The Equestrian Scrolls: The Lost Queen

I never knew my mother. I mean I knew of her, who she was and what she was capable of but I never knew her. I never got to be with her or learn from her. Blossom had a remarkable gift and she ruined it.

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I was silent and not out of respect. I was shocked. What did one have to do to get banished from a kingdom?

Edan smiled slyly, "I guess I should start since you have nothing clever to say."

"It's not like I don't have anything to say," I said snapping out of my shock. "I just didn't know what to say. It's not every day someone tell you that they have been banished from a kingdom."

He opened his mouth to say something but shut it and went quiet when the mare brought over two mugs of cider. He took a slow long drink waiting for her to meld back into the crowd before continuing.

"Thirty-eight years ago me and my wife, your now grandmother," he added pushing the other mug towards me.

My aura lifted it from the table and brought it to my lips to have a taste. It was delicious, but it also burned as it went down my throat. I coughed and sputtered not expecting it. That got me some amused looks from some of the closer drinkers. Edan chuckled before going on with the tale.

"Like I was saying. My wife Willow and I had a daughter together. She was the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen. And as she grew older she showed a great strength for magic, much more than I had at her age. By the time she was nine she was accepted into the academy. she was the youngest ever to be admitted. Normally it would take deer a decade to graduate but she did it in half the time. Everyone who had the pleasure of seeing her use magic knew she was gifted with it. She was going to do great things."

His face took on a warm expression. He cleary still loves her, even though she got him banished. What a father.

My heart felt a little heavy. A little for him but mostly wondering if my mother felt the same about me or something else entirely.

He gave a shake of his head and picked up where he left off. "It wasn't long after that Blossom was put into training for the school's betterment. She spent another-"

Wait a minute.

"Excuse me, but why do I need to know about your daughter's life?" I asked taking another sip of cider. It still burned as it went down making me cringe but not on the outside, I didn't want to give the other drinkers a show.

"Well, she's going to be your mother so you should at least know about her. Just in case someone asks about her." Edan said, his face had the look of patience on it. If you didn't know you can now tell he had a child before.

"Well you have a point," I said not really wanting the argue the point all that hard. I mean he did have a point.

"As I was saying before you interrupted me," he gave me a look that said don't do that again. "My daughter spent another few years under magical theory and the understanding and recognizing of magic artifacts and texts."

What a mouthful but when I opened my mouth to say something along those lines, a slight look in Edan's eye made me close my mouth. He stared at me making sure I didn't have anything to say before picking up where he left off.

"Soon after that Blossom set out of her travels as a knowledge seeker. One who was granted the title to further the library of the royal academy of Mugruith. It a high pace of honor at the academy." His shoulders slumped slightly as he said this. He took another, larger draft from the tanker. He had the looked of a buck who was retelling the death of a love one.

"Several years went by, more years then what is normal for Seeker to be gone. Many of us, none more then myself feared that something had happened to her. I had put in a request for a recovering team to go look for her when word had gotten to us that she was returning. What's more she had brought over a hundred books back with her. It was amount not heard of since the library was built. It was-"

Edan went silent again as the tavern maid came over, she had a tray of food balanced on her back.

"Two orders of stuffed apples with grilled brussel sprouts." She said after placing them on the table in front of us.

It smelled so bucking delicious. The plate held two apples that held bread stuffing and a small pile of brussel sprouts skewered on wooden stakes.

Leaning down I took a bite from the apple, my mouth exploded with basil and rosemary. The flavor made me dance happily in my seat. My little friend-I really need to find him a name- took that moment to jump onto the table and help himself to the food on my plate.

"Your lucky that you need to eat to survive." I told him as I pushed the rest of the apple towards him. He launched onto it with a happy chittering.

The clinking of metal drew me to Edan hoofing over some bits to the waitress. She turned to leave but Edan stopped her with an ordered of another tankard of cider.

He looked into his plate his eyes lost in thought. This gave me the moment to try the brussel sprouts, which were just as good as the apples. The two of us stayed quiet as we ate, all of the noise was coming from are table was a chittering around a mouthful of food.

Only when the waitress had come and gone did Edan carry on. His voice was in a low tone, I could hear that he was trying to keep to a neutral tone. Even though he tried, Edan couldn't get all of the emotions out of his voice. I could pick up regret and sorrow but I could also hear pride in it. He truly cared about his daughter and he was picking at a wound that would never fully heal. Honestly, I felt very honored that he would do that for me...and very confused as to why he would do that, somepony he doesn't know. And a changeling to boot. It down right didn't make sense to me.

"She had brought over one hundred books to the it was a record that not many deer could think of let alone manage. My king granted her the title of The Fios Haon, it means The Knowledgeable One in the old tongue. She was hailed as a living legend of the academy. My king also granted her some land as well as a large sum of money. She spent the next few months catching up with her friends and family, and growing her house before returning to work for the academy. She-“

“Wait, grew her house?” I asked not sure if I heard that right.

Edan nodded “Yes, we grow are houses out of trees. Using spells, we accelerate the growth and alter the shape. If done properly, the trees are still alive.”

“Amazing, I didn’t know that there are those kind of spells.” I felt amazed, you could do some much with magic. In the back of my mind I had a rage forming. My mother could have passed on such great magics but chose not to out of fear of me. It felt pitiful to me.

Edan smiled “It is amazing. I personally specialize in plant magic. I spent years learning about it.”

“Really? Can you tell me about it? What can you do?” I asked.

He opened his mouth before closing it with a shake of his head, “I will tell you later, I will get lost in the magic if I tell you about it. Let me finish my tale.”

Edan cleared his throat with a draw from his tanker before continuing again.

“She requested a small wing of the school to further her studies and to have a place to conduct magical experiments safely. Before I knew it two more years flew by. Blossom had produced several promising magical items as well as a ground breaking theory that sent the professors at the academy into a frenzy. Last I heard they have made no headway achieving a working model.”

He started to chuckle, “None of them could match wits with her.”

His chuckle disappeared rather quickly, leaving him with a grim look. “It was around that time that series of crimes happened. It started with someone breaking into section of the library that is reserved for the royal family or someone with their permission. Several forbidden text were stolen.”

“What were they about?” I asked interested on what types of magic was forbidden.

His face soured before spitting out a word, “Necromancy.” It was dripping with so much hatred and venom that I was surprised it came from this old buck. I have heard nothing much gentleness from him… save the time he threatened to kill me.

"Necromancy, the magic to raise the dead right? Why would that be forbidden? You think you would want ponies you loved brought back?" I asked.

"THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT!' he yelled slamming his hoof on the table. It made me jump and look around nervously, seeing if any of the ponies were looking our way.

Which they were. All the tables around us were looking at Eden. Some were of surprise, others concern.

"It's okay, calm down." I said soothingly, waving my hand in what I felt was a calming way.

He took several deep breaths trying to get control of himself.

"In my kingdom, nature is a way of life. Bring the dead back to life is not itself bad, it is how they are when they are brought back through necromancy. They are a corrupt version of themselves, everything necromancy promises is only poor intimation. For abyssal sake even the magic corrupts the user. It takes one life force and turns it on oneself, they become a monster not of this world or the next."

I watched him carefully before asking my next question. I didn't want him freaking out on me again.

"Then why does the academy have books on it?"

"When one knows how a spell works one knows how to destroy, counter or take apart a spell that has been cast. We keep it to fight necromancy."

Eden took another mouthful of cider before adding, "I apologize for shouting, this is stressful for me."

"It's alright," I replied laying a hoof on his, the same one that he slammed against the table. "Just go ahead and take your time, I'm not planning on going anywhere." I mean you are feeding me after all but that's beside the point.

My squirrel friend decided that he also wanted to cheer the buck up, because he decide to climb on top of our hooves and pat them both.

Eden gave a slight at the two of us before nodding.

"Several texts and a few books on necromancy were stolen. The kingdom was in an up roar. The Academy was outraged that someone stole from them, the nobles blamed the academy for incompetence. And the King was terrified that a necromancer was coming into power."

Uh oh, I can see where this is going.

"The kingdom put all their resources to finding them but to no avail. Over the course of several months more crimes were committed, that could be related to he first. Bodies were dug up, magical ingredients were stolen before finally over a dozen deer were assaulted and half as many were slain and their bodies stolen." Edan seem to deflate somewhat but his story never slowed.

"The King had put out a bounty for the necromancer's head. The size of the sum, drew many fighters and mages. Once again to no avail. The necromancer alluded all hunts for her before finally they had caught her in the act. A chase proceed fighting the whole way she was cornered where she was conducting her experiments... If your smart you can guess where."

It took me a moment but when I had put it together it made me grimace.

"The academy wing you had given her."

"Yes, that very one. My daughter, the necromancer had been using the wing I had given her to conducted her experiments. When I was informed that it was my daughter, I pleaded with the king to give me a chance to talk to her. To try and reason with her, to talk it out peacefully... But my words fell on deaf ears. When I had failed, my king sent in the troops."

He took a deep breath before giving a humorless chuckle, the pain that had lined his voice the entire telling had engulfed entirely. "And she was absolutely amazing. My little doe, my sweet little Blossom stood her ground against dozens of the king's own. Highly trained war casters. The magic she threw around tore my heart with pride and sorrow. It was well crafted magic but it was tainted with necrotic energies. Over half of the King's own were killed. When it became clear that she wasn't going to stop me and my wife stepped in to stop her.....we had fought hard against her, and almost got her but..." Edan faltered, tears rimming his eyes. "B-but when I had the spell lined up to end her life, I let my emotions get the better of me and let the spell go."

I wanted to smile, he was a good buck. He loved and didn't want to harm his daughter even though it meant betraying his King and country. But at the same time, he was giving up everything he believed in. His morals, his beliefs, even his own wife.

"You only wanted to protected you daughter. Any father would only hope to do the same." I said reaching out to lay my hoof on his again.

"And in return for that favor she sent a lance of necrotic energy through her mother's chest," he said a bitter angry clouding his voice. I could tell it wasn't at anyone but himself. My hoof froze and I slowly dragged it back to me my mouth open.

"Yes, she killed her mother when I failed to take her life. After that, I stopped fighting. I just held my wife waiting for my daughter to finish me. But she didn't. Instead she walked right by me an-and said thanks dad, couldn't have done it without you," his voice cracked at the end.

A cold fury rose from my chest, how dare she. HOW DARE SHE. She would do something like that to her father and mother. The people who had given her everything, had risen her up from nothing. It must have shown on my face.

"Calm yourself, this was twenty years ago. There is nothing to do about it now," he said wiping the tears away. "She had gotten away, but there were dozen more witnesses that saw what had happen. I was deemed an accomplice to a necromancer and banished from my Kingdom."

"But couldn't they be lenient? It was your daughter." I said truly furious for the old buck.

"If it wasn't for the king, my head would have been burned and the body left out for the crows. The nobles wanted me dead, a lot of the noble families offspring served in the King's own."

Well that sucks.

Edan fell silent once again as he drained the rest of his tanker. I looked at my plate, there was still some of the food on there but I didn't have much of an appetite for it after the story I had just heard. I pushed it towards my squirrely friend, who started to eat it with glee.

Edan cleared his throat getting my attention.

"I'm going to head back to my home, you can come with or explore the village a little more. Do you know how to find your way back?" He asked getting to his hooves.

It only took me a moment to think back on the trip, it was pretty straight forward getting here. I nodded getting up to leave as well.

"I would like to look around some more...." I hesitated for a moment before blurting out the question that has been on my mind when he first started his tale. "Why are you telling me all this? And yes I know I'm suppose to be your granddaughter and I should know this but why are you letting me be your granddaughter? I'm just somepony you just met and a changeling. I mean night before last you threatened to kill me."

Edan thought for a moment rubbing alongside his muzzle before finally saying, "I don't feel like I should tell you just yet. Or more accurately I don't think you earn the right to know yet. Maybe in a few months I will." He cracked a smile again, though it was tainted with sadness. With that he walked away from me.

I stared after him in surprise. For some reason I thought he would tell me, but to leave me with 'I don't think you earn the right'? I changed my mind about him, he's a dick.