That One Patient

Alright, now is where I’m starting to get worried. A lot happened today that I wasn’t able to find any time to interview Apollo. It… It was crazy and it’s still making me shake my head! Earlier this morning, our linguist from Canterlot had arrived. Her name is Rosetta Scribe, a professor at the Canterlot Institute of History. Since it’s believed that we were dealing with a dead language, she volunteered as she claimed. I have to say that her eagerness and devotion to her discipline will prove useful but I hope that she’ll be unaffected by what has been going on here as of late.

As per usual, we’ve spent the day gathering notes and recording anything Apollo speaks in that tongue. Speaking to himself, we recorded that. Anything he writes, we copied. We made sure to acquire EVERY possible bit of data we could get our hooves on. Finally, we had enough to get Rosetta to work her magic. To her astonishment, the language was identified as “Tambelonese”. From what she said, it’s an ancient language that went even farther than Ancient Equestrian and no recorded texts of said language exist anymore. It was odd that a unicorn would be fluent in a language as old as Tambelonese. Out of what was translated, one phrase stuck out:

“My arrival is nigh! I am inevitable!”

Obviously, that was in reference to this “Mr. Skull” that he mentioned the other day. So, whoever this “Mr. Skull” might be, he might either be some outside entity or just a figment of his imagination, it remains to be determined. I can’t believe that now a piece of our ancient history is involved in some way. Yet, it’s another thing I have to take into account for this case. But, that wasn’t the only crazy thing that happened.

A patient came here a year ago named Prospero. She had lost her filly to drowning as it went for a swim and it left her near-catatonic as a result. Tragic, it truly is. Due to her state, we didn’t have much to worry about apart from nourishment and basic care. That was… until this afternoon where she took her own life. When we got to her cell, we saw that her hooves had been slashed diagonally with a piece of glass that she might’ve snuck in and she wrote a phrase that was later confirmed to be Tambelonese. The only other pony that knew it was Apollo.

This… I don’t know. I mean, I’m now starting to believe that Apollo has a hoof in what happened but it’s impossible without magic, something he can't use because of the ring. I know that an ancestor of his was a powerful sorcerer as I’ve read up on his family tree after the first day of all this but he shouldn’t be able to use it. I don’t fully believe that he did it but as a precaution, I’m going to commission the princesses for a better magic suppression ring. I want to be one hundred percent sure that Apollo isn’t responsible or keep him contained if that’s the case.

But, one of the translated phrases still unnerved me.

“The Tide of Red is upon us!”