Delaying the Inevitable

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.