Year 2534, 5th of Winter’s Reign, Hour 22 – Canterlot Castle, High Command Offices – Frosty Glaze’s POV
“Hey Glaze, do you have a minute?”
I look up from the work I had on my desk to see Captain Armor walking over.
“What can I do for you Captain?” I respond.
“Don’t call me that!” He says in an outburst, before taking a deep breath. “I don’t deserve that title.”
“Look, I know it’s been hard, but with all due respect, you need to move on. Captain— er, Solaria, has been gone for over a year. Celestia isn’t going back on her word.”
“I still think if someone were to—"
“You heard the rumors! That would be a death wish! I—…Let’s discuss something else,” I stop myself from getting worked up, looking back down to the assignment in front of me.
“Actually, she’s the reason I came to you,” Captain Armor says.
He pulls out a synthetic, leather-bound journal. The book is very thick, locked with a simple button lock closure. There are no words on the cover, only an engraving of a intricate leaf covering the bottom third. The entire journal glows with faint red etchings, all extremely complicated.
“It that hers?” I ask. “Where’d you find it?”
“It was tucked away in the bedframe, hidden in a secret compartment. I can only guess it’s Solaria’s, considering the spell’s aura. She’s the only Anthow soldier I’ve ever known to have a red aura.”
Armor sets the journal onto my desk.
“I’ve spent the past few days trying to break the seal, but it’s strong. I was wondering if you’d like to give it a shot.”
“Shouldn’t we respect her property and not break into her private journal? It’s obviously been sealed for a reason.”
Armor pulls out a sheet of old parchment.
“I thought the same at first, until I read this,” he sets the paper on top of the journal. “I think it’s seal for a deeper reason than simple privacy.”
I pull the parchment into my hands, reading over the words.
Written within this journal is the life events from my time of service in the Equestrian Royal Guard. If this journal is found with the seal still attached, it means I still live. In the event of my death, the seal will fall. To whoever might read the contents within, understand that everything written is the truth. I beg of you, spread what knowledge you gain to every corner of the continent, that the world may know of Equestria’s, and by extension Celestia’s, heinous acts of terror.
~~Solaria Grayblade, Captain of the Guard
I set the paper down again, curiosity spiking in my mind.
“I want to know what she means by ‘heinous acts of terror,’” Armor says after a minute of silence. “She may have been tough, but she was no liar. I trusted her with my life, and if this book really contains what she says it does…”
“I’ll get right on it tonight,” I respond. “For now though, I suggest we keep this between ourselves.”
Armor nods and walks off, leaving the journal and parchment with me. I discreetly slip both into a desk drawer. Returning to my assignment at hand, I can’t bring myself to focus on it.
She still lives…
5th of Winter’s Reign, Hour 37 – Canterlot Castle, Library – Frosty Glaze’s POV
I check around the secluded study section of the library. No one else is here, either asleep or occupied with other duties.
Perfect.
I pull the journal and the parchment from my bag, setting it onto the wood table along with an electric lamp. Taking a seat, I begin to study the book.
“Hmm,” I mutter to myself. “Definitely Magical Seal… with a ton of magic put into this… There’s no way it was all in one session… Hmm, she certainly knew her spells…”
I ignite Magical Beam and focus a small laser onto the seal. The arcane hum bursts into existence as a bright pink energy beam jumps from my hand onto the journal. I cancel the spell after half a minute, as a pinch is felt in the back of my mind.
“I can’t overload it like Captain Armor said… If this journal contains the knowledge the parchment says it does, surely there’d be a way to disable the seal without her death…”
I grab the thick paper, stoking my muzzle as I look it over.
“Hmm… Might as well try…”
I ignite and cast Magical Detection, quickly sweeping over the sheet. The front side with the writing yields no results.
The back side however, comes to life with an arcane hum. Hidden scrawling bursts to life with a red glow. The random scribbles are incoherent, forming a circle around the parchment.
I tentatively ignite some of my raw magic, setting it onto the scribbles. The red glow switches to a pale blue, matching my own aura color. After the change, the randomness shifts to form the Aligonic word for ‘Teleport’: ‘Tnd'Eh'Mu'Ehta'Phopa.’ As the color returns to red, the word becomes scribbles again.
“Interesting…”
I stand from the table, speed-walking to the arcane section of the library. Knowing this section fairly well, I quickly find a Protection spell tome. After returning to my spot, I flip the tome to Magical Seal.
“Let’s see… casting… application… costs… ah, vulnerabilities! ‘Magical Seal can be broken through several different events, most involving the caster. If the caster is killed, or loses their magical conductor, the spell is dissolved.’ Okay, that’s self-explanatory… ‘If the spell also encounters an antimagic field or antimagic material, the spell will falter until it is out of range…’ Well, I don’t have anything like that handy… ‘A unique trick can be employed to fool the spell, although this depends on the caster’s casting. If the object is surrounded by the seal, it is possible to teleport the item out from within. The success of this trick is extremely rare and difficult, as Teleporting an object that’s not connected to one’s self can easily destroy the item.’”
I look at the sealed journal.
“What other choice do I have… Antimatter artifacts are hard to come by, and the spells are extremely high level. And I can’t risk showing this journal to anyone else…”
Grasping the book with Telekinesis, I focus my other hand and use Teleportation to pull the journal to me. With a bright flash, the red seal sparks out of existence as its structure collapses.
Wow, the Tome made it seem so much tougher…
Not wasting a moment, I flip the journal open to its first page and begin to read the wording under my breath.
“Entry one, year 2041. I’ve started this journal with one goal in mind, to expose Captain Vaelum and Queen Celestia for their horrific crimes and acts of terror…”
Author's Note
This is a simple short story I had in mind. Primarily help explain Solaria a bit better, but to also show what's going down back in Canterlot after the whole debacle. It'll be a bit of an experiment, but it also correlates with Outcast.
The story will stay M, just because I like to keep my content gritty.
Like with all my chapters, please comment your thoughts, questions, and criticisms!
--Thanks to HoneyBacho for assisting with editing and world continuity
