Delaying the Inevitable

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.