Return of the Lord

Twilight re-joined Reldo in the library, a little shaken after what she had just seen. She sat back down on the stool, not really in the mood for questions, and thankfully it seemed Reldo was not in the mood either, for when she glanced across the table at him he was quietly sitting down with his nose stuck in a particularly old book, by the looks of it. Another time, Twilight might have been interested, but at the moment she was far too tired, and so she laid her head on the table and closed her eyes, intending to take a small nap.

Twilight shuffled a little as the sunlight filtered through the small window and rested on her face. Opening her eyes, she could see it was dawn already, but looking across she saw Reldo was still reading the same book.

"How long was I asleep?" Twilight asked, refreshed after what was probably more than just a nap.

"Not long" Replied Reldo, closing the book and placing on the table. "I was wondering if you wanted me to give you a tour of the city?"

Twilight was pleasantly surprised, and she didn't have anything else to do. Besides, if she was stuck here, she might as well study it.

"Um, ok" Twilight responded, relatively eager to get exploring, but also a little worried at what she might find, especially after the previous night's revelation.

Reldo slowly rose from his chair, straightening his back, before walking over to the door to the library and gently pushing it open. He then beckoned for Twilight to walk through. It seems she had been asleep longer than she thought, however, as she was a bit stiff after sleeping on the stool. Once she was through, however, Reldo closed the door and they began to stroll through the palace.

From the inside the palace wasn't too bad - it had several decadent rooms and a large courtyard in the centre with an impressive tree. It was nothing compared to the princesses' palace in Canterlot, but then again this building looked to have more purposes than just looking impressive. At last they exited the front door, and were nearly blinded by the sudden exposure to the early morning sun.

Once Twilight's eyes had recovered, she looked around the courtyard and saw many men dressed in metal clothes trying to hit each other, and some were just standing still. She found it most odd. Reldo had begun walking, however, so she caught up a little and decided to pose a few questions.

"You said the sun naturally rises and falls in the sky? How is that possible?" Twilight asked.

"To be honest, I don't know how it does it, but I am certain the gods have no part. If anyone is controlling that thing, I would in fact quite like a word with them, for it is not unusual here for the sun to decide to keep us in daylight for months at a time!" Reldo chuckled a little as he answered, whilst Twilight looked a little perplexed, and prayed she would not have to sleep many nights like that, or rather, days, in her stay here.

"Have you ever seen anything like me before?" Twilight ventured - she reasoned that if anyone had in fact seen a similar pony like her here, maybe they found a way back that she could use.

"Well, I don't think anything quite matching your description has ever been seen here, or anywhere I know of for that matter. There are, however, species of unicorn native to Gielinor, but they are dumb as cattle, quite frankly, and are little more than wild beasts. Their horns make good potions though!" Twilight flinched as Reldo's answer finished.

"You make potions out of their horns?" Twilight asked, stopped still in her tracks, a little shocked, and quite horrified.

"Oh yes, they have wonderful properties. You also said you cast magic, I remember? I find that most interesting, for they certainly can't, but I did not find any rune stones on you. Don't worry, we can visit the magic shop later." Reldo answered casually as they emerged into central Varrock.

Twilight, meanwhile, was deeply confused by the answer Reldo gave her, but made a note to ask him about it later, since he appeared to be starting his tour proper now.

"This is the centre of Varrock, over there in the middle is out glorious fountain, and around the edge are several fascinating stalls - Zaff's staffs, The General Store, and of course Gypsy Aris's tent." Reldo spoke out proudly, whilst gesturing to a myriad of attractions around the plaza.

Twilight was quite impressed - there were indeed several buildings that looked to be shops, and the clearing was a clearing no longer - it was smothered in a mass of people. Apart from the bright tent in the corner, however, Twilight couldn't help but notice everything looked a little dull.

"Shall we move on?" Reldo ventured, to which Twilight nodded in response, and so he began to lead her off a road sprouting from the square.

"Varrock is also home to a few renowned smiths, as well as the famous Grand Exchange. It has three fantastic pubs, and a lot of history, although most of its residential areas are in a pretty poor state at the moment." Reldo seemed a little saddened by his last remark, but went on to continue talking.

"There is also a Digsite nearby which is constantly making discoveries, which I'm sure you will be eager to visit one day, and there is also an interesting stone circle to the south, although it's rather dangerous." Twilight took in the knowledge eagerly, fascinated by this alien city.

"And here we are, Varrock's main church." Reldo stopped short of a large building, which had a large spire atop a tall tower. Twilight looked confused.

"Um... what exactly is a church?" Twilight asked, for she had never seen nor heard of such a thing before.

"It is where we can worship the Great and Powerful Saradomin - a benevolent god of good and light. I am surprised you have never heard of him, his followers among mortals are almost unmatched." Reldo answered, but he did not enter the church, and instead started walking back along the road they had come from.

Twilight meanwhile was still a little confused - what even was a god? Reldo had probably assumed she already knew, but the fact that these men had built such a large building just to show praise to him filled her with a little sense of awe. She was walking along lost in her thoughts, when she crashed into Reldo, who had clearly stopped walking. Of course, what was a hard knock for her was more of a light bump for him, so he didn't really notice and just continued talking.

"And this here is my favourite building in the entire city - The museum!" Reldo's voice seemed to be full of anticipation, and Twilight also looked up in wonder at the large building, wondering what may lie within. Following Reldo, she started to ascend the steps up to its impressive pillared facade.

The day had aged quite drastically by the time Reldo and Twilight exited the stone building, and in fact the sun even seemed to be speeding up in its descent, as if racing towards the horizon to catch some unknown prize.

The museum had also been quite something. Twilight had been constantly in awe at what she had seen. Downstairs she had been shown the natural history department, and she was utterly terrified by most of the displays - creatures that looked like they could not have even come from a pony's worst nightmare. They all looked so aggressive and bestial, which caused more discomfort to Twilight than she liked to admit - back home even the bears could be friendly, sometimes, but here even the smallest creatures seemed to be filled with the desire to kill. Of course, that was as much as Twilight could gleam from the displays.

She had observed a fierce insect display also, which seemed almost impossibly huge, and a dragon too. In fact, she was most fascinated by the dragon - It seemed bound to four legs, and also much smaller than Equestria's dragons, but as before, it looked just as if not more fierce. She was also surprised to learn that, unlike Spike, they seemed to have no capabilities with language or education, which made her a little upset.

The upstairs floors also had a wealth of history and knowledge in them, and she was perpetually fascinated. She had learnt of remarkable pottery, of gnome gliders, of the exploits of Robert the Strong, and had also looked at an interesting cabinet that sorted finds from deserts far to the south. She though she saw a familiar symbol on one of the fragments, but she couldn't place where she'd seen it before....

But at last Twilight recovered from her thoughts, although she did feel there was something she had forgotten, and turned to Reldo.

"So, where were you planning on going next?" she asked, intrigued and desperate to learn more about this fascinating, although frighteningly violent, new world.

"Ah, yes, I was thinking we might visit my good friend Audbury in his magic shop to the south of here." He replied, and at the same time reminded Twilight Sparkle of her question she had planned to ask.

"Oh yes, what are runes?"

Reldo stared at her a little blankly, as if he didn't understand something.

"I though you said you can cast magic?" He replied, a look of worry on his face, most likely because, in his reasoning, hearing and imagining things that were never said is not the staple of a healthy mind.

"Yes, but I can just cast it normally... I don't need any tools or anything, I just use my horn, see?" With her response, Twilight levitated a nearby rock, the soft purple glow of her magic aura gently caressing the hard stone surface of the small pebble, and raising it just a few feet into the air, holding it there, and then lowering it back down.

Reldo was utterly astonished, a look of amazement on his face. Twilight was about to respond, when he clapped his hands and turned around. Looking around, Twilight saw they were in front of a small roundish building, with some weird triangle shaped charms dangling from by the door. Inside she could hear two voices, which seemed to pique Reldo's interest too.

"Well, it seems Sedridor is visiting Audbury by the sounds of it, and it looks like this is going to be very fascinating, very fascinating indeed." Reldo said before taking a step towards the door.

Twilight couldn't work out what he had found so remarkable about her magic, but she had to agree - whatever answers she was about to get, they would be very interesting.