking of whom, why did she need to make that promise?

The lavender mare got out of her bed and used her magic to make it up before slowly trotting towards the window that leads to the balcony. She looked at the moon, and it was inching ever so close to the horizon. So it wasn't too early, giving Twilight only enough time to find Luna and ask at least about the promise she made. But where could the lunar princess be at this moment? She doubted she would find her in the library at this time, maybe in the right wing of the castle? She remembered Celestia saying that Luna had the right wing all to herself.

She walked out of the room, the hallways a lot better lit, while she tried to remember her way to the staircases to the upper floor. She passed by a few patrolling guards, nodding lightly to them out of respect with it being returned, most of the time. A lot of the guards simply knew the mare by heart, so seeing her walk around this late wasn't anything new to them. The unicorn trotted up one of the staircases after finding them and heard some wheels quietly rolling along the floor, turning her head with curiosity towards the source.

A certain pegasus maid was walking in her general direction, pushing with her chest the tray with a couple of lightly steaming cups of tea, a small smile on her muzzle since she had noticed the unusual night walker from the distance. The unicorn was surprised it seemed, though she soon started walking towards the green pegasus herself.

"Good morning, Ness." The mare started, but abruptly stopped. Her behavior wasn't new to the pegasus though, usually ponies did that when they eagerly wanted to ask something, but wanted to sound polite while doing it. So she took the initiative and turned the conversation to a more comfortable route for the lavender mare.

"Good morning, Twilight. Is there anything I could help you with?" She asked, stopping next to Twilight and making sure the momentum of her push didn't carry the tray far from her, only after which she looked at Twilight, the smile still on her face.

"Well... I was a bit surprised to see you up this early, shouldn't princess Celestia still be asleep?" She asked, not really using her brain for the following seconds as Ness chuckles a bit.

"Ah, yes. Her Majesty, princess Celestia is still asleep, although she should be waking up in a couple of minutes. But I have been up the entire night. We did meet when in was only beginning." The pegasus replied, letting Twilight put the pieces in place herself. Which did happen fairly soon as realization shined in her eyes.

"O-oh! So you're a personal servant of Luna herself!"

"W-well, not exactly personal, there are five more. But we are a lot closer to her Royal Highness because of our scarce numbers." Ness replied with a light blush at the tittle Twilight gave her. There was an awkward silence then that surrounded the two and Twilight took the time to check her companion with more detail. The green pegasus had a fluffed mane that partially covered her right eye, a soft aqua colour. Her tail was very short, though well kept and sharing the same colour as her mane. Surprisingly, her eyes were the same colour as well. She wore the same outfit she did before, the maid vest and four sandals.

She coughed to break the silence, earning Twilight's attention back to her face.
"Well, I best be going to her Royal Highness, she is waiting for her tea and I wouldn't want it to get cold." Ness said, lightly pushing the tray again before Twilight asked her.

"Can I join you? I'm actually looking for the princess myself." The maid smiled, turning her head to the unicorn, and simply nodded, looking forward again and moving her tray further as Twilight followed behind, looking where they were going before becoming hopelessly lost in her own thoughts, again, following Ness only on reflex when she turned. She decided it was time to actually think logically on one of the bizarre things she left alone before she had secured a route to Luna.

So this pony was alive. The princess didn't mention this mage's condition, but it was alive. Since this pony was a unicorn, it might of found a way to prolong it's own life through magic. But she had no idea if such a thing was even possible. She put that theory aside for the next one. Petrification. Normally, a spell of such caliber would kill any normal pony, even a unicorn. But with enough power to self sustain oneself, the pony could survive during it's petrified state. But then, if the pony was petrified, it meant it did something awful, wouldn't it? She doubted the princess would petrify just anypony for breaking her favorite cup. And it did mention in the book that the wizard lied to her... Hm, just anypony...

A strange idea came to Twilight's mind. What if this wasn't a pony? Could it have been some other species? The only species she knew that could live for so long would be alicorns and dragons. Could.... could it be an alicorn? It was a possibility. The unicorn still remembered her favorite and most loved foalsitter, Cadence. She wasn't in Equestria anymore, but she was an alicorn. After a while, the unicorn simply shook her head lightly. No, as much of a plausible idea it seemed at first, alicorns were extremely rare, but they would never hide or do anything bad. From what she read, this pony was a liar and manipulator.

She thought of herself racist for a few seconds, excluding the only pony possibility in order for the next one to look more convincing, but she just couldn't help it. The only other creature who could live for so long was a dragon. Could have there been dragon servants at the time? Could dragons use magic? She read a lot about dragons and knew that their scales were very resistant to magic after a certain point of their growth, but no mentions of them using magic. She still wasn't sure what to believe, well, besides believing she bumped right into Ness's rear.

"Oh, um, really sorry Ness, I was..... thinking...." She looked around, taking in her surroundings. Ness had turned around and stepped away a bit, blushing pretty brightly. Princess Luna sat near the tray, putting her tea back down without sipping it yet, looking quite amused by this situation. The air was pretty chilly, the view showing a beautiful landscape of the snow-covered mountains and, a bit further, fields and forests. The moon was almost completely over the horizon. It was the princess's private balcony, past her room, which Twilight did not get to see yet. She smiled sheepishly as she took a step back herself.
"Um, hi?"

"Good morning, Twilight Sparkle. What brings thou to our humble quarters?" Said the amused princess, seemed like if she did disapprove of Twilight coming in uninvited, she didn't mind it now. Though could never be sure, seeing how Twilight never got the chance to check.

"Morning, princess. I wished to... um, clarify some of our discussions from yesterday." The unicorn said, earning a slight change in Luna's mood, as she gone into thought, turning to the fields.

"Ah, we have been expecting this talk sooner or later... Yes, perhaps we do need to clarify. Ness." She turned her head to the maid, who bowed lightly to her princess, her eyes closed and the blush, though faint, still present.
"Thou art free for the day. Thy service hath been most satisfactory; we shall be waiting thine presence tomorrow." The maid stood up and smiled a bit.

"Of course, your Royal Highness. Have a nice rest." She then turned towards the window door, passing by Twilight, who whispered in a rush 'Really sorry', to which the pegasus simply nodded with a smile, and left the two in private with the tray of still untouched cups of tea. The alicorn and unicorn simply sat there for a while, one looking over the lands while the other kept looking either around or focusing on the princess. The silence was broken soon by Luna.

"What we have said was the honest truth." She said, her star-filled mane moving along with the breeze, although it would do so even without the wind picking it up. Twilight was a little surprised by her voice, but soon recollected herself and absorbed what the princess just said.

"I... already have come to term with that part. No, that's not why I wanted to speak with you." She noticed how Luna raised her head slightly, most probably surprised, but lowered it back down soon. For that brief second, Twilight could of sworn she saw the lunar princess's horn glow, but didn't dare ask what for, and simply continued, seeing how Luna didn't say anything in reply.
"I wanted to understand my promise. How come princess Celestia can't know about this?" She asked, sniffling a bit, deciding that a forward approach would be best.

"Hm.... How to put this...." The princess sat on her haunches at least a minute more before standing up and turning slowly to the unicorn. Her ear picked up a barely audiable sound of the window door but didn't give much attention to it, instead focusing on Luna.
"Our sister... She hath noticed thy interest on the subject..." For some reason, Twilight didn't like the sound of that. She gulped down her nervousness though and kept listening, the lunar princess sitting back down, looking at the unicorn. In order to try keep calm, the lavender mare looked up at Luna's horn. It wasn't glowing like she thought before.
"Celestia hath asked me to help in thine studies. But.... We have told thou a bit too much, too fast...." She said, sighing, looking down at the tiled floor. The unicorn was a bit confused by Luna's behavior, until she could hear a very familiar voice right behind her that sent chills down her spine.

"I see.... So that's why you wanted to talk in private...." Twilight made a one-eighty turn, looking up at her mentor's face. Her eyes were closed, her face showing neither a smile nor frown. It seemed like she was in deep thought, her mane following the breeze, just like her sister's. The feeling that she somehow failed her mentor was creeping up Twilight's mind as she tried to cover herself somehow.

"Prin...princess Celestia!... Um...I..I could, um.... could hold my s-studies on this subject! I-i'd never tell anypony about it! H-honest!" She kept stuttering, trying her best to keep her worry under control. The alicorn opened her eyes slightly, looking at her student. She sighed, deciding she would calm Twilight down later. Right now she needed the unicorn to listen, and though her current state wasn't good for her health, she would listen to her mentor best in it.

"My faithful student. You know that I would never doubt your words in any other circumstances. Yet, I have to say I do not believe your promise, and not because you would lie to me. I know that sooner or later, you will have to tell about it to somepony to ease your own weight, and I will neither stop nor punish you. But, before you do so, I would like for you to at least base your knowledge off facts rather then assumptions from the information you gathered to far." The unicorn's panic slowly faded, confusion replacing it completely. She couldn't see, but behind her princess Luna raised her head and was observing her sister with curiosity. The sun was slowly rising over the horizon behind her.

"W-wait... Base m-my.... but, but how?" She understood that everything until the last sentence was true to an extent and made perfect sense in her head, but what her teacher said in the end puzzled her confused mind, an echo of panic still in the back of it, keeping her from thinking straight and logical. To that, Celestia allowed a small smile.

"Quite simple, my faithful student. I will allow you to talk to him."

"Dear Sister, art thou sure this is the best course of action?" Said the voice behind Twilight, the forgotten princess reminding them of her presence. The sun princess looked up at her sister and simply shook her head.

"Come, Twilight." She looked back down at her prized pupil, who was still pretty shocked and confused by Celestia's decision.
"You can visit him at any time. For now, let us spend this time together to calm your nerves. You only have a couple of days before going back, and I would like to hear about the progress of your studies." She smiled warmly to her, and it seemed to have worked as Twilight was calming down a little.

"Of-of course, princess." Before going anywhere, she turned around to Luna, bowing a little.
"I hope you'll have a n-nice rest, princess Luna. S-sorry for bothering you." At this point, both of the princesses figured out that she was now stuttering not because of fear, but of the cold outside. She was out for quite a while now and, unlike them, she didn't have the warmth to resist such low temperatures. As if on cue, the unicorn tried to hold off a sneeze but had poor results, ending up sitting on her haunches and looking at Luna with a sheepish grin.
"Sorry.."

"Let us go, my faithful student. I wouldn't want you to catch a cold when spring is so close." To that, the lavender mare turned back to her mentor, nodding lightly. They both walked through the glassed window door back inside Luna's room, the unicorn taking in her surrounding with great interest which brought a light smile on the lunar princess's muzzle. Luna then took a look at the tray with the cups of tea, noting that it hadn't turned to ice yet. She decided not to waste at least one of them, picking it up with her magic and trying the tea.

"Mmm.... this is quite.... amazing... This tea tastes much better while cool.. We must ask Ness how she dost it..."

Chapter 6

The morning and day gone by pretty fast, Celestia spending most of it with her favorite student, listening to her latest findings in the fields of magic, having breakfast with her and even reading a couple of books about magic and theories of it's origin. The lavender mare often asked on her mentor's thoughts about the subject, but she always replied vaguely, letting her student guess on her own. It wouldn't be as interesting if Celestia simply told her everything after all, and while her student's brain yearned for more knowledge, the unicorn understood that. Perhaps these questions were to test how much her teacher was willing to tell her? The white alicorn never thought much about it; it never bothered her enough to find out.

But as time passed by, the alicorn finally noticed it. Twilight was anxious. She often tapped her hoof near the book while reading it and her focus was very thin on the book. She was back in her thoughts about something that worried her. It was a habit that the lavender mare had for a long while and Celestia was always meaning to tell her about it, but she just couldn't find a way to tell her without being too blunt. She didn't want to hurt Twilight's feelings, after all. Instead, she raised her hoof and put it gently on the unicorn's shoulder.

The lavender mare flinched, as she slowly turned her head to her teacher, wearing a fake smile.
"What is it, princess?" She said, her voice was shaking a bit. There was little doubt left in Celestia but she decided to ask regardless, just to make sure.

"Do you want to ask for something, my faithful student?" She nailed it with the question, her pupil wincing and for a second her eyes darting away from the sun princess.

"Is it really that obvious?" She was smart. The unicorn always knew when lying to her mentor would be a bad idea, and remembering what the princess said before, it would be pointless to hide it either way. Instead of answering her, Celestia simply nodded lightly when she say her faithful student direct her eyes back at her. The alicorn already knew what was her request and simply waited for her to word it.
"I... wanted to ask.... about this.. mage." She briefly thought about calling him a pony, but she had no evidence of that yet.

"You would like to see him?" Her mentor asked calmly, smiling to her student to reassure her that nothing bad would happen to her.

"That too..." That had surprised the princess somewhat, but she kept her smile and awaited Twilight's question.
"Well... From what I read so far... There has been a ban on fire magic at least five hundred years ago... around the same time this... mage came along. Were those events connected or... just coincidental?" This time she genuinely was surprised, not hiding it. She had thought her pupil would figure that out on her own, had she honestly not thought about it?... She was looking up to her mentor, her eyes showing her impatience, like she wanted to know more... Was that it? She wanted her mentor to tell her everything? She smiled when the thought crossed her mind, but it had only lasted for a few moments before she took on a serious expression, looking back at her student.

"Those events were connected, my faithful student. But there was also another reason behind it." She said before allowing herself to smile again. Twilight's expression changed to confusion, Celestia could see her pupil longing for a better explanation, but she wouldn't get one anytime soon. Her teacher simply stood up and moved towards the door, looking back to see Twilight accepting her answer with an annoyed yet quiet sigh, getting off her chair and following. As they walked down the halls of the castle, the princess couldn't shake off the feeling of anxiety. The first pony to ever see him in such a long time would be no less then her most faithful student, a mare of great magical potential and a close friend of hers.

Twilight, on the other hoof, was actually getting a little excited. She could learn more from this being, pony or not, and maybe ask about what it was like in the past. Hardly any history books dated that far back and those that did were a bit fuzzy on the details about it, not to mention her mentor never wanted to talk about the past much. Oh, and maybe she could ask him about magic! She was pretty sure it was a male at least, the sun princess did refer to the mage as he, so it was only logical. But anyway, she could ask him about his magic, and...

She noticed by then they were going down the staircase, a little confused. Once on the first floor, she hurried a little to walk beside the princess's front legs.
"Um, where are we exactly going, princess? Where is he?" Celestia simply smiled to her, looking ahead instead, prompting Twilight to do the same. The unicorn obliged, and saw those double doors again. One of the few doors she never entered. The deep blue double doors with a fine wooden frame and beautiful, even if a bit chaotic, carvings. The carvings seemed to mirror off of each door. She couldn't quite find the pattern behind it before they were enveloped in a soft yellow aura, opening them inward to reveal the room's interior.

At first glance the room looked empty, save for the torches hanging on each side of the room. The walls were painted dark blue, a white streak going near the floor. Looking at the floor, she noticed some strange runes. She learned about magical runes and symbols they create early on in her school for gifted unicorns, but these looked almost old enough for the spell's meaning to go over her head. Almost.

"A... teleportation symbol? Can't we teleport the normal way?" Twilight asked, looking up to her mentor with a confused expression. Runes were hardly used these days, considering how far magic has advanced over the years. They still had some practical use for those studying magic, but that was about it. She followed the runic pattern, noting how it was going in a rather large circle, taking up almost the entire room! In the middle of the pattern there was a rather large circle with a giant 'x' in the middle. She guessed it was where they needed to stand.

"I'm afraid not, Twilight. It is too far for me to remember it each visit." She heard the princess next to her, taking a look at her. Her teacher was nervous, Twilight could tell without any doubt, but was what confused her. Why would her mentor be nervous? She also felt that something was off in her excuse. Celestia slowly walked towards the middle of the symbol, her student shortly follow suit. The alicorn's horn began to glow again, the runes slowly filling in with a light yellow colour and starting to glow. Twilight observed them in action, trying to understand a little better how they worked, considering she never used them at all. After some time they started to light up and glow, the intensity a little blinding. The last thing she remembered seeing was the doors closing shut before the light became too bright, closing her eyes.

There was no real sound, and when Twilight tried to take a peek of what was happening, there was only a light glow seen, but not coming from the runes. She then opened both eyes completely, taking in their new location. It looked like some sort of cavern, a rough oval shape and spacious, with one exit that was shrouded with darkness. Several stalactites could be seen closer to the darkness of the exit, while the space they were in seemed cleaned out and illuminated lightly by two large blue crystals standing between them, on the opposite wall of each other. They were standing on an elevated stone platform with the same runic symbol, while the rest of the floor seemed like solid rock. She also noticed that the temperature had gone up considerably from that of the room back in the castle.

"Where... are we?" She asked, looking around the cavern.
"Wow, is there a way to lower the heat a bit?" She asked almost right after, feeling herself beginning to sweat. The princess simply shook her head before looking at Twilight with a serious expression.

"Now listen carefully, Twilight. I won't be able to accompany you to him, but he's fairly close, you can't miss him. I will have to teleport back, but do not worry; a unicorn of your power can use this symbol to go back by yourself. When you will be done, simply stand in the middle and channel your magic into it non-stop and it will bring you back. As for why I can't stay or what is this place, you can ask him, I'm sure he will oblige and answer." Twilight felt like her mother was giving her instructions on how to get to school, but she listened regardless.

"But, isn't he-" She tried to ask before a yellow aura surrounded her, gently pulling her up and setting her down near the platform.

"He is not violent, no. You have nothing to worry about, my faithful student. I would not leave you alone in a place that wouldn't be safe for you. You have my word on that." Celestia said with a smile, her horn glowing as an aura surrounded it, lighting up the runes once again. Twilight really wanted her mentor to stay, but she knew at this rate that would be impossible, so she just sat down and watched her mentor become consumed with the light before it became too bright and she was forced to cover her eyes with her front leg. After the light suddenly dropped in intensity, she knew she was on her own from here on out.

The unicorn turned around and slowly walked towards the dark exit from the light. She didn't feel at all safe, but she had to believe her mentor, plus her curiosity was starting to catch up to her again. The princess did say that this being would answer some of her questions, so maybe he wasn't all that bad. Maybe he changed while staying here? She knew only of one way to find out. She reached the exit, or rather entrance as she thought about it more, sweating quite a bit at this point. It really was a mystery to her why it was so hot in this cave, it was winter after all. Was there some magic involved? Oh, perhaps this mage was using his fire magic to keep it hot! She cut her own train of thought when she noticed another entrance with a faint glow coming from it.

It was the only other source of light she saw in this dark cave. Perhaps this pony had a way to move the light around, maybe his crystal was smaller and he could carry it? How did the crystals actually worked? She was a bit surprised why that question didn't come to her mind sooner, but she simply shook her head. She was nervous, that's it. Just a little nervous. Or a lot. Whatever, she was close to finally seeing this being, and she couldn't back out now. She couldn't tell what was between her and that entrance so she decided to take the safe route and simply follow along the wall, brushing her mane and tail lightly against it to keep track of where it is.

While walking in complete darkness, the lavender mare tried to calm herself by thinking of what she would ask this mage. Although, first she definitely needed to check what species he was. After that, she would need to ask his name, she felt a bit awkward to refer to him as.... well, just him. Or mage, felt a bit too generalized. Anyway, what would be next... Maybe some general questions? She wanted to test the waters first, so to say. Check how willing he was to co-operate. She believed her teacher that he wouldn't cause her any harm, but that didn't mean he'd be willing to work with her. Besides, maybe he could share some knowledge on how did those crystals-

Twilight felt her mane and tail slip off of the wall. She tried to use her tail to find the wall, but soon found it impossible to do so. She looked back, noticing how completely pointless that action was and gave her zero help. If only she had a light source of her own, this woul-

...

She facehoofed herself, rather hard. She couldn't believe she could forget something so basic, and yet, here she was, walking through the darkness. She felt the urge to lay down and cover her snout with her hooves, but she needed to move on. Reaching for her magic, the horn started to glow, surrounded by a purple aura. Soon, the area around her illuminated from the glow, letting her look around a little. She finally saw that the walls were close by, and she stood in front of another entrance to, no doubt, another spacious section of this cavern. She slowly made her way towards the wall and kept walking alongside it, still feeling safer by following it, even with her own light. It didn't take her long to come close to the far, now close by, second light source, letting her magic rest and canceling her illumination spell. She took a couple more steps to the entrance and looked inside of it. She had been expecting a lot of things, and she couldn't say she didn't see this coming, but it didn't stop her from being shocked.

Close to the centre of the room a black alicorn was laying on his legs. His head was laying on the hard rock, seemingly ignoring the rock's uncomfortable formation. His mane and tail were pure blue fire, illuminating the small section he was laying it perfectly. His cutie mark was hard to see from her point, but she definitely saw something orange on his flank before something else caught her attention entirely. His eyes. They were half open and those red eyes stared directly at hers. When did he open them? She didn't notice it. She started to sweat a bit more while the alicorn raised his head from the ground, their eyes still locked. But just then she saw something, as well as experienced a familiar feeling. She saw a spark in his eyes. They opened a bit more after it, still looking at her, but for some reason she didn't feel her eyes locked anymore and quickly looked somewhere else, like the ground. That is, until she heard his cold, calm voice.

"You have the spark to light a fire..."

Chapter 7

That caught her off guard.
"I-... What?" She asked, sitting on her haunches while looking at his eyes. The red iris unnerved her a bit, but she decided not to dwell on that.

"What is your name, little one?" Was his only answer, she noticed him looking down a bit, not sure what to make of the gesture.

"My.. um... My name is T-twilight Sparkle." The unicorn stuttered a bit, scolding herself and trying to get a grip of her emotions. She needed to be professional at the moment.

"Panic, anger, shame... Surprise, confusion... Curiosity." Throughout his whole sentence, Twilight was unsure what was happening, until she noticed that exactly as he said, she felt everything he said at those moments.

"Wait... Are you voicing my-"

"Feelings and emotions. Old habits die hard." He cut her off, though his cold voice hasn't changed one bit from before. It was a little eerie to her, but she decided to save all the wondering and just ask him about everything.

"How can you-"

"All in due time. I am not planning to go anywhere in a hurry, we could talk about me later. Right now, I am interested in you." The calm and slow voice cut her off yet again. Though the comment brought a slight blush on her face, she shook her head and decided to blow it off.

"Oh, me? I'm no one special, just another unicorn..." Twilight said, looking on the floor a bit.

"Your ruler would doubtfully bring 'just another unicorn' down here." She already understood that he wasn't going to co-operate just yet and decided to play along for now, taking note of what he said.

"Well, I guess I have some magic..."

"Your mark." The unicorn looked up, confused at his statement.
"What does your mark mean?" She followed the direction he was looking, and it was her flank. He was looking at her cutie mark.

"Oh, well, it means my talent is magic... and, well, stargazing." She sheepishly added at the tail end. She did love to stay up late and read, or simply look at the night sky.

"Magic... Perhaps it has a play in this..." The alicorn said, looking down now and seemed to have gone into deep thought. Twilight decided to try asking him at least something while he was thinking.

"Well, um, what's your name? I told you mine." She put on the best grin she could, even if he wasn't looking, just to reassure him.

"Name?" He looked up at her, unfazed by her actions.
"I do not have one." Her expression changed to confusion as her brain attempted to gather her vast knowledge for the best response she could think up of on such short notice.

"Huh?" He slightly tilted his head to the left, still looking at her, and finally spoke.

"If you honestly need some nick, simply call me 'terror'." He said before closing his eyes and lowered his head, most likely to continue his previous train of thought. Twilight didn't like the nickname he gave; it just didn't seem very pleasant. She weighted her options, and decided against her better judgment to just stick with it. If he was fine with being called like that, surely he didn't mind it. Hopefully.

"Well, alright then, um... Terror." Celestia, this would get weird with time. But it seemed to have caught his attention, at the very least one of his ears had turned to her direction and, after a while, raised his head back to her. She could never tell what he was thinking or what he felt at the moment, those eyes simply didn't give anything away.

"Alright then..... Twilight Sparkle... What do you wish to know?" He asked, finally doing what she wanted. She thought for a second that he forgot her name, but was relieved when he said it. Hopefully they could continue on much better terms now.

"So, um, Terror. Where are we exactly? You said earlier that it was below somewhere, is this cave under the castle?" It wasn't anywhere near her top priority question, but she wanted to know a bit about where he resided. Surely this cave couldn't be empty, it was probably just her luck to not find any-

"This cavern is approximately thirty-five kilometers under the surface of the earth." The alicorn replied, a bit casually and slowly for her taste. All she could do to such an answer was sit there, completely shocked, and put a hoof on her mouth.

"Oh.... oh my...." She just said, looking around again. At least now she understood why it was so hot in this place. She read that around that depth started the uppermost mantle of the planet, which meant they could be surrounded by magma. There was an uncanny silence before she understood he was done answering and wouldn't go into any further details, his gaze fixed on her figure. His eyes or expression still showed no signs of annoyance, curiosity or anything. It felt like he was... indifferent to what was happening.

"Am I... boring you?" She asked carefully, standing up and taking a few more steps forward, feeling her self-confidence raise with time.

"On the contrary, actually. Yet, I am tired." He replied with the same voice. She was starting to get used to it, but his latest answer had left her disappointed, thinking she would have to cut her first meeting short.

"Oh, well. I could, um, come back another time if you need some rest.. Terror." She said, turning around and starting to trot towards the other light source, ready to use her magic for the illuminating spell.

"I am not implying for you to leave, if that is what you think." She heard his voice behind her, stopping and looking back. He still haven't moved at all from his laying position, only his head and neck moved from time to time, not counting his mane and tail.

"But you need some rest, right?" He didn't answer to her question, simply looking into her eyes. Something in that stare of his attracted her towards him, she wanted to know why he was so calm if he lived in such a place, why was he in a cavern this deep below, and all the other questions she saved up. After some long thinking, she turned around. If he insisted, she would stay. But she felt the heat starting to get to her, so she would need to plan her questions accordingly; she didn't think she could stay for too long there regardless.

"Alright then. How can you live in this temperature? You just seem so cool and collected; doesn't it bother you at all?" He kept his eyes focused on her for a few seconds, the silence thick enough that you could cut it with a knife.

"Tell me... Twilight Sparkle. Have you been given any records of myself prior?" That wasn't an answer she expected, so it made her think a little.

"Well... All I know is you have great control of fire magic, and-" She was cut off not by his words this time, but by his action. He took out one hoof from under himself, it pointed at her first, and then he spread it out.

"And there you have it." A blush spread on her cheeks.

"But can it work like that? Just like that? I have never seen anypony specialized in a field and become immune to it-"

"Tell me, Twilight Sparkle..." She closed her mouth and listened to what he had to say.
"Would you describe me as anything you ever seen before?" She slowly shook her head, his eyes closing for a few seconds before he continued.
"Then please... Keep your mind open for... possibilities..." Twilight was a little confused by his choice of words, but decided to keep that in mind from now on. It seemed as good of a suggestion she'd get from him. The heat kept making her sweat, and she was already becoming exhausted. She decided to do one more thing before leaving.

"Um, Terror? Could you please show me your cutie mark?" He tilted his head to the other side a little, before craning his neck to look at his own flank.

"You can inspect it if you wish, Twilight Sparkle." He finally said, turning his head back to her. She found it a bit rude, and lazy, that he wouldn't stand up and show her, but decided not to argue about it and simply trotted towards him. As she got close, anxiety overtook her again. He was an alicorn, after all, and even if he has been passive and even helpful, there still was a chance he could try doing something to her. She kept a bit of a distance when she trotted a bit slower around him and looked at his flank.

As she predicted before, the orange was the colour of the flames that was his cutie mark, though she found it off that it didn't match his mane or tail. What else struck her odd was the image of a drop of liquid in the middle of all the flames... it was of a crimson colour...

She stopped her train of thought there, deciding not to think any further about it. She looked up to his head, expecting him to keep watch of her, and was surprised to see his head laid back on the rock, his eyes shut. He looked almost exactly how she found him before. She stopped trotted up to him and wanted to ask him if he felt alright before she heard him speak.

"I am simply tired." She looked at his head a bit confused. He still hasn't moved, but she remembered his little show from before and simply nodded to herself.

"Alright then. I'll leave you to rest, I need to go anyway. I hope we can meet again soon, Terror." She said, and trotted off towards the exit, still feeling weird whenever she called him by his given nickname. He didn't reply to her, but he did open his eyes and watch her go into the darkness, at least until she used her horn to illuminate the area around her. He sighed quietly to himself and closed his eyes again.

Twilight was going through the cavern, trying to trot faster to get out; this heat was simply unbearable to her by now. Her sweat had long started to drop on the ground, even in front of the alicorn, but he was polite enough not to notice it. In fact, he didn't really strike her as a criminal at all. Snarky, perhaps, and a bit too calm, but definitely not a criminal. But he was accused of crimes against the princess before... Did he change? If he did, why was he still here? It looked like an awfully lonely place, and he didn't even once stand up. Was he injured? She shook her head and, with a sigh, reached her destination.

The platform was still in the same spot as before, the runic symbol clearly visible, and the two crystals lit up the area as before. She forgot to ask him about the crystals, but she honestly couldn't stand being in this cavern for much longer, she felt hard walking as it is. If she stayed any longer, she felt she would start to melt! She scrambled up the platform, leaving a wet body print behind and not really caring at that point, as she trotted to the centre and sat on her haunches, sighing. She remembered what Celestia had told her and started to channel her magic, pouring it into the runes around her. They slowly turned into a purple colour and started to glow lightly while Twilight increased the magical output. Exhausted as she was, it was starting to give her a headache and she laid down in the centre, her horn's aura increasing in size as the brightness of the symbol increased, making her close her eyes as she gave as much magic as she could in her state.

The light completely engulfed her and, a few moments later, dispelled, leaving only the platform with the fading runes and wet marks.

Chapter 8

She was relieved beyond all belief. She never knew she'd love the tiled floor of the castle so much like right now. Just lying there, her whole body limp, enjoying the cold that numbed her a bit. That place had been awful, it never occurred to her just how hot it has been until the teleportation finished and she first felt the castle floor. She was in such bliss that she never wanted to stand up again from the welcoming cool floor. But alas, all good things have to come to an end. She heard a slow trot coming from the other side of the double doors and saw one of them open slightly, letting in a flowing blue mane filled with stars, as well as the head it was attached to.

A small part of her mind was surprised to see Luna up, and all things considered, it would mean she had spent a lot more time in the cavern then she expected, but the rest of her mind simply did not care enough. She looked up to the princess who was looking back quite very confused at her and simply said with a weak smile.

"Hello, Luna." The princess was still very confused, but walked inside completely and looked over Twilight.

"Art thou... alright?" She could catch the concern in the alicorn's voice.

"Never felt better~" The unicorn replied in a sing song voice, spreading out on the cold tiles. Her reply and actions hardly seemed to satisfy the night princess, as she walked inside, closing the door after herself, and walked up to Twilight, trying to help her stand up. As soon as she touched the unicorn, the confusion on her face only increased.

"Thou art simply burning up! We had not expected for his lair to be that strenuous on thou." The lunar princess let the unicorn use her leg as support and they slowly walked out of the room into the hallways, Luna making sure to close the doors with her magic before the guard came on his usual route. The princess's leg wasn't the best support she could have asked for, but it was still best to feel something colder then herself.
"This is most unusual, dear Twilight. No matter how long We hold onto thou, thine heat dost not relent." Twilight would have chuckled at the Luna's poor choice of words, but simply couldn't bring herself to do even that. She herself understood that something was wrong at this point.

"Princess... How... how long was I... lying on that... floor?..." She managed to ask, not feeling as cheery as she did back in the room. Luna thought about it for a bit before turning her head to the unicorn, still leading her down a hallway to a guest room.

"We felt thy magic at least five minutes ago... When thou haven't come for a discussion, we decided to check..." So, she was lying there for more then five minutes, and yet, she still felt too hot. Maybe there was more to her state then just the cavern getting to her... Didn't he say something about a spark?...

She couldn't think in this state, so she decided to wait until tomorrow. The lunar princess, however, had other plans. Twilight noticed how Luna's horn kept glowing after it opened the door of a random guest room. The princesses hardly ever had any guests that needed them, so it was a safe bet to think any would be empty. She helped the unicorn get to her bed, though at that point Twilight simply refused to get under the covers.

"I'm sorry... But... but no..." Was her greatest reason. The princess soon realized why the lavender mare was so reluctant to get under them.

"Then we shalt not bother thou. Have a good rest, Twilight Sparkle." She said before turning around and leaving in a rush, closing the door behind. The unicorn managed to spot the horn still glowing, even when the lunar princess didn't seem to use it at the time. She only lay on the bed for a couple of minutes before getting a much better idea. Well, realistically, it was stupid, but she was willing to try it anyway.

She slowly slid off of her bed and gone towards the bathroom, her lack of support letting itself show with her staggering all the way, falling only on the wall next to the door. She used her magic to open it up and get inside, closing the door behind herself, as she looked around. Clean, white, everything she expected from a guest bathroom. As such, she made her way to the bathtub and crawled inside of it. The coolness of the tub instantly made her feel better as she sighed with relief. It was a stupid idea, but maybe now she really could sleep. Soon enough, her theory was deemed as a success.

You ever get this feeling, where you can't sleep because you feel like someone is watching you? Yea, the lavender mare either, and yet, she felt a pair of eyes pointed directly at her. As such, she decided that perhaps waking up would be the best option. She tried to stretch out, but only felt something warm get in the way. Where was she ag- Oh right. Her idea. Well, now that she felt someone looking at her, she felt twice as awkward. She opened her eyes a bit, she must have forgot to turn off the lights when she got inside last night, it didn't take long to get used to it. However, when she saw who was watching her, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Princess Celestia had one of the most confused expressions one could ever see on her. She smiled once she noticed that Twilight was looking back at her, though still a puzzled expression continued to dominate on her face.

"Good morning, my faithful student. How was your sleep?" Twilight's ears laid flat on her head as she tried to come up with an explanation. She sat up as her thoughts were flying by far too fast to grasp for any solid explanation, as she tried to give her mentor at least a response.

"It was..... good?" The princess simply nodded lightly, it made Twilight feel like she had picked the wrong reply after all.

"Are you feeling any better?" Now that question was a bit stranger.

"Better? What do you mean?" Her teacher's smile faltered for just a moment before she recomposed herself

"Your abnormal temperature yesterday. Luna contacted me while still guiding you here-""Wait." There was a small pause, the princess expecting an explanation as Twilight's face was hard to tell at that moment.

"Princess..... You know telepathy magic?" Celestia chuckled, her smile returning. At least she knew her student was better, judging from her priorities.

"Yes, Twilight. But before you ask about it, I would like an answer first." Twilight's face first was of confusion and disappointment before realization dawned her, all happening without a single moment.

"Oh! Right, sorry. Um..." She looked down at herself. She felt mostly normal, nothing was really off, she felt fine while pressed against the tub with her haunches, so maybe... Wait...
"I... I think I'm still a bit warm... The bathtub isn't cold at all to me..." She said. The princess was a bit skeptical on her answer, considering, if she was correct, that Twilight spent the whole night in that tub, especially when she was still as hot as her sister told her before. Instead, she walked closer to her student, earning a confused look from her student, and put her hoof to Twilight's forehead, just below her horn. She learned that her student was, in fact, correct. Twilight's temperature was still above normal, but the unicorn seemed to feel perfectly fine.

"Hm... You are right, my faithful student. But, do you feel comfortable with your temperature?" She asked. The lavender mare took several seconds to think through it and replied a bit hesitantly.

"Well... It's not bothering me... But, if it's possible, I'd like to see him again..." The princess smiled and put her hoof back down.

"Yes. But remember, your train arrives today. I'll come for you if you'll overstay there. But first, I suggest you freshen yourself up." Twilight looked at her teacher for a few seconds before turning to the mirror in front of the sink nearby. Her cheeks flushed from how messy her coat and mane looked: There were loose hair strands all over her mane and a quick look at her tail revealed one big chunk of purple lying in the tub behind her. She touched her coat and realized just how sticky it felt from the sweat.

"Um, yes. Thank you, Princess." The sun princess simply chuckled lightly before leaving her student alone in the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She was quite worried when she entered and didn't find Twilight in the bed. If she wouldn't have been in the bathroom, Celestia felt like she would go search for her and make sure she was alright before anything else. After allowing Twilight to learn more about her 'guest', she felt responsible for any changes Twilight might endure.

She walked down the hallways towards the throne room, it was still early morning and Twilight had at least a few hours before the train. As much as Celestia wanted to spend them with her dear friend and faithful student, she knew that Twilight needed to sort her problem first and it would probably take up all of the remaining time. She sighed, but smiled.

Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that the princess found her earlier, seeing a friendly face definitely boosted her confidence. She trotted down the hallway, her image much better after the quick shower, though she didn't know for how long it would last her. Once she was outside the bathtub before, she instantly felt how she still was too warm to be normal. Surprisingly, that didn't bother her too much now, everything just started to feel colder then herself instead. It was a bit unnerving, but she would meet Terror soon and ask what was going on.

Terror... he never really told his name. He said it himself, it was just a nickname, and she really didn't believe he had no name. Well, not like he would tell it to her that easy. Maybe if they got to know each other a bit better, he would open up, though the way he acted last time made her sigh. The unicorn soon saw the double doors and opened one of them to get inside. Closing the door behind herself, she walked towards the symbol, looking at all the runes. This time, she had to do both the spell to the cavern and back by herself. She wasn't sure how long she could stay because of that, and the worst part was she had no way to tell the time. Twilight simply sighed and decided to improvise. She wanted answers.

An aura surrounded her horn as the runic symbol began to glow like before. She noted to herself that it was much easier to do it then she thought before. She closed her eyes so the light wouldn't blind her and only opened them when she felt a sudden rise in temperature around her. The teleportation was successful, so at least that was going in her favor so far. She felt the incredible heat again and decided not to wait until she's exhausted again and jumped off the platform, galloping towards the entrance to the cavern.

To her surprise, the other light source was exactly in the same spot as yesterday. Did he really not move this entire time? She shook her head and simply galloped towards the second light source, casting the illumination spell. She really needed to think of a better way to light her path, but there was no time to think on details right now. Twilight slowed down her pace when she saw that he was, in fact, lying on the exact same spot as before. Only this time his head wasn't lying on the rocks, his neck was raised up and his eyes were closed. When she trotted to the entrance of his little section, his eyes slowly opened. She walked a bit closer before deciding to start.

"Good morning, Terror. Hope you had a nice rest." She started, trying to calm herself enough to try and have a nice conversation before her questioning would begin. She wanted him to trust her after all, and being demanding would probably not help her cause.

"I have no sense of time here, Twilight Sparkle." He replied, which caused her ears to fall flat. Well, so much for being nice. Then again, she really couldn't fault him for that, it was impossible to tell the time in this cavern. Maybe that's why Celestia told her she'd come for the unicorn before? She pushed the thought aside, concentrating on the stallion in front of her.

"Right, sorry. Did you at least rest? You said you were tired last time." His eyes were exactly like yesterday, half open and staring at her with an unidentifiable emotion.

"I have not been given rest for a while now." He simply replied. She expected him to say something else, but he just laid there and looked at her, tilting his head lightly. That finally gave her the message that he was waiting for her question. He still didn't want to talk out of order, which somewhat irritated her. But if anything, that just meant she'd try harder.

"You didn't have the chance to sleep yet?" He suddenly straightened his head and looked at her intently. He didn't look aggressive, but she learned that he never shows his emotions, so took a step back regardless.

"That is not the case. The younger girl accused me of something that caught my interest." Her ears suddenly straightened up. Young one? Who else knew about- Luna? She was Celestia's younger sister, did he refer to her?

"Princess Luna? She was here? What happened?" She asked, forgetting about her caution and taking a few steps to him.

"Indeed. She accused me of causing your temperature to rise. Even gone as far as trying to assault me." That did not sound good at all. Her ears fell flat again as worry crossed her face.

"Oh no, what did you do?" He seemed far too calm when talking about one of the most powerful alicorns threatening him.

"Calmed her down and asked about you." Twilight found that explanation a little too far fetched.

"Just like that?" When her reply was silence for at least a minute, she gave up and decided to simply continue on.
"Well, what do you think?" He closed his eyes and lay there for a few second before giving his reply.

"As absurd and unbelievable as this theory is to me...My only guess is that visiting my home lit up your fire." She actually could hear it, even if it was gone the next time he talked. His voice betrayed his irritation. So, he wasn't a rock after all and had emotions, that was somewhat good news. Still, she wasn't sure what caused it.

"Is... something wrong with that?..." She asked, careful not to tip him over the edge. To her surprise, he simply opened his eyes and talked as if he was completely fine, albeit too calm for his own good, as usual.

"Not exactly... Come over here, Twilight Sparkle." That really caught her off guard; he actually talked out of line. Was he worrying about something? Against her better judgment, she decided to come closer to him, standing right in front of the lying alicorn. His eyelids further opened, something she didn't expect, as he stared directly into her eyes. His eyes weren't completely open still, but there was only a bit closed which would hardly count.

She noticed how something started to change in his eyes. His stare held the same intensity, but something was moving in them. She finally saw the iris of his eyes start to move. She never seen something like this before, his irises filled with red flames which slowly danced. She could swear the fire was come right from the eye and dancing in the air, similar to his mane and tail. After several seconds, she felt a strange heat near her temples. His gaze faltered. She then felt the heat disappear and he closed his eyes, the flames hiding under his eyelids. The unicorn blinked a few times and took a few steps back.

"Um... What just.... happened?..." She asked, a little shaky. She brought a hoof up to her temple and felt that it was, as she felt before, hotter then before.

"Your fire..." He muttered, earning a confused look from the lavender mare. He then opened his eyes like before, his half open eyes looking at her general direction.
"Tell me, Twilight Sparkle." Ok, so he was now leading a conversation. This was starting to frighten her a bit, he was changing from an answering machine to an actual person far too fast.
"Have you been taking an interest in... how would your kind call it..... fire.. magic?" At least two parts of that sentence rang bells in her head, but she decided to keep them in the back of her head and first answer his question.

"Fire magic...? Well, yes, after I started to try gather information about... well, you..." She gave a light sheepish grin.

"I'm flattered. Regardless, then that means you need to continue your study." Twilight was a little confused by his conclusion. She was going to continue studying it regardless.
"Eventually you'll learn to control your own fire within." That just further confused the poor mare.

"But... what?" She sat down on her haunches, but doing so revealed that she was already starting to sweat from the heat surrounding her. She quickly stood up, she was not intending to leave as exhausted as she did yesterday.
"Terror, could you please just tell me what caused this?" He finally half-opened his eyes.

"Perhaps the young girl had some weight to her words after all." Before Twilight was able to add anything, he finished in his calm tone.
"Two sparks meeting never lead to anything good." At this claim, Twilight stood still, standing towards him with her side, as her head turned between the exit from his seemingly favorite section of the cavern and himself. In the end, her logic won over her curiosity.

"Maybe in my next visit we could talk about it?" She asked, looking at him. He didn't reply with an answer, rather by putting his head down on the rocks. Seems like he understood the visit was over.

"Goodbye, Terror. I hope to see you soon." She turned away and walked towards the exit from his section. He didn't reply back.