Delaying the Inevitable

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.