The Riddle

Dear Princess Celestia,

I’ve been struggling to find the right words for this letter. Maybe it’s because I’ve never really written you for a reason like this. I’m really nervous. But I’ve already dismissed several tries. I’ll just have to go with this one now, no matter how it turns out.

It seems to me that, among the few of us who look far enough into the depths of magic, it is an open secret that what is being taught isn’t quite accurate. It’s close, certainly, but it’s not really true. Salon’s law that models all spells as interactions with the magical plane seems to apply for all but one known species. You know what I am talking about, I’m sure.

Phoenixes.

They come back from the dead, princess. Surely, we cannot look at this without questioning our understanding of the universe, and of magic foremost. We teach everyone that death is a point of no return, and yet they do return. The only way I see for this to fall in line with what is taught is if the newborn is actually a different creature, and the death of its parent sparks a new life. I don’t have to tell you how unlikely and unintuitive this seems, and it does not even explain their other anomalies.

I don’t know if you have reasons for never teaching me about them. I don’t know if there is some kind of unspoken law or pact that prohibits us from researching them. That’s why I’m writing to you, to get clarification on this, so that I know whether I am allowed to take a closer look. Because after what happened, that is what I want to do.

Yesterday, as I’m sure you know, the great dragon migration has taken place. After their flight across Ponyville, they have taken temporary residence amidst the Badlands. For the other girls and myself, this was mostly a spectacle, but for Spike, it was his first confrontation with his own kind, and afterwards he was determined to seek them out to satisfy his curiosity. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and I have followed him, and eventually, just as we expected, he was taken aback by their hostile nature, and decided to come home with us. (I didn’t think the risk was that high, as I set up an anchor before departing, and was ready to teleport us back if needed (and did do so, in the end)). However, there are two incidents which happened during the trip that I wanted to tell you about.

One is that your latest letter had the unfortunate timing of arriving while Spike was in the company of a group of teenage dragons (I’m sorry, but it was you who encouraged me to deal with similar things based on my own judgment, and I did not see this coming). A bigger dragon took it from him, read a few words, and then threw it away into a pool of lava. I don’t think he has gathered any sensible information from it (if present), but I was unable to read it myself.

More importantly, though, is the second point. Apparently, a few dragons had decided to raid a phoenix nest, and they sent Spike to lure the parents away. He did so, and in their absence, the group found the eggs to have already hatched. They were unable to harm the younglings before their parents returned, and thankfully they dealt with the dragons in a peaceful way, even abandoning their nest afterward.

However, there seems to have been one egg left, and Spike was the first one to come back and find it. As you can guess, the others immediately told told him to smash it. I shudder to imagine what might have happened if he had done so, but instead he decided to refuse, which was when we evacuated him.

Teleporting us all back to Ponyville was harder than it should have been. It was as if we were two ponies more than we actually were, and the egg is the only cause for this that I can think of. Nonetheless, I did manage to do it, on the second try, and we brought the egg to the library.

On the same evening, it hatched. Now, there is a phoenix youngling, just a few yards away from me.

You can see why I am concerned.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle