Delaying the Inevitable

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11

Chapter 1

Chapter 1[/size]

Where in the name of Celestia is that guy? I was wondering to myself.

I must have been standing here waiting for his arrival for surely half an hour now, I might as well go to university all by myself.

I turned myself around to the park’s exit. It was pretty windy today and the weather team announced it’ll be going raining for most of the day now. I was walking away from the place I’m always standing at, where I wait for my friend Comet Shade to arrive. But it seemed he decided not to come today. I hope he’s alright.

‘Heeeey! Omega! Where do you think you’re going without me?’ I heard the voice of Shade behind me, but it was not well audible because of the wind.

I turned myself around and saw him, he’s mane and tail were almost standing horizontal because of the wind.

‘Come then! We’re gonna be late!’ I shouted to him. He couldn’t hear well what I was trying to say so I waved my hoof at him to signify he should follow me. He saw it and ran closer to me.

‘What was taking you so long?’ I asked.

He was breathing heavily, he must have been running from his home to here.

‘I’m terribly sorry for that,’ he shouted so I could hear him better, ‘but I had overslept myself I believe.’

I smiled and rolled with my eyes. That’s when a raindrop fell on my muzzle.

‘We should better hurry now, we don’t want to be late for Veral’s class’, I told Comet Shade.

Shade and I both study history together. We met each other last year when we started the studies and we have become friends since then. I don’t know why but history had always interested me a lot. It’s like telling a story, but you’re telling a story that has actually really happened unlike the legends of Richard the Hoovenheart, the Mare in the Moon and other old ponytales.

But the pony that has always interested me the most, is none other than the almighty Starswirl the Bearded. He was the man that has shaped our great land of Equestria. Without him, I believe Princess Celestia would’ve never become such a good leader.

And Comet Shade, well he loves telling stories. When we come together to study, he always takes the word. He is a master in convincing everypony that history surely is a piece of magic.

But now back to reality: we arrived, soaking wet. Both of us tried to get the water out of our hair and fur, but the only thing we were doing was making each other wet. My tail was just dragging on the floor getting dirty and making the tiles wet while Shade’s tail was short and didn’t have that problem. But luckily we were right in time and class had just started. There aren’t many other ponies following history. Only seven more, making a total of nine.

And there was our favourite teacher, professor Veral.

‘Alright alright everypony, the lesson has started so shut up,’ he said in his deep voice.

Everypony looked in front of them and got silent, the lessons have begun.

Today’s lesson was about Starswirl, we had been talking about him for a couple of days now already, it’s incredible what he all had done.

‘And so when Celestia faced Discord, she found herself completely defenceless against him. But by luck and miracle, Starswirl and Scorpan came to her using their newly made spell, the Spell of Harmony.’

I wrote down ‘Spell of Harmony’. I already knew about this: ‘it was the spell Starswirl and Scorpan used that had the ability to turn Discord into stone. However, they found out that the spell was too unstable to use it another time so they decided to fix the spell, but eventually never got around to do it.’ When I was saying that, Veral said the exact same thing at the exact same moment. Everypony looked at me. Veral too, he had his eyebrows lifted. I heard somepony whisper ‘nerd’ in the background and I started to laugh awkwardly and my cheeks turned red.

‘I see you already know a lot of this, don’t you?’ Veral said to break the awkward silence.

‘Oh yes, of course,’ I answered. And I knew everything of it, except for one little thing but I decided to ask Veral that question after the lesson ended.

‘I didn’t know you knew so much about Starswirl?’ Comet Shade said, he was sitting next to me.

The lesson had ended and everypony left except for me as I wanted to ask Veral something. He was already packing up his stuff.

‘Professor?’ I said. He looked up to me and continued: ‘what’s the matter?’

‘I was wondering myself, why didn’t anypony finish that spell?’

The professor moved his eyes all around the room giving and expression that even he wouldn’t know the answer. But I was wrong: ‘oh, well that’s because the spell unfortunately got burnt away after a fire struck his library.’

He finished packing up and then continued: ‘he was able to save a couple other pieces of his work, but the Spell of Harmony was forever gone in the flames.’

‘That’s so unfortunate,’ I replied. Professor Veral sighed and continued: ‘that’s the way things go, Omega.’ He left the room and I did too.

‘See you again tomorrow,’ Veral told me and I thanked him. Shade had been waiting at the door for me to get out of the classroom.

‘Was that a revenge for me letting you wait this morning?’ he said in a laughing tone. I sniggered and we walked down the square to our favourite brasserie here in Canterlot to get ourselves a nice hayburger to eat.

Bourgon, the gastron of the brasserie knows us very well by now and immediately gave us a table to sit at. Luckily it didn’t rain so hard as before, but it was still windy so we decided to seat ourselves inside.

‘So, what shall it be? A hot saddle, Cutie Mark Tartiflette or a hayburger I presume?’

We nodded at each other and Shade answered Bourgon: ‘you can get us a hayburger, thanks.’

Bourgon bowed down his head and left us. I opened my backpack and lifted a book out of it using my magic.

‘Ah, come on Omega, it’s dinner time! Put that book aside, we’ll study in the evening. Just enjoy your hayburger for now.’ I looked at him with a saddened face, still having the book lifted up.

‘Fine then,’ I answered. I placed the book back in my rucksack and put my hoof on the table so I could rest my head on it.

Comet Shade sniggered and rolled with his eyes. ‘You can’t stop learning about that Starswirl now can you?’

I put my head straight and said: ‘yeah yeah, I know. I’m an egghead,’ and I let my head rest on my hoof again.

‘I didn’t mean this to be insulting or anything, Omega. It’s just that it’s quite characteristic of you to constantly be studying.’

I pulled away my attention from Shade as Bourgon had arrived with two hayburgers and two bowls of water.

‘And here you go, a hayburger for monétalon and a hayburger for majument,’ he said to make fun of us as we’re always sitting here together like a couple. He gave us our two plates. Both of us lifted the hayburger up with our magic.

‘And besides, hmmm,’ Shade tried to say whilst swallowing a piece of his hayburger, ‘it’s ponies like you that tend to change Equestria. I mean just look at Celestia, no wonder she is a princess with all that knowledge she has, or say Starswirl.’

‘Yeah, I don’t see a book horse becoming a princess any time soon,’ I replied.

He ignored my rather pessimistic remark and he continued: ‘and I’ve got a random interesting fact for you by the way. Did you know that the hayburger actually comes from Hayburg? In the original recipe, hayburger is made with hay, dried in a unique way like they tend to do there in Hayburg,’ he continued.

I found his voice very soothing and made me become much more relaxed. That is one of the reasons why I adore it when he tells a story to me.

We finished eating our hayburger and got back to university to follow our side lessons: geology, astronomy and Equestrian. If I were to say which lesson intrigues me the most, it must be geology as it is like trying to look for a treasure. I wonder if there would be any artifacts of Starswirl left that still needed to be found, that would be amazing! To find an old library or laboratory of him would answer so many questions I still have about him.

It was evening and my day at university was over. I decided to go to Comet Shade’s so we could study together. Comet Shade lives on the outskirts of Canterlot at the hillside which gives an incredible view on the Equestrian fields.

‘Now you can take out your books,’ he told me suspiciously polite. I smiled at him and took out our history book and laid down on the sofa. He took a seat on his father’s chair. I took the book using my magic and put it right in front of my eyes blocking my view from him.

‘So according to this book,’ I said while slowly lowering my book down, ‘after Scorpan left his brother Tirek, he decided to team up with Starswirl to create a spell that could be casted on Tirek if he would ever be able to escape: the Spell of Harmony. It says here that the spell took the two 34 years until it was done, but I can recall myself reading another book that said it took them 42 years to finish the spell?’ I looked at Comet Shade.

He smiled and sighed: ‘8 years difference? Does that really matter? Anyways, the Spell of Harmony had the ability to transfer magic from one pony to another, including earth pony magic, pegasus magic, unicorn magic and even alicorn magic! Phew, pretty impressive.’

‘I know right?’ I continued. ‘I’ve heard the spell was based on Tirek’s ability to suck away other ponies’ magic. Starswirl gave that spell to Celestia so she would be able to weaken Discord by taking away his magic.’

And the rest of the time, we were studying, asking each other some questions to see if we understood everything well. This went on for a couple more hours until late in the night when I decided to get home again.

Chapter 2

‘And then Starswirl decided to banish the Sirens to the alternative world he had discovered in the hope their magic would be forever lost.’

I nodded at Shade: ‘exactly.’

‘And that’s just the tip of the iceberg I suppose?’ He continued.

‘Oh why yes! We are long not done yet with Starswirl for sure!’ I responded to him.

We were walking our way through the park, now with no hurry at all as Shade arrived on time today. The weather was still windy, but the pegasi decided to keep it a dry day today.

‘Oh, we start with astronomy today, right?’ Shade said in an interested tone.

‘Yes that’s right, it’s Friday,’ I replied.

‘I think it’s a little stupid why we need to learn astronomy for history, it doesn’t make a lot of sense.’

Comet Shade looked at me with his eyes spread open: ‘oh I adore it! Besides, there is a lot of history behind the science of astronomy.’

‘Yeah, like what? The Mare in the Moon? It’s just a coincidence that the craters on the moon formed a unicorn, everypony knows that by now.’

‘And so you’re saying Starswirl wore a dress with stars and planets on for no reason?’ He answered with his right eyebrow lifted.

We got back to the university and started with our lesson astronomy. I had laid my head on the table while Comet Shade was sitting straight up with a smile on his face. He was looking in front until he noticed me.

‘Ah, come on. Now you’re just asking for attention,’ he said almost covering the whole room with his voice. I made a movement with my hoof to tell him to lower down his voice.

‘This doesn’t interest me? What are we learning? Equestria is flat and it’s in the centre of space with both Sun and Moon orbiting around it thanks to Celestia’s magic, I knew that since I was a filly,’ and I covered the sides of my head with my hooves so that I couldn’t see what’s going on.

‘Not interesting? Huh,’ he responded. I took a peek at him and saw he had risen his hoof.

‘What are you gonna ask her?’ I told him.

‘Oh you’ll see,’ he said, leaving me with no answer.

‘Yes Comet Shade, what is it?’ The boring voice of the teacher sounded.

‘What is the importance of learning astronomy for knowing your history better? Like take for example Starswirl the Bearded, he had a costume with celestial bodies drawn on it?’

The teacher dropped down her chalk and answered on Shade’s question: ‘yes indeed. Starswirl was the pony who figured out that the Sun and the Moon orbit around Equestria. He later on used that knowledge for several of his spells and so forth.’

Comet Shade looked at me with a grin and looked back at the teacher: ‘and the Mare in the Moon. What about that? Is there any story behind that?’

‘No, that’s just a coincidence. Nothing more,’ she said.

I looked at Shade with the exact same grin he showed to me just a moment ago. He stretched out his lips, rolled with his eyes and looked away from me.

Astronomy lessons finally ended and it was time for geology again. Shade and I sat next to each other (like always) and I saw he was busy organizing his papers.

‘Oh, geology. Intereeeesting,’ he said to me and formed a grin.

‘Yeah yeah, laugh while you can,’ I responded.

We continued with the same course as yesterday. Our teacher was talking about the excavation of an ancient temple in the North Eastern side of Equestria. They had found many old sculptures and furniture there from an ancient pony civilization. That brought my mind back to that question I had in mind yesterday. About that Starswirl excavation? I actually didn’t really mean it at first, but who knows? Maybe there is still something to find about Starswirl? Like, maybe that burned library of him.

‘Oh my Celestia,’ I said to Comet Shade.

‘What’s up?’ He answered.

‘Oh, nothing. You’ll see.’

He looked at me with a confused face, he then lifted his shoulder and looked back at the teacher.

The lessons ended and Shade rushed to put everything in his bag: ‘let’s go to Bourgon’s I’m getting hungry.’

He ran towards the door but I gently strolled towards the teacher. I could hear Comet Shade growl silently in the hallway.

‘Sir, I had a question in mind. Could there be any chance that there is still something left to excavate concerning Starswirl,’ I asked him with a smile so large that the corners of my mouth almost reached my ears.

‘Starswirl excavations?’ He said with a questioning tone. ‘I don’t know, maybe? Where did he live?’

‘He lived in a cave in western Equestria where he did all of his studies at,’ I responded.

‘The fact that they knew where he lived must mean it’s already been excavated by somepony else so I’m not sure what to find there.’ He walked away but I hadn’t finished asking my question so I walked next to him.

‘But according to my teacher history, he had a library that burnt…’ my sentence got interrupted by my teacher: ‘look kid, I don’t know a whole lot about Starswirl. He died too recently to even consider thinking about excavating anything of him. And I’m really hungry now so I’ll see you next week.’

My tail dropped down a bit and my ears arched. I walked to Comet Shade who was impatiently waiting for me.

‘And I’m hungry as well,’ he said to me and started walking to the door.

‘Okay okay, order me one of his hot saddles for me then.’

The wind had calmed down and Canterlot Square was very busy today.

‘You weren’t really active in the lessons were you Omega?’

‘Oh no. Not at all. I was thinking about something way different, something that you might find intriguing as well.’

‘Yeah,’ he said laughing, ‘I believe it has to do something with Starswirl, doesn’t it?’

I smiled and said yes to him. ‘I decided to excavate some old artifacts of Starswirl for my year project. And I was thinking of maybe starting with the burned library. Who knows that maybe some of his work is still laying there, unaffected by the fire?’

‘Woah woah, now calm down Omega,’ he said to me whilst lifting up a hoof. ‘The year project? That’s for next year! And also, don’t go too crazy with all that, because you don’t want to be disappointed when you find out there’s nothing left for you to discover.’

‘I know, I know. But just imagine everything you had always asked yourself, explained in a whole assortment of ancient books!’

We continued our way to the brasserie and Bourgon was already expecting us.

‘Nice weather, isn’t it? But maybe still a bit too cold to stay outside so come in, come in!’

We took place at the same table we were before.

‘Two hot saddles for us, please,’ Comet Shade ordered. He then moved his head towards me.

‘And how would you even be able to know where that library is located at? It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.’

‘Then I suppose I’ll need to do some research first I believe?’

He smiled: ‘well I wish you the best of luck on your research adventure. But I won’t participate in any of that. Let me make that clear to you.’

‘As I was expecting.’

Bourgon came and brought us our order. The hot saddle was quite tasty, but no time to lose now. It’s time to meet professor Veral again, in the hope that he might bring me closer to my quest.

‘Hey, there you are Shade and Omega. Nice to see you two. Come in!’ he said and opened the door to the aula for us. Before I entered, I approached him so I could ask my question.

‘That library you spoke of, do you maybe know where it is located at?’ I asked him.

‘Wow. You’re very curious about all of this, aren’t you?’ He responded.

‘Yeah, Omega couldn’t stop basking about that. That pony even got so far to consider making her year project about all of that.’

Veral laughed at me and I could see his yellow teeth, not a quite pleasant view.

‘No offence, but even I, the pony who knows the most about history doesn’t even know where that library was located. Starswirl had completely demolished it to look for his last remaining works underneath the large boulders. He left nothing standing.’

I sighed: ‘oh, okay.’

‘Well I am sorry about that, but there is nothing left for a pony to know more about Starswirl than we already know about him.’

‘Yeah, I understand,’ I said to him and took place next to Comet Shade. He was sitting there, smiling with his quill in his mouth, disgusting. But Veral wasn’t done with answering my question: ‘of course there are many other things concerning Starswirl that you might discuss about for your year project, but think give it some more time. After all, it’s only for next year.’

‘Fine then, I guess,’ I responded.

‘Maybe look for some kind of book or scroll at the university’s library about the place he lived at or something like that. That might be interesting too, don’t you think so?’ Shade suggested.

I nodded and the lesson started. Now I got to focus myself on the lesson.

But I couldn’t focus myself on the lesson at all. And when it ended, I looked at my note paper, nothing was written on it. Shade packed up all of his stuff.

‘Come on! It’s friday Omega, you gonna come to my home?’ He asked.

‘Of course, right after I checked the library for books concerning Starswirl’s working place.’

I gently walked down the stairs on the aula but Shade made me to a halt because he had bitten me in the tail.

‘No you won’t,’ he came closer to me and put his hoof around my neck, ‘it’s Friday! Who learns on Fridays? Just hang out with me at my home. I’ll make you some popcorn, alright?’

I suppose he was right so I got to his home.

‘Alright, just make yourself at home, I’m gonna get us some popcorn while we do something together, okay?’

I placed down my bag of books behind the sofa so I would reassure Comet Shade I wouldn’t start reading the books and I laid on the sofa.

‘Good,’ he said and walked towards his kitchen.

I slowly took out a book from my bag using my magic. While he was busy setting everything up. I started reading in one of them.

‘So what do you think about the courses we see about Starswirl, have they surprised you in any way or did you know everything already?’ He said with his voice coming out of the kitchen. I could also hear him accidentally hitting pans and pots against each other. I lowered my book down to see if he was looking my way and then lifted it again when I saw he wasn’t.

‘Oh, I didn’t really learn anything new, except for a few things.’

‘A few things like?’ He continued.

‘Like the burned house,’ I said because I was more concentrated with the book than I was with the conversation.

‘The burned house?’ He responded.

I heard his hoofsteps getting closer so I hid the book behind the sofa and corrected myself: ‘uh the library I meant to say.’

He looked at me with only his face viewable in the doorframe.

‘Oh yeah,’ he continued and went away again, ‘I was already expecting that you just said it wrong.’

He was gone but I decided it would be better to really put that book away now so I placed it back in my bag.

‘So euhm, what shall we do now? They’re having a theatrical performance in the park, shall we go and take a look there?’ I heard him saying with the sound of popping corn in the background.

‘What is it about?’ I asked.

‘Goh, can’t remember. But we’ll see, I reckon it’ll be good,’ he came out of the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn. I was still sitting on the couch.

‘Come on, let’s go!’ He shouted and I stood up. It was almost dark outside, but the Sun has not fully gone down yet so you could still see a whole lot. And in fact, as we were getting closer and closer to the park, the sound of many voices got clearer and clearer. Most of the ponies there were elders from a higher class.

‘You sure this show is gonna be interesting for us, Comet? I asked.

‘Well I wasn’t expecting to see only this folk around here, but it could still be interesting, right?’ He confirmed.

‘There are still two spots left, let’s take them before anypony else does,’ I noticed. We went to sit on it, it was at the third row.

‘Oh, I can recall what the performance was about. It was an act created by a pony from the drama class. About an explorer travelling through Equestria.’

‘Oh, that’s sounds interesting,’ I answered while lifting up a popcorn and chew on it.

‘I say!’ I heard one of the voice speaking louder than the others. I turned myself around and I saw it was none other than Princess Celestia that came to take a look at it as well. Shade and I got out of our seats and bowed down just like many others did. I could hear the sweet voice of Celestia grinning and then she continued: ‘no need to be so royal to me. We are all here to get some entertainment, are we not?’ I put myself straight again, Shade as well. Celestia noticed us.

‘Oh, it seems some young folk decided to come and take a look as well? That doesn’t happen often, does it?’ She said.

I was speechless for a while, but luckily Shade took the word: ‘of course, we came here for entertainment as well. But I should say that I decided to take a look as I know Omega Flame here likes to do so.’

I looked at Shade with waving lips and a frown and then I pointed my attention to Celestia and I felt my cheeks got warmer and I awkwardly smiled at her.

‘Oh, is that so?’ She asked.

‘Well, a bit yes. It can be learnful?’ I said making an unintended questioning tone at the end.

She grinned and said: ‘I believe it does, are you so much into learning then?’

I felt myself much more comfortable talking to the princess and I continued: ‘I study history together with Comet Shade here and I really enjoy it.’

Celestia kept on smiling and even showed her teeth: ‘I can surely agree with that.’

I looked up at her with a bigger smile, Shade noticed me.

‘Oh yes, there are many things I could ask you. You used to live together with Starswirl the Bearded, am I co…,’ I got interrupted by Comet Shade who put his hoof in front of my mouth. He whispered to me: ‘keep in mind, you’re not just talking to a pony, you’re talking to the princess here. She doesn’t like it when ponies are annoying her like that, okay?’

Even though he whispered, the princess had understood what we were saying here: ‘that is totally not a problem, Comet Shade.’

She looked at the podium and saw a pony sticking his head out of the curtain.

‘But I believe it’s time for the performance everypony.’

Shade and I turned around towards the podium again and I squeaked: ‘I can’t believe I just talked to Princess Celestia!’

Comet Shade looked at me, smiled and signified with his hoof to calm down.

‘Oh, there are many places unknown by ponykind in Equestria,’ the performance began. It was in fact about a pony travelling through the vast lands of Equestria, he went to the icy cold tops of the Crystal Mountains to deep in the ravines of Griffonstone. He decided to look for the mythical monster Arimaspi and the Idol of Boreas. His adventures really intrigued me, I couldn’t stop listening to the story, even though it was made up. But the Idol of Boreas did or does exist though, I had read a book about it. Comet Shade noticed me staring at the performance with my mouth wide open and closed it with his hoof. I shook my head and looked at him, he was smiling. I nodded: ‘this looks so amazing to do!’

Shade closed his eyes and nodded, not really meaning it. We looked further at the performance till the end. And when it was done, I got woken up from my trance once again as everypony started to stomp their hooves at the ground.

I breathed in and out and looked at Comet Shade: ‘no matter what everypony tells me, there has to be something out there in Equestria that still needs to be explored?’

‘I have to say,’ Comet Shade replied to my question, ‘it does look fascinating to do, yet it’s still nothing for me.’

I stood up: ‘trust me, you don’t know what you’re missing.’

Everypony was mingling with each other as we subtly left the area back to our homes. Before we went however, Princess Celestia came to me and asked me a question: ‘learned anything from this performance?’

I looked at her and said: ‘I see now how intriguing it can be to explore strange, new worlds.’

Celestia smiled, closed her eyes and made one nod: ‘is that something you would like to do then?’

‘Yes, I had been thinking about doing this for my project next year. Trying to find something valuable from the past.’

‘You know it takes a lot of power, courage and wisdom for doing such expeditions?’

‘Of course! But I will not give up any time soon.’

She nodded once more: ‘very well, I wish you the best of luck with your studies.’

‘Thank you, princess.’

I looked back at Comet Shade, he was standing a bit further. I hopped towards him and I returned back to home.

Chapter 3

The rays of the rising Sun covered my entire room and I woke up because of it. It was Saturday that day, that means it’s time for me to study on my own. Shade was probably still sleeping anyways so I got out of my bed to go and visit the library now. After that performance, my interest in starting that expedition only grew stronger and stronger. But Shade is in fact right for one thing, it’s for next year. I still have the time of the world to do research about it. So that is why I decided to get to the library.

It was very silent there, not only because it is prohibited to talk too loudly, but because it was morning.

Even though I have read many books concerning Starswirl, I believe I haven’t read all of them yet. Besides, it doesn’t mean that if the book isn’t marked as containing information about Starswirl, that it is certain it has absolutely nothing to do with him. So, where to start? I might as well first start looking for books specifically about Starswirl before digging deeper.

I walked towards the history category. I already knew where the books were positioned so looking for the letter ‘S’ wasn’t needed. There were in fact quite a lot of them, they filled ten shelves, each of them being about seven meters long. I scanned through the shelves looking for a book I hadn’t read yet. I had to go all the way to shelve six to find a book I hadn’t read yet and intrigued me the most. I am an egghead, but don’t expect me to have read five shelves of Starswirl. Besides, some of them are written poorly and contain barely any useful or interesting information about him. Some of them even feel like straight copycats from other, more famous books.

Anyways, I decided to go and read in the book. I went to a reading spot in the library, it’s a corner in the building with sofas and pillows to make the reading more comfortable.

I was analyzing the content of the book as well as writing down key notes on a separate sheet of paper.

After reading a part in the book which did in fact take almost the whole day, I found the following:

Starswirl did in fact live in a cave in Western Equestria after befriending Scorpan. Their reports were immediately sent to Princess Celestia. She kept it in the old Canterlot Library for everypony to read. Except for the rather more ‘dangerous’ innovations from Starswirl and Scorpan. They were kept safe in a library elsewhere. The book doesn’t say anything about the burning of that library or where it was located at. Maybe the book will talk more about it later on, but the rest of the reading will probably be for tomorrow. I took the book with me to my home and read a couple more pages in it until I went to sleep again.

After a couple more days, I did in fact finish the book. But it didn’t speak about the burning of the library or its location, which was quite a bummer. What still might be interesting to talk about is the road from his cave laboratory to Canterlot. Apparently it was a really tough road to travel. The cave itself has been researched multiple times. And as it is still well in tact, everything has already been found about that place. So talking about that feels pointless. But I wasn’t finished yet. If I wanted to make my research impressive, I’ll have to do even more research.

It was Thursday next week, one day after I had finished reading that book. The lessons had just ended. We were in the park and I told Shade I would be in the library.

‘To read yet another book?’ He asked.

The answer was pretty obvious: ‘of course, there are still a couple more I would love to read before planning my travel.’

Shade sighed, I believe he didn’t really like me going elsewhere.

‘You can always accompany me if you would like to?’ I made it clear to him.

‘I know, but I was hoping to do something else for a change except studying.’

‘Like what?’

He stared in front of him: ‘like learning out other things except history. My magical skills are not well trained and I wanted to increase it by practising.’

I was let down a bit.

‘But that doesn’t mean I don’t show any interest in history. It’s just that I want to have a little change.’

‘Oh, yes of course. That’s alright for me.’

While we were talking we had slowed down and came to a stop. I made one deep nod at Shade, smiled and then turned myself around to get to the library. He was standing there for a little while later until he walked further again.

Looking for a proper book took a long while. The whole sixth shelve contained nothing more than books talking about Starswirl’s spells and discoveries. Luckily, I found a book worth reading on the eight shelf, somewhere in the middle of it. It looked like it was a very old one, the book was about the end of his life, something I know not a whole lot of anyways and we still have to cover it in the lessons. I chose this book aside from the rest as it is about the end of his life span, maybe it would talk a bit more about what happened with everything he had left. I gently tried to take out the book from the shelf using my magic. You could see a lot of dust particles floating through the air when I was letting it descend. I got to the reading spot again.

‘After the banishment of Discord into stone, Starswirl and Scorpan got into an argument about the usage of the Spell of Harmony.’

That makes sense, first of all: the spell was going to be used only against Tirek. Second of all: the spell was too unstable.

‘Scorpan wanted to avoid it being used against anything except Tirek, he even wanted to abandon the project. However, Starswirl the Bearded refused to. He wanted to finish the spell and make it so that it could be used for later possible threats. Three months after the argument, Scorpan left, but returned to steal the Spell of Harmony from Starswirl so that Starswirl would never be able to use it again.’

That’s quite odd? The Spell of Harmony was burned away together with the library. Why does it say that Scorpan stole it? My only possible explanation is that this book must’ve been written down before they knew it was the library that bursted into flames. I’m quite certain it’s in fact the library that got burnt down, not that Scorpan stole it. Professor Veral must be aware of the latests finds, he would never teach us old news. Still, I will have to be sure.

I lifted the book up with my magic and went to the local librarian with it, he must know about the age of the book, right?

‘Excuse me,’ I whispered to the old librarian. He was busy sorting out books and he didn’t instantly notice me. So I spoke a little louder: ‘excuse me, sir.’

He turned himself around: ‘eh what? Oh, you. What is it?’

I lifted the book down a bit more and showed him the cover. The book blocked the view between him and I so I stuck my head to the side and continued: ‘this book, do you perhaps know when it was written?’

The old librarian took a look closer at it. He looked through the pages of the book and the concluded: ‘hmm, yes. This book must have been written around about two hundred years ago from now.’

‘Two hundred years? That seems really old for this book.’

‘Oh well, you might be surprised how well books can be conserved with a little unicorn spell I learned from an old friend of mine.’

I stared at him and at the book.

‘Is there any chance you know about the loss of the Spell of Harmony?’

The man looked at me with a thinking face and then concluded: ‘goh, I can’t seem to remember well. You might consider asking professor Veral about all that, he’s the one who knows the most of this.’

‘Of course, I know him. I’m his pupil.’

‘Oh my, is that so? Well if you see him, tell him he gets my greetings!’

I nodded at him and got out of the building. The shimmers of sunset were covering the town square; it was getting pretty late. I decided to get home before it got completely dark and decided to ask my question to Veral next day.

So when the Sun got up again the next day, I was already standing at the park, waiting for Comet Shade to get here. It didn’t took long or I saw him walking towards me again. I had my books all covered away in my backpack.

‘Good morning,’ he said to me.

‘How was your magic practising?’ I asked.

‘Not bad, not bad. I had been practising to lift up items from a further away distance. I got up to five meters yesterday.’

He actually needs the practise quite hard. An average unicorn’s lifting radius is about seven meters, he lacks two.

‘And about your studies? Found anything new?’ He asked.

‘Yes, I actually did. I’m going to ask Veral for some more information about it.’

Shade gently laughed with his mouth closed.

We were in front of the university. At the door of the university, I saw Veral talking to the librarian I met yesterday. At the moment they saw both of us approaching, they shook hooves and the librarian left. We crossed him, I smiled at him and then focussed myself on professor Veral who was standing at the door.

‘Shade, Omega, good morning’, he kindly greeted us.

‘Good morning professor,’ Shade answered and he got to the door.

‘I’ll see you in class, Omega,’ he answered and left.

Professor Veral looked with a questioning expression at Shade and then moved his head towards me: ‘Is there anything you wish to ask Omega?’

‘Yes there is,’ I lifted the book out of my bag and showed it to him.

‘You see, I was reading this book yesterday and in the book, they claim that Scorpan had stolen the spell, it didn’t got burnt away together with the library.’

‘Oh yes, the librarian there,’ he said while pointing at him as he was still walking on the road, ‘said to me you had asked him about it. Now in fact it isn’t true, this book is not completely correct. The higher shelves in the library contain the older books that don’t always tell the truth.’

‘Oh, is that so? Then that must mean the library was a pretty recent discovery?’

‘Oh don’t worry, I will talk about that more in detail during the lessons,’ he concluded and he tapped his hoof on my back: ‘now let’s get inside.’

Chapter 4

‘So we will have to wait a couple more weeks before he’s finally going to tell something about it,’ I was talking to Shade while eating a hayburger at Bourgon’s. I was talking about what I had read in the book about the Spell of Harmony.

‘Hmm, that’s indeed quite strange’, Shade answered.

‘Not only that, but it was written down two hundred years ago,‘ I took a little break to take a bite in my hayburger and continued: ‘that must mean they’ve only known about that library after those two hundred years.’

‘Or maybe they knew about the library, but not that it was there where the spell got lost.’

‘True, but still: who would’ve come up with the story that Scorpan stole it?’

Shade rose his shoulders: ‘who came up with the Mare in the Moon or the Crystal Empire? People just like to fantasise about that sort of stuff.’

‘Hm, I guess you’re right. It’s just so unprofessional to write down a myth in such an important book without having proof to support it.’

Comet Shade had finished his hayburger: ‘it was quite delicious, but I’m growing tired of eating this. Next time, I’ll try something else for a change. Changing it out of my habit, but oh well.’

The rest of the day went without delay, it was still Thursday by the way. Well that was an unintended rhyme, but in any case, when I got out of school, I immediately got back to the library once again because I wanted to answer a question that I had in mind: when did they find out the spell was burnt away in that library? Getting back there, I looked for yet another book which was pretty tricky to find of course as I had gone through most of the books already, but nothing is impossible. However, I had to take my words back, none of the books seem to talk about it at a first glance, so I decided to read the books I was the most confident in that they would bear the answers. Three of them I had taken home with me.

‘You seem to be very fascinated about this, aren’t you?’ I heard the voice of the old librarian speak to me. I was just about to leave the library.

At first, I didn’t know where he was at, the whole library was empty. Until I saw him walking out of a passage.

‘Oh, you bet I am,’ I responded to his question.

‘Very well, but be aware of that. Would you like me to tell a little story about Starswirl the Bearded?’

‘Sure,’ I said for with interest.

‘It’s about a darker story than any other is of Starswirl. Something most of the public is not aware of. But when Starswirl got the task of Princess Celestia to create a spell to keep Tirek away for good, he got so fascinated about it that he would do everything to get that spell done. That lead him to abandon many of his pupils, friends and even other equally important projects.’

The librarian sneaked closer to me: ‘and when Scorpan decided to discontinue the project, Starswirl got so furious he started harming Scorpan and got completely crazy about it. Princess Celestia then had to intervene and decided to split the two apart. Scorpan returned to his homeland, Celestia kept the spell safe by having it guarded the whole day long by well trained guardians and Starswirl, he tried to sneak into the library, but it got out of hand. Instead of using his sane thoughts, he tried to get rid of the guardians by using fire. He had thought he would be able to extinguish the fire before it would reach any of his artwork. But his mind wasn’t clear and the fire spread all around.’

The old librarian was right in front of my muzzle: ‘he created his own fate by his own stupidity, by his foolishness. Do you now see the danger in your adventure?’

I took a step backwards to get myself some space and continued: ‘but I’m far not that fascinated by it that I would start doing that.’

‘Oh, you may think so. But before you know it, you might become a threat to our society.’

I took many more hoofsteps backwards and then I said: ‘don’t you worry, it’s going to be fine.’

I left the building back to my home, being pretty scared about all he said. I started reading in the first book titled: ‘Starswirl’s untold tails’. The first few pages didn’t speak about the Spell of Harmony and I couldn’t finish the book in just an evening. So again, it would have to wait another day.

And then, the next morning, something happened, something that barely never happens: Comet Shade had arrived before me. I hadn’t overslept me, did I?

‘Well that doesn’t happen quite often?’ He said. Making out of the tone he’s speaking at, I could conclude he just decided to get here earlier than he normally would.

‘Why the rush?’ I asked him.

He put himself in a concentrating position with his tongue sticking out and said: ‘oh, you’ll see.’

All of a sudden, my bag weighed less as Shade has been able to lift up the book I had started reading in yesterday.

‘Pretty impressive,’ I complimented him.

‘Thanks,’ and he brought the book towards him, ‘I thought it would take much longer than this, it’s still only five meters though.’

‘Don’t you worry, you’ll get you seven meters some day,’ and I winked at him.

When we got to the university, Veral wasn’t standing outside anymore, neither did I had to ask him any questions so we just got into the building towards the astronomy class, it was Friday.

And the day went as usual just like every other day, until the afternoon when we were busy following the history lesson. The history lesson itself wasn’t anything new to me, I already knew everything about Starswirl’s adventures in the caverns of Maretania. But the lesson got interrupted by a secretary worker who entered the aula. She started whispering with professor Veral and everypony was wondering what was going on.

‘What is she doing here?’ Shade wondered.

Obviously I couldn’t answer his question: ‘I don’t know.’

And then professor Veral pointed towards me and the secretary worker looked straight into my eyes. I looked behind me, there were 2 more ponies sitting, but it was clearly me they were pointing at as she shouted: ‘Omega Flame, the principal wants to speak with you.’

Everypony looked towards me and that felt a bit embarrassing for me. Being asked by the principal mostly means you have done something wrong, but as far as I know, I haven’t done anything against the law. I walked down the stairs and made a facial expression to Veral to ask what was going on. He just signified with his hoof to continue and nodded with his head that everything was going to be fine. The door got closed behind me and I was sent to the principal’s office. There, I was able to take a seat and the principal took the word: ‘Omega Flame is the name, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, why was I asked to come here?’ I said stressed out a bit.

‘Don’t worry, Omega Flame. Everything is fine, I just wanted to warn you for something.’

‘For what then?’

‘As I’ve heard from trustworthy sources, you are very interested in everything that is Starswirl related?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well then I will have to tell you to mind your interest,’ he said, stood up and continued: ‘Equestria knows a big history of ponies being obsessed with something. And as far as all our sources are concerned, none of those obsessed ponies ever got out without leaving a negative mark on our society. That is why we are getting slight concerns about your great interest in Starswirl.’

‘But, there are many ponies who are obsessed with something? What’s so wrong about me wanting to know so much about Starswirl,’ I tried defending myself.

The principal rose his hoof: ‘do you even have examples of that?’

‘Yes of course. My friend Comet Shade is very fascinated about astronomy.’

‘Has he ever wished to travel to the moon?’

‘Well, no. That’s not possible…’ I got interrupted.

‘That is what I wanted to point out to you. You would go through weather and wind just to increase your knowledge in Starswirl unlike other ponies would. And that is the dangerous thing about it.’

I looked down to the ground and then rose my head again to ask him a question: ‘so then what do I have to do to avoid that in the future? Cancel my studies?’

He sighed and got a bit closer towards me: ‘that is not what I am trying to say. Just, keep yourself cool. We will keep an eye on you if we see it is going to far.’

‘I still don’t understand all of this,’ I made the principal clear.

He put his hoof on my shoulder: ‘you’ll see later on, don’t worry.’

I stared at him until he tilted his head towards the door and nodded to signify I could go. I left the room with the same creeps as I had after the confrontation with the librarian.

In the evening, I got to Shade’s again.

‘That’s weird. Why do they warn you for that?’

‘I have absolutely no idea whatsoever. They say Equestria knows a big history with ponies who were too eager to find out about things. And they have apparently ‘ruined’ the society.’

Comet Shade started laughing: ‘why in the hay would they ever think that our community is bad? I can’t imagine a better and more peaceful one.’

‘I know right? And all those warning are not going to make me stop continuing my research.’

‘That’s the spirit,’ he said while getting out of the sofa we were sitting on, ‘everything they say is pure nonsense.’

‘But the librarian, he did give a valid example of Starswirl,’ I made clear.

‘The fact that it had happened with Starswirl, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen to you. You are a historian, he was a magician.’

We both stayed quiet for a while until Shade broke the silence: ‘so, you want to see some cool magic tricks I learned?’

‘Sure, go ahead,’ I told him.

He bowed down his head and closed his eyes. I saw the sparkles around his horn appearing. He started by grabbing a couple books out of his shelf and let them orbit around him in a nice circle.

‘Not bad, not bad,’ I complimented him.

‘Oh, this is just the beginning. Here is a trick you’re going to be jealous with,’ he boasted.

‘Alright,’ he said. He let the books turn around until the book that he was looking for came in front of him.

‘On the following page, line 16, there is written ‘from this day on, everypony started using the newly found oats’ on it. Correct?’

He opened the book on a page.

‘Line 16… ‘now add 250 grams of sugar to your mixture’ it says.’

Comet Shade opened his eyes with astonishment: ‘are you sure?’

‘It’s a cookbook, Shade,’ I laughed.

He closed the book and started to snigger awkwardly.

‘Oh well, it’s still a work in progress.’

He started rotating the books again and a new book got in front of him. It opened on a page.

‘Let’s see ‘from this day on, everypony started using the newly found oats’ it says. Wow, pretty impressive if you ask me. I would’ve thought this was something for more professional ponies?’ I said.

‘Yes, well, too be honest, I did in fact knew about that sentence and on which line it was. The real magical part here was locating the correct book.’

‘Oh, you tricky little pony,’ I laughed.

‘Well, doing that was already hard enough for me,’ he said while putting the books back, ’I’m not planning to fully master it any time soon. Besides, learning history is still a bit more fun, isn’t it?’ He said with a smile.

‘Of course,’ I answered and I looked through the window, it was getting dark.

‘But it’s time for me to go now if you don’t mind.’

‘Absolutely not! I’ll see you again next week?’

‘Sure, because I will be studying the whole weekend long. Bye!’ I ended the conversation and got out of the door, back to my house through the chilling cold of the night.

Chapter 5

Two more weeks passed and I had finished reading the three books I got from the library. Only one spoke of the burnt library, but it didn’t say when ponykind figured that out. But what was remarkable though, was that the front page showed the date the book was written on, which was approximately two hundred years ago from today. That must mean that this book had been written around about the same date the other book was. Of course there are a couple of years in between, but it didn’t even talk about the mistake the other writer made. It was strange, seriously strange. But besides that, I still haven’t got any more information on where that library could possibly have been located at.

And about those threats they gave to me, a couple of ponies like the librarian, the principal, guards and magicians kept on asking how I was doing with my studies. Most of the times I lied to them by saying I’m now just busy learning what we are covering during the lessons, but of course that’s not true at all.

It was Tuesday and the history lessons just finished. As always, we went to Bourgon’s. Just when we sat down on a spot, Bourgon got to us and asked for our orders. I still kept with my standard hayburger, hot saddle or tartiflette, but Shade has begun eating many more new things from the menu like roasted oats and so forth. After taking our orders, Bourgon didn’t leave yet, he wanted to ask me a question: ‘Omega, I’ve heard you wanted to start an excavation for your history lessons?’

I scanned the room by moving my eyes around and then continued: ‘yes, most preferably about Starswirl. And it seems not many ponies like that.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Well, since like a couple of weeks ago, they are constantly worrying themselves I would form a threat because of it.’

Bourgoun looked at me with his mouth open and his eyebrows forming a confused frown: ‘that’s silly?’

‘It is. But anyways, why did you ask me that?’

He pointed with his hoof to a stallion who was busy drinking soup at another table and Bourgon began to speak: ‘you see that pony there? He is a big adventurer from Eastern Equestria and since like four months ago, he started exploring the Everfree Forest. He has apparently found an interesting ancient building just lying there, ready to be discovered. And he is looking for a pony to accompany him.’

We were silent for a while because I was thinking about it. Then Bourgon continued: ‘it isn’t particularly anything Starswirl related, but it might still be interesting, wouldn’t it?’

I nodded: ‘yes, this is probably my only opportunity to ever start that expedition.’

I looked at Shade, he moved with his leg to signify it’s alright if I would leave him for now. I stood up from my chair and got to the stallion. He was a pretty large earth pony and had a brown beard and a gray-yellow fur. He noticed me and I sat down in front of him. There was a brief silent until I started greeting him: ‘Hello, sir. My name is Omega Flame and I’ve heard you were looking for a companion on your journey through the Everfree Forest. Is that correct?’

The stallion cleaned off his mouth using a towel and then continued: ‘yes that’s true,’ he had a really big accent, a typical eastern Equestrian one

‘My name is Navorse, I believe you came here to ask if I could take you with me to the Everfree?’

‘Indeed, I would like to visit that ancient temple you apparently have discovered for a project at my university.’

‘Now I hope you realize what will await you if you would enter the Everfree, right?’

I thought about it for a while, but honestly I didn’t know much about the Everfree Forest, barely anypony does. So I nodded no. He drank a bit more from his soup and then continued: ‘many dangerous creatures lurk in the darkness below the high trees like hydras, manticores and ursa majors just to name a few. Now don’t you worry about them, with me by your side, they won’t do much harm. But you still have to be aware of the threats that lie ahead because even I don’t know everything yet.’

That sounded pretty dangerous, but I didn’t decide to abandon the plan yet: ‘I am ready to take that responsibility.’

‘Alright, kid. Then I would like to meet you at the Canterlot southern walls this evening.’

‘Of course,’ I responded. I left his table and walked back to Shade.

‘So, what did he say?’ Shade asked immediately.

‘He seems to be alright with it. I thought it would take longer than this, but he made his decision fairly quick. I’ll have to meet him at the southern walls this evening though.’

‘For what?’ Bourgon came into the conversation.

‘I don’t know, maybe to set up the plan?’

‘So no studying this Tuesday evening? That’s new,’ Shade added.

It was pretty dark already so I decided to get to the wall now. He didn’t tell me an exact hour, but he must be there by now. I walked up the spiral stairs inside a tower of the southern wall. Then, I walked on the wall all the way until I saw a pony. It was Navorse who was standing there eating an apple. I got next to him, he was looking at the Everfree Forest which got lit up by the twilight. I looked at it as well.

After a silent moment, Navorse began to speak: ‘that forest is probably the biggest secret to pony kind, yet it is so close by the capital city of Equestria.’

I heard him biting in the apple and then he continued: ‘I have visited the forest two months ago, but swiftly I found out that you cannot simply get there all by yourself. And for many days, I have stayed here in Canterlot to wait for a brave pony to accompany me. And I guess you will do the job.’

Again, he took a bit from the apple and that was his last one before he threw it all the way down the cliff.

‘When do you have time to go there?’ He asked.

‘Next week is good for me.’

‘Great, we will meet here again at night-time. Until then,’ and he stayed there, looking at the horizon. Twilight faded away and the Everfree forest was covered in the darkness of the night. I left the wall and got back to my home.

And now it was Tuesday next week again. I had been silent about my journey to the Everfree Forest for the whole week long because I was a bit too scared that they would find me suspicious again. And they have already tried to sabotage me: the librarian said that the books about Starswirl had to go off the shelves for ‘examination’, guards are constantly keeping an eye on me and they sometimes even take a book out of my bag without me noticing it. It is weird and it is uncomfortable.

But now we were in the aula and history lessons just ended.

‘You come to my home for studying?’ Comet Shade asked: ‘I mean, now that I finally got to my seven meters, magic can rest for now.’

‘Oh yes. Shade, remember that earth pony from at Bourgon’s?’ I said while getting down the stairs.

‘Yes?’

‘We both decided to leave towards the Everfree Forest today. So when it will be getting dark, I’m going to the southern walls to meet him once again.’

Professor Veral caught that conversation and interrupted it: ‘are you going to the Everfree Forest?’

‘Yes, I will. For my year project.’

He didn’t stop interrupting me: ‘but, but… you don’t know the dangers of the Everfree Forest!’

‘I know them very well, I’ve read a book about it this week.’

He walked closer to me: ‘and with just one book, you feel yourself assured?’

‘Of course.’

‘Oh my Celestia, you don’t know what fate you will face. If I were you, I wouldn’t do that.’

‘Look professor, it is going to be all fine. I’m going there together with a trustworthy adventurer, he knows everything about the dangers.’

He got silent for now and I tried to use that time to get going, but then he started talking again: ‘well, it seems I cannot convince you with this one, but you will regret not listening to me.’

I opened my mouth to say something again, but Shade pulled at my leg to signify I should just leave it. I got out of the building, back to my home and stayed there for the evening, packing up all my stuff like some paper and quills, spare clothes and food and water. My bag didn’t weigh light at all, but it was bearable. When that was done, dusk fell and I got outside back to the southern wall where Navorse was patiently waiting for me. He also had a large backpack with him.

‘Are you ready?’ He asked.

‘I am,’ I answered.

‘Fine, then let’s leave Canterlot and get to the Everfree Forest.’

We walked down the wall again and got to the nearest exit. It was a large gate on the eastern side, guarded by some guards. Navorse got closer to the gate and he got halted by the guards.

‘Excuse me, please wait here,’ one of the guards told Navorse and they made a sign to me to get over there.

‘I believe you must be Omega Flame, isn’t it?’ The guard spoke to me when I approached him.

‘Yes, it is.’ I was already expecting what they wanted to tell us.

‘For what purpose do you both want to leave Canterlot this time in he evening?’

‘Just leave us alone, we’re not here to do any harm,’ Navorse said in a frustrated voice.

‘Then for what purpose are you leaving?’ The guard kept asking.

‘We are leaving to explore the Everfree,’ I quickly said.

Both the guards and Navorse looked at me.

‘Is that so?’ The guard asked yet again.

‘Yes it is, we are going to the Everfree Forest for an expedition.’

The guard got to me and started talking: ‘haven’t we already warned you enough?’

‘But I don’t see what this has to do with Starswirl or any of my studies?’

The guards looked at each other with a questioning face.

‘I am sorry, but we believe we cannot let you go.’

‘What is that for nonsense?’ Navorse shouted.

‘It is an order.’

‘By whom then?’

‘Princess Celestia.’

‘And she is limiting my own freedom?’ I shouted to the guards.

‘This has nothing to do with your freedom, this has to do with our safety. The safety of Equestria.’

Navorse started to neigh: ‘I’ll show you some safety!’ He kicked the guard who was the closest to him against the gate’s wall.

‘And if anypony here is going to do something stupid like that again, there’s plenty more where that came from!’

The guards helped up the fallen one and then came to a conclusion: ‘very well then. We believe you won’t even be able to survive the forest for more than a couple of hours.’

We finally got through the gate to the outside. The only way to get down to the same level as the Everfree Forest is by using the long stairway down. The stairs themselves were not the problem, it was the length.

‘You really didn’t have to hit him,’ I told Navorse.

‘That was the only way to pass through. I don’t know why they tried to sabotage us going outside, do you?’

‘I don’t know, ever since I started reading many Starswirl books and asked questions about it, they began behaving themselves like that.’

‘Hmm, that must mean there is something fishy going on.

‘I am not expecting Princess Celestia to be part of all of this, so I should inform her about this, shouldn’t I?’ I asked Navorse.

‘Maybe, but let us first get to the Everfree Forest, we will set up a little camp somewhere in between the trees.’

We arrived at the outskirts of the forest. The plains were easy to cross, but the forest seems not to be pony friendly. We walked inside, the first trees were not that large, but they got taller and taller once we got deeper into the woods.

‘Here is an open spot,’ Navorse noticed.

We collected wood and began making a fire. Navorse had some vegetables with him that he cooked inside a pot above the fire.

‘Up till now, the forest has been kind with us, but that will change soon enough. We will have to try and do most of our travels during daytime so we can minimise the dangers that can occur.’

I looked at the fire and the vegetables inside the pot.

‘What might happen during night-time? I asked.’

‘Don’t worry, I have tents with me to sleep in at. As long as we stay in there, nothing will notice us. Speaking of the tent, let’s set it up now.’

He opened his bag and took another, smaller bag, out of it. I helped him set up the tent straight. It wasn’t really a big tent, but it was alright.

After that, we ate the vegetables. They were nothing in comparison with the food back in Canterlot, but it was nutritious and that is what counts now.

After that, we didn’t waste too much time and got to sleep immediately. The fire was out and there was no other light source near us.

Chapter 6

‘Hey, wake up!’ I heard the voice of Navorse whispering to me. I rubbed my hooves in my eyes, blinked them a couple of times and stood up.

‘It’s daytime, Omega,’ he spoke.

I looked outside but it was still pretty dark.

‘The Everfree Forest is always dark here, it would be useful if you know a unicorn spell to light up the area?

But I nodded: ‘I’m sorry, I’m not that good in magic.’

‘That’s not a problem, just mind your hooves and head. You don’t want to bump against anything.’

We got out of the tent and Navorse folded the tent and put it back in the bag pretty quick. Both of us put our bags on our back and we continued through the woods.

The ground was muddy and the roots of the trees stuck out of the ground and I stumbled over them quite often. It wasn’t really cold, but it felt like it was. There was no particular pathway, it was just walking between the trees. Sometimes we met an open area, but they were not that large anyways.

‘Alright,’ Navorse warned me: ‘mind your head because there are a lot of vines incoming.’

I bowed down my head to avoid them, there were a lot of vines and they started to block my view. I continued to walk straight forward in the hope that I would eventually see Navorse again. But after I left the vines, I was not close to Navorse at all. I was standing in between two mossy boulders and a steep hill in front of me. I tried to shout to get Navorse attention: ‘Navorse! Where are you!’

My voice echoed all the way, but it took a while for him to respond: ‘Omega! Don’t worry, I’ll try and locate you using sound, so say something!’

‘I’m right over here, ...’ I started screaming.

But then I heard rustle from above the boulder. And I quit screaming when I felt dirt and small rocks falling on my face. I looked up and a wolf-like beast was standing there. It looked like he was made from wood and it was staring at me with foam coming out of his mouth. I took a few steps towards the steep hill and the wolf dropped down to my level. I turned myself around to try and run my way up the hill. I managed to do it with the aid of my magic, but the wolf had bitten me in the tail in an attempt to bring me down. I tried to kick him away with my back hooves but the only thing I was doing was kicking away a couple sticks from his body.

‘Omega, where are you!’ Navorse shouted and it seemed like his voice was closer by than before.

‘Here, I’m here! There’s a wolf behind me!

I heard hoofsteps coming this way, but the wolf was putting so much force on my tail that I dropped down. The wolf was looking at me and some of his foam landed onto my face. He stretched out his mouth to try and fit me in there, but it was at that moment I saw Navorse dropping a torch down right onto the wolf. Because he was made out of wood, it started to burn. It tried to flee but he fell apart a couple of meters from us.

‘I’m sorry not to tell you about that, but those are timberwolves. They are the most common here in the Everfree Forest but they’re easily fightable.’

He stretched out his hoof to me so I could grab it and pull myself up.

‘You seem pretty scared, aren’t you?’

I swiftly nodded.

‘Then you can be glad it wasn’t an ursa major.’

Both of us got back through the vines. Now I had Navorse’s tail in my mouth so I wouldn’t lose him.

We finally got out of the vine maze, it seemed we were confronted with a ravine. I spit out his tail and tried to spit away the hay from my tongue.

‘We’ll never be able to pass over this?’ I whined at Navorse.

‘You’re right,’ he said and stared at a log in the forest, ‘but it’s not impossible.’

He walked to that log and tried to carry it towards the ravine. I helped him carry it with my magic, it was very heavy though. When we got the log to the ravine, I tried to launch it to the other side so it would form a bridge, but it unfortunately didn’t make it and it dropped down until it hit a little platform on the side of the ravine. The log was set sideways, but it has to do I suppose.

Narvose tried to balance himself on the log without letting it roll and then walked to the other side. At the end of the log, he tried to jump to the main level and he did, but the log rolled and fell in the ravine. It made a loud crack sound when it hit the boulders down below. I looked at Narvose, he was still trying to stand on four hooves again. Once he stood up, he looked at me: ‘I’m sorry about that, maybe we should go and check for another pathway!’

Both of us walked to the left side of the ravine without many objects blocking our path. After quite a long walk, I stopped when I saw a bridge hanging there. That’s quite odd, but not that odd when I saw where it was leading to: an ancient building. The bridge itself looked quite stable so I decided to cross it, still with much care though. The wooden planks below me were making crack noises and I started to feel less confident about it being in tact.

When finally reaching the end, the ropes of the bridge did in fact rot down and the bridge collapsed in half.

‘It seems like we don’t have much luck with crossing ravines today, do we?’ Navorse remarked.

From now on, it was easy to walk towards that ruined building as there was a nice path laid towards it.

And then, we finally came close to the building. It looked like a castle to me. There were no other buildings around it or at least they are not there anymore.

‘I believe this can be a great source for your project?’

I couldn’t stop gazing at the size of the thing.

‘You bet it will,’ I said after a while.

‘But, are you really sure this castle hasn’t been discovered recently?’ I added.

Navorse was already getting closer to the castle: ‘I’m very certain nopony has ever entered it in millenia.’

We both got closer to the castle. I tried to get through the door but Navorse put me to a halt.

‘Mind everything here, you never know if there could be traps in it.’

I gently put my hoof on the stone tiles of the castle’s floor. Nothing happened. I gently wandered inside the the castle. It was a large main area with ripped banners hanging on the walls. Navorse was following me and checked the area for possible threats. I looked above me and saw two more banners hanging there. One banner had Princess Celestia drawn on it and the other one had a dark alicorn on it who I couldn’t recognize. Above Celestia there was also a Sun, the dark mare had a moon drawn above her.

‘Hey, maybe we should go and check out those hallways here’, Navorse suggested.

He was talking about the six hallways, three on each side. In front there was also a staircase up, but we decided to go through the first hallway on the right. In the hallway, there were rusty pony armour stands decorating it as well as some paintings. I saw Navorse gently touching the armor and then signified with his hoof that I could continue to walk. Once we got through that hallway, we came out on a staircase upwards, but it seemed that the staircase was made out of wood and it wasn’t well maintained.

‘We better don’t go upstairs through here,’ Navorse advised and we returned to visit another hallway, the second one on the right this time. This one came out on what looked like a storage room as there were many crates filled with clay bottles. They were all empty of course. I put a couple of those clay bottles into my bag and took out my notepaper.

‘What are you going to do with that?’ Navorse whispered curiously.

‘I’m going to make a map of the castle on what we’ve seen so far.’

I only drew the two hallways and the main hall as well as the gate to the outside. When I had finished that, Navorse and I returned from the rather cold room.

The third hallway on the right was blocked with lots of spider webs that didn’t allow us to get any further.

‘You don’t know what kind of spiders those might be, they can be dangerous,’ Navorse warned when walking away from it.

The first hallway on the left got us back to a rotten staircase, the second got us to what looked like some kind of barrack for guards and the third lead us to a cellar which was also connected to the third hallway on the right. And just as that hallway, most of the cellar was filled with spider nests that seemed to be empty. None the less, Navorse didn’t want to risk exploring that more.

So then it was time to get up to the second floor using the stone stairs in the main hallway. That lead us to many more rooms and hallways as well, but what I instantly noticed was the library on the first door of the right side, it was still even filled with books.

‘Wow, now that’s finding a treasure,’ I remarked.

Navorse however didn’t really seem to be all too interested in the books, but he did come with me to check if the library was safe. Afterwards, he went to check the other rooms while I was browsing through the books. Most of the shelves were emptied, but many books remained.

‘Hmm, ‘After Starswirl.’ That title reminds me of something.’

And it was, it was the same title of the book the librarian told me it was written down two hundred years ago. It had the same cover and cover art as it had in the Canterlot Library. Of course, this one had way more dust on it. I took the book and went to a table closeby. I was wondering what this book was doing there, but I didn’t start reading it yet. I first wanted to know what this castle was all about and who was the owner of it. And I did find a book named ‘The Everfree Castle’. That must refer to this castle. I took it from the shelves and got to that table again and started to read in it.

‘Once harmony was brought to the land, the two Royal Sisters decided to settle themselves in the beautiful forest of the Everfree.’

Beautiful? I wondered. Let alone the ‘two Royal Sisters’, who are they?

‘This was because the two sisters found this forest fascinating as the nature here all goes by itself without the aid of ponies.’

The rest of the book talked about the architecture and how the subjects of the Royal Sisters responded to the fact that they were located so far away from their own villages and towns.

What really fascinated me was that the two Royal Sisters were actually Princess Celestia and a so called ‘Princess Luna’, the raiser of the Moon. Apparently she changed into a wicked mare named Nightmare Moon. She was eventually banned away to the Moon and became known as the Mare in the Moon.

Is this a joke? The Mare in the Moon is just a ponytale, a coincidence. I looked through the window towards the Moon as it was turning night-time already.

‘So the Mare in the Moon is true? Or is it just another lie in the book’ I whispered. The Moon shone unusually bright for just a second. I turned my head back to the book and my notes and wrote everything down.

I continued to read the last few pages and found out one more interesting thing and that was an explanation on how to enter one of the Royal Sisters’ secret room in the library here. You opened it by tilting the chair that was in front of me and so I did. A row of shelves suddenly started to roll open and Navorse who just got into the library startled because of it.

‘What is that noise?’ He whispered loudly.

‘Look here,’ I told him and pointed my head towards the secret room.

‘It seems you have amused yourself during my exploration of the rest of the castle.’

‘Oh, there’s much I can tell you that I just found out. Ever heard of Princess Luna?’

He looked at me with a questioning stare: ‘Princess Luna, what an odd name.’

‘Well as far as I am concerned, she used to be Princess Celestia’s sister.’

I entered the secret room and left Navorse with a confused look.

‘So, what is this castle then?’ He asked.

‘I believe this place must have been where Princess Celestia and her sister used to live before moving to Canterlot.’

In the secret room, there was a pedestal with a book lying on it, unopened. It looked pretty important so I took a look at the title: ‘The Journal of the Two Sisters.’

Chapter 7

Opening it, it looked like some kind of dairy as every alinea started with the date it was written at. It began at three and a quarter of a century from now and ended three hundred years from today. That’s pretty impressive to have written a book for twenty five years. Of course, the Royal Sisters hadn’t written every day, but more like every month.

The book contained many beautiful explanations and illustrations of events that have happened during those twenty five years. And those years seem to have been tough as those were the years Celestia got confronted with most of her villians. And looking at the point of view the different entries were written in, it seemed that Princess Luna stopped writing in the dairy after a couple of years. It was only Princess Celestia who continued the journal. I wonder why, would it have to do something with her banishment? And what about Starswirl? I’m sure she has to say good things about him. I started reading the journal after Princess Luna didn’t write any entries no more.

‘Today, Starswirl and Scorpan travelled all the way from their laboratory cave in western Equestria to here to report about the finds of the Elements of Harmony.’

Elements of Harmony? Shouldn’t it be the Spell of Harmony?

‘Me and my sister found them resting in a tree inside of the ravine. The Elements of Harmony seem to have a unique power that can only be casted when showing true friendship. That is what Scorpan and Starswirl figured out when they were examining them. It seems they are very best friends with each other.’

I flipped the page to continue reading, it was really fascinating.

‘Starswirl did ask to talk face to face with me. He wanted to talk about the relation between me and my sister. He sensed something wasn’t going alright with her after we got to the Crystal Empire to banish King Sombra in the ice of the arctic. He said he would examine if he could bring my relation with my sister back to a good balance like it was before. But for now, he said I should keep these elements if it would get out of hoof. And it was better not to tell Luna about you possessing them, he added.’

That as everything written at that month, I’m surprised what should come next.

‘When I was lowering the Sun a couple of days ago, I saw my sister having a lot of troubles raising the Moon. I told her to stop the nonsense and asked her to start raising it, but then she began complaining that my subjects and myself didn’t show much love to her. That all the ponies would sleep during her night that she tries to make as beautiful as she could make it. I tried to comfort her by saying that the ponies find her night so peaceful that they fall asleep from it. She didn’t feel a whole lot better after I said that, but she did at least try to raise the Moon. However, she was still struggling, so I decided to help her with that.’

That doesn’t sound well at all. Anyways, I wonder what would have happened afterwards. On to the next month.

‘An evil master of chaos named Discord appeared in our realm and threatened the land. Me and my sister got to there to deal with the troublemaker. Shortly after, it seemed that dealing him using only our alicorn magic wouldn’t do the job. But then I thought back to the Elements of Harmony Starswirl gave me, he did tell me it was best not to show my sister I had them in my possession, but I did it anyways as this situation called for it. And as Starswirl told me, they would only go into effect when showing true friendship. But when me and my sister wielded the elements, it didn’t go swiftly at all. I can clearly remember Discord laughing with the situation we were in at. But soon after, the elements did eventually go into effect and turned the Master of Chaos into stone. After that happened, me and my sister got into yet another argument. She was scared and angered that I had the Elements of Harmony in my possession, I didn’t tell her that I had received them from Starswirl so I could defend myself against her, but that wasn’t the reason she was angry anyways. She said it was too dangerous to wield it all by myself and demanded I should either give them back to Starswirl, give them back to the Tree of Harmony or bury them away.

But I didn’t want to get rid of the elements yet, so I lied to her and promised I would bury them. Instead, I kept them safe in a little secret spot underneath the ground floor. Luckily she hasn’t found it yet and let’s hope to keep it that way.’

Reading this made my thoughts get confused. Why would Celestia want to keep her sister a secret? Maybe that’s why the ponies back in Canterlot threatened me with my studies and with the exploration of the Everfree Forest. Princess Celestia tries to…, hide the truth to us. I looked through the door at the library. She didn’t really hide it well, did she? I thought.

Yet I didn’t feel comfortable as I was wondering what would happen if I would to return to Canterlot. There is no doubt that Princess Celestia will not allow me to. But the journey isn’t done yet, there are a couple more pages still to read.

Skipping a few entries, I found yet another fascinating part.

‘Today it happened, something I am already feeling much regret of. A couple of days ago, Luna refused to lower the Moon and make place for the Sun. I started with being kind against her, but soon enough it ran out of hoof and my own sister began transforming into a scary, wicked mare. I can clearly remember the words she said before she transformed: ‘Did you really expect me to sit idly by while they all bask in your precious light!? There can only be one princess in Equestria, and that princess will be me!’

Those words shivered down my body, but I tried to remain calm. She started to destroy the wall, statues and the roof of the castle. I was first hesitant to battle against her.

‘Luna I will not fight you! You must lower the Moon, it’s your duty!’ I screamed at her, but with no success.

‘Luna?’ She responded, ‘I am Nightmare Moon!’

The name itself clearly showed she got out of her mind and she began assaulting me: ‘I have but one royal duty now: do destroy you!’ And she shot off a beam from her horn towards me. Yet I was still not fighting back, instead I tried to fly away in the hope I could get to the Elements of Harmony in time before she could. She was constantly firing to me and I eventually got and fell down on the same spot I had hid the elements from her. There, I took them out of their place and they started orbiting around me. With the elements by my side, I flew up to meet my sister once again. On the moment she saw me, she prepared herself against my wrath. But it was clear that I had way more supremacy over her. I felt her trying to fight back the magic of the Elements of Harmony, but alas, the elements sent her away. And when I opened my eyes again, I saw her face getting formed on the surface of the Moon.’

So, Princess Celestia banished her own sister? My head felt like it could detonate at any second.

‘And the elements did their job, they listened to my friendship I had for her. But deep in my heart, it felt wrong, too wrong.

When the balance between day and night got restored again, many of my subjects came to the castle to cheer for my victory. And it was only then when I understood what Luna tried to say with ponies not showing their love to her: there was nopony who wondered where Luna was as they still weren’t aware that the darkness that covered Equestria was because of her. It was only Starswirl who noticed something went wrong when he paid me a visit.

‘You have done the right thing, princess,’ he tried to cheer me up, but it didn’t work.

‘It was not you who banished her, it were the elements who did,’ that sentence got me to frustration: ‘I am a princess of Equestria, a land of harmony. And the only thing I have done was pushing my own sister away in the background even though she deserved to be noticed by all my subjects.’

‘Do not worry, princess,’ Starswirl followed, ‘everypony makes mistakes. I have made mistakes too in the past.’

‘But, I am a ruler, I can never fail. If I will let my subjects know of my cruelty, there will be no way to return my trust in them.’

I could feel Starswirl being uncomfortable with that: ‘what do you mean, princess?’

I looked outside, there were still a couple of ponies cheering at me.

‘I believe it is best not to tell about this to the future generation.’

Starswirl was shocked with what I suggested: ‘so instead of fixing the problem, you will try and push it away?’

‘I guess that is what I will do,’ I said in a much calmer tone than Starswirl’s.

But he still didn’t agree: ‘princess, what you are planning is ridiculous. One way or another, there will be somepony who will fins out about the truth. What you are suggesting is only delaying the inevitable.’

‘Then you don’t know me well enough,’ I finished the conversation.

After that, Starswirl left and since then I haven’t heard from him ever again, neither have I heard anything something from Scorpan anymore. I believe they must have fled towards another place.’

And this probably marks the start of her regime? Let’s check out next month.

‘Clearing out the public libraries from all the books I wanted to be banned went fluently. Of course, many of my subjects wondered what was going on but I - together with some trustworthy companions of mine - have been able to successfully reassure them.

What was difficult though is making so that the following generation wouldn’t know about many events of the past that might lead to them knowing about Princess Luna. Parents would tell them about the Crystal Empire for example, but luckily they are being told that it is just a ponytale at school.’

But, that is outright propaganda!? Princess Celestia, she, she planned all of this?

There were only a few more pages written after that and the journal ended when she decided to move to another place: Canterlot.

I took out my quill and paper to try and note down everything I had discovered, but it was at that point that I saw Navorse sleeping: I have been reading this journal almost the whole night long, yet I didn’t feel sleepy at all until I heard Navorse peacefully snoring, that gave me the notification it’s better time to take a rest.

Chapter 8

But as soon as the light of the Sun shone through the door on my head, I woke up and immediately started noting everything down. I was a bit hungry though, but I wanted to finish this first.

‘Would you like some oatmeal?’ Navorse asked when he entered in the room. He had a bowl of oatmeal on his back and it smelled good, so I said yes. But as soon as I ate from it, I found out I didn’t taste as good as it smelled. However, I still tried to eat everything up.

‘So, what have you found out? Anything new about that other princess?’

‘Well, aside from her being Celestia’s sister,’ I started my explanation, ‘she used to raise the Moon before Celestia did. But some kind of black and strange magic took control of her and she became crazy.’

‘And what happened with her afterwards?’

‘She became the Mare in the Moon, Princess Celestia used the Elements of Harmony to banish her to there.’

‘The elements of harmony huh? Never heard of it.’

I shook my head: ‘me neither, I do know about the Spell of Harmony, but I believe it is just fake. Princess Celestia didn’t want to let us know about its existence; she felt too ashamed to let everypony know what she has done with her sister.’

‘But, she became wicked? Hasn’t she done the right thing to banish her?’

‘I don’t know. It is in fact her sister though, maybe she felt bad about having to do it with her own sister?’

‘And so that’s the reason why she didn’t want to let us know about it?’

I raised my shoulders: ‘she said that would ruin her reputation as a good leader.’

Navorse stood up and got closer to me: ‘what you have found out today kid, is something very dangerous. Something Princess Celestia wouldn’t be proud to hear you found out. It is best to keep quiet about this, don’t use it for your school project, take something else instead.’

Navorse was in fact right: sharing this to the public can cause some kind of revolt, we should try to open Celestia’s heart about it first.

‘Neither should you take any books with you. And try to hide those notes you’ve made, even though it will be quite hard to do so as they were already suspecting something suspicious about you.’

I nodded.

A heavy sound of a beast let the whole room tremble. Navorse went to take a look outside what was going on and I followed him.

‘What is that?’ I said frightening.

In very calm way, Navorse explained: ‘it’s a hydra, don’t know what he does here so close to the castle though.’

‘Is he dangerous?’

‘As long as we leave him alone, he won’t do no harm: we’re too small to be a prey for him.’

We walked down the stairs and got outside. The trembling steps of the hydra sounded much louder as he was walking our way. The beast had four heads, each having large and sharp teeth. I bet you don’t want to mess with him.

Navorse put me to a halt as he had just spotted a group of timberwolves closeby. They hadn’t noticed us, but you are better safe than sorry so we tried to take more distance from the wolves.

We made another route back to the Equestrian fields, not over the ravine or through the vines anymore, instead we walked next to the ravine until it lead us right outside.

Coming out of the woods, it felt very different. The Sun was constantly shining, it was hot and there wasn’t any smell I could scent, unlike in the Everfree, it stank like unwashed fur.

‘Now be aware, they won’t be happy to see us returning, so brace yourself,’ Navorse warned me.

We climbed up the steep Canterlot mountain again using the stairs. After most certainly two hours, we made it almost all the way up, but we stopped for a moment to look at the gate. It was being guarded by many ponies and I didn’t know well what to do.

‘Well, that doesn’t look good at all. How will we…,’ I stopped talking as there was nobody to talk to anymore. Navorse left me alone on the stairs, no idea where he went to, which was problematic as I didn’t know how to handle this situation the best way. I decided it might be better to sneak into Canterlot not via the gate, but maybe over the wall. I walked off-road towards the wall but soon enough, I could see that it was indeed very tall. I put my hoof on a brick that was slightly sticking out, but my hoof was way too large and I slipped off of it. I bowed myself down to the same level as the brick and tried to stick it out a bit more using my magic. Even though it was pretty much impossible, I tried to put all my strength on it. Sitting there, bend over with my eyes closed, somepony tapped on my back. I startled.

‘Navorse, is that y…,’ I shouted. But it wasn’t him, it was a guard who must have spotted me trying to get over the wall.

‘Omega Flame, would you be so kind to follow us?’ He asked very polite.

I didn’t really have much of a choice so I followed him to the gate where all the other guards were waiting. One of them got behind me and two others got next to me. The guard that brought me to here took the lead and I was sent away, with one guard on each side. I looked at the sides of me and saw many ponies standing there showing a weird look on their face. Some of them even recognized me.

‘What is going on with Omega Flame,’ I could hear through the murmur of the audience.

‘There is nothing wrong with her, she just has to pay a visit to somepony,’ a guard assured the pony.

Where would they want to lead me to? I wondered.

I saw that we were not walking to the university, as we just skipped the road to it. It seemed like I was being sent to the Canterlot Castle. I believe they were waiting for me to arrive so I would be sent to Princess Celestia immediately.

‘Alright Omega Flame, we are now about to enter Princess Celestia’s castle and I do not believe she will be all too happy to see you. So behave yourself respectful to her and do not argue with what she says. Neither should you ask any questions, just listen to her.’

I looked at the guard who was telling me this, he was at the right of me.

‘I am saying this to help you, seeing her furious is certainly not something you want to experience.’

We entered the castle and travelled through a large hallway, many guards were standing at the walls. We walked down the hall all the way to a large gate. Guards opened it and inside of it was the throne room. They asked me to enter the area and I did, but none of them came with me. They closed the door behind me and the sound of the closing door echoed through the whole room. On both sides there were coloured glass panes with many beautiful illustrations drawn on them. At the complete other side of the room was Princess Celestia’s throne with her sitting on it.

‘Omega Flame,’ she said. Her voice echoed through the room as well.

I believed she meant to come closer to her. I walked on the red carpet and approached her. Once I got close enough, she stood out of her throne and slowly walked towards me.

‘How was your journey to the Everfree Forest?’ She asked.

Not a question I was expecting, but I did answer her: ‘interesting.’

She walked all the way behind me and continued: ‘I have heard you went to visit a ruined building there, am I right?’

‘Yes,’ I said honestly.

‘Then would you care to tell me which one it was?’

I stood still for a moment and didn’t move: ‘I… don’t know.’

‘You don’t know? Very well then, did it look like a castle?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did it have banners with me drawn on it?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then I believe you do know the answer then.’

I swallowed some spit down my throat and even that made the room echo.

‘Your old castle,’ I said quietly.

She took the bag from my back using her magic and looked through it. She seemed to look for books but had no success with that, until she found my notes. She took them and started to read. I was thinking of saying something to her so I opened my mouth, but when she looked at me, I quickly closed it and thought back to the advice the guard gave me: it’s best not to start an argue with her.

She was reading it and every time she flipped a paper, she looked more frustrated. She flipped every page faster and faster, harder and harder. On the last pages, she even started to rip it a bit. When she had finished reading, she dropped the notes. I could hear her breathe in and out quite heavily and that’s when I looked at her. She suddenly started to smile, just like how she did back at that performance, but now it felt creepy.

‘I see, you have... read about my sister.’

I nodded, even though it wasn’t really a question.

She closed her eyes for a long time and then opened them and took a deep breath: ‘very well then, but I hope you do know that nopony was meant to read that?’

‘Sorry, I wasn’t expecting that to find there.’

‘I know you did, but I hope you do realize the danger in spreading this news around and start talking about this with everypony.’

Even though the guard warned me not to do so, I asked her a question: ‘but why do you want that? Why don’t you tell everypony about it? Why don’t you befriend your sister again?

She turned herself towards me with her wings spanned open: ‘I can’t! I can’t talk to her ever again! She is lost forever and there is nothing I can do to get her back!’

She breathed heavily and I took a couple of steps backwards. She laid on the ground, still with her wings opened and started to cry. I walked towards her to talk to her again.

‘I can see what you are going through, but if I were you, I would feel myself much better again to tell everypony the real truth instead of hiding it.’

She was sobbing and looked at me and nodded no: ‘it is too late. It happened three hundred years ago. If I were to tell my subjects all about it now, they will never trust me anymore. Never!’

She stood up again, still with tears in her eyes, but she tried to swipe them away: ‘there are things that can be forgiven in your life, but some of them are just too big to be forgivable.’

I didn’t respond to that.

While sobbing and trying to balance her breathing frequency, she demanded: ‘and that is why, Omega Flame, I hereby prohibit you to talk about your journey to the Everfree, the castle and all your finds.’

I looked at her: ‘but, you cannot be serious, I…’ she opened her wings again and gave me an angered stare which made stop speaking.

‘When ponies ask for it, say that you have cancelled your journey even before entering the woods, is that a deal?’

It wasn’t a deal at all, but it seemed I didn’t have much of a choice. I nodded yes.

‘You are not the only one who knows about this though. The librarian and professor Veral are aware of this, as well as a couple others.’

I shouted: ‘professor Veral?’

Celestia nodded.

‘So, he has, he has always lied to us?’

‘Do not blame it on him.’

‘But on whom then?’

Celestia got quiet and then continued: ‘the Elements of Harmony.’

I was expecting her to say herself, but it seemed she did in fact try to keep her reputation to the best. I looked at Celestia for a while, but none of us said anything to each other so I thought it was fine for me to go and I got to the door. However, before I tried to open it, Celestia added one more thing: ‘and if you do break this rule, the consequences will not be pleasant.’

With that, I hope she didn’t mean eternal imprisonment. In any case, I left the room and the castle as well. Even though I am against this, I will stay true to my word and don’t say anything about it.

Chapter 9

Months have passed with me being able to keep the secret to myself. It did feel wrong and weird to do so, especially to Comet Shade, but it was actually not that hard to keep it away at first. Where I did have problems with was explaining where Navorse went to because he wasn’t spotted in Canterlot anymore, so I made up another lie that he said it would be better to cancel the journey to the Everfree Forest and that he left towards eastern Equestria again. It didn’t make much sense, most certainly not for Bourgon as he knew Navorse better than I did.

During the lessons, I was never able to stop thinking that everything we are learning, is part of that big lie. And to make it even worse, professor Veral knows about it being fake as well. The lessons were the only moments you could see me behave very strange indeed. I never said anything even though I used to do so in the past, neither did I make a whole lot of fun with Shade during the lessons.

‘Is everything alright?’ Comet Shade told me and he woke me up from my trance. I had been blindly staring in front of me, not following the lessons.

‘You haven’t written down anything during the whole lessons?’ He said. The only thing I did was looking at him, at my paper and then back at him.

‘And this has been going on for quite some weeks hasn’t it?’ He continued: ‘you never want to hang out at my home anymore as you said you prefer to study on your own. There is nothing wrong with that, but it just feels weird. Why have you never told me that before?’

I kept on being quiet, but then I whispered something barely hearable: ‘my study methods just changed, that’s all.’

Naturally, he responded with: ‘say that again?’

But professor Veral noticed this and tried to interfere our conversation: ‘Comet Shade, please let Omega follow the lessons in peace,’ he simply said that as he was aware of me knowing the truth and tried to make sure Shade wouldn’t start asking too many questions.

Comet Shade listened to Veral and stopped talking to me, he did give me a weird look.

When the lessons ended, I didn’t follow Comet Shade back to his home anymore as I used to do months ago. I stopped doing it because I was afraid I would make a slip of the tongue.

Professor Verall stopped me and asked a question: ‘he isn’t suspecting anything, does he?’

‘No,’ I said honestly.

‘Are you sure about that? Even the littlest information might make him wonder.’

‘No, I am very certain he doesn’t know anything about it.’

Veral came a bit closer to me and whispered: ‘I know it’s tough to live on like this, but I can assure you that letting other ponies know about the truth will only make it worse.’

‘Of course,’ I responded and tried to walk away.

‘No no, this is serious business Omega, and I believe you can trust me, can’t you?’

I nodded my head and walked out of the room with my head bowed down and my tail dragging on the floor. I didn’t like living this way at all, but it was probably my own fault: I should have never gone to the Everfree to begin with.

With nothing to do, I went to my own house and started cooking some oats and ate them, they didn’t taste me well. After that, I just climbed into my bed and looked at the ceiling. My stomach felt sick and I was shivering. I felt lonely, so lonely.

And all of this continued to happen day after day, and it only got worse.

One month passed and it was morning. I wasn’t awaiting Comet Shade no longer which he didn’t really like at all, yet he didn’t want our friendship to stop. He continued to ask me what was going on almost every day and that made me feel weak again, only during Veral’s lessons, he shut up completely as every time he tried to start a chat with me, Veral would interrupt us. So if he couldn’t talk with me, Comet Shade would copy over his notes and give it to me to help me as I wasn’t writing anything down anymore. I kept them, but never looked at them.

But today, when the lessons ended and I was walking my way back home, Comet Shade shouted behind me: ‘Omega, can I talk to you for a moment please?’

I turned myself around to watch him getting closer to me, but I walked away from him.

‘Come on Omega, at least give me a chance then.’

I walked faster and faster, turned myself around to him and said: ‘please, don’t take this too personally.’

I turned my head around just in time to see there was a street lantern in front of me and to evade it. I walked to my home, but Comet Shade was running after me. I tried to open the door to my house as quickly as possible, however, Shade was already standing behind me.

‘I want to know what in the hay is going with you, Omega.’

I tried to control myself again and then responded: ‘It’s… it’s going to be all fine, Shade. I just need my personal space for now.’

Comet Shade looked at me and took a few steps away: ‘I’m really starting to worry about you, Omega. Don’t forget that I’m your friend. If you need me, I’ll be there. Just ask me.’

Chills flew through my body and I answered: ‘I know that, and I will.’

But I wasn’t sure if I would really do so, I needed more time to think about all of this. Comet Shade is a friend of mine, but I could not risk to break my promise with Princess Celestia.

I slammed the door behind me when I got inside and felt very dizzy, so I got in my bed. I didn’t care about eating anything as I was way too exhausted for that and my thoughts were flowing through my mind.

It is impossible for me to remain like this. Would it be really that bad if I would just say the truth against Shade. And only against him? Yes, yes it will be. I do trust him, but the only thing I would do is infecting him with the same problem I have right now and that is keeping your mouth shut about it.

But maybe if I would just tell him, I wouldn’t feel so alone as I am right now. But no, I couldn’t, I shouldn’t. But I should.

I closed my eyes and tried to put the thought away from my mind, but it didn’t help. I was biting on my bed sheet in the hope it would do something against it.

Okay, I cannot live like this any longer. Can it really be that bad to just tell him? No, it can’t be.

It was already late in the evening, but Comet Shade must still be available. I ran to his house, trying to evade guards. And when I got there, I knocked on his door. It took a while before he opened and his face turned from a sleepy one to a surprised one.

‘Omega, what is it?’ He said almost shouting.

‘Keep it down a bit,’ I said while entering, ‘this is something I would prefer nopony else would hear.’

Shade looked all the more surprised to me: ‘I will listen.’

I sat down on the couch and took a deep breath: ‘I know this will sound strange to you as much as it did to me, but you have to trust me, this is the truth.’

He came to sit next to me.

‘I did in fact go into the Everfree Forest with Navorse. Together, we found a ruined castle deep in the woods and it was once home to Princess Celestia and her sister.’

‘Her sister?’ Shade asked.

I nodded: ‘Princess Luna, the controller of the Moon, now known as the Mare in the Moon.’

I told the whole story from everything I had found there in that castle. Comet Shade seemed like not taking it all too serious, but his mind changed during my monologue with him.

‘So, we live under some kind of propaganda then, huh?’ He asked.

‘I unfortunately think so, yes. But I was prohibited by Celestia herself to talk about my finds to anypony else. However, I couldn’t hold it any longer and you are the only pony I can trust in keeping it a secret.’

But Comet Shade didn’t seem to listen to me that well, he had a frown on his face.

‘How could she?’

‘She was afraid her subjects would lose faith in her,’ I answered.

Shade looked at me: ‘so what? Isn’t telling the truth more important?’

‘Well, there is an explainable reason for…,’ Shade interrupted me.

‘She tries to keep her reputation by keeping us fooled? That is not a world I would like to live in.’

I tried to say something about it, but he was too fast: ‘and that is why all those ponies threatened you? Why professor Veral always tries to interrupt our conversations?’

‘Well,’ I said.

‘But I want to hear an answer!’

‘Yes, professor Veral knows about it as well.’

Comet Shade didn’t say anything anymore. He looked upset.

‘But please don’t tell this further to anypony, not even Veral. Please.’

He looked at me: ‘we will see, but I hope you do realize that there has to be something done against this?’

‘Well, I’m not sure about this,’ I said almost whispering.

‘Don’t worry, I understand in what kind of situation you are in at. But do not fear, everything will get alright at the end.’

But it just depends on what kind of perspective you see things as ‘alright’, and it seems he has a complete different perspective about it than I have.

Chapter 10

I may have spilled the beans, but at least the friendship between Shade and I got stronger again. Finally, I could walk to the university together with him without feeling bad about hiding anything.

‘But do keep your mouth shut about all of that, alright?’ I reminded him.

‘Of course, Omega. No worries, everything will be fine,’ he promised.

Our day started with professor Veral. You could see at his facial expression that he was not yet aware of Shade knowing the truth.

‘Alright class listen up, we’ve finished our lessons about Starswirl now and I hope you all have studied well for it during all those months.’

Many ponies in the aula were looking oddly at him, they probably hadn’t even started learned.

‘So that is why I want to do a little pop quiz this lesson.’

Veral looked through the classroom looking for his first victim.

‘You there! Leather Strings!’ He shouted at him, ‘Why did Starswirl ask Celestia to become the princess of Equestria?’

Leather Strings was thinking about it for a couple of seconds: ‘eh, wasn’t it because he thought an alicorn would be the best race to rule over all other three races?’

‘Comes close to it, good,’ Veral responded.

‘Now you,’ he continued and pointed to another pupil, ‘why did Starswirl have to leave?’

‘Because he burnt down a library with many of his and other ponies’ works in search for the Spell of Harmony that Celestia wanted to keep away from him.’

I looked at Comet Shade from the corner of my eyes, he looked at me as well.

After many ponies had been interrogated by Veral, it was time for Comet Shade.

‘Comet Shade, this should be an easy one: for what purpose was the Spell of Harmony made?’

Comet Shade didn’t respond instantly, neither was he thinking about the question, he was trying to subtly look at me, he was wondering what answer he should give. I tried to answer him by subtly nodding no

‘Because they wanted to protect themselves from Tirek?’ Comet Shade answered, but in a rather suspicious way. He said it very slowly and stared down at the ground. I hit him with my knee and he jolted, looked at me and whispered: ‘I’m sorry.’

I returned my attention to Veral who was looking at us.

‘Just don’t act so weird, okay?’ I quickly whispered back.

When the lessons were finished, I had asked Shade not to hang around for too long and that it would be better to leave the aula as swiftly as possible before Veral would have the chance to ask us anything.

We quickly got to the door, but that made Veral suspect us even more and shouted both of our names. I looked at Shade and he looked at me, I signified that I would get to Veral by myself and that he should just walk further like he hadn’t heard his name being shouted.

‘Comet Shade, I want to speak with you as well,’ Veral said none the less.

Veral sat down on one of the chairs from the aula: ‘Shade, the answer you gave to my question was correct, but it felt like there was something bothering you. Would you care to tell me what?’

Comet Shade looked at me with a desperate look, not knowing well what to say.

‘I… just had a black out. That’s all,’ Shade lied.

Veral sighed: ‘listen up Omega Flame, keeping that secret was a must, you cannot afford to tell others about it, not even your dearest friend, understood?’

‘But professor, I couldn’t…’ I was interrupted, not by Veral, but by Comet Shade: ‘what may be a better question is why can’t she tell anypony about it?’

I cringed and quickly made a ‘shh’ sound at Shade to ask him to shut up.

‘Look Comet Shade,’ Veral started talking, ‘this is too big of a risk to spread it around. We all would like to tell the ponies the truth, but that takes time.’

Shade looked at me: ‘when did she banish her own sister?’

I didn’t respond. I had bowed my head down and started to sweat a bit.

‘three hundred years?’ Shade answered his own question. After that, he looked at Veral again: ‘three hundred years have already passed, yet nopony has ever made an effort to do something about it. You and Celestia just want to keep all ponies dumb for whatever sinful reason you have. I wasn’t expecting such a coward behaviour of you, professor,’ Comet Shade pointed out.

‘Look Shade,’ Veral said surprisingly calmful, ‘I didn’t make the rules, Celestia did and long as we bow to these rules, we can all live in peace.’

‘Peace? How can we have peace if our own ruler lies to us!?’ Comet Shade started shouting and I took a few hoofsteps back.

‘Even I agree that all the subjects should be aware of the truth, but we cannot just start spreading it around or else chaos would dominate over the land!’

Comet Shade shook his head: ‘I can’t believe what you’re saying.’

Shade turned himself around and told me something whilst walking away: ‘come on Omega, we’re going to Bourgon’s.’

I followed him and left Veral alone in the aula with a disappointed look.

‘But you still promise me not to tell it any further, right?’ I asked Shade.

‘Of course,’ he said with a dry tone.

We were already at Bourgon’s and we were about to order our food.

‘A hayburger and an oat sandwich, please,’ Shade said.

‘Alright, I’ll bring it to you as soon as possible,’ Bourgon responded.

‘But just before I go,’ he continued, ‘have you heard any more news from Navorse?’

My heart started beating and I looked at Shade, he was looking at Bourgon and was just about to say something to him: ‘well, Navorse and Omega did actually go to the Everfree together.’

I stood halfway up and looked at Shade with an angered expression. I wanted to tell him to stop, but I ended up saying nothing and sat back as normal.

Bourgon looked at me, surprised: ‘so what really happened to him then?’

I spoke: ‘just when we were about to enter Canterlot again, he left without me noticing it.’

‘That’s odd,’ Bourgon responded, ‘so what did you find in the Everfree?’

‘Nothing,’ I quickly responded. I was still looking angry at Shade.

‘Oh well, anyways, I’ll get you your order,’ he said and left.

Now I said something to Shade: ‘I told you not to say anything about it!’

‘Oh come on, he can know the truth of what has happened to his friend. Besides, I haven’t said anything about what you found in the Everfree, he isn’t suspecting anything.’

‘So what? What if he does suspect something, what would you do then huh?’

‘But both you and I know this regime has to come to a stop, everypony should know about all of this!’

‘But think of what Veral has said, we can’t do this in a day? We’ll have to wait until the time is right.’

‘And that time is now, now that Celestia doesn’t know yet what we’re about to do.’

My heart beat even harder: ‘please, Shade, please don’t.’

Comet Shade bend himself over the table towards me with a reassuring smile: ‘don’t you worry, everything will be alright.’

I stopped arguing and looked away from Shade, my hayburger didn’t taste me anymore as it should; I felt sick all over again.

We didn’t say anything anymore, but we did keep sitting next to each other during the other lessons of the day. Today was by the way the last school day before a one week holiday.

When the day was over, Shade asked me if I would like to get to his house this evening. I said it was alright because I wanted to talk with him in a calmer surrounding. Maybe I could even try and convince him to listen to me and Veral, but that will probably never work; he’s way too stubborn for that.

‘So listen up, Omega Flame,’ he said whilst pointing his hoof at the sofa. I sat down on it.

‘I know you don’t want me to start telling it to everypony,’ he started.

‘Yes, because Celestia told me if I would start talking about it to other ponies, the consequences would not be pleasant.’

‘That’s just giving you fear, Celestia would never do anything bad to her subjects, that would ruin her status as a good leader and that’s all she cares about anyway.’

Comet Shade sat down next to me on the sofa: ‘Tell me Omega, was the Everfree Forest really that dangerous?’

‘Well,’ I said, ‘with Navorse by my side, it wasn’t all too hard. But I think we were pretty lucky and I won’t be able to enter that forest all by myself.’

‘Well you won’t,’ Shade says, ‘how about both of us go and take another visit?’

I pushed Shade away from me: ‘are you crazy? First of all, they would never allow me to get out again. And even if they would, they would see I brought you with me, then they’ll know you know about the secret as well!’

‘That is why we’re going to take a subtler way out,’ Shade said while getting closer again.

‘Like what?’

‘Climbing over the wall, I’ve learned some useful magic tricks in order to perform that.’

‘Oh yeah, we’re just going to the castle to pay it a visit and nopony will question themselves why both of us aren’t attending the lessons anymore.’

‘Omega, the lessons are done and we can do this pretty fast, you did it in three days?’

‘I just don’t like this idea, Shade. Both of us are already in such a big trouble, why would you want to go to the castle so badly?’

‘Oh, you’ll see.’

He stood up and got to a closet. There, he took out some clothes and threw some at me: ‘pull these on.’

It was a large sheet made out of wool.

‘What are you proposing to do now?’

‘We’ll get to the castle this evening.’

‘What!? I don’t even want to go!’

Shade sighed: ‘I’ve seen how you have behaved yourself before you told me all about this, you can’t live with this lie and I know it.’

He was correct so I didn’t answer him.

‘That is why,’ he said while pulling the large cloth around his body and over his head, ‘I want to do this. I don’t want to see you suffer no more.’

I stood there with the sheet in my hooves. Shade then levitated it with his magic and wrapped it around me.

‘So try to hide yourself as much as you can. I’ll close the door so they can’t come in here and see we’re gone.’

He got to the kitchen.

‘I’ll take food with me and we will try to make this journey not longer than two days so be prepared,’ Shade followed.

We were packed up and the Sun has already given place to the Moon. I looked at the Moon through the window, the Mare in the Moon to be exact.

‘Come on, let’s go Omega!’ Shade shouted and I quickly pulled my attention to him.

Both of us got onto the wall. Guards only come here at daytime, they hold guard at the gates during night-time.

I was walking on the wall, far behind Shade. It was dark so I could only see his darkened body shape. He performed a magic trick as his horn started lighting up, after that, he jumped down from the wall.

‘Comet Shade! Don’t do that! Are you mad?’ I whispered loudly.

I looked down at the place he fell. He was standing there, perfectly fine.

‘Alright Omega, just drop down, I’ll catch you!’

I spun my hoof around my ear to signify his idea was crazy.

‘Just trust me!’

I sighed and put my back hooves over the wall and slowly lowered myself until I couldn’t lower any further.

‘Now just let yourself fall down.’

I closed my eyes and released my front hooves from the wall. I fell down and my stomach started tickling. Luckily, Shade was able to catch me. I looked at the wall: ‘and how are we ever going to get up there again?’

‘We’ll find a way when we get back here, now let’s get going.’

Shade rushed forwards while I was slowly running behind him.

‘Put some speed on it, will ya?’ Shade said to me.

We were at the Equestrian Fields, the Everfree Forest was right in front of us. Comet Shade halted and waited for me to get to him as he wanted me to take the lead. I was still not really confident in what Shade was trying to do, yet I still listened to him and I took the same way to the castle as Navorse and I had taken to return to Canterlot.

We were walking for a long time and the Sun was already coming up again, I hadn’t slept for hours.

Finally, we got to the castle.

‘Is that it?’ Shade asked me.

‘Yes,’ I said while gasping.

Shade walked inside, he didn’t look tired at all while I wasn’t even able to hold my tail upright.

‘There, up the stairs is a library,’ I said.

Shade ran upstairs and got there immediately. I followed him. He was browsing through the books and picked one up and started to read in it.

‘But now that we’re here,’ I said whilst sitting down on a chair in front of the secret door that I had previously discovered and taking off the cloth around me, ‘why did you want to get here?’

‘Don’t you get it? To get these books of course. To have proof.’

I looked at the Journal of the Two Sisters who was still sitting there on the pedestal. Comet Shade noticed me staring at it.

‘Hey, what’s up with that book there?’ He asked.

I stood up and turned myself around to him. I didn’t want him to check out that journal as I wasn’t really confident with what he was trying to do, so I said: ‘nothing special.’

‘Come on Omega, you know what that book is about, so tell me then.’

‘No,’ I told him, ‘I don’t even know what you’re planning. It all sounds and looks way too dangerous for me so I’m not allowing you to read that book!’

Comet Shade rose his voice: ‘but don’t you see? I want to help you. I want to help Equestria! All the ponies should know the truth. Didn’t you agree with that?’

‘Yes,’ I told him, ‘but not like this! The only thing you will do is create havoc!’

‘You are just exaggerating, Omega, scared of what all those ponies told you,’ he said and he got into the room towards the journal. I quickly stepped in front of him and lifted the book up with my magic.

‘Leave me be, Omega!’ He shouted. But I took the book away from him and flipped to the last pages I had read and ripped them out.

‘What in the hay are you doing now?’

I mashed the paper into balls and walked away: ‘this information is too dangerous for you to know about!’

I ran to a chimney close by and dropped the paper. Comet Shade was going after me. I quickly casted a fire spell on it and the paper started burning.

‘What have you just done, Omega?’

‘I’ve done what is the best to do for both of us,’ I explained.

‘Well, whatever, you haven’t destroyed the whole book and there are many more I could use. That should do it.’

‘Should do what, Shade?’

‘I’ll take them with me,’ he said calmly.

‘No you are not!’ I shouted at him.

He was already taking some books off the shelves using his magic. I quickly tried to grab it from him, but it seemed he had trained his magic very well as he was able to overpower me.

‘Stop it Shade, stop it please!’ I said almost crying. He looked at me with an empathic face.

‘Everything will be okay, Omega, I’ll promise you that.’

‘I don’t believe your promises anymore, Shade. You have already broken one promise and that was not to tell this secret to anypony.’

‘I haven’t broken that promise, professor Veral knew about it before I had spoken about it,’ he said.

‘But I know you’re going to spread it around even more! So stop, stop now please.’

Shade sighed: ‘isn’t it time for you to take a rest, Omega? You are sounding really tired, don’t you?’

‘I’m perfectly fine!’ I shouted.

‘Very well then, but I’m gonna take my rest. Do whatever you want then.’

He laid down on top of his bag full of books. Right after he said that, my plan was to try and take the bag from him, but I swiftly realised he is way too strong for me to handle. Yet I still didn’t go for a rest, I decided to walk away as soon as he fell asleep, it is way too dangerous to hang around with this type of pony.

Chapter 11

I heard him snore, perfect. I silently walked out of the door back to the outside. The Sun was going down again so I will have to be quick before any of the Everfree creatures could threaten me.

Keep in mind that I still hadn’t slept for hours and I was trying to run back to the fields, with my eyes barely opened. The growling of a beast woke me up. Next to me, there was a large manticore just standing there. I startled, slowed down, took distance from him and slowly walked away. He slowly started moving to me.

I tried to start running again, but every time I sped up, he did too. And when I started running eventually, the manticore was able to grab me by the tail and towed me away to a cave. I was way too tired to simply do something. The only thing I could hope for is that I would be able to escape later on. Once I entered the cave, I heard a familiar voice shouting: ‘now what have you found there?’

It was Navorse, I knew it. I looked up to see him, he looked just as I remembered him, except that his beard was even longer and not well maintained.

‘If it isn’t Omega Flame, that’s a long time no see huh?’ He said to me whilst helping me stand up.

‘What is making you come to here?’

I tried to focus myself as I was really tired.

‘A better question is why did you leave me behind last time?’ I managed to say.

‘Oh yeah,’ he said, ‘I knew I wouldn’t be welcome in Canterlot anymore, so I left you at the staircase to get back to the forest and continue with my expedition. I’ve learned many new things concerning the castle, the ravines and even the animals here, don’t you agree Furball?’

The manticore growled.

‘Furball? Really?’

‘Well I thought it was neat.’

‘Well, I still don’t understand why you just didn’t say you would leave me, but to answer your question, I went back to the forest because I had told my friend about what I had found there, even though they clearly told me not to. He said he wanted to get to the castle himself, so I lead him to there, but it was foolish of me to do so because he will now try to convince everypony about the truth and I am fearing the worst. He is currently sleeping in the castle, but once he’ll wake up, he will notice my absence and return to Canterlot with many of the books from that library.’

‘That doesn’t sound good at all, does it?’

‘No, I don’t even know how to get back into Canterlot, going through the front gate won’t work any longer.’

‘There is a way I’ve once used, you could slip in via the Canterlot Waterfall, just make sure nopony is around to spot you then.’

‘Hm,’ I said, ‘thanks for the help.’

Navorse nodded: ‘there is not much I can do about this, but what I do have to add, is no matter what you do, always stick to the princess’ side, even though she lies to you and all of her other subjects.’

‘Of course I will, I responded, ‘something Comet Shade would never do probably.’

I left his cave without saying anything else.

I arrived at the Equestrian Fields, the Sun came up from the horizon far away, it was noon. I started climbing the hills to the side of the waterfall, it was much steeper than I had expected it to be. I had to watch my hooves as there were many loose rocks below me. To be honest, it was actually pretty dangerous, certainly when I once came very close to the waterfall itself where the rocks were slippery and the splashing water blurred my vision.

Finally, when I got there at the source of the waterfall, I saw there were iron bars where only water could get through, it was way too slim for a pony. I didn’t immediately see any way in until I looked at a certain spot where one iron bar was bent making the passage larger, I suspect Navorse has done that.

Because the water stream was so heavy, I needed to grab two iron bars with my hooves and try to conquer the water stream. Once I finally got behind the iron bars, the water became much calmer and I could easily get on land again. My hooves and belly were completely wet so I tried to dry myself off as good as I could before showing myself to anypony else.

I returned to my own house now to think of what I should be doing next. Should I tell Veral about all what has happened? Maybe better not, I should first try to see what Shade’s plan will be, I’ll better stay inside here for now until he would return.

The next day, I got out of my house to see if he might have returned already. I first went to his house and knocked on the door, but it seemed nopony was inside. I walked to the park to see if he might be there, but he wasn’t. Neither was he at Bourgon’s or any other place; he’s got to be at the Everfree castle still, I can’t imagine him being anywhere else, yet he said he would try and make it a two-day journey? Maybe Navorse halted him? I have no clue. I returned home again so I would not be seen by anypony who might be wondering where Shade would be at.

The following day, I got out of my house again to see if he had returned. I got to his house and knocked on his door, but it seemed he wasn’t there. I returned to the park once again and I saw many ponies gathering for something, so I went to take a look what was going on.

‘And so young filly, what do you think about the Mare in the Moon?’ I heard somepony say. That somepony was Comet Shade, I could immediately identify his majestic voice. I pushed myself through the crowd to see what was going on. He was standing there in the middle, next to him was a filly.

‘My mum told me it was a witch that got banished to the Moon by Princess Celestia,’ the young one spoke.

‘And is that true?’ Comet Shade asked.

‘My daddy and my teacher told me it wasn’t. They said it is just a coincidence and that the pony-looking face has been there since the beginning.’

‘Well then,’ Shade continued, ‘prove your mother right because she was the one closest to the truth!’

The crowd was wondering what has been said, I could hear some ponies say it’s crazy talk.

‘Hush now everypony, I have proof! That mare is not just a wicked monster, she is in fact Celestia’s sister!’

Out of the murmuring crowd, one pony shouted: ‘that’s just nonsense!’ And many ponies agreed with him.

‘Oh yes? Then I would like to give you this book,’ he took a book out of his bag and gave it to the pony.

‘And if you still think I’m bluffing, then I have even more proof to back myself up,’ Shade said.

‘How was Celestia able to master her own sisters then?’ A mare from the crowd shouted.

‘Very good question, ma’am. She used these!’ Comet Shade took out five jewels from the bag.

‘The Elements of Harmony,’ he explained.

I was shocked, how could he have found them? The pony who had received the book began to speak: ‘I do have to say that his story and this book make more sense than what I have learned and read at school. Take for example this here; I always got taught Celestia lived here in Canterlot since the beginning, but that can’t be true because Celestia has been around here in Equestria way before Canterlot even existed.’

‘Aha!’ Comet Shade said immediately: ‘where did she live then?’

‘In the castle of the Everfree Forest it says here,’ the stallion said.

‘You see? Everything you taught are pure lies! This is the reality!’ Comet Shade shouted.

I jumped inside the circle: ‘don’t believe what he is saying! It’s pure nonsense!’

‘Well young foal,’ another colt in the group said, ‘he does have some valid points.’

Comet Shade got closer to me: ‘Omega Flame, how nice of you to leave me behind like that.’

‘I couldn’t hang around with you any longer so I had to.’

‘Of course you did, you prefer to stay at Celestia’s sidem but I believe it’s too late now, isn’t it?’

‘It’s never too late,’ I responded. You could hear at my angered voice that our friendship was as good as over.

‘Who of all of you are still believing in what Celestia told you? Raise your hoof!’

Nopony rose their hoof.

‘You see, I think it’s best that you join us now, don’t you think?’

‘And leave Veral and Celestia behind? Never.’ I walked away.

‘Both these ponies have betrayed us if you still aren’t aware of that!’ He shouted to me.

I ran out of the circle and fled to the university as I had to tell Veral about all of this, it’s time that it is said.