The Box That Changed Everything

Before you guys read this, I would like to give a quick shout-out to Thomas R, he has been a MAJOR help with the editing of this chapter, so props to him!

The Box that Changed Everything

By Xaiden

Chapter V: Princess Luna's Library

"Hello," Princess Luna said, looking at me with a welcoming smile, as if I were a friend she had not seen in a long time, "I hear from my big sister that you were transported to this realm by an some black gem in a mysterious box, am I correct?"

I nodded in reply.

"And tell me," she continued "You only have the memory of what caused you to be teleported here, but that was only unlocked after you were shown an image of that specific black gem, is that not true?"

"Yes ma'am..." I replied, unsure of how she knew exactly what happened.

"Uhhh... may I ask something?" I said to her, "How exactly do you know all of this?"

"I was well informed." She said with a smug grin, while at the same time nudging her head towards Princess Celestia.

With a cocked eyebrow I looked at Princess Celestia and asked her, "How, you've been with me ever since we met back a Twilight's house"

She giggled and looked at me, "Telepathy." she said, but her lips didn't move, I assumed to prove her point.

"But back to the matter of importance" Luna continued "Celestia, if you mind, may I speak to him alone?"

"Oh..." Celestia said, her face also repeating what Twilight's did when Celestia asked to speak to me by herself not so long ago. "Sure, go right ahead." Now awkwardly leaving me alone with Luna.

After Princess Celestia left the room Luna turned her head towards mine and said in a soft voice, "Follow me."

Following her, we walked behind her throne where she reached to what seemed to be a small button on the back of the throne. When she pressed it I felt a low rumble at my hooves and watched in awe as her throne started to slowly move forward, revealing a secret passage, which most likely was the reason she wanted to speak with me in private.

"Now listen," Luna said looking at me with a stern face, "Celestia doesn't know about this, and I'd like to keep it that way."

I looked at her questioningly and asked, "Why keep it a secret? Just tell her and I'm sure she'll be fine with it."

"Not likely, but that story's for another time." She replied, looking up into the sky, as if she were looking for something, then quickly turned her head back to me "Now go on, get going. I'll be right behind you!" she said while nudging me down the stairs with her snout, causing me to nearly tumble down the seemingly endless flight of stairs.

As I regained my balance I looked back at Princess Luna who followed me down the steps, just a little more graceful than I did. Once she stepped inside, she pulled a lever that was to her side and I watched as her throne slowly rumbled back into place. Walking down ahead of me, she looked back towards me, "What are you waiting for, an invitation?" she said with a smug grin, "Don't worry, nothing has been down here for a long time."

Reluctantly I followed, trying to stay close to her, which wasn't necessarily easy since I was still unused to my hooves. After a few minutes of walking, I tried to break the silence by hopefully starting up a conversation.

"So..." I said awkwardly, "Anything else you know about me that I should be know about?"

"No," She replied quickly, making it seem as if she was hiding something, "Everything I told you when we met was what Princess Celestia me, why did she not tell me something that I should know about?"

"No," I said back, "Was only wondering."

Continuing on down the stairs, Princess Luna began asking me simple questions, some about my amnesia, some about the my life, even a few about the gem that brought me here, but no matter how simple the question was, I was unable to remember, and only replied saying that I couldn't remember. Sooner or later, Luna became fed up with constantly hearing the same reply and discontinued with any questions after that, leaving the remainder of the trip in silence.

Still, as we ventured further down the stairs, my mind was unable to stop thinking about the strange behavior that Luna had been demonstrating since we met in the throne room, how she treated me so nicely, how she looked up into the sky right before we headed down the dark staircase, and now, how she acted as if there was something that she was trying to hide. It was all just to odd, then again, it's not like someone touches a mysterious gem and gets transported into a whole other world ever day.

Finally, after what seemed like twenty minutes of walking down the dimly lit stairs, we arrived at a large stone door that had strange markings etched all over it, and in the center, was a small hole, the size of a unicorn's horn.

"We're here." She said, looking at the door with a bitter face.

"Something wrong?" I asked, unsure of why she was acting in such a strange way.

"It's... nothing..." She said, looking at me with a sad sort of smile, "Now let's see if I can remember how to open this."

Slowly, she inserted the tip of her horn into the small hole where we heard a loud CLANK, signifying that the door was now unlocked. After that, I watched in amazement as the door slowly opened, revealing a small darkened room which clearly had not been used for a long time.

Looking at the princess, I watched her as she slowly walked inside the room, using the magic from her horn as a source of light. Then, she walked up to one of the walls, carefully avoiding anything that might cause her to trip where she pushed a button. At first nothing seemed to happen, but suddenly several torches that hung from the wall lit up, giving a us a more reliable source of light.

As the room became filled with light, Princess Luna began searching for the shelves for a book that could possibly help with my predicament.

"Try not to touch anything, okay?" Luna said, not even turning here head to look at me.

"Uhh... Okay?" I said with a puzzled face. "But can I still come in? Maybe look around a little bit?"

"Yes, of course." She replied, still not paying much attention to me.

As I walked into the room, the first thing I noticed were shelves that ran parallel with the walls, each filled with old, dusty, most likely long forgotten books that had probably not seen any sunlight for a long time. Along with the shelves, I noticed that there stood a single table, but it wasn't the table that caught my attention, for on that table, there lay a small little book. Now, the book had small differences as that it was quite smaller that most of the other books in the room, other than that, it seemingly had no notable differences. That was until I walked up to where it lay on the table and noticed that this book looked like it had recently been read. Curious , picked up the book and began to examine it. As I rotated the book I noticed the cover, which only inflamed my curiosity. Memories: is what was pressed on its cover with golden lettering. Then, as I was starting to turn the cover, I heard Luna cry, "Ah-ha! Found it!" causing me to nearly jump out of my skin. Shocked, I accidentally dropped the on the floor, not knowing what to do, I knocked the book with my hoof under the table just as Princess Luna walked up to the table. As she walked up next to me, I noticed that she was carrying a rather large book on her back, which she proceeded to place on the table. Looking at the book, it was covered with so much dust, I could barely make out the title on the book until Luna blew off the dust. Even after blowing off the dust, I still couldn't make out the title as it was written in a language that was unfamiliar to my understanding.

Looking at the princess I asked, "What is this?"

Smiling, she turned towards me, "It's an old book that talks about ancient and mysterious relics. Now, it's written in an ancient  language that even my best historians will have trouble deciphering. I'll warn you, this will take time but I'll be sure to let you know when we find something."

"Uh, sure..." I  replied, not sure of what to say next, "I guess that's fine with me."

"Okay than," Luna said in response, "Now if you can remember the way out of here, tell Princess Celestia that I've found a book that might be able to help you. And until we can find something that can help us learn more about this gem, you'll need to stay in Ponyville for the time being. Okay?"

"Okay then." I said  "Oh Princess Luna?"

"Yes?" She said, looking up from the book.

"Good Luck." I said with a smile as I started heading towards the stairs. Though as I was starting to walk up the stairs, I could have sworn I heard her say "Thank you..."

...

Eventually, after I making it out of Luna's secret passage and into the throne room, I went outside and found Princess Celestia, who greeted me as I entered the courtyard.

"You were in there quite a long time," she said with a mildly concerned face, "did you two happen to discover anything that may help you learn about that mysterious gem?"

"Yes actually," I said, "Princess Luna, found an old book about ancient and mysterious relics. Only problem is, it's written in some ancient language and it's gonna take Luna and some of her historian's quite a bit of time to translate."

"That's wonderful news!" Princess Celestia said, turning towards me with a warm smile. "But if it's going to take some time for Luna to see what that book says, I guess I'll have you stay with Twilight Sparkle and her friends in Ponyville until she finishes translating that book."

"Oh no, I couldn't do that," I replied "They all seemed like they were really--"

"You don't need to worry about that dear," Celestia said, interrupting me "Twilight and her friends already said that they would be happy to let you stay with them."

"Really?" I said surprised that the people who I barely had any time to meet were yet, so kind enough as to give me a place to  temporarily live in, "But when did you ask them?"

"While you were talking with Luna." She said with a giggle, "What, did you think that I just sat outside and waited for you while  you were with my sister."

"Oh..." I said quietly, my face quickly turning red with embarrassment. "My bad..."

"It's okay," She responded, her face still covered in a smile, "Now let's get you back to Ponyville, your friends are excited to meet you." As she said this, she lowered her head to mine, lightly tapping my forehead as she did when she brought us here to Canterlot. And just like last time, my vision blurred white.

When my vision returned to normal, we were back in Twilight's house where I was greeted warmly by Twilight Sparkle and her friends.

As each of them greeted me, I turned to Princess Celestia and thanked her just as she teleported back to Canterlot. Then as I turned around to face each of the ponies Twilight Sparkle walked up to me with a smile.

"Don't worry about having to tell us what happened," Twilight Sparkle stated, "Princess Celestia told me everything and we are more the happy to have you stay here with us until things get sorted out."

"Yea, if you need a place to stay, we could always an extra hand down at Sweet Apple Acres partner!" Applejack said as she walked up next to Twilight Sparkle.

"Hey same here," said Rainbow Dash, now hovering over the other two, "I could use someone to help me practice some new flying moves I'm trying to learn!"

Next Rarity walked over now joining in with the rest "I must your assistance down at the Carousel Boutique, I have loads of outfits I'd like your help with."

"Oh yes, I could use some help too," I heard a Fluttershy, who was slowly walking up behind the rest of the group, "I mean, only if it's okay with you of course..."

As I turned towards her to say yes, Pinkie Pie bounced right in front of me, nearly scaring me out of my own skin.

"Don't forget MEEE! I know what you can help me with! A surprise party, for YOU, then it wouldn't be much of a surprise than. Wait I--"

"Pinkie Pie, I think that's enough." Twilight Sparkle said, slowly dragging Pinkie Pie back to the rest of them. "Sorry about that." she said with a laugh. "But as for me, I could always use some extra hands when I reorganize the books."

As all of them stood there in a group, I looked at them with a sheepish look on my face. "Thanks you guys, I really appreciate the kindness, but I've had a really long day and I'd like to sleep for a little while, anyone mind letting stay at their place?"

As soon as I finished my sentence, I was nearly forced to the ground with each of them asking me if I could stay at there place. Yet, as uncomfortable as it may have seemed, I was okay with it. I thought to myself: These ponies, not even knowing who I am, are nearly going crazy just to show me kindness, kindness that I had never experienced anywhere else. The kind of kindness that makes you want to stay. And along with those thoughts, I said to myself Maybe things might not be so bad if I stay here, maybe I could actually stay, live out my life *here*, the place where I actually feel wanted, loved. Maybe, just maybe, instead of just strange events that happened one after the other, maybe things might turn out to be normal...

In no way could normal be used to describe the events that happened next, looking back on this I now wonder...

How could I have been so wrong?