Chapter 2

October 10, 967 A.F.

Princess Twilight Sparkle

1:39 P.M

Pain, that's all I felt coursing through my body, but the mattress was comfy at least, perhaps even a bit too comfy. I slowly open my eyes while lifting myself from the... bassinet? What? What was I doing in a pony sized foal-crib, equine-crib? I push the thought out of my head- now was definitely not the time to get distracted. I look around some more NO, NO, NO, NO I shout mentally while shaking my head furiously. That wasn't right, it couldn't be, I was in the same room as before, but now I was in a baby crib for some odd reason. I swore I left this room with Spike however long ago that was. Nevertheless, that was the least of my problems and confusion. What really caught me off guard was the enormous white and red alicorn in the room she (judging from the rather feminine build) had a dirty white coat and a rose colored mane and tail. Sadly though, I was unable to see her cutie mark. Luckily, she was facing away from the crib. I used this time to get out of the massive crib. Teleportation was an easy feat, my head did hurt like Tartarus but I could fight through the pain. With that, I light to my hor---

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The strange mare completely derailed my train of thought. Her motherly and calm voice somehow still managed to send shivers down my spine. How did she know I was going to cast a spell, let alone now that it was a teleportation one?

"Simple. I can read your mind. I don't do it often, though, I understand ponies care deeply about their privacy. Still, I wouldn't do any sort of magic. I've warded your bed, so don't try anything like last time. You'll just end up hurting yourself and I don't want to see you in pain." She says while turning around to face me.

"You can read minds? That's done through dark magic and that's banned here in Equestria!" I retorted.

"Well then, I suppose you're just as guilty as me, right? Don't lie to me Twilight, I would know if you did. You've practiced and studied dark magic before, even casted quite a bit. Why it was even Princess Celestia who introduced it to you. Don't worry though, I won't tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me. Regardless, it was in fact not dark magic that I used, I can simply do it by my... mind? I never really looked into it much. It's..." She paused. "A special gift of mine, if you would like to call it that."

I managed to suppress a wince. I looked like a hypocrite after saying that. She was right though; I did do a lot of practice on dark magic, everything from reading it to casting it. She was also correct about Celestia showing it to me; had even told me after my return to the Crystal Empire that it was a one-time thing, and that I should not dwell on it any further, but that was years ago and I'm still the same old Twilight. I wasn't corrupted by its forces, my body and mind were now very resistant to it. But I'm was getting off track. This mare knew too much about me. I had to press further for more questions... A lot of questions.

"How do you know my name, how do you know much about me, why am I in a bassinet, why did you ward said bassinet, who are you, why are you here, and finally what do you want from me?" That was a lot to spit out but I had to know.

"Well first this is going to be a lot to take in and you probably won't believe it, but to answer most of your questions: I'm Faust and I know you and everything about you because I'm the creator of Equis and everything on it. Next, I put you in a bassinet and warded it because you ran off last time and hurt yourself. You're still a child after all. I couldn't have you running around and getting yourself hurt because of it like I stated earlier. Also, I live here, and that's why I'm, well, here. Last but not least, I don't want anything from you. If anything, you asked me for things, answers more specifically."

I sat there with my mouth open like some moron. That was a lot to take in, and yeah, I didn't believe it. Well, perhaps I did, I wasn't sure, it seemed like she was telling the truth and I don't think she had a reason to lie, at least I couldn't think of a reason as to why she would. She even looked like the mare Spike and I saw outside. It would make sense that she lived here. What was interesting was that I heard stories when I was younger about an alicorn deemed "Mother Mare" who created all of Equis and everything on it. But that was all speculation and religion. Furthermore, there was never really any solid facts or proof pertaining to her existence, but before I could continue any further with my thoughts she interrupted them.

"I know you haven't asked this question yet but I know you would at some point; Spike is in another room, right next to this one in fact."

I don't know how I managed to completely forget about Spike and his safety, which was strange because I had just had thoughts of him mere moments ago. Regardless, I'm glad she told me and managed to avoid unnecessary panic because of that.

"Can you remove the wards now? I'm twenty-four moving on to twenty-five soon. I'm not a little filly so the crib is ridiculous." I say pointing my hoof at the surrounding prison.

"Exactly you're only twenty-four, more of a reason to keep you in there." She said while giving a warm motherly smile.

"You can't be serious, if you really are 'The All Creator' you must be as old as time itself, maybe even older. You can say that about anypony!" I snap. Clearly, I have a death wish or something.

"You're right, I wasn't serious. You just look so cute and adorable when you pout." She giggled, a blue hue formed on her head surrounding her horn before a 'poof' was heard and the light died immediately afterward.

With that, I teleported out of the horrid jail cell, bringing a hoof to my forehead soon afterward, feeling a pulsing kind of pain go through my skull. The alicorn easily took notice of my distress and cast another spell. Seconds later, I no longer feel pain as it fades away along with my tiredness. I felt like a brand new mare. Why I never felt better in my entire life actually. I thanked her for whatever she did and he gave a quick response of a nod of her head. I bridged my thoughts from the ones that were lost earlier, noticing I still had a lot of questions.

"I still have some questions if you don't mind answering them," I spoke up.

"Later, right now let's go get Spike, return to the surface to get some fresh air, and eat dinner while we're at it. It's been a whole two days since you last ate. Surely you must be as famished as myself," She said, craning her neck to look at me as she heads for the door.

"Yeah, you're right I'm starving." With that simple response, I follow in hoof.

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"So umm what's your name again?" Spike asked before throwing a set of assorted gems into his mouth.

"Faust is my name but many call me Mother Mare." She said while making air quotes with her front hooves at the last title.

"So, if you really are this Mother Mare you keep talking about, then how come we can never find anything about you other than folklore and other children stories? You're not dead either, obviously, so surely somepony must have found you at some point or at least saw you wondering. Also, what have you been doing this whole time?" I ask taking a rather large gulp of milk.

"You're right again, someone would have found or seen me at some point in time, but the simple answer to that is they didn't because they couldn't. I was never here in the first place. I only recently came back only about a week ago, around the same time this ruin was spotted." She took a deep breath then continued. "I've been gone for thousands of years, but I'm back now. I'm sure a lot has changed. I almost didn't recognize this castle. I only knew it was mine because of  the statue up front."

"Interesting. Speaking of that statue, I couldn't help but notice that Princess Luna and Princess Celestia are on it. Why is that?" I really wanted to know. It seemed like such a strange thing to have carved when I'm certain they didn't even exist yet. If they did, they must have only been a few years old.

"That's because they have lived here before as well as myself, however, I'm sure they do not remember. I probably should have mentioned this earlier as well but people who were not royalty called me Queen Faust. Think about that for a moment: If I'm a Queen and if Celestia and Luna are princesses, what does that tell you? I'm sure you can figure that out on your own." It took me only moments to make the connection, my eyes growing to proportions I never thought possible."

"You're their MOTHER!" I, once again, unconsciously used the Royal Canterlot Voice. I recoiled and quickly put a hoof over my muzzle. I had accidentally yelled at the Queen of Equestria. Now I only had one question left.

"Are you Go-" I feel a hoof cover my muzzle before I could finish the sentence.

"Think of me as a friend, nothing more." She says smiling afterwards. Okay, yeah, maybe I did go a just bit too far... maybe. In all honesty, how was I suppose to react to that?

"Well the sun is setting; I think it's time to go hit the hay as they say it nowadays. Knowing you, you were probably looking for the library before you fell, so I'll go ahead and lead you down there tomorrow morning."

October 11, 967 A.F.

9:39 A.M

I had awoken for what felt like the seventh time in however many days. That bothered me because I felt like I was spending more time sleeping than actually doing work documenting things, but, in my defense, we got really side tracked and a lot of things happened that required our more immediate attention. Anyway, I awoke to a more than obvious empty stomach. Once finishing with the rather repetitive morning routines, Spike decided to stay and rest for a bit he didn't exactly heal as fast as alicorns but, still at a rate that was nothing to scoff at. So I meet up with Faust, she was waiting by the entrance to the kitchens. The longer we stayed here the more questions I had about everything but, I didn't really want to annoy her to death by bombarding her with a ridiculous amount of questions either. I had written and documented everything she had told me yesterday and I was going to continue today.

"How did this kingdom fall exactly?" I asked, somehow, that particular question had eluded me earlier.

"I don't remember, it was a very long time ago, I would guess time itself washed it away, the kingdom and her people had simply moved on after I left."

"Left, why did you leave?" I interrupted.

"Well, let's just say I moved on a bit earlier than the rest, but I still like to visit every now in then. Though the last time I visited was sadly longer than I had planned, but, I'm here now." She answered, once again smiling down on me.

"I heard you say something about that earlier. That you had only recently come back, how long ago exactly did you return?"

"About a week ago, I wanted to simply rest a bit and regain my composure. It's been awhile since I've walked on four legs, used magic let alone fly. Once I did that I was going to surprise everyone, but it seems some ponies have already expected my return when this castle shot up out of nowhere. I would imagine that was Tia who sent you out here upon the discovery?"

"Umm yeah she did, she wanted to do it herself but I can't remember why she couldn't do it, probably something about being too busy to come over as usual Though, I suppose it was for the best in the end. Last question."

"Lots of last questions." She joked, interrupting me, I continued smiling sheepishly.

"Do you think you could help me with my research since you know about, well, pretty much everything?"

"Of course, I've been helping you out for quite awhile now haven't I? Starting with breaking a hole in the roof of the kitchen so you didn't have to spend time digging, to answering your everlasting questions while taking you down to the library. Why I even went as far as saving your lives. Is this not enough, did you perhaps require more?" She said almost scolding.

I squirmed like a fish out of water. "No!" I shouted. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say you haven't been helping, you really have been more than helpful-"

Faust playfully hit me square on the shoulder. "I'm just messing with you sweetheart calm down I'm not angry with you. I know what you meant, just be more careful with what you say, you're a princess now are you not? You must watch what your tongue, some creatures may take it the wrong way. Would you look at that? I've helped you once again by squeezing in a quick lesson about being a princess." She had made the face of some stuck up noble who was looking away in disgust. Though it was quickly replaced by a serene smile.

I sighed, something deep inside told me that this mare was going to be joking with me a lot, to the point where my heart could no longer take that kind of stress anymore and simply gave out.

"Ahh, here we are!" She says a bit louder than needed causing me to jump a bit.

I practically screamed when I saw the state this library was in, everything was out of shape. The floor the walls were old and mossy, the shelves full of webs, books scattered upon the wooden floor. Though there were already some lit lanterns and candles placed on the ground.

"Sorry for the mess, I was reading in here before you showed up."

Bang

"Dammit! Ouch, that really hurt."

She had stubbed her hoof on one of the many ancient coffee tables and... cursed? I winced at that, nopony and I mean nopony, ever did that it was abhorrent to pretty much everyone in Equis. In fact, I had never heard anypony do that in my entire life, but she had done it like if it was a common occurrence. It was unnerving to hear a goddess swear.

"Oh! I'm so sorry Twilight dear, I forgot that cursing isn't a thing here. I'll try better to censor myself in the future." She said rubbing her throbbing hoof.

"Um, it- it's alright." I stutter out.

"Anyway, what was it exactly that you needed, information I understand, but what specifically?"

"Princess Celestia didn't really specify anything, she just said do document everything I found, but there doesn't seem to be very much here." I say gesturing to the sounding shelves.

"Well, no not really, but it's something right? It also means you have less work to do. Most of the books have simply eroded to dust or are to destroyed beyond repair to read without accidentally ruining it."

"Well, this was a bust, you seem to have unintentionally done all the work though and brought all the books that could be scavenged. I can still have these brought to Canterlot and see if I can't get any information out of them." I say a little bit of sadness creeping its way into my voice.

"Huh, I swear there were more books than this when I first came down here, oh well not much we can really do about it. Would you like a tour of the castle? At least of the parts that survived and have a history behind it? That is of course if I can remember any of it."

"Sure, I don't see any harm in it. I'm always up for a learning experience anyway."

There was nothing left of the castle.

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"This trip ended up being a huge waste of our time information wise. We barely got anything, just a dozen plant samples, and several books. I mean yeah they all had a large amount of information in themselves but it's next to nothing compared to what this castle could have had. Not even a single house survived in this kingdom." Look at me, I was venting as if I had just finished day court.

"Twilight let's be honest here, from what you've been telling be about this place I'm surprised there's anything left." Spike retorted as he was carefully packing away the last of our books and plants.

"I know, I know, it still upsetting though that we didn't really find anything super valuable and or interesting."

"This is coming from the same mare, who which a few days ago, was ecstatic over an extinct mushroom." Spike deadpanned.

"Tou ché" I quickly added before he continued.

"Anyway is that Faust mare coming with us, where is she anyway?"

"Yes, though as to where she is; I'm not 100% sure she just said that she needed to take care of some things before she came with us. Speaking of Faust, you seem to be taking her existent quite well, with her being a goddess and all."

"It just seems pretty straight forward if you ask me. She definitely seems like the mare she says she is, though a bit insane. Can we stop talking about her though? She terrifies me." Spike said looking around paranoid.

"What, why? She seems really nice." I ask.

"Yeah, I know but you can't say that she isn't scary. She can probably just think you dead, and just like that the deed would be done."

I shuddered at that new revelation, who knows, perhaps her sneeze alone could bring the end of days and the beginning times of the apocalypse. I immediately roll my eyes, I was not Spike, that would never happen.

"Alright, that looks like the last of it." He said dusting off his claws. "Should we wait for her or may-"

"That won't be necessary Spike." He jumped at the random encounter.

"Oh, you're back, well then I'm assuming you're ready to depart?" I asked turning around to face The All Creator.

"Your assumption would be correct, let's head off shall we?" She said Motioning with a hoof to the nearby train station (relatively speaking).

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We managed to catch a train back to Canterlot, in the end, this trip had certainly turned out to be something I didn't quite expect. I left only to come back with not information but instead a mom. Celestia and Luna were in for a surprise the probably didn't see coming in a thousand years.