Sword on his back, Phosphophyllite was walking around the small village of the Admirabilis spotting the holes in the ground that marked the entrance to their homes. After asking around all morning, he’d managed to find the closest thing to a library the Admirabilis had. Entering the unusually large hole in the ground, he arrived in a room lit by strange crystals. It was just as big as Rutile’s workshop, with some bookcase-like storage carved in the rocky walls. Strange shells were lined up all around. A single Admirabilis, with the same light blue skin as the rest, was floating in the middle of the room, with a shell pressed against its ear.

“Excuse me…” Phos said, almost in a whisper. The creature looked at Phos and put the shell back with the rest. “I’m one of the visitors with Princess Twilight, I’m looking for information about how you live your life and stuff,” he finished.

“Well, welcome to the archive of my people then,” said the Admirabilis with a noticeably feminine voice. “I am Ventricosus. Do you need any help? Something for the ‘Goddess’ maybe?” She said with a dull voice.

“The Princess sent me indeed. She was hoping to find out more about your people. Do you know where I can find any books on you all?” Said Phos, as he took the sword off his back with his magic and placed it near the entrance.

“Well, If you haven’t noticed, books don’t take water that well. You are standing in the middle of our most accessed records of the past,” she answered, waving to the walls full of shells of various sizes.

“Those are your books…?” Asked Phos.

“Well, I don’t know how your species works underwater but clearly even a blind Admirabilis would see they’re shells,” sassed Ventricosus. With a more serious voice she continued: “My people have the capacity to store our voice inside the shells here. We record our wisdom for future generations to learn. We do have some books, but our chief keeps them safe. It is said that it was the Goddess herself that gave them to us.”

"As for what we have here, well it's not much, but I do hope you can find what you're looking for," she finished

"So… I just take one and put it to my ear and it'll just work?"

“Essentially, yes. I’ll stay here if you need any help.” Ventricosus added.

Going through the many records of the Admirabilis’ past, Phos discovered nothing of interest. Most of the records seemed to be messages from dying and elderly Admirabilis left to the next generations. Advice, tips about making homes, and cooking recipes. All the while, Ventricosus watched from the other side of the room.

After a few hours, Phos finally complained: “This is all useless. This is filled with junk information that doesn’t even make sense. Some of them are, like, if they were from Admirabilis who knew they were going to be taken to the moon. How come they’re so depressed and all?” He asked no-one in particular.

“Taken to the moon?” Asked Ventricosus, curious.

“By the Lunarians you know? Cause we’re all so beautiful and all,” Phos said, trying and succeeding to look adorable.

“The Lunarians?”

“You know, crazy unicorns that play music and come during the day?”

Noticing Ventricosus’ blank expression, Phos asked: “You… don’t have Lunarians come and take you?”

“I am afraid I never heard of such creatures. At least not here, maybe you’ll find traces of these Lunarians you speak of in the old archives,” answered Ventricosus.

“There are archives with older stuff? Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Well you didn’t exactly ask for anything specific. I told you these are just our most accessed records,” said the Admirabilis.

“Can you take me there, then? Pleeeeeaaaaase?” the useless unicorn whined.

Ventricosus sighed, then reluctantly nodded and asked Phos to follow her before she led him outside and started swimming in the direction of the other archives. They were situated outside of town and Ventricosus had to wait for Phos to walk as the Admirabilis could move much faster under water—perhaps even faster than Twilight!

As they walked, at first in silence, Phos tried to make small talk.

“So, do you know why you look like the Princess, Ventricosus?” Asked Phos. The Admirabilis indeed looked like seaponies, same as Twilight, except their whole race shared the same blue coloration.

“Well, we do have stories of why we look like the Goddess, yes.” Ventricosus began. “Our people have this story about the ponies of old. The one who were here before the meteors visited the planet.”

“Among the ponies, there were six goddesses, mighty and all powerful, they all had an aspect associated and they were revered by the ponies. Before the meteors came, a dispute among them started. Two of them took refuge inside the earth with a third of the ponies and made a pact with Equus to become immortals. Our people say that you are their descendants. One went into the sea with another third, they kept the cycle of reproduction and death and evolved into us.” She marked a pause in her story and sighted.

“Two of them however, went into the stars with the rest of the ponies. Last, the only goddess who couldn’t leave her home stayed and tried to stop the meteors. We do not know which of them is your Princess, but she does match the description of the one who went into the sea.” She finished.

“Wait, so if a third became you, another, us and the rest took off, doesn’t that mean they became the Lunarians? If so, why would they attack us and not you?” Phos asked, trying to keep up with Ventricosus as she swam a little faster.

“I do not know, Phos. These are stories of my people. They could just be stories and not truth at all, so don’t take my word for it.”

“If you say so…” Finished Phos just before silence fell once again as the pair walked some more.

They had been walking for some time, an hour and a half or so. Leaving the village, there were only the plain, sandy bottom of the ocean and the occasional algae. The sun was setting and Phos was already feeling weaker from the lack of sunlight when Ventricosus finally stopped.

“We have arrived,” she announced.

“Good then, I’ll stop for a bit.” Phos stated. “I am so tired…” He complained as he lay down on the sand, letting his sword fall next to him.

“You know, I am sorry for not introducing myself properly before. For our people, and for you as well it seems, the Goddesses all bore the title of Princess. In our culture we still have one. One who leads the Admirabilis and has to help them survive, whatever the cost.”

Phos didn’t understand why he was being told all of this, he just wanted to sleep a little and get back to his mission when the sun rose again tomorrow.

Ventricosus continued: “When we created Pearl, we thought it would be enough to buy us the safety we seeked.” Phos looked at the Admirabilis at the notion of Pearl, wide eyed. “It wasn’t. Let me introduce myself again. I am Princess Ventricosus of the Admirabilis, daughter of Aculeatus, descendant of the Goddesses. And I hope you and your Princess can forgive me.”

As she said that, a single magical arrow plunged into Phos’ body, the choc breaking his lower half, along with his horn and an eye. The rest of Phos looked shocked at what he saw over the ocean: Lunarians.

“Descendant of the stars, I hope this is enough to save our people.” Shouted Ventricosus to the Lunarians’ vessel up in the air.

This note is written with beautiful horn-writing.

The admirabilis are a curious species!

They seemed to keep a record of their knowledge in shells, via some sort of passive magic. They also had some books which I took the time to copy for my own collection; I’ll go over them once I am back at the Great Oak.

They sure do seem to enjoy partying. Pearl was very excited to play with the children of the Admirabilis, once they warmed up to our presence. The only black spot to this research is their lack of historical records, as if they just suddenly appeared out of nowhere with all their current knowledge.

Despite my questions, they kept secret obvious facts such as their lack of foods. For some reason, there do not seem to be any mineral formations for them to eat in the sea. The population of the Admirabilis is obviously affected by this lack of food and it would explain why we haven’t seen that many of them before. In my estimation, there are only a few hundred of them but many more houses, indicating some sort of famine in recent times.

I’ll wait for Phos to come back before concluding anything else.

Author's Note

Alternative title: Betrayal.