The Tale of Horologiumby H0rologiumChaptersIntroductionChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6EpilogueIntroductionIt was Thursday. Thursdays were a very interesting time of the week. They were those days where you wished it was Friday, so you wouldn’t have to bear another day of school or work before the weekends. Thursdays were also the days when all of the little foals got out of school early and headed over to the library. Princess Twilight Sparkle herself would read a story to the awe-struck foals, who just enjoyed watching the princess as she went around the library, looking for a story to read. This was the first Thursday of the month, however, which meant that the foals would pick a story for the princess to read. By the time Twilight opened the doors to the library, there were about twenty eager foals, excitement barely contained, waiting for this moment. They all ran into the main room, vying to be the first, lucky foal who would have their story read by the princess. However, one particular filly, Silver Quill, wasn’t in such a hurry. Silver Quill had graduated school a few days ago, and had heard most of the stories in the library, since she also came to read books on the weekend, so this wasn’t as exciting as it was for most of the others. I do have a story to choose, though, Silver Quill thought, as she remembered what had happened a few days ago. Silver Quill had just returned from a vacation with her parents to the great city of Canterlot. Her parents had gone to talk to relatives, but they had allowed Silver Quill to go to the Canterlot Library. Upon entering, she had noticed an overflowing bin of books, the sign on the sign said “2 Books for 1 bit”. She had 5 bits in her satchel, but four of those were needed to get a stagecoach back home. She decided that the extra bit could be used for a couple of books. Her first book she chose was one of the Daring Do series, a particular favorite of Quill’s. But, as she searched the others, they weren’t in any good condition. Mostly just poor spines. But one book did catch her attention. It lay at the bottom of the bin, and also had a bad spine. But the cover! The cover was a very ornate pattern of swirls and petals. The title had been worn through, but that just added to Silver Quill’s curiosity. She lifted the book from the bin, and noticed that the book seemed to have some sort of enchantment set on it. This one was definitely a keeper. Forgetting the Daring Do book, Silver Quill set the strange book on the front desk, and asked the librarian to buy the book. The mare looked at the book for a second, then said, “5 bits for the book.” As if her hooves were being controlled by a puppeteer, Silver Quill lifted five bits to the counter. The librarian took the bits, and wished Silver Quill a good day. Silver Quill put the book in her satchel, and didn’t bother to read it. This would make a great addition to Twilight’s library. Silver Quill wasn’t worried that she got in trouble when she got home late from walking, she could tell the book was going to be worth it. Trotting up to Princess Twilight, Silver Quill pulled the tome out of her satchel. “Here Princess, I found this book while at Canterlot. It didn’t look like anything you had here at the library, so I brought it back here.” Twilight looked at the book, and an expression too quick to read flashed across her face. She smiled and said, “Thank you, Silver Quill, this is going to be something new for today.” Twilight called all of the other foals back, and once they were seated, opened the book. Twilight cleared her throat, and began; “The Truth behind the Truth, a story about me, Horologium.” Twilight stumbled a bit over the name, but read on, all of the foals completely captivated. However Silver Quill was the only foal who felt a sense of foreboding. Chapter 1I was born and raised just west of a small town called Ponyville, raised by my Aunt and Uncle. They were nice to me, but they didn’t have the love for me that my parents would have had. I barely knew my parents, and all that my Aunt would say is that I had appeared one day, a small and helpless unicorn, in their living room. My uncle worked selling fresh fruits and vegetables picked from our garden out back. We had enough bits to get by, but that wasn’t my problem. School was my problem. Not that I wasn’t a bad student or anything, but I had a special case that got me into a lot of bullying. You see, I didn’t get my cutie mark at the normal age. My Aunt just thought I hadn’t found my talent yet, but my Uncle seemed to get nervous once I turned ten. I was able to pass my classes, no thanks to my teacher, Sunny Hills. She mostly looked the other way when it came to bullying, unless it affected our grades. After a bit it became obvious she wasn’t loving her job of teaching. I have no idea what her destiny was, because she headed for Canterlot seeking fortune a couple of days before I graduated school. The new teacher I had for those last two days was a great improvement. Cheerilee helped me solve most of my bullying problems, and ace the test! I hope she is still as happy as she was then. Lets fast-forward a couple of years, I'd rather not think of those. At this point in time, I was old enough to be sent off to live on my own. But still without cutie mark, I wasn’t accepted into any apprenticeships. The masters didn’t want me to leave them, if I had gotten my mark after they hired me that would just be a big waste of time. Especially if my talent was in something completely different from their trade. I did have one friend who lived right on the edge of Ponyville. He was one of those pegasi who excelled at everything athletic, but was rather short of a full haystack if you know what I mean. His...lack of education led to us meeting, though, so I guess not a total loss? His name was Dareasus, and interesting name along with mine, since we had no last names. He had been found and put into the orphanage at infancy, so nopony knew who his parents were. He had helped me with the bullying problem, and I helped him with his homework. He grew in mental ability, and I was able to return to my house each day without being beaten up. He got his cutie mark early, however. A silver cloud, overlaid with a golden wrench. He got it while helping me take care of another bully, using a device he had built to scare the daylights out of the colt. He went on to work at Cloudsdayle, and whenever we were able to talk, he talked about his search for his parents, who no-doubted lived there. But I’m getting off-course here, that seems to happen a lot. Due to my quiet, shy exterior, I was quickly forgotten in Ponyville. So, one day, I packed up my books, bought some seeds from my Uncle, and set off to wherever. I ended up living off a small path near the Smoky Mountains, nopony noticing my absence. Not even the vendors I had befriended ever could remember who I was. Heck, I visited my Uncle and Aunt a few months ago and even they didn't recognize me. This, this 'invisibility', is my curse. Using my books, and my magic, I was able to construct a comfortable little cabin. I used the seeds, and made a small garden to live off of. There, I spent a while, living off of the food I grew and the books I read. I did occasionally go into the surrounding villages, but I would always wear something to cover my bare flank, and I never went back to Ponyville. At least, not for a while. One day, my whole life changed for the worst. Actually, correction, it was a night, and I had though it had been for the best. I’ll explain. One night, I stayed up a little later reading one of my books about magic. I was trying to learn a basic levitation spell, but was failing horribly. I used to blame it on the rain, but the truth was I simply wasn’t understanding some aspect about it. Did I forget the rain? It was raining really hard that night, and in fact at one point I went out to make sure my garden hadn’t flooded. As I did so, I noticed that my tomatoes had been trampled by some strange creature. The tracks it would’ve left had been washed away from the rain, but I could tell it had been headed off down back the small trail next to my house. I was quite frightened, thinking it was a Diamond Dog or some creature from the Evergreen Forest, but my eye caught something my illumination spell had uncovered. There was a small clay embankment right below my garden, and there it was. The unmistakable print of a hoof. Somepony was caught in this horrible storm! Chapter 2By now, a bunch of the fillies' mothers had come to the library to listen in to the story. But now, as Silver Quill noticed, it had gotten dark outside. Twilight handed Silver Quill the book back, and then thanked everypony for coming. As Silver Quill put the book into her satchel, she noticed somepony was wearing a raincoat, even though there didn't appear to be a storm coming. As the strange pony left, Silver Quill caught sight of a bright green tail with a yellow stripe down one part. Silver Quill followed the mysterious pony out into the main street. She raised a hoof to tap the strangers shoulder to get her attention (The style of the tail suggested to Silver Quill that this pony was a she, it didn't look over-the-top fancy, but there was a curl in the tip) when all of a sudden, it started raining. Hard. Like somepony had created a waterfall over the entire town hard. As Silver Quill was momentarily stunned by the sudden downpour, the strange pony galloped down the street, and disappeared down a side road. Quill gave up the chase, and went back to her house. Quill's parents greeted her as she walked in, and asked how her day had gone. She replied with a casual "Good, it was really good." She then had a cold dinner, and reminded by her parents how late it was, went straight to bed. She stared at the ceiling thinking about the days events, before slowly drifting off to sleep. Silver Quill woke to someone pounding on the door. Since she was on the second floor, Silver Quill had a great view of the path leading up to their house. And the royal guards standing at the door. She could also hear her parents walking towards the door, whispering in quiet but worried tones. SIlver Quill unconsciously grabbing her stachel, decided to sneak out the back door, around to one of the big bushes in the front to watch. As she opened the door, a hoof was placed on her muzzle, keeping her from talking. Somepony's leg wrapped around her torso and legs, making her unable to move. The pony whispered in her ear. "Shh! Don't you even think of talking!" and took his hoof off of Silver Quill's muzzle. Silver Quill took a step back and took a quick look at him. The pony behind her was actually a pegasus. His coat was a light gray, like a cloud right after a storm. He had a brilliant orange mane, and she noticed his tail seemed a bit shorter and ragged, like he had cut chunks of it off without looking. "You better explain yourself mister, or I'll yell for help". It was a pretty lame threat, considering that the pegasus could just fly off with her at any moment, but as her dad had taught her, Saying things with authority and acting like you are in control can help you out in many situations. The pegasus replied, "Look, we don't have much time, those guard out front are here to take you away. I need you to come with me." "And why would I just dash off with some stranger?" The pegasus hesitated for a moment, then replied: "I am not a stranger, I'm Dareasus. From your book. Ah yes, i see you've already read the book. Then it's even more important that you come with me. I can't fully explain right now, but I cannot let those guards find you here." He turned a bit, and Silver Quill noticed his cutie mark. A silver cloud with a golden wrench on top. Quill remembered a little bit from what Twilight had read about a pegasus with this mark. She heard the sound of iron-shod hooves pounding across the floor, headed straight for the back door. "Hurry! We don't have much time left!" Dareasus said, and Silver Quill immediately made her choice. She slammed the back door right as the guards reached it, and ran to the pegasus. He motioned for her to hop on his back, and she did, using a spell she learned in the library to reduce her weight on him. Even though she was only twelve years old, she guessed that Dareasus had never had to hold anyone on his back before. They took off as the guards burst through the door, lifting off of the ground in hot pursuit. Silver Quill watched as Dareasus pulled a small emerald charm out of a satchel on his side. Suddenly, in a flash of green light, Silver Quill and Dareasus were deep in some forest. The pegasus skidded to a stop, and placed the charm back into his satchel. Silver Quill hopped onto the ground and asked, "What just happened?" Dareasus motioned for her to follow, and replied; "What I just did is use a special charm, made for me by a special friend. Those guards chased us because of two things. One, they know who I am, and Two, you have the book. You are probably wondering what a book could possibly do to be a danger, but you will find out in time." Silver Quill picked her way through a patch of thorns, then asked, "Why are you wanted? Did you commit a crime?" "No, I didn't commit a crime. I simply was at the wrong place at the wrong time." "Stop being so cryptic!" Silver Quill shouted, "Why cant you tell me the truth?" Dareasus glanced at Silver Quill for a moment. She could sense both pain and a flash of anger before he regained his composure. "You'd be better off reading that book for now." Having really no other choice, Silver Quill pulled the book out of her satchel, and read while she kept pace with Dareasus through the forest. Chapter 3Whoever this poor pony was, I knew I had to go and find them. I ran back inside, grabbed my raincoat, and headed out of the door. It wasn't all that hard for me to find the pony. He had a bright yellow coat with a white mane, that couldn't stand out more. The unconscious body was lying right beyond the edge of my garden, in a patch of thorns. I carefully lifted the pony out of the thorns and carried him back to the house. I put him on my bed, and I spent the rest of the night applying salve to his cuts and bruises, and repairing his broken ankle. Eventually, I fell asleep in my chair, and didn't awake until late morning. By the time I had awoken, the rain had stopped, and I was feeling refreshed. I had a strong feeling I was forgetting something, until I remembered the stallion from last night. I went to my room and slowly opened the door so as not to wake him. He was sitting upright on the side of the bed, examining his broken ankle. He jumped up with a start when he saw me in the doorway, but his visage returned to a calm, authoritive state. I remember trying to talk to him, I hadn't really talked to anypony in a long time, and my voice cracked a couple of times. I managed a timid hello, and he nodded in return. "You were uh, out near my garden last night and well, basically, you broke your ankle tripping into a thorn bush." I had an awkward smile plastered on my face, I hope he wouldn't take that wrong. "A thorn bush huh?" His voice was rough but had a unique pitch to it. "Yeah, a thorn bush." Why was I nodding? This wasn't seeming to go very well. I struggled to think of something to say but he beat me to it. "Do you perhaps have any sort of food for breakfast?" His voice snapped me back to reality. Now that he mentioned it, I looked into the kitchen to see what I could possibly throw together. It was about time for me to head back into town, but I did have some zucchini bread I had just finished baking two days ago. As I brought the bread over to the table, I heard the unsteady clop of the stallion's hooves as he wobbled into the kitchen. I realized my mistake as he voiced his sentence, I had forgotten to wear my coat. "I'm not right to ask this, but why don't you have a cutie mark?" I winced, and turned to face him. "That's not important. I think you forgot to tell me your name." I could tell that he was still interested, but it would be impolite to ask again, wouldn't it? Either way he shifted his hooves a bit and replied; "My name is Star Shine." I handed him a couple of slices of my zucchini bread, and we both sat and ate. Star continued to ask me questions. "Does anyone live near here?" "Why do you live all the way out here?" "What do you do out here?" "Whats YOUR name?" "Do you have any skill in magic?" I held up a hoof to silence him, and after an awkward moment while I tried to swallow what was left in my mouth, I replied. "My name is Horologium. I live out here for, uh, personal reasons. Nobody as far as I can tell lives along this path. And most of what I do is study magic." All of a sudden, there was a floating notebook, and Star Shine was writing all of it down. "Do you have a last name?" "No." "Could you tell me why?" "I'd rather not." He was so intent on writing everything I said down, that he didn't notice the glass of water I had set before him. He knocked it over, and even though I had expected it, I jumped in surprise. I hit my head on the ceiling as well. I remember the complete disorientation I felt as I looked down and saw that I was well above the floor. The jump from the spilling water caused me to instinctively levitate off of the ground and into the roof. The look on Star Shine's face was priceless, it had been a very long time since someone smiled at me, and it drove the throbbing pain from my head away. All of a sudden, my magic had cut out, and I fell onto the floor. Star said, "Well, you certainly are learned for a non-student, that's the quickest levitation I've seen in a while. Say, why don't you come with me, Ce-uh-I could use someone like you. Would you like to go to magic school?" His last sentence hit me like a train. "You are pulling my leg. Even if you were from magic school, I would still have to pass an acceptance test." He pulled out a scroll from somewhere, replacing the notepad. "Lady, you just passed! All you need to do is sign here." His floating quill indicated a small line at the bottom of the scroll. It was just too good to be true. There was no way that this could have been happening. But, there had been the royal seal, placed to the left of the signature line. I remember that even with the seal, I still had my doubts. "Whats the catch?" "There is no catch." That was the second lie he had told me. I'll explain what the catch was, but first I have to tell you about my time at magic school. It was definitely "magical". Chapter 4I had ended up signing the scroll, and I packed up the few things I had, put on my overcoat, and headed off with Star Shine to magic school. Looking back, I hadn't really even processed the fact that Star Shine was taking me to magic school. Not until we got onto a train heading to Canterlot. Then I had a complete panic attack. I don't remember most of the train trip, but once we got off the train, I remember the excitement I had felt. I, a simple, mark-less unicorn, was going into magic school! As it turns out, Star Shine was my teacher. He privately tutored me, since most of the ponies going into magic school were little fillies or colts. I had a modest little apartment to live in, and life seemed to be turning around for me. I'll spare you all the little details of my life during magic school, but let me tell you this, if you are a lucky little foal who is accepted to the school, its something that changes you. For good or for worse is up to you. Man, I'm getting off-topic again. I'll just fast-forward to my graduation. This is the part where Star Shine's lie was revealed. He met me in the hall outside of the room where I had received my certificate for completing the courses. He had a sly smile on his face. "Hey, ready to start your next semester?" This of course caught me completely off-guard. "I don't know what you are talking about." Star Shine pulled out his scroll, the scroll that I had signed all that time ago. "It says right here, you also agree to two semesters of "judging" in entrance exams, upon completion of your courses." I wasn't too mad, because I didn't know the path that this would set me down, but I had no choice. I remember the anxiety as I followed Star Shine to get ready to be an examiner. Thankfully, I only had to be in that spot for a couple of weeks. Silver Quill paused her reading as she noticed that Dareasus had stopped, they were standing in a small clearing. Straight ahead, a run-down, overgrown shack stood, gaping holes in it's sides from decay and termites. Dareasus slowly pushed open the door, then jumped back as the door fell to the ground, rotten off it's hinges. "Come on, Silver Quill, lets rest here for a while." She followed Dareasus inside the shack, the cold feeling of dampness and mold settling over her. Finding a relatively dry spot in a sunbeam on the floor, Silver Quill settled down and forgot all about the shack and it's striking familiarity as she continued to read the book. Lets just say that my job as an entrance examiner was dull. Imagine trying to slice a loaf of bread with a blade of grass, that's how dull it was. Even now, after experiences a lot worse, I get very uneasy thinking about that time. What made it worth while were the foals. Most of them were Canterlot raised, their rich parents paying their way in. Then, every now and then, one of the teachers would disguise themselves with magic and go out, looking for that prodigal filly or colt, like Star Shine did to find me. Star Shine taught me this disguise trick, in case I was sent to find somepony. I never did, but I imagined what it would be like. And then, my dreams were completed and shattered at the same time. Celestia regularly visited the school of magic, getting reports on how the education was going, talking to the students, stuff like that. Occasionally taking a random colt or filly with her for 'advanced education'. I always had this worried feeling in my gut whenever I saw her, and back then I had believed that there must have been something troublesome involving the foals. I remember the day. The day that made and broke me. I was going in to an entrance exam with a couple of other judges. We were going to be testing a small unicorn from Ponyville. I remember also that I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep last night. I was supposed to be testing some little unicorn whose name is kind of familiar. It was Tempest Twinkle, no that wasn't it. It had sounded pretty, and I had stopped learning their names after the first dozen or so. Whatever, She was from Ponyville, we hadn't gotten a lot of fillies from there in a while, I tiredly thought as I sat in my apartment. One of the other teachers burst through the door. I wish I could remember her name. But she seemed very anxious, that I do remember. "The Princess has summoned you" the mare gasped out. "What about my student I'm supposed to be testing soon." "Don't worry, I'll do that for you. Go meet Celestia, shes in the atrium." I had a very bad feeling that was growing in my stomach, but I went anyways. It was most likely anxiety, I was about to meet a princess! And then, there she was, studying one of the roses. Celestia turned towards me as I walked into the atrium. "Good morning, Horologium." "Good morning, um, your highness." She motioned with her head, and her royal guards left the atrium through a back door. "Horologium," Celestia asked me as she took a couple of steps forward, "I need to ask you a question. Are you being a loyal subject? Star Shine tells me that you have unwavering loyalty towards the school, but are you loyal to me and to Equestria?" That's when I knew something was terribly wrong, I felt like there was a giant void in my stomach, sucking in anything in it's path. "Why yes, your majesty. I would die if it meant to keep Equestria safe." Celestia nodded, and hit me with a golden beam of her magic. I still don't know why but I just stood there and took it, didn't even flinch. Perhaps I was just ready to get away and didn't care how. Chapter 5One second, I was standing in the School of Magic's atrium, with Princess Celestia herself. The next, I was in some vast room, the walls of which I couldn't see. There were what appeared to be stars off in the distance, and below me, far away, I saw a blue and green ball. On the sides of me, there were square "holes" that formed some sort of hallway. Each square was like a painting, except that they were moving. It was as if each square was an eye, looking out upon various landscapes and villages. Some of these squares showed images that I still try to find out the meaning of, but some showed familiar images. One that I caught a glimpse of even showed my shack, standing in the middle of the forest. Seeing it brought back strong feelings of nostalgia. My attention returned to Celestia, my feeling of danger growing ever stronger. She started singing some sort of song, but my memory fades around this period in my life. I do seem to remember being lifted off of the ground somehow, surrounded by the lights of the stars. The last decent thing that I remember is the sudden feeling that my fears had been proven. Something was going horribly wrong. Then, I was surrounded in golden light. I wish I could remember more of this event, but my lingering memory has stifled my curiosity. I remember that for the longest time, all I could feel was pain. The pain felt like it was going to tear me in half. I think I may have cast some sort of spell, but again, my memory can only go so far. The next non-pain thing I remember was falling to the floor. The entire place shimmered, and faded like a reflection in a pool. I found myself lying on the cold stone floor of some inner room, most likely inside of the royal castle. I still had a bit of pain, mostly a giant headache, but there was a very unusual feeling, something that at the time I couldn't place. Celestia was standing over me, a whole bunch of feelings mirrored clearly on her face for the first time. There were quite a lot of emotions flowing through her, but the three I remember were expectation, anxiety, and anger. Then her face returned to the normal, regal gaze. "Not again", those were her last words that I heard, then suddenly, she hit me with another beam of her magic. If you have never done it, phasing through walls is not a fun experience, especially when you don't expect it coming. It's SUPER disorienting. Celestia's beam of golden light pushed me through castle walls, rooms, and other ponies who were standing in the path of the beam. At this point, I had lost all feeling, and I started thinking that I had nothing to worry about. It wasn't until I left the courtyard until I started to panic. My memory fails me again, I don't know if I told you yet or not, but I have an awful fear of heights. Celestia's beam of magic had taken me above the castle grounds by now, and the height was frightening. Eventually, I got so high up in the air that I just simply had closed my eyes and waited to die. When I had opened my eyes again, I was greeted with blackness all around me. Since I had also been surrounded by stars, I guessed that I was in the sky. The blue and green ball was way below me, and that's when I came to the conclusion that this ball was Equestria. I mean, that was where the golden beam still shone from, projecting me into the void of the sky. I struggled to turn to see where I was going, but the magic was holding me very firmly in it's grasp. But that's when I saw them. Two wings. And they appeared to be attached to me. i remember my mind furiously trying to connect the dots. For some unexplained reason, Celestia had turned me into an alicorn! Or something with wings, I think I did check my magic but I'm not sure if at the time it felt different. Either way, as soon as my mind made this connection, I landed with a heavy thump onto a dusty surface. Celestia's horrible beam of magic returned on it's course, back to Equestria. Back to home. Judging from the color and terrain of the place I was at, I came to the conclusion that I was on the moon. The moon was the only place I'd ever heard of that had the color of the ground this amazingly white-grey. I had heard of the legends. Celestia banishing Nightmare Moon to, well, the moon. It was a story my mother had told me quite a few times when I was a little filly. Well, I was living the legend. The place where I had landed was somewhere in the middle of a well-sized crater, the walls of which went high into the sky in a straight line. There was no way I was going to scale that. That's when it caught my eye. There was a special pattern overlaying itself onto, ok that kinda sounded weird. Let me try that again. I looked over to see my cutie mark. Had I not been in my present situation, I would have probably cried out in joy. It was a majestic-looking stopwatch with a hourglass in the middle. Of course, looking there also reminded me of my wings. I had no idea how to use my wings, however. I decided to hop and try to get myself over the edge of the crater by furiously beating my wings, I drew from my time watching Dareasus fly around. I wasn't able to get my wings in the right angles, but that didn't matter. Apparently on the moon, you can jump much higher than in Equestria. My hop carried me well over the edge of the crater's lip. I decided that pulling myself back down to the surface using magic would be the best, but when I did, I pulled too strongly and 'bounced' off of the surface. Something was not right with my magic at this point. Most likely my magic had been changed when I was turned into an alicorn. Holding off on using magic had seemed the best choice for the time being. When I had touched down again, I noticed a whole line of huge black rock, stretching to both corners of my vision. They were wider than they were high, and I scaled the rock with no effort. I saw a cave in the distance, and even though I don't remember walking that far, all of a sudden I was at the mouth. Deep within, I saw a faint glow of a torch or some other light. Having nothing else to do, and nowhere else too noticeable to go, I had decided to go towards the light. There were some rocks in the dark that squished rather unpleasantly whenever I would step on them. That's something I forgot to tell you as well, curse my forgetfulness. It was really quiet on the moon. It was peaceful and unnerving at the same time. I tripped over another squishy rock and drifted across the room, smacking awkwardly into a stone pillar hanging from the ceiling. That made no sound either. I had tried to say something, but I couldn't even hear my own voice. Then, I was caught in the orange glow of somepony's magic. This magic didn't look like Celestias' so I calmed down a bit, but there was only one pony that I knew of that lived here. My confusion only deepened as I was drawn into the room with the light. The source of said light was a torch placed on the front of a house, embedded in the rock wall. Standing in front of the house was an orange mare with a bright white mane, staring at me with an expression of puzzlement. I'm not sure what she was. She had a horn, which made me think unicorn, however she was the same size as an "average" alicorn would be. And some kind of aura about her suggested alicorn, but she didn't have wings. Nonetheless, she was quite remarkable to see. I awkwardly waved to her, and she nodded and carried me into the house. Then, she released her magic on me, and I drifted down to the floor. The mare's house was actually a lot smaller than I had originally thought. The walls were made of the moon rock, and her sparse furniture was also made of moon rock. I heard the door close behind me, and all of my senses returned to normal. The mare must have created some kind of magical field inside her house. "Thank you for catching me there, my name is Horologium." At first the mare's voice sounded rough, like she hadn't used it in a while, but her voice got clearer by the second. "Greetings, Horologium, my name is Falling Star." I had come to the conclusion at this point that she was also an alicorn, I had then seen the pieces falling into place. Falling Star had been turned into an alicorn somewhat like me, but we had both been sent to the moon for some unknown reason. I was determined to find out why. I figured asking wouldn't hurt. "Do you know why we are here, why Celestia would do this to us and send us here?" "Yes, Horologium, take a seat and I'll tell you exactly why you are who you are and why you are here." Chapter 6Silver Quill placed a bookmark and closed the book, hearing a noise from outside. There was something in the bushes, headed straight for the cabin, and Dareasus was nowhere in sight. Silver Quill decided to hide in the rotten remains of what used to be a food chest. The rustling turned into thumping as the whatever-it-was made its way onto the porch of the house. Silver Quill felt her heat racing as she tried to keep her breathing quiet. That's when it walked into the house. The thing in question was actually one of the royal guards, he had somehow tracked Silver Quill and Dareasus to the cabin. The stallion began searching the house. Silver Quill knew that the guard was going to find her eventually; she was going to have to try and make an escape. She didn't know where Dareasus had gone, but she would have to leave the cabin and get to a safer place. There was a mostly-rotten shelf positioned above the food chest, Silver Quill started working on it with her magic. She got done with it just in time, as the Royal Guard was making his way towards the food chest. With the groan and snap of old wood breaking, the shelf above the food chest mysteriously crashed down. Now Silver Quill just had to escape while the guard was distracted. She tested the wall behind the chest to see if she could carve her way out. There was a small hole covered in moss that was just too small to fit her. Silver Quill crashed through the hole nonetheless, tumbling onto the front porch. She didn't care that the guard had heard, she just wanted to leave. She couldn't take the tension anymore. Luckily, Silver Quill had just made it to a small hiding place in some brush when the royal guard flew out of the door. Five more guards flew down from the treetops, apparently not noticing Silver Quill. She slowly made her way through the forest, until she stumbled upon another cottage. This one was a lot better in condition, and may have been recently inhabited. After Silver Quill knocked on the door and looked in the windows, however, she concluded that nopony lived there. There was an open window on the top floor, a ladder placed conveniently close by. Silver Quill bucked the ladder down to the ground after she climbed it, and closed and latched the window she had just entered. After taking a few minutes to calm down, Silver Quill decided to keep reading the book. Falling Star glanced at me for a second, then she began to tell me what was going on. "A long time ago, Celestia had a fight with her sister, Luna. Or as you know her, Nightmare Moon. Celestia feared that Luna would return to Equestria one day, and she feared that Luna would want revenge. So, Celestia started planning. She hired me and a few other ponies, her best magicians, to help her with her plan. She told us to devise a spell that would let her change any unicorn into an alicorn, it didn't matter if they were worthy or not. We all told her that such a thing was not possible, and even if it was possible, that we shouldn't mess with that kind of magic. But she had her guards lock us up and forced us to work on a spell. Two of the other magicians were executed for not helping create the spell. If I was to know what was to happen, I would've preferred death over this. Eventually, Celestia grew impatient. We were disturbingly close to creating the spell when she demanded that the spell be given to her tomorrow. We insisted that the spell wasn't complete, but she couldn't wait. She got one of the magicians to hand her the scroll containing the uncompleted spell. That's when the horrors began. Celestia tested the spell out on us, the foolish ponies who were just trying to survive. There were...unexpected results. Most of the ponies died very horribly, some turned into deformed monsters and locked away. Then there were two of us, me and another mare by whose name I can't remember. At first it had seemed that we were successes, me and one other, but that was a big mistake. I constantly felt like my wings were going to fall off any second, which they eventually did, and my magical ability has been significantly reduced. I mostly can do just the simplest of spells anymore. The other mare had her lifespan greatly shortened instead of lengthened, and died of old age the next day. Celestia sent me here, with the other failures, to the moon, and I presume kept working on the spell. She was consumed with the need to defend herself, no matter the consequences. Whenever she has a failed subject of her spell, she sends them here. To forever wander this desolate landscape, eventually wasting away into the white dust that covers this rock. The dust glows with their magic. That is why the moon is so white. There were actually two other mares who found my residence here. I enjoyed their company, but one's magic took control of her and she disappeared along with the other one. And here we are today, trapped on the moon with no hope of escape." I was having a hard time understanding all that Falling Star had just said. We talked about other things, I believe they were conversations about returning to Equestria, but I was still shocked by Falling Star's story. The Celestia I knew would never do such a thing. Of course, now that I though about it, she did. I still have hope that there is some good left in Celestia. Falling Star had offered to let me stay with her and live out the rest of my days, however much those may be, in that cave, but I declined. She understood, and I wish to some day meet with Falling Star again. But my destiny was not in that cave. I had left the cave, naively believing that I could just walk or fly back to Equestria. Occasionally I would walk upon a new test subject just recently sent to the moon. Half of them were dead by the time I reached them, and the other half broke into tears and screamed at me to leave. One even tried attacking me. I walked around like this in a daze for who even knows how long. One day, though, I would literally get a ticket home. At some point (I was going to write 'one day' but there was never night or darkness on the moon so I couldn't tell if it was day or not) I was walking around a rather large crater, when I saw overhead a majestic chariot, the color of the sky but somewhat brighter. From it drifted down large quantities of silver tickets. I caught one, and upon further inspection found it was some sort of announcement. It read in great shining letters; "To those still alive: Loyal Subjects of the Lunar Empire: I, your royal Princess Luna, am making a decree to all of my subjects. Soon it shall be night in Equestria, a night they have named "Nightmare Night". After all these years, thy Princess Luna has gathered the magic sufficient to return to Equestria. Thy Princess' heart is heavy for you, I know thy plight. Henceforth, all subjects of Princess Luna's domain shall meet at her castle, where I shall send thee back to Equestria. Do not tally, the time is near by. -Princess Luna" I couldn't believe it, Princess Luna was letting us return with her to Equestria! There was only one problem, I didn't know where the castle was, and if I didn't get there on time I would most likely get stuck on the moon forever. I could barely see the chariot in the distance, and I decided that following it would be better than wandering off in a random direction. I developed a method of making great leaps that eventually closed the distance between me and the chariot. By the time I was decently close to the chariot, I could see Princess Luna's castle looming in the distance. At the front gate were the other alicorns that had received the message. Some had died waiting at the gate, but there were about ten including me when the gate opened. We walked through the gate and into the courtyard, where the ground was cold like glass. The main entrance into the castle was blocked by a giant blue swirling circle of magic. That was the portal. In front of it stood Princess Luna, casting spells into the portal's center. She wore a very intimidating set of armor, and she was flanked by her royal guards, who held us back until the portal opened with a large flash of light. Once Luna had flown through, her guards starting flying through the portal, no longer paying attention to us. That's when we all decided to run for it. Once I went through the portal, I heard the sound of a thousand wind chimes and felt as if I was running head first into a strong wind. All kinds of colors surrounded me, a lot of what happened was incomprehensible or I just don't remember. I do remember my return to Equestria. I found myself in some kind of stone structure, surrounded by seven other alicorns. In front of us stood a row of Celestia's guards, halfway in the motion of throwing spears. It was fight or die. Celestia had laid a trap for us, but Luna and her guards were nowhere to be seen. At one point, a spear flew right for my face. On instinct, I used a bit of magic that I had never knew existed. The spear slowed midair, almost stopping. I moved out of the way, and using my normal magic, flipped the spear downward. My little bubble surrounding the spear disappeared, and the spear stuck in the ground. The guard seemed stunned when he saw me do that, but I took the chance to dart off into the darkness. It was night, and I had dashed far away enough from the portal so that none of the guards could see me. But they could see the other alicorns. The slaughter was horrifying to watch. But I did remember watching one of them fly away into the night, I could've sworn that the mare had a white mane. I decided to leave the scene before any of the guards spotted me. The portal closed as I spread my wings and flew away. I took my time flying through the night, to where I didn't know. The sound and feel of the breeze on my face was enough for tears of joy to sprout around my eyes. I was finally home, back in Equestria. Although my imprisonment had been rather short, or so I've been led to believe, it had felt like a veritable eternity since I had seen the green hills of Equestria. There were two things I did once I found shelter. First, I wrote about my adventures, both to warn and to remember those sacrificed. I am going to place six copies of this book around Equestria. If I could only get one to Princess Luna, she would remember what her sister had done to so many innocent souls. Maybe she can end this horrible quest for the spell. I'm hoping she hasn't forgotten by now. Once I have stopped this evil, I'm going to find my life again. Hopefully, I can find Dareasus again. I really could use a friend right about now. But my memory fails me again, and I fear for the worst. Fear the sun. Whatever you do, don't put this book in open sunlight. Because if you do-- Silver Quill jumped as she realized she was sitting in the sunbeam coming through the window. She threw the book with all her might to the darkest corner of the attic, but to no avail. The book was smoking and steaming, and Silver Quill watched in horror as it slowly bent in on itself and dissolved into white ash. 'Now I'm the only pony who knows' Silver Quill thought to herself. What was she going to do? She collected all of the ashes and placed them within her satchel. She knew what she had to do. She searched the house and gathered anything she could. She went down the stairs and went out of the front door. Silver Quill was on a quest. A quest to find the last books and bring them to Luna. As she receded into the shadows, at least twenty royal guards flew down to the house, pouring in every orifice. Silver Quill realized that this was her life now, but some inner part of her had already accepted that. EpilogueAfter questioning the parents of Silver Quill, Twilight had them go. They knew nothing important. trotting back into her room, she turned to Spike. "Spike, I need you to send a letter!" Spike burped out two letters within the minute. Both were from Celestia. The first letter was the one Twilight expected. She would now be on the lookout for two strange-looking books. The ones that the changeling Horologium had written. The second letter, however, puzzled Twilight. It looked nothing like Celestia's handwriting, and simply had three large words, ominously put onto the parchement. IT IS COMPLETE
IntroductionIt was Thursday. Thursdays were a very interesting time of the week. They were those days where you wished it was Friday, so you wouldn’t have to bear another day of school or work before the weekends. Thursdays were also the days when all of the little foals got out of school early and headed over to the library. Princess Twilight Sparkle herself would read a story to the awe-struck foals, who just enjoyed watching the princess as she went around the library, looking for a story to read. This was the first Thursday of the month, however, which meant that the foals would pick a story for the princess to read. By the time Twilight opened the doors to the library, there were about twenty eager foals, excitement barely contained, waiting for this moment. They all ran into the main room, vying to be the first, lucky foal who would have their story read by the princess. However, one particular filly, Silver Quill, wasn’t in such a hurry. Silver Quill had graduated school a few days ago, and had heard most of the stories in the library, since she also came to read books on the weekend, so this wasn’t as exciting as it was for most of the others. I do have a story to choose, though, Silver Quill thought, as she remembered what had happened a few days ago. Silver Quill had just returned from a vacation with her parents to the great city of Canterlot. Her parents had gone to talk to relatives, but they had allowed Silver Quill to go to the Canterlot Library. Upon entering, she had noticed an overflowing bin of books, the sign on the sign said “2 Books for 1 bit”. She had 5 bits in her satchel, but four of those were needed to get a stagecoach back home. She decided that the extra bit could be used for a couple of books. Her first book she chose was one of the Daring Do series, a particular favorite of Quill’s. But, as she searched the others, they weren’t in any good condition. Mostly just poor spines. But one book did catch her attention. It lay at the bottom of the bin, and also had a bad spine. But the cover! The cover was a very ornate pattern of swirls and petals. The title had been worn through, but that just added to Silver Quill’s curiosity. She lifted the book from the bin, and noticed that the book seemed to have some sort of enchantment set on it. This one was definitely a keeper. Forgetting the Daring Do book, Silver Quill set the strange book on the front desk, and asked the librarian to buy the book. The mare looked at the book for a second, then said, “5 bits for the book.” As if her hooves were being controlled by a puppeteer, Silver Quill lifted five bits to the counter. The librarian took the bits, and wished Silver Quill a good day. Silver Quill put the book in her satchel, and didn’t bother to read it. This would make a great addition to Twilight’s library. Silver Quill wasn’t worried that she got in trouble when she got home late from walking, she could tell the book was going to be worth it. Trotting up to Princess Twilight, Silver Quill pulled the tome out of her satchel. “Here Princess, I found this book while at Canterlot. It didn’t look like anything you had here at the library, so I brought it back here.” Twilight looked at the book, and an expression too quick to read flashed across her face. She smiled and said, “Thank you, Silver Quill, this is going to be something new for today.” Twilight called all of the other foals back, and once they were seated, opened the book. Twilight cleared her throat, and began; “The Truth behind the Truth, a story about me, Horologium.” Twilight stumbled a bit over the name, but read on, all of the foals completely captivated. However Silver Quill was the only foal who felt a sense of foreboding.
Chapter 1I was born and raised just west of a small town called Ponyville, raised by my Aunt and Uncle. They were nice to me, but they didn’t have the love for me that my parents would have had. I barely knew my parents, and all that my Aunt would say is that I had appeared one day, a small and helpless unicorn, in their living room. My uncle worked selling fresh fruits and vegetables picked from our garden out back. We had enough bits to get by, but that wasn’t my problem. School was my problem. Not that I wasn’t a bad student or anything, but I had a special case that got me into a lot of bullying. You see, I didn’t get my cutie mark at the normal age. My Aunt just thought I hadn’t found my talent yet, but my Uncle seemed to get nervous once I turned ten. I was able to pass my classes, no thanks to my teacher, Sunny Hills. She mostly looked the other way when it came to bullying, unless it affected our grades. After a bit it became obvious she wasn’t loving her job of teaching. I have no idea what her destiny was, because she headed for Canterlot seeking fortune a couple of days before I graduated school. The new teacher I had for those last two days was a great improvement. Cheerilee helped me solve most of my bullying problems, and ace the test! I hope she is still as happy as she was then. Lets fast-forward a couple of years, I'd rather not think of those. At this point in time, I was old enough to be sent off to live on my own. But still without cutie mark, I wasn’t accepted into any apprenticeships. The masters didn’t want me to leave them, if I had gotten my mark after they hired me that would just be a big waste of time. Especially if my talent was in something completely different from their trade. I did have one friend who lived right on the edge of Ponyville. He was one of those pegasi who excelled at everything athletic, but was rather short of a full haystack if you know what I mean. His...lack of education led to us meeting, though, so I guess not a total loss? His name was Dareasus, and interesting name along with mine, since we had no last names. He had been found and put into the orphanage at infancy, so nopony knew who his parents were. He had helped me with the bullying problem, and I helped him with his homework. He grew in mental ability, and I was able to return to my house each day without being beaten up. He got his cutie mark early, however. A silver cloud, overlaid with a golden wrench. He got it while helping me take care of another bully, using a device he had built to scare the daylights out of the colt. He went on to work at Cloudsdayle, and whenever we were able to talk, he talked about his search for his parents, who no-doubted lived there. But I’m getting off-course here, that seems to happen a lot. Due to my quiet, shy exterior, I was quickly forgotten in Ponyville. So, one day, I packed up my books, bought some seeds from my Uncle, and set off to wherever. I ended up living off a small path near the Smoky Mountains, nopony noticing my absence. Not even the vendors I had befriended ever could remember who I was. Heck, I visited my Uncle and Aunt a few months ago and even they didn't recognize me. This, this 'invisibility', is my curse. Using my books, and my magic, I was able to construct a comfortable little cabin. I used the seeds, and made a small garden to live off of. There, I spent a while, living off of the food I grew and the books I read. I did occasionally go into the surrounding villages, but I would always wear something to cover my bare flank, and I never went back to Ponyville. At least, not for a while. One day, my whole life changed for the worst. Actually, correction, it was a night, and I had though it had been for the best. I’ll explain. One night, I stayed up a little later reading one of my books about magic. I was trying to learn a basic levitation spell, but was failing horribly. I used to blame it on the rain, but the truth was I simply wasn’t understanding some aspect about it. Did I forget the rain? It was raining really hard that night, and in fact at one point I went out to make sure my garden hadn’t flooded. As I did so, I noticed that my tomatoes had been trampled by some strange creature. The tracks it would’ve left had been washed away from the rain, but I could tell it had been headed off down back the small trail next to my house. I was quite frightened, thinking it was a Diamond Dog or some creature from the Evergreen Forest, but my eye caught something my illumination spell had uncovered. There was a small clay embankment right below my garden, and there it was. The unmistakable print of a hoof. Somepony was caught in this horrible storm!
Chapter 2By now, a bunch of the fillies' mothers had come to the library to listen in to the story. But now, as Silver Quill noticed, it had gotten dark outside. Twilight handed Silver Quill the book back, and then thanked everypony for coming. As Silver Quill put the book into her satchel, she noticed somepony was wearing a raincoat, even though there didn't appear to be a storm coming. As the strange pony left, Silver Quill caught sight of a bright green tail with a yellow stripe down one part. Silver Quill followed the mysterious pony out into the main street. She raised a hoof to tap the strangers shoulder to get her attention (The style of the tail suggested to Silver Quill that this pony was a she, it didn't look over-the-top fancy, but there was a curl in the tip) when all of a sudden, it started raining. Hard. Like somepony had created a waterfall over the entire town hard. As Silver Quill was momentarily stunned by the sudden downpour, the strange pony galloped down the street, and disappeared down a side road. Quill gave up the chase, and went back to her house. Quill's parents greeted her as she walked in, and asked how her day had gone. She replied with a casual "Good, it was really good." She then had a cold dinner, and reminded by her parents how late it was, went straight to bed. She stared at the ceiling thinking about the days events, before slowly drifting off to sleep. Silver Quill woke to someone pounding on the door. Since she was on the second floor, Silver Quill had a great view of the path leading up to their house. And the royal guards standing at the door. She could also hear her parents walking towards the door, whispering in quiet but worried tones. SIlver Quill unconsciously grabbing her stachel, decided to sneak out the back door, around to one of the big bushes in the front to watch. As she opened the door, a hoof was placed on her muzzle, keeping her from talking. Somepony's leg wrapped around her torso and legs, making her unable to move. The pony whispered in her ear. "Shh! Don't you even think of talking!" and took his hoof off of Silver Quill's muzzle. Silver Quill took a step back and took a quick look at him. The pony behind her was actually a pegasus. His coat was a light gray, like a cloud right after a storm. He had a brilliant orange mane, and she noticed his tail seemed a bit shorter and ragged, like he had cut chunks of it off without looking. "You better explain yourself mister, or I'll yell for help". It was a pretty lame threat, considering that the pegasus could just fly off with her at any moment, but as her dad had taught her, Saying things with authority and acting like you are in control can help you out in many situations. The pegasus replied, "Look, we don't have much time, those guard out front are here to take you away. I need you to come with me." "And why would I just dash off with some stranger?" The pegasus hesitated for a moment, then replied: "I am not a stranger, I'm Dareasus. From your book. Ah yes, i see you've already read the book. Then it's even more important that you come with me. I can't fully explain right now, but I cannot let those guards find you here." He turned a bit, and Silver Quill noticed his cutie mark. A silver cloud with a golden wrench on top. Quill remembered a little bit from what Twilight had read about a pegasus with this mark. She heard the sound of iron-shod hooves pounding across the floor, headed straight for the back door. "Hurry! We don't have much time left!" Dareasus said, and Silver Quill immediately made her choice. She slammed the back door right as the guards reached it, and ran to the pegasus. He motioned for her to hop on his back, and she did, using a spell she learned in the library to reduce her weight on him. Even though she was only twelve years old, she guessed that Dareasus had never had to hold anyone on his back before. They took off as the guards burst through the door, lifting off of the ground in hot pursuit. Silver Quill watched as Dareasus pulled a small emerald charm out of a satchel on his side. Suddenly, in a flash of green light, Silver Quill and Dareasus were deep in some forest. The pegasus skidded to a stop, and placed the charm back into his satchel. Silver Quill hopped onto the ground and asked, "What just happened?" Dareasus motioned for her to follow, and replied; "What I just did is use a special charm, made for me by a special friend. Those guards chased us because of two things. One, they know who I am, and Two, you have the book. You are probably wondering what a book could possibly do to be a danger, but you will find out in time." Silver Quill picked her way through a patch of thorns, then asked, "Why are you wanted? Did you commit a crime?" "No, I didn't commit a crime. I simply was at the wrong place at the wrong time." "Stop being so cryptic!" Silver Quill shouted, "Why cant you tell me the truth?" Dareasus glanced at Silver Quill for a moment. She could sense both pain and a flash of anger before he regained his composure. "You'd be better off reading that book for now." Having really no other choice, Silver Quill pulled the book out of her satchel, and read while she kept pace with Dareasus through the forest.
Chapter 3Whoever this poor pony was, I knew I had to go and find them. I ran back inside, grabbed my raincoat, and headed out of the door. It wasn't all that hard for me to find the pony. He had a bright yellow coat with a white mane, that couldn't stand out more. The unconscious body was lying right beyond the edge of my garden, in a patch of thorns. I carefully lifted the pony out of the thorns and carried him back to the house. I put him on my bed, and I spent the rest of the night applying salve to his cuts and bruises, and repairing his broken ankle. Eventually, I fell asleep in my chair, and didn't awake until late morning. By the time I had awoken, the rain had stopped, and I was feeling refreshed. I had a strong feeling I was forgetting something, until I remembered the stallion from last night. I went to my room and slowly opened the door so as not to wake him. He was sitting upright on the side of the bed, examining his broken ankle. He jumped up with a start when he saw me in the doorway, but his visage returned to a calm, authoritive state. I remember trying to talk to him, I hadn't really talked to anypony in a long time, and my voice cracked a couple of times. I managed a timid hello, and he nodded in return. "You were uh, out near my garden last night and well, basically, you broke your ankle tripping into a thorn bush." I had an awkward smile plastered on my face, I hope he wouldn't take that wrong. "A thorn bush huh?" His voice was rough but had a unique pitch to it. "Yeah, a thorn bush." Why was I nodding? This wasn't seeming to go very well. I struggled to think of something to say but he beat me to it. "Do you perhaps have any sort of food for breakfast?" His voice snapped me back to reality. Now that he mentioned it, I looked into the kitchen to see what I could possibly throw together. It was about time for me to head back into town, but I did have some zucchini bread I had just finished baking two days ago. As I brought the bread over to the table, I heard the unsteady clop of the stallion's hooves as he wobbled into the kitchen. I realized my mistake as he voiced his sentence, I had forgotten to wear my coat. "I'm not right to ask this, but why don't you have a cutie mark?" I winced, and turned to face him. "That's not important. I think you forgot to tell me your name." I could tell that he was still interested, but it would be impolite to ask again, wouldn't it? Either way he shifted his hooves a bit and replied; "My name is Star Shine." I handed him a couple of slices of my zucchini bread, and we both sat and ate. Star continued to ask me questions. "Does anyone live near here?" "Why do you live all the way out here?" "What do you do out here?" "Whats YOUR name?" "Do you have any skill in magic?" I held up a hoof to silence him, and after an awkward moment while I tried to swallow what was left in my mouth, I replied. "My name is Horologium. I live out here for, uh, personal reasons. Nobody as far as I can tell lives along this path. And most of what I do is study magic." All of a sudden, there was a floating notebook, and Star Shine was writing all of it down. "Do you have a last name?" "No." "Could you tell me why?" "I'd rather not." He was so intent on writing everything I said down, that he didn't notice the glass of water I had set before him. He knocked it over, and even though I had expected it, I jumped in surprise. I hit my head on the ceiling as well. I remember the complete disorientation I felt as I looked down and saw that I was well above the floor. The jump from the spilling water caused me to instinctively levitate off of the ground and into the roof. The look on Star Shine's face was priceless, it had been a very long time since someone smiled at me, and it drove the throbbing pain from my head away. All of a sudden, my magic had cut out, and I fell onto the floor. Star said, "Well, you certainly are learned for a non-student, that's the quickest levitation I've seen in a while. Say, why don't you come with me, Ce-uh-I could use someone like you. Would you like to go to magic school?" His last sentence hit me like a train. "You are pulling my leg. Even if you were from magic school, I would still have to pass an acceptance test." He pulled out a scroll from somewhere, replacing the notepad. "Lady, you just passed! All you need to do is sign here." His floating quill indicated a small line at the bottom of the scroll. It was just too good to be true. There was no way that this could have been happening. But, there had been the royal seal, placed to the left of the signature line. I remember that even with the seal, I still had my doubts. "Whats the catch?" "There is no catch." That was the second lie he had told me. I'll explain what the catch was, but first I have to tell you about my time at magic school. It was definitely "magical".
Chapter 4I had ended up signing the scroll, and I packed up the few things I had, put on my overcoat, and headed off with Star Shine to magic school. Looking back, I hadn't really even processed the fact that Star Shine was taking me to magic school. Not until we got onto a train heading to Canterlot. Then I had a complete panic attack. I don't remember most of the train trip, but once we got off the train, I remember the excitement I had felt. I, a simple, mark-less unicorn, was going into magic school! As it turns out, Star Shine was my teacher. He privately tutored me, since most of the ponies going into magic school were little fillies or colts. I had a modest little apartment to live in, and life seemed to be turning around for me. I'll spare you all the little details of my life during magic school, but let me tell you this, if you are a lucky little foal who is accepted to the school, its something that changes you. For good or for worse is up to you. Man, I'm getting off-topic again. I'll just fast-forward to my graduation. This is the part where Star Shine's lie was revealed. He met me in the hall outside of the room where I had received my certificate for completing the courses. He had a sly smile on his face. "Hey, ready to start your next semester?" This of course caught me completely off-guard. "I don't know what you are talking about." Star Shine pulled out his scroll, the scroll that I had signed all that time ago. "It says right here, you also agree to two semesters of "judging" in entrance exams, upon completion of your courses." I wasn't too mad, because I didn't know the path that this would set me down, but I had no choice. I remember the anxiety as I followed Star Shine to get ready to be an examiner. Thankfully, I only had to be in that spot for a couple of weeks. Silver Quill paused her reading as she noticed that Dareasus had stopped, they were standing in a small clearing. Straight ahead, a run-down, overgrown shack stood, gaping holes in it's sides from decay and termites. Dareasus slowly pushed open the door, then jumped back as the door fell to the ground, rotten off it's hinges. "Come on, Silver Quill, lets rest here for a while." She followed Dareasus inside the shack, the cold feeling of dampness and mold settling over her. Finding a relatively dry spot in a sunbeam on the floor, Silver Quill settled down and forgot all about the shack and it's striking familiarity as she continued to read the book. Lets just say that my job as an entrance examiner was dull. Imagine trying to slice a loaf of bread with a blade of grass, that's how dull it was. Even now, after experiences a lot worse, I get very uneasy thinking about that time. What made it worth while were the foals. Most of them were Canterlot raised, their rich parents paying their way in. Then, every now and then, one of the teachers would disguise themselves with magic and go out, looking for that prodigal filly or colt, like Star Shine did to find me. Star Shine taught me this disguise trick, in case I was sent to find somepony. I never did, but I imagined what it would be like. And then, my dreams were completed and shattered at the same time. Celestia regularly visited the school of magic, getting reports on how the education was going, talking to the students, stuff like that. Occasionally taking a random colt or filly with her for 'advanced education'. I always had this worried feeling in my gut whenever I saw her, and back then I had believed that there must have been something troublesome involving the foals. I remember the day. The day that made and broke me. I was going in to an entrance exam with a couple of other judges. We were going to be testing a small unicorn from Ponyville. I remember also that I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep last night. I was supposed to be testing some little unicorn whose name is kind of familiar. It was Tempest Twinkle, no that wasn't it. It had sounded pretty, and I had stopped learning their names after the first dozen or so. Whatever, She was from Ponyville, we hadn't gotten a lot of fillies from there in a while, I tiredly thought as I sat in my apartment. One of the other teachers burst through the door. I wish I could remember her name. But she seemed very anxious, that I do remember. "The Princess has summoned you" the mare gasped out. "What about my student I'm supposed to be testing soon." "Don't worry, I'll do that for you. Go meet Celestia, shes in the atrium." I had a very bad feeling that was growing in my stomach, but I went anyways. It was most likely anxiety, I was about to meet a princess! And then, there she was, studying one of the roses. Celestia turned towards me as I walked into the atrium. "Good morning, Horologium." "Good morning, um, your highness." She motioned with her head, and her royal guards left the atrium through a back door. "Horologium," Celestia asked me as she took a couple of steps forward, "I need to ask you a question. Are you being a loyal subject? Star Shine tells me that you have unwavering loyalty towards the school, but are you loyal to me and to Equestria?" That's when I knew something was terribly wrong, I felt like there was a giant void in my stomach, sucking in anything in it's path. "Why yes, your majesty. I would die if it meant to keep Equestria safe." Celestia nodded, and hit me with a golden beam of her magic. I still don't know why but I just stood there and took it, didn't even flinch. Perhaps I was just ready to get away and didn't care how.
Chapter 5One second, I was standing in the School of Magic's atrium, with Princess Celestia herself. The next, I was in some vast room, the walls of which I couldn't see. There were what appeared to be stars off in the distance, and below me, far away, I saw a blue and green ball. On the sides of me, there were square "holes" that formed some sort of hallway. Each square was like a painting, except that they were moving. It was as if each square was an eye, looking out upon various landscapes and villages. Some of these squares showed images that I still try to find out the meaning of, but some showed familiar images. One that I caught a glimpse of even showed my shack, standing in the middle of the forest. Seeing it brought back strong feelings of nostalgia. My attention returned to Celestia, my feeling of danger growing ever stronger. She started singing some sort of song, but my memory fades around this period in my life. I do seem to remember being lifted off of the ground somehow, surrounded by the lights of the stars. The last decent thing that I remember is the sudden feeling that my fears had been proven. Something was going horribly wrong. Then, I was surrounded in golden light. I wish I could remember more of this event, but my lingering memory has stifled my curiosity. I remember that for the longest time, all I could feel was pain. The pain felt like it was going to tear me in half. I think I may have cast some sort of spell, but again, my memory can only go so far. The next non-pain thing I remember was falling to the floor. The entire place shimmered, and faded like a reflection in a pool. I found myself lying on the cold stone floor of some inner room, most likely inside of the royal castle. I still had a bit of pain, mostly a giant headache, but there was a very unusual feeling, something that at the time I couldn't place. Celestia was standing over me, a whole bunch of feelings mirrored clearly on her face for the first time. There were quite a lot of emotions flowing through her, but the three I remember were expectation, anxiety, and anger. Then her face returned to the normal, regal gaze. "Not again", those were her last words that I heard, then suddenly, she hit me with another beam of her magic. If you have never done it, phasing through walls is not a fun experience, especially when you don't expect it coming. It's SUPER disorienting. Celestia's beam of golden light pushed me through castle walls, rooms, and other ponies who were standing in the path of the beam. At this point, I had lost all feeling, and I started thinking that I had nothing to worry about. It wasn't until I left the courtyard until I started to panic. My memory fails me again, I don't know if I told you yet or not, but I have an awful fear of heights. Celestia's beam of magic had taken me above the castle grounds by now, and the height was frightening. Eventually, I got so high up in the air that I just simply had closed my eyes and waited to die. When I had opened my eyes again, I was greeted with blackness all around me. Since I had also been surrounded by stars, I guessed that I was in the sky. The blue and green ball was way below me, and that's when I came to the conclusion that this ball was Equestria. I mean, that was where the golden beam still shone from, projecting me into the void of the sky. I struggled to turn to see where I was going, but the magic was holding me very firmly in it's grasp. But that's when I saw them. Two wings. And they appeared to be attached to me. i remember my mind furiously trying to connect the dots. For some unexplained reason, Celestia had turned me into an alicorn! Or something with wings, I think I did check my magic but I'm not sure if at the time it felt different. Either way, as soon as my mind made this connection, I landed with a heavy thump onto a dusty surface. Celestia's horrible beam of magic returned on it's course, back to Equestria. Back to home. Judging from the color and terrain of the place I was at, I came to the conclusion that I was on the moon. The moon was the only place I'd ever heard of that had the color of the ground this amazingly white-grey. I had heard of the legends. Celestia banishing Nightmare Moon to, well, the moon. It was a story my mother had told me quite a few times when I was a little filly. Well, I was living the legend. The place where I had landed was somewhere in the middle of a well-sized crater, the walls of which went high into the sky in a straight line. There was no way I was going to scale that. That's when it caught my eye. There was a special pattern overlaying itself onto, ok that kinda sounded weird. Let me try that again. I looked over to see my cutie mark. Had I not been in my present situation, I would have probably cried out in joy. It was a majestic-looking stopwatch with a hourglass in the middle. Of course, looking there also reminded me of my wings. I had no idea how to use my wings, however. I decided to hop and try to get myself over the edge of the crater by furiously beating my wings, I drew from my time watching Dareasus fly around. I wasn't able to get my wings in the right angles, but that didn't matter. Apparently on the moon, you can jump much higher than in Equestria. My hop carried me well over the edge of the crater's lip. I decided that pulling myself back down to the surface using magic would be the best, but when I did, I pulled too strongly and 'bounced' off of the surface. Something was not right with my magic at this point. Most likely my magic had been changed when I was turned into an alicorn. Holding off on using magic had seemed the best choice for the time being. When I had touched down again, I noticed a whole line of huge black rock, stretching to both corners of my vision. They were wider than they were high, and I scaled the rock with no effort. I saw a cave in the distance, and even though I don't remember walking that far, all of a sudden I was at the mouth. Deep within, I saw a faint glow of a torch or some other light. Having nothing else to do, and nowhere else too noticeable to go, I had decided to go towards the light. There were some rocks in the dark that squished rather unpleasantly whenever I would step on them. That's something I forgot to tell you as well, curse my forgetfulness. It was really quiet on the moon. It was peaceful and unnerving at the same time. I tripped over another squishy rock and drifted across the room, smacking awkwardly into a stone pillar hanging from the ceiling. That made no sound either. I had tried to say something, but I couldn't even hear my own voice. Then, I was caught in the orange glow of somepony's magic. This magic didn't look like Celestias' so I calmed down a bit, but there was only one pony that I knew of that lived here. My confusion only deepened as I was drawn into the room with the light. The source of said light was a torch placed on the front of a house, embedded in the rock wall. Standing in front of the house was an orange mare with a bright white mane, staring at me with an expression of puzzlement. I'm not sure what she was. She had a horn, which made me think unicorn, however she was the same size as an "average" alicorn would be. And some kind of aura about her suggested alicorn, but she didn't have wings. Nonetheless, she was quite remarkable to see. I awkwardly waved to her, and she nodded and carried me into the house. Then, she released her magic on me, and I drifted down to the floor. The mare's house was actually a lot smaller than I had originally thought. The walls were made of the moon rock, and her sparse furniture was also made of moon rock. I heard the door close behind me, and all of my senses returned to normal. The mare must have created some kind of magical field inside her house. "Thank you for catching me there, my name is Horologium." At first the mare's voice sounded rough, like she hadn't used it in a while, but her voice got clearer by the second. "Greetings, Horologium, my name is Falling Star." I had come to the conclusion at this point that she was also an alicorn, I had then seen the pieces falling into place. Falling Star had been turned into an alicorn somewhat like me, but we had both been sent to the moon for some unknown reason. I was determined to find out why. I figured asking wouldn't hurt. "Do you know why we are here, why Celestia would do this to us and send us here?" "Yes, Horologium, take a seat and I'll tell you exactly why you are who you are and why you are here."
Chapter 6Silver Quill placed a bookmark and closed the book, hearing a noise from outside. There was something in the bushes, headed straight for the cabin, and Dareasus was nowhere in sight. Silver Quill decided to hide in the rotten remains of what used to be a food chest. The rustling turned into thumping as the whatever-it-was made its way onto the porch of the house. Silver Quill felt her heat racing as she tried to keep her breathing quiet. That's when it walked into the house. The thing in question was actually one of the royal guards, he had somehow tracked Silver Quill and Dareasus to the cabin. The stallion began searching the house. Silver Quill knew that the guard was going to find her eventually; she was going to have to try and make an escape. She didn't know where Dareasus had gone, but she would have to leave the cabin and get to a safer place. There was a mostly-rotten shelf positioned above the food chest, Silver Quill started working on it with her magic. She got done with it just in time, as the Royal Guard was making his way towards the food chest. With the groan and snap of old wood breaking, the shelf above the food chest mysteriously crashed down. Now Silver Quill just had to escape while the guard was distracted. She tested the wall behind the chest to see if she could carve her way out. There was a small hole covered in moss that was just too small to fit her. Silver Quill crashed through the hole nonetheless, tumbling onto the front porch. She didn't care that the guard had heard, she just wanted to leave. She couldn't take the tension anymore. Luckily, Silver Quill had just made it to a small hiding place in some brush when the royal guard flew out of the door. Five more guards flew down from the treetops, apparently not noticing Silver Quill. She slowly made her way through the forest, until she stumbled upon another cottage. This one was a lot better in condition, and may have been recently inhabited. After Silver Quill knocked on the door and looked in the windows, however, she concluded that nopony lived there. There was an open window on the top floor, a ladder placed conveniently close by. Silver Quill bucked the ladder down to the ground after she climbed it, and closed and latched the window she had just entered. After taking a few minutes to calm down, Silver Quill decided to keep reading the book. Falling Star glanced at me for a second, then she began to tell me what was going on. "A long time ago, Celestia had a fight with her sister, Luna. Or as you know her, Nightmare Moon. Celestia feared that Luna would return to Equestria one day, and she feared that Luna would want revenge. So, Celestia started planning. She hired me and a few other ponies, her best magicians, to help her with her plan. She told us to devise a spell that would let her change any unicorn into an alicorn, it didn't matter if they were worthy or not. We all told her that such a thing was not possible, and even if it was possible, that we shouldn't mess with that kind of magic. But she had her guards lock us up and forced us to work on a spell. Two of the other magicians were executed for not helping create the spell. If I was to know what was to happen, I would've preferred death over this. Eventually, Celestia grew impatient. We were disturbingly close to creating the spell when she demanded that the spell be given to her tomorrow. We insisted that the spell wasn't complete, but she couldn't wait. She got one of the magicians to hand her the scroll containing the uncompleted spell. That's when the horrors began. Celestia tested the spell out on us, the foolish ponies who were just trying to survive. There were...unexpected results. Most of the ponies died very horribly, some turned into deformed monsters and locked away. Then there were two of us, me and another mare by whose name I can't remember. At first it had seemed that we were successes, me and one other, but that was a big mistake. I constantly felt like my wings were going to fall off any second, which they eventually did, and my magical ability has been significantly reduced. I mostly can do just the simplest of spells anymore. The other mare had her lifespan greatly shortened instead of lengthened, and died of old age the next day. Celestia sent me here, with the other failures, to the moon, and I presume kept working on the spell. She was consumed with the need to defend herself, no matter the consequences. Whenever she has a failed subject of her spell, she sends them here. To forever wander this desolate landscape, eventually wasting away into the white dust that covers this rock. The dust glows with their magic. That is why the moon is so white. There were actually two other mares who found my residence here. I enjoyed their company, but one's magic took control of her and she disappeared along with the other one. And here we are today, trapped on the moon with no hope of escape." I was having a hard time understanding all that Falling Star had just said. We talked about other things, I believe they were conversations about returning to Equestria, but I was still shocked by Falling Star's story. The Celestia I knew would never do such a thing. Of course, now that I though about it, she did. I still have hope that there is some good left in Celestia. Falling Star had offered to let me stay with her and live out the rest of my days, however much those may be, in that cave, but I declined. She understood, and I wish to some day meet with Falling Star again. But my destiny was not in that cave. I had left the cave, naively believing that I could just walk or fly back to Equestria. Occasionally I would walk upon a new test subject just recently sent to the moon. Half of them were dead by the time I reached them, and the other half broke into tears and screamed at me to leave. One even tried attacking me. I walked around like this in a daze for who even knows how long. One day, though, I would literally get a ticket home. At some point (I was going to write 'one day' but there was never night or darkness on the moon so I couldn't tell if it was day or not) I was walking around a rather large crater, when I saw overhead a majestic chariot, the color of the sky but somewhat brighter. From it drifted down large quantities of silver tickets. I caught one, and upon further inspection found it was some sort of announcement. It read in great shining letters; "To those still alive: Loyal Subjects of the Lunar Empire: I, your royal Princess Luna, am making a decree to all of my subjects. Soon it shall be night in Equestria, a night they have named "Nightmare Night". After all these years, thy Princess Luna has gathered the magic sufficient to return to Equestria. Thy Princess' heart is heavy for you, I know thy plight. Henceforth, all subjects of Princess Luna's domain shall meet at her castle, where I shall send thee back to Equestria. Do not tally, the time is near by. -Princess Luna" I couldn't believe it, Princess Luna was letting us return with her to Equestria! There was only one problem, I didn't know where the castle was, and if I didn't get there on time I would most likely get stuck on the moon forever. I could barely see the chariot in the distance, and I decided that following it would be better than wandering off in a random direction. I developed a method of making great leaps that eventually closed the distance between me and the chariot. By the time I was decently close to the chariot, I could see Princess Luna's castle looming in the distance. At the front gate were the other alicorns that had received the message. Some had died waiting at the gate, but there were about ten including me when the gate opened. We walked through the gate and into the courtyard, where the ground was cold like glass. The main entrance into the castle was blocked by a giant blue swirling circle of magic. That was the portal. In front of it stood Princess Luna, casting spells into the portal's center. She wore a very intimidating set of armor, and she was flanked by her royal guards, who held us back until the portal opened with a large flash of light. Once Luna had flown through, her guards starting flying through the portal, no longer paying attention to us. That's when we all decided to run for it. Once I went through the portal, I heard the sound of a thousand wind chimes and felt as if I was running head first into a strong wind. All kinds of colors surrounded me, a lot of what happened was incomprehensible or I just don't remember. I do remember my return to Equestria. I found myself in some kind of stone structure, surrounded by seven other alicorns. In front of us stood a row of Celestia's guards, halfway in the motion of throwing spears. It was fight or die. Celestia had laid a trap for us, but Luna and her guards were nowhere to be seen. At one point, a spear flew right for my face. On instinct, I used a bit of magic that I had never knew existed. The spear slowed midair, almost stopping. I moved out of the way, and using my normal magic, flipped the spear downward. My little bubble surrounding the spear disappeared, and the spear stuck in the ground. The guard seemed stunned when he saw me do that, but I took the chance to dart off into the darkness. It was night, and I had dashed far away enough from the portal so that none of the guards could see me. But they could see the other alicorns. The slaughter was horrifying to watch. But I did remember watching one of them fly away into the night, I could've sworn that the mare had a white mane. I decided to leave the scene before any of the guards spotted me. The portal closed as I spread my wings and flew away. I took my time flying through the night, to where I didn't know. The sound and feel of the breeze on my face was enough for tears of joy to sprout around my eyes. I was finally home, back in Equestria. Although my imprisonment had been rather short, or so I've been led to believe, it had felt like a veritable eternity since I had seen the green hills of Equestria. There were two things I did once I found shelter. First, I wrote about my adventures, both to warn and to remember those sacrificed. I am going to place six copies of this book around Equestria. If I could only get one to Princess Luna, she would remember what her sister had done to so many innocent souls. Maybe she can end this horrible quest for the spell. I'm hoping she hasn't forgotten by now. Once I have stopped this evil, I'm going to find my life again. Hopefully, I can find Dareasus again. I really could use a friend right about now. But my memory fails me again, and I fear for the worst. Fear the sun. Whatever you do, don't put this book in open sunlight. Because if you do-- Silver Quill jumped as she realized she was sitting in the sunbeam coming through the window. She threw the book with all her might to the darkest corner of the attic, but to no avail. The book was smoking and steaming, and Silver Quill watched in horror as it slowly bent in on itself and dissolved into white ash. 'Now I'm the only pony who knows' Silver Quill thought to herself. What was she going to do? She collected all of the ashes and placed them within her satchel. She knew what she had to do. She searched the house and gathered anything she could. She went down the stairs and went out of the front door. Silver Quill was on a quest. A quest to find the last books and bring them to Luna. As she receded into the shadows, at least twenty royal guards flew down to the house, pouring in every orifice. Silver Quill realized that this was her life now, but some inner part of her had already accepted that.
EpilogueAfter questioning the parents of Silver Quill, Twilight had them go. They knew nothing important. trotting back into her room, she turned to Spike. "Spike, I need you to send a letter!" Spike burped out two letters within the minute. Both were from Celestia. The first letter was the one Twilight expected. She would now be on the lookout for two strange-looking books. The ones that the changeling Horologium had written. The second letter, however, puzzled Twilight. It looked nothing like Celestia's handwriting, and simply had three large words, ominously put onto the parchement. IT IS COMPLETE
