Tomb of Magic

For the first time in hours, I looked up from the Runic journals. The entries in the second book stopped after Selene's third entry. No explanation was given. All the pages were simply blank, as if I was the only pony who'd touched them in all these years.

The hat was very quiet and perfect for reading. It was almost like Sombra had never existed.

Sombra! Where was he?!

"Sombra?" I called, pressing my face to the crystal window.

No reply of course, but it looks like we were still moving.

Well, I could always read the third book...

Hmm, books or Sombra. What a difficult choice. I curled up in the chair I had been sitting, refitting myself back into the Twilight Sparkle-shaped groove I had made.

My magenta aura brought the third book, which really fit the description of ancient-looking, to rest on my forelegs. The runes were scratchy and weren't as legible as the previous journals but still clear enough for me to read the thoughts of the one they called Kawblance...

...

Brutal! Bloodthirsty! Pure evil! Who knew 'Lene could be so sadistic? Sure it is not very nice being in so much PAIN, but wow... I can respect a deed that cruel.

But it was amazing! She, the funny speaker like 'Lara attempts murder then runs into the woods.

I wish I could kill others like that...I am working on it, though...

...

I cannot believe that nopony has found her yet even after three months. 'Lara is still attending the Unicorn Court which means I get plenty of time to myself.

Starswirl has no care for me and the old coot does not even teach me anything like he promised. He has an almost endless amount of books. One of them I now claim as my own.

For over a year since I got here, I have been working on reading it.

It is quite magical, considering every time I open it the title and content will change, although if I wanted to I could go back and re-read parts.

Today it is teaching me how to change my appearance.

An hour later, Starswirl stomps down from the upper floors and I gingerly slip the book away into an empty nook where a brick in the fireplace used to be. Instantly, it shrinks and its blackish color lightens to a gray.

"Quit your idle behavior! I have to go and look for that wild runaway and  I will not have the chimney this filthy!" He passed me the chimney sweeping brush, impatiently waiting for me to take it.

"I can't sweep anything, I have a broken shoulder!"

Did he think my 'skirmish' with 'Lene resulted in no injury?!

Starswirl's eyes flared. "OH YES YOU WILL!" He cracked me over the head and before I even had time to adjust my sling and I was incased in a teleportation spell.

Is it really a wonder that I think murder is therapeutic?

The again, isn't it our hobbies that relax us the most?

...

Great.

Where better to teleport the colt with a broken shoulder then, I don't know...the roof?!

The Magicspire didn't have a very steep roof so I was lucky there and with all the soot on my coat all I had to do was creep over to the edge of the tower's roof and wait in an awkward crouch until Starswirl left. A few minutes later, I saw his form leave.

Perfect.

Once he was gone, I climbed up to the chimney and pulled out a small box hidden there among the dirty bricks. In it were the only things I had: my book which teleported here, a white shirt that was too big for me, and a string of rough gem pieces, a small twinkling sapphire in the center. Those two objects were the only clues I had to who the mangy curs my parents were. I'd had the necklace and shirt for as long as I could remember, and oh the things I remember.

There was so much soot on my coat, the original color was almost impossible to make out, which was a rather sharp contrast to the untouched state of these objects.

Once during a portrait the Ever So Stuffy Starswirl commissioned, I was able to get most of the soot off with the exceptions of a few patches.

That was a year ago.

Reluctantly, I put my things away and lowered myself into the ashy maw of the chimney, which acted as my passage through the tower.

When I find my parents, I will kill them.

And I will enjoy it.

...

Screams exploded from the woods hours later: an angry shout followed by a heartbroken shriek and the howl of a wolf. Eagerly wanting to see what happened, I slid down the chimney, which was unbroken by fireplaces by whatever stupid architect built this place. At the main floor I found Starswirl clutching a bloody sword in his aura. He threw down the broken corpse of a white wolf whose yellow eyes were hollow and glassy with death.

"Curse those animals!" he shouted to nopony in particular.

I turned around and backed toward the fireplace from where I came. He always does this and I wouldn't let him catch me, especially since I still hadn't recovered from 'Lene's beating or my 'trip' to the woods.

The echoes of Starswirl's screams climbed higher as I inched upward through the sooty, sooty, hollow. He couldn't get me in here.

"That wolf let her get away!"

Away? 'Lene found a way out? But how...?

So it is possible. There is a possibility of escape. Well then, it seems as if things have changed.

Soon Ol' Starswirl will see his folly.

I'll kill him. I'll be the last sight he'll ever see.

But everything takes time, including murder, and patience isn't a very familiar concept to me. Though this will all be worth it. I grinned wickedly in this dark recess and whispered to nopony but myself.

"It's such a crime isn't it?"