The Third Alicorn

Ponyville

In the library, Twilight was working on the code. She had been, in fact, for almost 28 hours straight now. Despite her dedication, she had not made any progress. Still the words refused to translate, and they lay on the paper, taunting her as she stared at them, hoping for their meaning to come jumping out.

“I’m not sleeping until I’ve got this figure out…“ she said to herself

Suddenly, the door slammed open, revealing a very worried Apple Jack and a disheveled Rarity. “Twilight, have ya seen Apple Bloom anywhere?” Apple jack said quickly

“We haven’t seen her or Sweetie Belle all day!” continued the distraught Rarity “and we’ve checked everywhere!”

This got Twilights attention. Those two missing at the same time could mean only one thing: A Cutie Mark Crusader disaster. “Ok, as hard as it is, I need you two to calm down. When was the last time you saw them?”

“I last saw sweetie this morning when she left with Scootaloo for one of those crusader meetings of theirs” Rarity started

“An’ ah last saw AB last night when ah gave her the book you lent me.”

“Right book…” Twilight said. There had to be something there that would give them a hint. Thinking of the book her eyes shifted over to the cypher that she had been working on. The cypher that had taken up her entire day… and had come from the very book that she had lent Apple Jack… the book that had the mysterious passage from one ‘TA’. “BUCK!”

This surprised AJ and Rarity out of their worry: Twilight NEVER swore. Their surprise only lasted a short time though, what she said next launched them out of shock into despair. “They went into the Everfree! Rarity, get Pinkie Pie. AJ, get Fluttershy and tell her to wake up dash. Meet back here ASAP! I’ve got to plan.” As AJ and Rarity sprinted off to their destinations, Twilight started planning and gathering supplies.

Following Terra, the crusaders saw a whole new side of the forest. Instead of being stifling, the darkness was welcoming. Instead of sounds being scary, they were nice. Perhaps this new-found courage was the illusion of safety a foal gets when following a confident adult or maybe it was something else.

“So mister Terra, where are you from?” Sweetie asked.

“Oh, around… I’ve been wandering ever since I was a young lad, never had a permanent home like your Ponyville miss… “Terra chuckled “you know… you never gave me your names,”

“Ah’m Apple Bloom,” AB volunteered “the unicorn is Sweetie Belle, and the Pegasus is Scootaloo and together we are…”

“THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!” the three shouted together.

“How long have you lived out here Mister Terra?”

“A long, long time… after a while the years seem to run together.”

“Did you fight any of the monsters in here?” Scootaloo asked excitedly.

“Monsters? There are no monsters in here, only animals. Dangerous and hungry animals yes, but only animals. A monster would kill for the sake of killing, the animals here kill because they need meat to live.”

“But they eat ponies!” Sweetie Belle protested.

“In the Everfree, ponies are just another animal to hunt Sweetie.”

“How can yah say somethin’ like that Terra? That’s horrible, we’re thinking-“

“I’m old Apple Bloom, I have seen things that wouldn’t even lurk in your nightmares, that’s how I can say something like that. As for horrible? It’s the law of the wild miss: Eat or be eaten. The strong hunt the weak and the weak hide from the strong. That’s just the way things are. But don’t worry; with me you are counted among the strong.” This stopped the conversation as the fillies mulled over the knowledge he had forced on them.

The four of them continued on in silence while they slowly made their way back towards Ponyville. For the fillies, the trip back seemed to take much longer than the trip out but even so, before they knew it, they were approaching the edge of the forest.

“Ah Ponyville! And it looks like a welcoming committee is out for you three.”  Terra said happily “Well, what are you waiting for? Go on!”

“Aren’t you coming with us mister Terra?” AB asked. Turning around, only to find that Terra had disappeared.

“Ok,” Twilight started “two groups of three. Apple Jack, Fluttershy, and Rarity your one group. Dash and Pinkie, your with me for the other group. Shy and Dash: stay over the canopy at all times, me and Rarity will be using a strong light spell so we can see and be seen. Remember, one pulse means we found them, two means trouble. We are not leaving until we find Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and-“

“APPLE BLOOM!” AJ yelled excitedly.

“-yes AJ, and Apple Bloom”

AJ shook her head before galloping off towards the forest “NO! Apple Bloom! She’s right there!”

The other members of the search party followed her with confused looks on their faces until they saw what she had seen: the three missing fillies slowly leaving the forest with very ashamed looks on their faces. They stood there stunned for a few seconds until rarity ran towards her sister, shortly followed by Shy, Dash, Pinkie, and Twilight.

“AB ah was worried sick about you.” Apple Jack said hugging her sister tightly.

“Sweetie what did I tell you about going into the Everfree, you know it’s dangerous in there!” Rarity scolded.

“Nothing bad happened to us sis… though we did get lost. But we met a nice pony who helped us leave.” Sweetie said in an attempt to reason with Rarity.”

“Sweetie, you know nopony lives in the Everfree except Zecora,”

Apple Bloom came to her friends defense “But we met one! He said his name was Terra an’ he claimed he had lived in the Everfree for a long time.”

“Oh, then where is he now? Ah would like to thank the pony who saved my sister.”

“Ah… ah don’ know...”

“It doesn’t matter,” Twilight said “the fillies are safe now. It doesn’t matter how, but they’re safe, thank Celestia. Now, let’s return to our beds. We can talk more about this tomorrow when we have gotten some rest and this supposed ‘savior’ has shown up.”

The next day, Terra entered the town by way of the main road. After a bit of wandering he found himself in the marketplace,

“Excuse me sir? Do you need some help?” asked a pony behind him.

Terra turned and saw the yellow farmpony from the last night tending a stall full of apples. “Ah yes, how much for an apple?“

“Two bits fer one, 20 bits fer a dozen.”

“Only two bits? Well, if you want to undersell you’re fine merchandise who am I to argue.” He quickly hoofed over two bits.

As Applejack went to place the bits in her register she happened to glance at the coins. They were made of worn gold with a sun and Celestia on one side and… a moon and Luna on the other? She had seen a bit like this before, in Granny Smith’s collection. It was a relic of the pre-nightmare-moon era… worth quite a bit to the right bidder. “Ah sir did you mean to give me these…particular… bits?”

“Why yes, is something wrong with them?”

“Well… no… it’s just that these are pre-Nightmare-Moon era bits. Quite a bit more valuable than normal bits.”

“I appreciate the honesty miss. Tell you what: I’ll call it even if you can tell me where I might rest my weary head tonight.”

“Well, that’s easy; we have spare rooms up at the house. Only use them when relatives are visiting… Ah’ll even add in meals. Though, if you’re going to room with us, ya’ll have to give me your name.”

“Of course! Always forget the name. Let me introduce myself… my name is Terra.”

At this the mares smirk disappeared, replaced by a stunned expression.

“You ok miss? You look like you got bucked upside of the head.”

“You saved mah sister last night…” the pony managed to force out.

“I did? Oh, she was one of the fillies wasn’t she?”

“Apple bloom” she replied still stunned.

“Ah, I liked that one, strong willed. Now is there a library in town miss… You know, I seem to have forgotten your name.”

At this the farmpony smiled “That’s ‘cause I never gave it, m’ names AppleJack, and the library is right over there. ”

“Thank you AppleJack, I will see you in time for dinner, good day.”

Terra walked away humming. This WAS luck, within an hour he had the problems of room and board solved. Now he just had to catch back up with the times. A tree! Books in a tree! He chuckled to himself as he pushed open the door.

Terra was again surprised as he came face to face with a baby dragon who had just been about to open the door. Terra was the first to speak “I didn’t expect to see a dragon living with ponies… let alone residing in a library full of flammable books.”

“Spike,” called a voice from up the stairs “Don’t forget the grocery list this time.”

“Right! By the way there’s a new pony here for some books.”

A purple unicorn appeared at the top of the stairs. “Oh, hello there, sorry about that. New ponies in town aren’t very common... what are you looking for?”

“Just some books on recent history.” Terra said.

“Oh, that’s easy” Twilight said trotting over to a nearby bookshelf, levitating out a single large tome “Unfortunately; I can’t let you leave the library with it… why are you looking at me like that?”

Terra, who had been looking at twilight intently, was startled by this unexpected comment. “Sorry, I don’t mean to offend, but there’s something off about you… something I just can’t place… anyways, that’s fine. I wasn’t planning on leaving anyway.”

“Well I am the magic element of harmony, perhaps that’s it?”

“Yes… that must be it, now pardon me I have some reading to catch up on.” He said as he sat at one of the empty tables.

“Right… If you need anything, I’ll be right over here,”

The library quickly faded back to almost perfect silence, the silence that is only achieved when everypony is completely engrossed in a book. Terra sat quietly reading his book for several hours, only broken when a certain pink pony came pouncing through the door.

“Twilight do you have any more cooking books the Cakes want more recipes and they sent me here to see if you have anymore,” The pink mare said in one breath.

“Sorry Pinkie, the Cakes already know all the recipes in the library.”

“Oh phooie…” she said, slowly turning around, stopping suddenly what she saw Terra. With a loud gasp she zipped over to him faster than most ponies are capable of. “Who are you? I’ve never seen you here and I know everypony so that means you’re new and that means you don’t know anypony which means I have to throw you a welcome to ponyville party so you can get to know people can you tell me your name so I know what to put on the banner?” Pinkie said very quickly and, again, in one breath.

Terra answered with a chuckle “my name is Terra, young one”

With another large gasp Pinkie zipped back out of the library, leaving behind an amused stallion. “Can’t say I was expecting one of those here.”

“One of whats?”

“Never mind that, do you know where she went?”

“Well, she’s either going to prepare a party for you, or going to get our friends to thank you for saving the fillies.”

“So why aren’t you surprised about it?”

“I put it together from the facts. The CMC said that they were helped by a male pony that had been in the forest for a long time. Next day you, a male pony, come in and ask to read a book or recent history, to catch up on what you missed while in the forest I’m assuming It’s really quite simple.” Twilight said.

At this Terra chuckled “You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, miss. Well, I’d better be going, wouldn’t want to leave a bad impression on my new friend up at the orchard.”

“You already met AppleJack? Did she thank you for finding the fillies?”

“Indeed, even offered me a place to stay for the time being, quite nice of her.” As he passed by the table in the center of the room his eyes happened to fall upon the cypher, “my my my… wherever did you find this?"

“That annoying thing? I got it out of a book, don’t know what it means though. Wait, you recognized it! Do you know what it is or what it says?”

“Not off the top of my head, but where is the book you got it out of?”

“I lent it to AJ for her little sister, it’s the same book that made them go into the forest in fact.”

“Well then, I guess it’s off to the farm to chat with AppleBloom.” He said trotting out the door.

Pinkie was just on her way back with the rest: AJ, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, along with AB who wanted to thank Terra again for saving her, when he ran into them.

“Perfect! Just the filly I needed to see! Where is the book that AJ gave you two nights ago?”

“Uh…It’s in our tree house… “

“And where is that exactly?”

“In the orchard near the Everfree forest.”

“Well then, off we go. You gals will want to see this.”

“See what exactly?”

Terra just smiled and continued off towards the Tree house, prompting the other ponies to join Twilight in following him. When they got near the Tree house AB galloped ahead and retrieved the book for the adults, still open to the page that held the prophesy.

Terra quickly scanned over the lines “tell me Twilight, why didn’t you write down the whole thing?”

“What do you mean? Of course I wrote down…” Twilight stopped when she saw what Terra was pointing at, a second line under the first. “wha… that wasn’t there before!”

“Then my assumptions are proved correct. What this is is a prophesy. Magical writings that tell the future and appear where they are needed. The thing about prophesies is they are riddles, even if you manage to translate them before they come to pass, you still need to figure out what it means. Also, the next line will only appear when the line before it comes to pass.”

“So the line I spent all of yesterday trying to translate is useless now?”

“Yup. And another thing. This page wasn’t here when the book was made.” Terra said, before slowly tearing out the page with the prophesy on it, much to his companions surprise. When twilight was about to start berating him, he held a hoof up, silencing her just long enough for the magic to get working. Before the ponies eyes, a plethora of colors appeared, colors that they had never seen before, and might never see again. These colors moved like smoke, wrapping around the scraps of the torn out page left in the book. As the ponies watched, the smoke seemed to consume the paper before moving on, leaving no sign that there had been a page there not moments before. It then floated to the page Terra held in his hoof, slowly sinking into it. He quickly put the page down, then stepped back as it seemed to come to life, writhing as it replicated and shrunk. First two pages…then four…8…16…finally calming down on 32 pages. At this time, the book that it had formed was the size of a common journal. Then it stopped and the magic left as quickly as it had come.

“And that…” Terra said, walking up to the newly formed book and smiling at the stunned ponies “…is the magic of prophesy.

In the book, a third line formed.

a novum malum erit devenire