Starlight is a crybabyby Lloyd_YahwalChaptersChapter 1: The lost cityPrologue: Triple TroubleChapter 2 : The Lost CityChapter 3: The book of Teacher and StudentChapter 1: The lost city«Ouch, ouch, ouch! I told you already that I'm sorry!» said Quacker Jack, while getting his back kicked by the hoofs of the friends, who he thought of robbing of such a title. «Oh,ExUsE MeEEeeEeeeE that we are not ready to forgive you for potentially SENDING US TO ANOTHER WORLD,» sassily answered Mega Volt, while kicking his flank again. «Hey,but at least we could've gotten a cutie mark for World Jumping!» tried defending himself unfortunate Quacker Jack. One unfortunately following the other - Banana Brains kicked him as well. «Yea,and we would've gotten back home HOW exactly?!I have Mom and Dad,and I can't go away more then for a week on our journey» — said little filly, while eating a banana. After kicking him she got back to relaxing by leaning against the tree. «Yea,and I still have to work.Dad promised to give me a shot at making my own light bulbs next!Do you expect me to skip that?!» asked angry Mega Volt, while eating a tuna sandwich he got from the Banana Brain's bag. «Okay,okay,I get it...but hey - at least we are almost there! If our calculations are correct - then we should be right about at the place of the legendary lost city! And only in 4 days, even quicker then expected!» said the overly exited Quacker Jack, while eating peanut butter and jelly sandwich and gulping it down with some milk, «plus you kicked me, like, a bazillion times already. I got it, I should've said earlier - but kicking me for four days straight is a bit much, ain't it?» «Oh, shus! My parents hate your pegasai kind with deep passion, and I am still in this club with you. Compared to them I am basically the Fluttershy the Kind.» said the unicorn, while waving his hoof at his friends. «Same here.» said Banana Brains,lifting her hoof while eating. «You all are no fun...» said the Quacker Jack. His parents were the only non-racist ones. Mostly because they didn't care for the other races of ponies...maybe that was the reason he was the founder of this club. «Okay, I'm done, lets go. We do not have too much time...» Said Banana brains, while standing up. She throws away the banana peel and goes further to get to this lost city she wanted to find for so long. «We deffinetly won't find out destination quickly if you will just si-» tried saying little filly in the green sweater, until she remembered about her banan… ...because she felt it with her hoof. «IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!» started screaming poor filly, while sliding on the banana peel. She was fallingDiscord knows we're, while her friends, not surprised, groaned, thrown the last of their dinner into their mouth and started going after her. Quacker Jack took Mega Volt's hoofs, because he was much stronger and quicker, helped him to jump on his back - and they started flying after the unfortunate, screaming, crying filly. Maneuvering around the trees was very hard for a young pegasus. Especially with an added weight. Which made it all the more surprising how the little screaming filly managed to skit past all the sources of danger and trees unscathed... Or so the two colts thought. Up until the point where the ground under her fell and she started sliding down into some unknown place, presumably underground cave. While thinking about it - two colts bumped into the tree. Because you need to pay attention when you are going at high speed. A couple of moments later - they were here, down the sliding ground, looking at their friend, planted face-first into the dirt. Quacker Jack came to help, releasing her form the hugs of the mother nature and helping her dust off. «Okay gang,the food supplier is back on track,we can get back to work,» said Qucker Jack, while dusting off his hoofs and looking at his friends. What he found notable was the flabbergasted look on the Mega Volt's face. «W-we might've alr-r-ready....ddddone it,» he said, while pointing hishoof behind his back. Turning around with a confused face - Quacker Jack noticed a giant ruins of the castle that he didn't notice while going down because...well - he landed face-first into a tree. Can he have a break for not noticing stuff? «Holy Celestia...Is that?...» Banana Brains was searching through her stuff, until she found a history book. Flipping to a certain page she seemd to know by heart - she lined up some structures with the ruins in front of her. Her friends got besides here and were comparing as well. The destroyed towers, the remnants of the main building with the broken glass painting, a garden besides it, that through the years have grown around the entire city. There was no denying it. They found it. The Legendary... «LOST CITY OF CANTERLOT! LET'S GO, CUTIEMARK CRUSADERS!!!!» said exited fillies, while starting to dance aroundб because of their success. Banana Brains doing a worm dance, Mega Volt doing some techno, Quacker Jack doing... Whatever the hell Quacker Jack was doing. Wasn't important! They've done it! But most importantly - they looked down expectantly at their flanks...unfortunate. Still blank...seems like they might as well try searching the castle for "uncovering the truth of the past" and "archeology" cutiemarks… Prologue: Triple Trouble«Well,and what is that?» askedyoungearthpony with messy yellow hair, that had a couple of white stripes in it. Her mane was pretty straight despite the messy appearence, with hair going to all direction. She had a light green sweater on her and a big bag with, presumably, food. Notable thingabout her, was the lack of Cutiemark. «Well, you see, after Megavolt calculated, that it would take us about 4 month of traveling to get to the location...I decided to get a bit creative!» said the second pony, a little pegasus, who had a blue and red cap on his head and a colorful big bag over his spine. His mane wasn't exposed, but his tail matched the color of cap. Notable lack of cutiemark present as well. At that moment he was holding some little cube made supposedly out of metal with some light coming out of the cracks with his wing. «And that creativity came from-?» asked the lastof three,unicorn, who had a pink body and a noticeably burned black mane and tail. Who Also didn't have a cutiemark.Also carryingsome large bags with...something. «I do not presume you gathered us all just to say that you made a glowing cube and we still have to go for month straight with the resources that we can't even lift to sustain such a journey?» «Boooooo, have some patience, Sparky boom boom» — said the little colt, while booing his friends impatience, «obviously I have a plan! But you need to give me time to tell it!» after waiting for some time to check if anybody will I tergect he continued, «amazing, now, here is the grass and apples of it : my dad recently got some scripts that might be from the Twilight herse-» «THE TWILIGHT? LIKE THE TWILIGHT SPARKLE? PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE!?» Exclaimed two foals, suddenly jumping up, to thedelight of the third one. «Yea, yea, it's no big deal, LET ME FINISH THE STORY!» said the third little foal,pretending to me angry,but in reality enjoying the surprise of his friends, «cough-cough as I was saaaying - my dad got someblueprintsthat make out some ancient technology.But it is too convoluted to understand, so it may be from the times of Friendship, when the technology and Magic were developing at the rapid pace, and with the complexity of the shown blueprint pieces - it might even be the work of THETwilight Sparkle the Wise!» happily proclaimed the kid, barely holding the smile from tearing his face into two pieces.As he finished saying that and started posing with his little cube - the others started calming down and asking questions. «Sooo....this is really cool...but how is that connected to the strange cube you are holding?» asked the filly, looking confusedly at her friend with burned hair,who shrugged in shared confusion. «I-i was getting there,Banana Brains!» said flustered colt, pretending that he didn't just forget about the main point of his story, «so,as I was saying - I got those bluepri-» «Wait, how? Who in all of tartarus would let YOU even TOUCH ancient blueprints?!» asked the second colt,before getting slapped on his mouth for using bad words like Tartarus by the Banana Brains. He immidietly covered his mouth after that. «I would say the same thing… just without swearing,» said Banana Brains, while side-eyeing her friend. the little colt,who was waiting to continue his story, touched his cap and got the string from behind his ear. After pulling on it, the top of the cap opened, revealing a camera lense, «can we now continue?» «I always forget he has that thing...» said Banana Brains, while bickering with the second foal, until the "storyteller" get fed up with it. «ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, STOP TALIKING ALREADY, I AM TELLING THE STORY HERE, NOT YOU!» said the little pegasus, noticeably irritated by the lack of attention he was getting, even starting to jump up and down, and fly around to vent his frustration.It continued for the next minute or so, until he vented all the anger and noticed, that the rest were already quiet. He landed back were he stood, and, after some long, exhausted breath - he coughed a couple of times, before continuing. «So, anyway - I managed to copy the blueprints and got an idea while trying to understand it. Form what I understood - it is something like a teleporter, but much stronger. Soooo...I got Mega Volt's house, noticed some thrown away functional parts, got them, and after some tinkering - I got this beauty!» said the pegasus, finally presenting his creation closer to the two foals, «I call it "The Quacker Jack's super quick teleportation method for finding lost cities"!» «I think the name might need some fixing...» said the Banana Brains, while looking at the cube. «and this thing might as well. Are you mad using the components form the thrown away machinery? What if it was bad? Do you know how dangerous it might be?» started asking Mega Volt, while pointing and poking at this thing with his horn, and lightly smashing his head with his hoof, «are you mad?» «Relaaaax Volty~I made sure nothing explodes!...this time...I made experiments with mouse's! And what I found out - is that the more electricity you give it - the further you will go! If we use some of your experimental batteries - we can very well cut down the time to about a week, stoping only to recharge the batteries from the free socket's in some inn or a bar or soemthing else!» «So that why you told me to bring them...» Said Mega Volt,while taking out his experimental batteries. Two of them were actually exited. They wanted to try to get the cutiemark for researching the past for a long time, and now they had the perfect chance! Saying that their judgment was clouded was saying nothing... In less then an hour they listed the plan and got the batteries plugged into the cube, while Quacker Jack entered the coordinates with some unorthodox method he didn't explain to the rest. After everything was set up they all touched eachother and their stuff and waited 3 seconds to get teleported. Well,two of them waited... «Oh,almost forgot,from what I translated - there is a chance we will be teleported to another world if this doesn't go well,» said the smiling pegasus to his friends, while there was only a second left before the teleportation. «QUACKER JAAAAAACK!!!» Sounded like an echo through the forest besides the Littlewoods, while the bodies of the three foals dissapeared. Chapter 2 : The Lost City«We need to go to the Castle! This is the biggest discovery of the century!» said the overjoyed Mega Volt. His eyes were bulging out while he and his friends were running around the destroyed town, buried under meters of mud and trees. «Yea, yea, we remember, Volty, but there is so much more than just the castle! This is the place where all the cool stuff were made! Like - we can find the legendary places like the School for the Unicorn Prodigies under the patronage of Celestial the Holy!» said Qucker Jack, while blowing on some old signs. «Or the Bakery Street under the name of Luna the Restless!»addedBanana Brains, while trying to guide them using some semblance of the old map in the book, that deffinetly wasn't accurate, but was better then absolutely nothing. By the legends after Luna the Restless came back - Celestial the Holy gifted her the street as a welcome-back gift. This place later was know as the birthplace of one of the greatest bakers Canterlot has ever seen. Some even speculate that after restirment Princess Luna might've had a secret house on this street, but it was never confirmed. «Or the Auction House!» added Quacker Jack, while running into some old caffe, looking around like a little colt on his birthday...which wasn't that far from the truth. Only his birthday was in about a month or so. «Or Royal Archives and Library,» continued Banana Brains, while imagining all these places. «Or Canterlot's Carousel owned by Rarity the Generous!» added Quacker Jack, while coming back to Banana Brains and hugging her with one hoof, imagining all those pace, while listing them, already forgetting that they were saying all of that for Mega Volt «Or the Art Gallery!» saidBanana Brains, while Mega Volt just signed and came into the caffe Quacker Jack just came out of, starting to screw out the light bulbs to see if they were still functional and how they were made. The technology of this time was fascinating to him, especially in his own field. «Or the Pegasai station for flying sports!»saidthe colorful Pegasus, while flaming his small wings. «Or Joe's Donnut Shop!» said excited little filly while looking through her book. «Yea,or-wha?» suddenly stopped the exited kid, turning around and looking at his friend with a confused expression, «why would we care about some old donut shop that must predate the birth of Discord with it's age?» «Did you even open your history book?» slowly turned her head equally confused Banana Brains. «...whistle non-suspiciously -...argh,Joe's donnut shop, from some sources, is said to be the favorite donnut shop of the Princess of Friendship!» said the little filly, while opening one of the pages with the biography of her idol-pony. «...Erm, ah, yea! Oh, yea, THAAATS Joe's donnut shop! Yea, I, eh, deffinetly knew about that...» said Qucker Jack, while backing away to hide his embarrassment. Showing himself like an idiot before his friends...at least not intentionally was really embarrassing! «Ah,you mean this pace?» the earth-pony and an extravagant pegasai turned around, to see Mega Volt lifting pieces of the old sign. The paint was gone long ago, but the outline of the letter's "JOE'S" and the circle that resembled the donnut shop was still there. «...EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!» Banana Brains couldn't help herself. She started playfully jumping towards the entrance to the shop. Now all three of them were inside. Quacker Jack was looking for any fun-looking stuff, but mostly found some very old coins, which he stored securely in his backpack. Mega Volt was spewing out any electronic he could find and was directing it with his screwdriver while writing some stuff down and mumbling in the creative frenzy. But the most lucky one was Banana Brains. She found an old safe, which opened form a casual kick from her backhoofs,and opened to her the treasure of this place...The cookbook from Joe's donuts!And,most importantly - the pages were saved by the plastic bag it was secured in,so the book was in perfect condition! After that the search throughout the rounds was going even more energetically. The library was the easiest to find. Mega Volt spotted it really quickly and brought his friends along like a bulldozer, and while Bana Brains had fun looking at some of the books, and Mega Volt loved this place, the only way to entertain himself that Quacker Jack found - is to sleep with a book covering his face. Not a small part of the reasoning for his boredom was the fact that most of the books were rotten. At the end Mega Volt collected some old interesting book on diffirent themes, while the others just gone off while he was busy, wishing to find something more exciting. The next place they found was the Art gallery. While Banana Brains was collecting the art that she liked after dusting it off - Mega Volt was collecting the electronics he could find as they most likely cost a ton after all those years. Quacker Jack on the other hoof was holding a painting until his friends - and pierced it with his head, scaring two fillies and having to dodge a painting and an old radio for that. But he still thought it was a fair tradeoff, because he had fun. Next was the Auction House. Unfortunately it was mostly destroyed and they couldn't find much of anything, but Quacker Jack secretly found an old War-Horn and the Party Cannon that belonged to the Pinkie the Eternally Joyful. He tried sneaking it...but he couldn't. The others found it and he couldn't convince them that "this is just the artifact of the past!".No one was stupid enough to belive it wasn't to annoy them in the future.So Jack had to leave it...for now. On the way to the just-found boutique Carousel - they noticed a big tower, leaning on another building. Even thou it was dangerous - Quacker Jack convinced them to explore, because "how can Tower NOT have anything interesting?!", which was an impenetrable logic in the eyes of the foals... There was absolutely nothing interesting. There was only more book and the diary of some "Moondancer" pony. Mega Volt tried convince them to read what she had here, but was dragged out by the hoofs with the combined forces of the other two fillies. «What a waste of time,eh?» asked Quacker Jack, while the Mega Volt was crying, limply being dragged along the ground. «Yea, what in tartarus? In all the fairy tails Towers always belong to someone cool, why are there only books! We have library for this stuff!» agreed Banana Brains. «Disappointment. Let's go see if some dresses from the Carousel are still in tact!» After that the three fillies were gone to the boutique. Unfortunately - all of the dresses were destroyed. Not a single one left. That was heartbreaking, as the two foals expected to find something extraordinary that belonged to one of the legendary Elements of Harmony. But while fooling around and swinging from the sealing lamp out of boredome and disappointment - Quacker Jack accidentally broke a locked cabin. «...well that's one way to replace the lock picks,» said Banana Brains, barely containing her laugh. But the importance of this,wasthat the unfortunate and bored colt noticed - one of the pieces of the paper that landed on his face. Surprisingly - the paper was almost perfect, because it was laminated. Andtherewas the designs. And it had the thing that was a proof of who was the creator - the sign-off form the Rarity herself! Quacker Jack after that started flaunting that he was the one who found it and how they should try getting lucky themselves. He collected all of them, while the other two were envious... but eventually he gave them some of the drawings of the dresses, because he feltnice today. The next on list was the Pegasai school for Flying sports. And at that moment Quacker Jack remembered about his camera-cap, so this was the best fun they had here yet. Quacker Jack deffinelty didn't like the colors of their uniform, so with a little spray-pain he made a costume that was more his style and started posing for Banana Brains. He also made a couple laps on the course and had the others try the uniform as well. They even accidentally found a trophy with the signing of the Princess Celesfia the Holy herself! All three of them knew they wouldn't leave it here,so Quacker Jack now had a trophy which he put his name on with a marker,feeling proud of himself. The next place they have gone to was Celestia's school for Unicorn Prodigies. Surprisingly - the one who enjoyed it the most was Banana Brains. And that way she was pissing Mega Volt off. How could he know that when he would be convincing them to go there - Quacker Jack would find a rock that looked almost exactly like his horn,vand give it to Banana Brian's,vwho likes parodying voices? For the next two hours where Mega Volt was begging Discord to take these idiots away - Quacker Jack were playing out a scene where Celestia was giving him a reward for being the "Dorkiest, most boring, stuck-up, clingy, adorkable nerd to ever bore everyone's lives in all of Equus". And to his demise - there wasn't even any technology or artifacts left. Only the trophies of the students, which Quacker Jack, a Daring Doo lover, immidietly desided to "save for his successors". And the argument that Pegasus can't have a unicorn childwith another pegasus was landing on a deaf ear. On their way to the Royal Library Quacker Jack secretly flew away to look for the party cannon, which he successfully brought out of the city while his friends were busy. What fought his attention was an unusually dark building on his way to the cannon. With him being overwhelmed with interest he flew right into the house...obviously after getting the cannon out of the city. He needs to bring it with him after they finish the Ruin Crawling. Inside the place was...surprisingly tidy!Despite the entire city deffinetly falling down the mountain and being under the ground for hundreds of years - it looked pretty presentable, and not much was destroyed! Quacker Jack was wandering around,searching this place up. After going to the bathroom - he noticed a key and some old clothing, that indicated that the one who lived here before was a mare. So he quickly grabbed they key and ran out in emberacment. Trying to forget the indictment clothes he just saw - he has gone around the house to look for where the key belonged. Drawers and cabins were quickly dwindling, as he was trying to open them. These were deffinetly not rotten that much, so even if he lands on them - it won't break. But finally - he opened the drawer that this key belonged. And what he found was shocking... The crown. The crown that, by the design, resembled the one that the Princess Luna was wearing! With that new knowledge - finding some old games,women's clothing and the overall gothic aesthetic of this place made more sense. With trembling hoofs he placed the crown on his head... he half-expected it to glow and turn him into an Alicorn, but even just wearing the Royal Regalia of the Alicorn Princess made him squeal in happiness. «Hiiiiiiii hihihihihi! The other's won't belive me!» he said while tip-hooving around, «...wait a second, I can't let them know about this! They might wanna try it! It is mine!...I'll keep it as a personal trophy. No one needs to know about it...» little colt said to himself, while sneaking the crown under all the other trophies, so no one finds it. Others found that the Royal Archives were entirely destroyed and rotten, so there were only two places left to go. Unfortunately - they couldn't find anything interesting in the garden of statues. Only the statue of three angry creatures : a Pony with holes in her hooves and strange snake-like tongue, a old-looking centaurus, and an...angry filly? Doesn't matter - they were disappointed in this place. Nothing interesting. So they just have gone away, not noticing a little crack appearing on the statue of the pony with holes in her hooves. «So...how will we decide where to go?» asked Banana Brains, while standing with the others at the open entrance to the castle. «What do you mean? We just go in and search until we find something amazing!» said Quacker Jack. «And the traps? Starlight the Terrible lived here, do you honestly think there will be nothing?» asked Mega Volt, whilst slapping his muzzle. «Oh...right. Well, I have something for this!» to the surprise of the other two - the Quacker Jack started shuffling some stuff in his backpack, until he brought out...a rubber duck? Before they could question him - he booped the duck's beak, making it retract inside of its head. After a couple of second of the rustling noises - the bottom part of the duck opened up, and a pair of legs appeared, while the eyes opened up and revealed long tubes with red ocular's, most likely camera's. Quacker Jack brought the controller out of his backpack as well. «Well, now we can look at the right path without any harm or danger!» said proudly Quacker Jack at his creation,placing it before the entrance and turning it on. «...this thing surely won't blow up?» asked Mega Volt «Or teleport us to another reality?» added Banana Brains. «...well,it shouldn't» after a bit of thinking said Quacker Jack, and turned it on. Two of the fillies,who were covering themselves form the possible explosions for almost a minute - surprisedly heard the noises of the duck feet walking, and opened their eyes to see the little spy walking. «...sometimes I forget the reason we love you, Jack» said Mega Volt. «You love me?! I'm soooooo touched~» said Quacker Jack. «...and this reason is deffinetly not your ability to be cute.» added Mega Volt. Using the duck to guide them - they didn't find a single trap!...or more specifically the swinging axes and the flying spears were too high for them to notice, as they were made for a grown pony, and not foals. First they found the throne room. And can the three ponies resist the temptation to sit on the throne of the legendary princesses? The only problem was the fact that there were only two thrones...but Banana Filly found it pretty easy to convince two gentlecolts with mysterious bumps on their heads to share Luna's throne, while she enjoyed the place of the Princess Celestia, imagining how she waves to "her" little ponies, placing herself in the place of the legendary Alicorn.After that they found a lot of places, from the guard quarters, to the place they were approaching with dread....The room that belonged to Starlight the terrible. Her cutiemark on the door, her armour inside, the flag of Equestria inside, and...some strange purple hat? They didn't exactly knew what this was for...but they still feared this place and it’s traps. Even if there was none.Three fillies slowly entered inside and started looking around. Quacker Jack stole Starlight's helmet, Mega Volt was fascinated by the strange hat...And Banana Brains immidietly had her eyes glued to a book. Getting closer and catching the attention of the two colts - they all have came to look at the book. Title said "The book of Teacher and Student", depicting a quite-childish drawing of Starlight the Terrible and...Twilight Sparkle?! Chapter 3: The book of Teacher and Student"Year 1038 Dear diary, since Twilight left me as the new ruller a lot has changed... war... death... famine... bloodshed... treachery... and finally it came to fruition. After Twilight and her friends in one swift operation defeated Cozy Glow, Tirek and Queen Chrysalis - the power of Changling's was severely diminished because of the lack of organisation. And as one of the most ruthless side of the world war was severely weakened - the overall tension was soothed. Me and the emperor of Greater Griffonian Empire are preparing a peace treaty for other sides to partake in. If everything goes according to plan - all sides should come without much humiliation, second great war will stop, and we can start slowly fixing our relationships. … Year 1040 The peace treaty worked better than expected! Zebra's side were surprisingly willing to reduce the damage their economy, by getting from the war, and the Deer's were easily persuaded once the Changlings were convinced. Convincing them, albeit, wasn't easy...but we made it! I hope it marks a good begining for our future relationship's : ) … Year 1043 Dear Diary, the protests from diffirent sides are still not silencing. Despite our best attempts to soothe the sharp edges - all sides are still bitter and full of hatred for one another, because of who they lost. We are discussing how to make the situation easier. Wasp, the current substitute for the grand Queen of Changlings, proposes to use a bit of force to subjugate the protests. To shift the anger of the protesting pony's and other races from one problem to another, so when the problem is resolved - they have already vented their anger and are more accepting because of one of the problems solved. We refused to do it, but...with every day this option looks more appealing to me...am I a bad student for thinking this? Sometimes I wish to go and ask help from Twilight... but I am not a filly anymore! I can prove to her than I can solve this friendship problem by myself! … Year 1045 We have... tried Wasp's strategy. Nothing much...a couple power shortages and some problems with water around the places where most of the protests are held... it won't be detrimental... but I still feel myself awful, even if the news about the protesters are more about those situations now... maybe it will resolve itself. … Year 1049 The protests didn't stop...but they started deescalating. The protests are less violent and everyone seems to begrudgingly accept the new peace treaty. It took a long time...but it is good that it happens! Thou the new ceasar of Zebra Imperium proposed a new idea, after the success of the Wasp's idea. He proposed to implement the idea of having teachers talk to kids about how their neighbours are not that bad despite the war that happened, and give teacher's bonuses for it. Despite it feeling a little bit disingenuous and feeling like it was buying their opinion - the option actually wasn't bad, and we agreed to do it. The new law will start working shortly after we finish all the trivial paper work. Changlings do not have the education system to do the same, but the changlings listed to the Substitute Queen, so Wasp promised to try and add more favourable things towards other races during his speeches to the Changlings. … Year 1052 It is awful. The idea stirred awful displeasure amongst most protesters who started calming down, now they say that we are trying to brainwash them! Why would they think that, I am just trying to make everyone friends : ( . On out yearly summit of the United Kingdom's we discussed that allowing the protesters to dissipate themselves with time would be a good idea. Next generation should be much more accepting after our implementation, and the others will get tired of being angry all the time. We just need to continue working on making the lives better and not worry. I hope I can not worry… … Year 1057 It doesn't calm down. Moreover - news say that protests grow! Despite our attempt at educating the young filly's - their parents are so angry they are teaching them their own idea about this. Some even say that there might be an assasination attempt being planned for me! I do not know if this is true...but the idea is scary. Why? Just why? I am just trying to help them! ...unfortunately I can not do anything. I will try and make some public statments and attend some festivals, but I doubt it will do much… … Year 1060 It is useless. No matter what I do and what I say - the anger amongstcreaturesonly grows. If I say one thing - they twist it. If I say the other - they twist it as well, or say that I have double standards, or work for the other kingdom's! No matter what I say or who I help - people manage to even take me helping a filly get her cat off of a tree into a newsflash about me in a dirty light! The words assasination attempts are multiplying by the day, I am still scared for my life, even if I am an Alicorn now...at least Trixie is still there to support me. Having her hug me to sleep is still the only thing that keeps my nightmares away...thank you, Trixie.I really can't say how much I appreciate you...I love you, Trixie.And if I ever can't tell you this - this book can. … Year 1072 How did this happen?! I... I couldn't have... I didn't... this wasn't me! No! Trixie... She brought me a dinner after I couldn't sleep yesterday... I was so grateful... I really don't deserve her... I ate most of it, and i felt this awful stomach pain... I felt like i was poisoned. The stinging, burning pain in my head, stomach, weakness in my hooves.... I thought I was poisoned... poisoned by Trixie... The royal doctor said that it was indigestion coupled with my nerves and lack of sleep...... I can't belive what I did... Trixie, please... come back... I'm sorry... I'M SORRY!I'M SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY- [12 pages of increasingly more jagged words "Sorry" being written with some stains on the paper from the tears] … Year 1098 … I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't live like this anymore....I can't live at all. I still hear about the assasination attempts every day, some evenhappened, but... I can't find the power to be scared, or even care. The only thing that keeps me going is the idea that I don't deserve to end my suffering now. I still can't let go of her hat when I sleep... I have nightmares in my dreams and when I'm awake... I can't relax for a moment... I haven't slept in the last month... I forgot to switch Sun and Moon twice... I can't... the new war almost started, but... I couldn't handle it. I couldn't let all our work go to waste... I used the Elements of Harmony... soldiers are still looking for any traces of other kingdom... Changlings, Zebras, Griffons, deers and many others... it feel like their spirits are weighing me down.... trying to bring me to Tartarus... ... ... Tartarus....... … Year 1099 This is the last entry. I'm sorry, dear Diary. I can't live like this anymore... even one more day with all this guilt feels unbearable… My power, my mistakes, all those who I killed. I can't anymore... I do not want anyone else to repeat my mistakes. I have created those three chrystal's to take away the pony's magic... no one should have such power... they will be better without it... And I would be better... in tartarus. Sorry and goodbye, Dear Diary. You are the only friend I have left... please keep the memory of Trixie living with you. I want someone... anyone who reads to remember her as the Great and Powerful pony she was. And I... I will remember her forever... please... If anyone reads this... remember what I will say : The path to Tartarus is built with the most noble of intentions. I hope ponies have a new age of peace after this…" «...do you also think the phrase about Tartarus is a riddle?» asked Quacker Jack with a smile, while turning to see two crying fillies, hugging eachother after reading it, «oh, stop being babies!She talks about Tartarus in the last ones a lot! And even talks about how the path to it is build! There definitely should be a key that will allow us to see her and ask her about everything ourselves!»says quackerjack, while closing thebook. The wind from it blows away the dust, revealing a secret entrance in the wall. Excitedly taking out statoscops - he tries to understand the combination...but it is a safe in which you need to find the right combination of letter... And this is a long one. While thinking about what it is - he notices Mega Volt using his hoovechief, and the idea strikes him. "Noble Intentions" was, as he suspected, a password, and inside he found a marked map and a giant key that looked like a magic artifact. While the other two turned to him, still all in tears, he showed them his findings. «Well,it seems we will be able to hear the full story first hoof!»
Chapter 1: The lost city«Ouch, ouch, ouch! I told you already that I'm sorry!» said Quacker Jack, while getting his back kicked by the hoofs of the friends, who he thought of robbing of such a title. «Oh,ExUsE MeEEeeEeeeE that we are not ready to forgive you for potentially SENDING US TO ANOTHER WORLD,» sassily answered Mega Volt, while kicking his flank again. «Hey,but at least we could've gotten a cutie mark for World Jumping!» tried defending himself unfortunate Quacker Jack. One unfortunately following the other - Banana Brains kicked him as well. «Yea,and we would've gotten back home HOW exactly?!I have Mom and Dad,and I can't go away more then for a week on our journey» — said little filly, while eating a banana. After kicking him she got back to relaxing by leaning against the tree. «Yea,and I still have to work.Dad promised to give me a shot at making my own light bulbs next!Do you expect me to skip that?!» asked angry Mega Volt, while eating a tuna sandwich he got from the Banana Brain's bag. «Okay,okay,I get it...but hey - at least we are almost there! If our calculations are correct - then we should be right about at the place of the legendary lost city! And only in 4 days, even quicker then expected!» said the overly exited Quacker Jack, while eating peanut butter and jelly sandwich and gulping it down with some milk, «plus you kicked me, like, a bazillion times already. I got it, I should've said earlier - but kicking me for four days straight is a bit much, ain't it?» «Oh, shus! My parents hate your pegasai kind with deep passion, and I am still in this club with you. Compared to them I am basically the Fluttershy the Kind.» said the unicorn, while waving his hoof at his friends. «Same here.» said Banana Brains,lifting her hoof while eating. «You all are no fun...» said the Quacker Jack. His parents were the only non-racist ones. Mostly because they didn't care for the other races of ponies...maybe that was the reason he was the founder of this club. «Okay, I'm done, lets go. We do not have too much time...» Said Banana brains, while standing up. She throws away the banana peel and goes further to get to this lost city she wanted to find for so long. «We deffinetly won't find out destination quickly if you will just si-» tried saying little filly in the green sweater, until she remembered about her banan… ...because she felt it with her hoof. «IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!» started screaming poor filly, while sliding on the banana peel. She was fallingDiscord knows we're, while her friends, not surprised, groaned, thrown the last of their dinner into their mouth and started going after her. Quacker Jack took Mega Volt's hoofs, because he was much stronger and quicker, helped him to jump on his back - and they started flying after the unfortunate, screaming, crying filly. Maneuvering around the trees was very hard for a young pegasus. Especially with an added weight. Which made it all the more surprising how the little screaming filly managed to skit past all the sources of danger and trees unscathed... Or so the two colts thought. Up until the point where the ground under her fell and she started sliding down into some unknown place, presumably underground cave. While thinking about it - two colts bumped into the tree. Because you need to pay attention when you are going at high speed. A couple of moments later - they were here, down the sliding ground, looking at their friend, planted face-first into the dirt. Quacker Jack came to help, releasing her form the hugs of the mother nature and helping her dust off. «Okay gang,the food supplier is back on track,we can get back to work,» said Qucker Jack, while dusting off his hoofs and looking at his friends. What he found notable was the flabbergasted look on the Mega Volt's face. «W-we might've alr-r-ready....ddddone it,» he said, while pointing hishoof behind his back. Turning around with a confused face - Quacker Jack noticed a giant ruins of the castle that he didn't notice while going down because...well - he landed face-first into a tree. Can he have a break for not noticing stuff? «Holy Celestia...Is that?...» Banana Brains was searching through her stuff, until she found a history book. Flipping to a certain page she seemd to know by heart - she lined up some structures with the ruins in front of her. Her friends got besides here and were comparing as well. The destroyed towers, the remnants of the main building with the broken glass painting, a garden besides it, that through the years have grown around the entire city. There was no denying it. They found it. The Legendary... «LOST CITY OF CANTERLOT! LET'S GO, CUTIEMARK CRUSADERS!!!!» said exited fillies, while starting to dance aroundб because of their success. Banana Brains doing a worm dance, Mega Volt doing some techno, Quacker Jack doing... Whatever the hell Quacker Jack was doing. Wasn't important! They've done it! But most importantly - they looked down expectantly at their flanks...unfortunate. Still blank...seems like they might as well try searching the castle for "uncovering the truth of the past" and "archeology" cutiemarks…
Prologue: Triple Trouble«Well,and what is that?» askedyoungearthpony with messy yellow hair, that had a couple of white stripes in it. Her mane was pretty straight despite the messy appearence, with hair going to all direction. She had a light green sweater on her and a big bag with, presumably, food. Notable thingabout her, was the lack of Cutiemark. «Well, you see, after Megavolt calculated, that it would take us about 4 month of traveling to get to the location...I decided to get a bit creative!» said the second pony, a little pegasus, who had a blue and red cap on his head and a colorful big bag over his spine. His mane wasn't exposed, but his tail matched the color of cap. Notable lack of cutiemark present as well. At that moment he was holding some little cube made supposedly out of metal with some light coming out of the cracks with his wing. «And that creativity came from-?» asked the lastof three,unicorn, who had a pink body and a noticeably burned black mane and tail. Who Also didn't have a cutiemark.Also carryingsome large bags with...something. «I do not presume you gathered us all just to say that you made a glowing cube and we still have to go for month straight with the resources that we can't even lift to sustain such a journey?» «Boooooo, have some patience, Sparky boom boom» — said the little colt, while booing his friends impatience, «obviously I have a plan! But you need to give me time to tell it!» after waiting for some time to check if anybody will I tergect he continued, «amazing, now, here is the grass and apples of it : my dad recently got some scripts that might be from the Twilight herse-» «THE TWILIGHT? LIKE THE TWILIGHT SPARKLE? PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE!?» Exclaimed two foals, suddenly jumping up, to thedelight of the third one. «Yea, yea, it's no big deal, LET ME FINISH THE STORY!» said the third little foal,pretending to me angry,but in reality enjoying the surprise of his friends, «cough-cough as I was saaaying - my dad got someblueprintsthat make out some ancient technology.But it is too convoluted to understand, so it may be from the times of Friendship, when the technology and Magic were developing at the rapid pace, and with the complexity of the shown blueprint pieces - it might even be the work of THETwilight Sparkle the Wise!» happily proclaimed the kid, barely holding the smile from tearing his face into two pieces.As he finished saying that and started posing with his little cube - the others started calming down and asking questions. «Sooo....this is really cool...but how is that connected to the strange cube you are holding?» asked the filly, looking confusedly at her friend with burned hair,who shrugged in shared confusion. «I-i was getting there,Banana Brains!» said flustered colt, pretending that he didn't just forget about the main point of his story, «so,as I was saying - I got those bluepri-» «Wait, how? Who in all of tartarus would let YOU even TOUCH ancient blueprints?!» asked the second colt,before getting slapped on his mouth for using bad words like Tartarus by the Banana Brains. He immidietly covered his mouth after that. «I would say the same thing… just without swearing,» said Banana Brains, while side-eyeing her friend. the little colt,who was waiting to continue his story, touched his cap and got the string from behind his ear. After pulling on it, the top of the cap opened, revealing a camera lense, «can we now continue?» «I always forget he has that thing...» said Banana Brains, while bickering with the second foal, until the "storyteller" get fed up with it. «ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, STOP TALIKING ALREADY, I AM TELLING THE STORY HERE, NOT YOU!» said the little pegasus, noticeably irritated by the lack of attention he was getting, even starting to jump up and down, and fly around to vent his frustration.It continued for the next minute or so, until he vented all the anger and noticed, that the rest were already quiet. He landed back were he stood, and, after some long, exhausted breath - he coughed a couple of times, before continuing. «So, anyway - I managed to copy the blueprints and got an idea while trying to understand it. Form what I understood - it is something like a teleporter, but much stronger. Soooo...I got Mega Volt's house, noticed some thrown away functional parts, got them, and after some tinkering - I got this beauty!» said the pegasus, finally presenting his creation closer to the two foals, «I call it "The Quacker Jack's super quick teleportation method for finding lost cities"!» «I think the name might need some fixing...» said the Banana Brains, while looking at the cube. «and this thing might as well. Are you mad using the components form the thrown away machinery? What if it was bad? Do you know how dangerous it might be?» started asking Mega Volt, while pointing and poking at this thing with his horn, and lightly smashing his head with his hoof, «are you mad?» «Relaaaax Volty~I made sure nothing explodes!...this time...I made experiments with mouse's! And what I found out - is that the more electricity you give it - the further you will go! If we use some of your experimental batteries - we can very well cut down the time to about a week, stoping only to recharge the batteries from the free socket's in some inn or a bar or soemthing else!» «So that why you told me to bring them...» Said Mega Volt,while taking out his experimental batteries. Two of them were actually exited. They wanted to try to get the cutiemark for researching the past for a long time, and now they had the perfect chance! Saying that their judgment was clouded was saying nothing... In less then an hour they listed the plan and got the batteries plugged into the cube, while Quacker Jack entered the coordinates with some unorthodox method he didn't explain to the rest. After everything was set up they all touched eachother and their stuff and waited 3 seconds to get teleported. Well,two of them waited... «Oh,almost forgot,from what I translated - there is a chance we will be teleported to another world if this doesn't go well,» said the smiling pegasus to his friends, while there was only a second left before the teleportation. «QUACKER JAAAAAACK!!!» Sounded like an echo through the forest besides the Littlewoods, while the bodies of the three foals dissapeared.
Chapter 2 : The Lost City«We need to go to the Castle! This is the biggest discovery of the century!» said the overjoyed Mega Volt. His eyes were bulging out while he and his friends were running around the destroyed town, buried under meters of mud and trees. «Yea, yea, we remember, Volty, but there is so much more than just the castle! This is the place where all the cool stuff were made! Like - we can find the legendary places like the School for the Unicorn Prodigies under the patronage of Celestial the Holy!» said Qucker Jack, while blowing on some old signs. «Or the Bakery Street under the name of Luna the Restless!»addedBanana Brains, while trying to guide them using some semblance of the old map in the book, that deffinetly wasn't accurate, but was better then absolutely nothing. By the legends after Luna the Restless came back - Celestial the Holy gifted her the street as a welcome-back gift. This place later was know as the birthplace of one of the greatest bakers Canterlot has ever seen. Some even speculate that after restirment Princess Luna might've had a secret house on this street, but it was never confirmed. «Or the Auction House!» added Quacker Jack, while running into some old caffe, looking around like a little colt on his birthday...which wasn't that far from the truth. Only his birthday was in about a month or so. «Or Royal Archives and Library,» continued Banana Brains, while imagining all these places. «Or Canterlot's Carousel owned by Rarity the Generous!» added Quacker Jack, while coming back to Banana Brains and hugging her with one hoof, imagining all those pace, while listing them, already forgetting that they were saying all of that for Mega Volt «Or the Art Gallery!» saidBanana Brains, while Mega Volt just signed and came into the caffe Quacker Jack just came out of, starting to screw out the light bulbs to see if they were still functional and how they were made. The technology of this time was fascinating to him, especially in his own field. «Or the Pegasai station for flying sports!»saidthe colorful Pegasus, while flaming his small wings. «Or Joe's Donnut Shop!» said excited little filly while looking through her book. «Yea,or-wha?» suddenly stopped the exited kid, turning around and looking at his friend with a confused expression, «why would we care about some old donut shop that must predate the birth of Discord with it's age?» «Did you even open your history book?» slowly turned her head equally confused Banana Brains. «...whistle non-suspiciously -...argh,Joe's donnut shop, from some sources, is said to be the favorite donnut shop of the Princess of Friendship!» said the little filly, while opening one of the pages with the biography of her idol-pony. «...Erm, ah, yea! Oh, yea, THAAATS Joe's donnut shop! Yea, I, eh, deffinetly knew about that...» said Qucker Jack, while backing away to hide his embarrassment. Showing himself like an idiot before his friends...at least not intentionally was really embarrassing! «Ah,you mean this pace?» the earth-pony and an extravagant pegasai turned around, to see Mega Volt lifting pieces of the old sign. The paint was gone long ago, but the outline of the letter's "JOE'S" and the circle that resembled the donnut shop was still there. «...EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!» Banana Brains couldn't help herself. She started playfully jumping towards the entrance to the shop. Now all three of them were inside. Quacker Jack was looking for any fun-looking stuff, but mostly found some very old coins, which he stored securely in his backpack. Mega Volt was spewing out any electronic he could find and was directing it with his screwdriver while writing some stuff down and mumbling in the creative frenzy. But the most lucky one was Banana Brains. She found an old safe, which opened form a casual kick from her backhoofs,and opened to her the treasure of this place...The cookbook from Joe's donuts!And,most importantly - the pages were saved by the plastic bag it was secured in,so the book was in perfect condition! After that the search throughout the rounds was going even more energetically. The library was the easiest to find. Mega Volt spotted it really quickly and brought his friends along like a bulldozer, and while Bana Brains had fun looking at some of the books, and Mega Volt loved this place, the only way to entertain himself that Quacker Jack found - is to sleep with a book covering his face. Not a small part of the reasoning for his boredom was the fact that most of the books were rotten. At the end Mega Volt collected some old interesting book on diffirent themes, while the others just gone off while he was busy, wishing to find something more exciting. The next place they found was the Art gallery. While Banana Brains was collecting the art that she liked after dusting it off - Mega Volt was collecting the electronics he could find as they most likely cost a ton after all those years. Quacker Jack on the other hoof was holding a painting until his friends - and pierced it with his head, scaring two fillies and having to dodge a painting and an old radio for that. But he still thought it was a fair tradeoff, because he had fun. Next was the Auction House. Unfortunately it was mostly destroyed and they couldn't find much of anything, but Quacker Jack secretly found an old War-Horn and the Party Cannon that belonged to the Pinkie the Eternally Joyful. He tried sneaking it...but he couldn't. The others found it and he couldn't convince them that "this is just the artifact of the past!".No one was stupid enough to belive it wasn't to annoy them in the future.So Jack had to leave it...for now. On the way to the just-found boutique Carousel - they noticed a big tower, leaning on another building. Even thou it was dangerous - Quacker Jack convinced them to explore, because "how can Tower NOT have anything interesting?!", which was an impenetrable logic in the eyes of the foals... There was absolutely nothing interesting. There was only more book and the diary of some "Moondancer" pony. Mega Volt tried convince them to read what she had here, but was dragged out by the hoofs with the combined forces of the other two fillies. «What a waste of time,eh?» asked Quacker Jack, while the Mega Volt was crying, limply being dragged along the ground. «Yea, what in tartarus? In all the fairy tails Towers always belong to someone cool, why are there only books! We have library for this stuff!» agreed Banana Brains. «Disappointment. Let's go see if some dresses from the Carousel are still in tact!» After that the three fillies were gone to the boutique. Unfortunately - all of the dresses were destroyed. Not a single one left. That was heartbreaking, as the two foals expected to find something extraordinary that belonged to one of the legendary Elements of Harmony. But while fooling around and swinging from the sealing lamp out of boredome and disappointment - Quacker Jack accidentally broke a locked cabin. «...well that's one way to replace the lock picks,» said Banana Brains, barely containing her laugh. But the importance of this,wasthat the unfortunate and bored colt noticed - one of the pieces of the paper that landed on his face. Surprisingly - the paper was almost perfect, because it was laminated. Andtherewas the designs. And it had the thing that was a proof of who was the creator - the sign-off form the Rarity herself! Quacker Jack after that started flaunting that he was the one who found it and how they should try getting lucky themselves. He collected all of them, while the other two were envious... but eventually he gave them some of the drawings of the dresses, because he feltnice today. The next on list was the Pegasai school for Flying sports. And at that moment Quacker Jack remembered about his camera-cap, so this was the best fun they had here yet. Quacker Jack deffinelty didn't like the colors of their uniform, so with a little spray-pain he made a costume that was more his style and started posing for Banana Brains. He also made a couple laps on the course and had the others try the uniform as well. They even accidentally found a trophy with the signing of the Princess Celesfia the Holy herself! All three of them knew they wouldn't leave it here,so Quacker Jack now had a trophy which he put his name on with a marker,feeling proud of himself. The next place they have gone to was Celestia's school for Unicorn Prodigies. Surprisingly - the one who enjoyed it the most was Banana Brains. And that way she was pissing Mega Volt off. How could he know that when he would be convincing them to go there - Quacker Jack would find a rock that looked almost exactly like his horn,vand give it to Banana Brian's,vwho likes parodying voices? For the next two hours where Mega Volt was begging Discord to take these idiots away - Quacker Jack were playing out a scene where Celestia was giving him a reward for being the "Dorkiest, most boring, stuck-up, clingy, adorkable nerd to ever bore everyone's lives in all of Equus". And to his demise - there wasn't even any technology or artifacts left. Only the trophies of the students, which Quacker Jack, a Daring Doo lover, immidietly desided to "save for his successors". And the argument that Pegasus can't have a unicorn childwith another pegasus was landing on a deaf ear. On their way to the Royal Library Quacker Jack secretly flew away to look for the party cannon, which he successfully brought out of the city while his friends were busy. What fought his attention was an unusually dark building on his way to the cannon. With him being overwhelmed with interest he flew right into the house...obviously after getting the cannon out of the city. He needs to bring it with him after they finish the Ruin Crawling. Inside the place was...surprisingly tidy!Despite the entire city deffinetly falling down the mountain and being under the ground for hundreds of years - it looked pretty presentable, and not much was destroyed! Quacker Jack was wandering around,searching this place up. After going to the bathroom - he noticed a key and some old clothing, that indicated that the one who lived here before was a mare. So he quickly grabbed they key and ran out in emberacment. Trying to forget the indictment clothes he just saw - he has gone around the house to look for where the key belonged. Drawers and cabins were quickly dwindling, as he was trying to open them. These were deffinetly not rotten that much, so even if he lands on them - it won't break. But finally - he opened the drawer that this key belonged. And what he found was shocking... The crown. The crown that, by the design, resembled the one that the Princess Luna was wearing! With that new knowledge - finding some old games,women's clothing and the overall gothic aesthetic of this place made more sense. With trembling hoofs he placed the crown on his head... he half-expected it to glow and turn him into an Alicorn, but even just wearing the Royal Regalia of the Alicorn Princess made him squeal in happiness. «Hiiiiiiii hihihihihi! The other's won't belive me!» he said while tip-hooving around, «...wait a second, I can't let them know about this! They might wanna try it! It is mine!...I'll keep it as a personal trophy. No one needs to know about it...» little colt said to himself, while sneaking the crown under all the other trophies, so no one finds it. Others found that the Royal Archives were entirely destroyed and rotten, so there were only two places left to go. Unfortunately - they couldn't find anything interesting in the garden of statues. Only the statue of three angry creatures : a Pony with holes in her hooves and strange snake-like tongue, a old-looking centaurus, and an...angry filly? Doesn't matter - they were disappointed in this place. Nothing interesting. So they just have gone away, not noticing a little crack appearing on the statue of the pony with holes in her hooves. «So...how will we decide where to go?» asked Banana Brains, while standing with the others at the open entrance to the castle. «What do you mean? We just go in and search until we find something amazing!» said Quacker Jack. «And the traps? Starlight the Terrible lived here, do you honestly think there will be nothing?» asked Mega Volt, whilst slapping his muzzle. «Oh...right. Well, I have something for this!» to the surprise of the other two - the Quacker Jack started shuffling some stuff in his backpack, until he brought out...a rubber duck? Before they could question him - he booped the duck's beak, making it retract inside of its head. After a couple of second of the rustling noises - the bottom part of the duck opened up, and a pair of legs appeared, while the eyes opened up and revealed long tubes with red ocular's, most likely camera's. Quacker Jack brought the controller out of his backpack as well. «Well, now we can look at the right path without any harm or danger!» said proudly Quacker Jack at his creation,placing it before the entrance and turning it on. «...this thing surely won't blow up?» asked Mega Volt «Or teleport us to another reality?» added Banana Brains. «...well,it shouldn't» after a bit of thinking said Quacker Jack, and turned it on. Two of the fillies,who were covering themselves form the possible explosions for almost a minute - surprisedly heard the noises of the duck feet walking, and opened their eyes to see the little spy walking. «...sometimes I forget the reason we love you, Jack» said Mega Volt. «You love me?! I'm soooooo touched~» said Quacker Jack. «...and this reason is deffinetly not your ability to be cute.» added Mega Volt. Using the duck to guide them - they didn't find a single trap!...or more specifically the swinging axes and the flying spears were too high for them to notice, as they were made for a grown pony, and not foals. First they found the throne room. And can the three ponies resist the temptation to sit on the throne of the legendary princesses? The only problem was the fact that there were only two thrones...but Banana Filly found it pretty easy to convince two gentlecolts with mysterious bumps on their heads to share Luna's throne, while she enjoyed the place of the Princess Celestia, imagining how she waves to "her" little ponies, placing herself in the place of the legendary Alicorn.After that they found a lot of places, from the guard quarters, to the place they were approaching with dread....The room that belonged to Starlight the terrible. Her cutiemark on the door, her armour inside, the flag of Equestria inside, and...some strange purple hat? They didn't exactly knew what this was for...but they still feared this place and it’s traps. Even if there was none.Three fillies slowly entered inside and started looking around. Quacker Jack stole Starlight's helmet, Mega Volt was fascinated by the strange hat...And Banana Brains immidietly had her eyes glued to a book. Getting closer and catching the attention of the two colts - they all have came to look at the book. Title said "The book of Teacher and Student", depicting a quite-childish drawing of Starlight the Terrible and...Twilight Sparkle?!
Chapter 3: The book of Teacher and Student"Year 1038 Dear diary, since Twilight left me as the new ruller a lot has changed... war... death... famine... bloodshed... treachery... and finally it came to fruition. After Twilight and her friends in one swift operation defeated Cozy Glow, Tirek and Queen Chrysalis - the power of Changling's was severely diminished because of the lack of organisation. And as one of the most ruthless side of the world war was severely weakened - the overall tension was soothed. Me and the emperor of Greater Griffonian Empire are preparing a peace treaty for other sides to partake in. If everything goes according to plan - all sides should come without much humiliation, second great war will stop, and we can start slowly fixing our relationships. … Year 1040 The peace treaty worked better than expected! Zebra's side were surprisingly willing to reduce the damage their economy, by getting from the war, and the Deer's were easily persuaded once the Changlings were convinced. Convincing them, albeit, wasn't easy...but we made it! I hope it marks a good begining for our future relationship's : ) … Year 1043 Dear Diary, the protests from diffirent sides are still not silencing. Despite our best attempts to soothe the sharp edges - all sides are still bitter and full of hatred for one another, because of who they lost. We are discussing how to make the situation easier. Wasp, the current substitute for the grand Queen of Changlings, proposes to use a bit of force to subjugate the protests. To shift the anger of the protesting pony's and other races from one problem to another, so when the problem is resolved - they have already vented their anger and are more accepting because of one of the problems solved. We refused to do it, but...with every day this option looks more appealing to me...am I a bad student for thinking this? Sometimes I wish to go and ask help from Twilight... but I am not a filly anymore! I can prove to her than I can solve this friendship problem by myself! … Year 1045 We have... tried Wasp's strategy. Nothing much...a couple power shortages and some problems with water around the places where most of the protests are held... it won't be detrimental... but I still feel myself awful, even if the news about the protesters are more about those situations now... maybe it will resolve itself. … Year 1049 The protests didn't stop...but they started deescalating. The protests are less violent and everyone seems to begrudgingly accept the new peace treaty. It took a long time...but it is good that it happens! Thou the new ceasar of Zebra Imperium proposed a new idea, after the success of the Wasp's idea. He proposed to implement the idea of having teachers talk to kids about how their neighbours are not that bad despite the war that happened, and give teacher's bonuses for it. Despite it feeling a little bit disingenuous and feeling like it was buying their opinion - the option actually wasn't bad, and we agreed to do it. The new law will start working shortly after we finish all the trivial paper work. Changlings do not have the education system to do the same, but the changlings listed to the Substitute Queen, so Wasp promised to try and add more favourable things towards other races during his speeches to the Changlings. … Year 1052 It is awful. The idea stirred awful displeasure amongst most protesters who started calming down, now they say that we are trying to brainwash them! Why would they think that, I am just trying to make everyone friends : ( . On out yearly summit of the United Kingdom's we discussed that allowing the protesters to dissipate themselves with time would be a good idea. Next generation should be much more accepting after our implementation, and the others will get tired of being angry all the time. We just need to continue working on making the lives better and not worry. I hope I can not worry… … Year 1057 It doesn't calm down. Moreover - news say that protests grow! Despite our attempt at educating the young filly's - their parents are so angry they are teaching them their own idea about this. Some even say that there might be an assasination attempt being planned for me! I do not know if this is true...but the idea is scary. Why? Just why? I am just trying to help them! ...unfortunately I can not do anything. I will try and make some public statments and attend some festivals, but I doubt it will do much… … Year 1060 It is useless. No matter what I do and what I say - the anger amongstcreaturesonly grows. If I say one thing - they twist it. If I say the other - they twist it as well, or say that I have double standards, or work for the other kingdom's! No matter what I say or who I help - people manage to even take me helping a filly get her cat off of a tree into a newsflash about me in a dirty light! The words assasination attempts are multiplying by the day, I am still scared for my life, even if I am an Alicorn now...at least Trixie is still there to support me. Having her hug me to sleep is still the only thing that keeps my nightmares away...thank you, Trixie.I really can't say how much I appreciate you...I love you, Trixie.And if I ever can't tell you this - this book can. … Year 1072 How did this happen?! I... I couldn't have... I didn't... this wasn't me! No! Trixie... She brought me a dinner after I couldn't sleep yesterday... I was so grateful... I really don't deserve her... I ate most of it, and i felt this awful stomach pain... I felt like i was poisoned. The stinging, burning pain in my head, stomach, weakness in my hooves.... I thought I was poisoned... poisoned by Trixie... The royal doctor said that it was indigestion coupled with my nerves and lack of sleep...... I can't belive what I did... Trixie, please... come back... I'm sorry... I'M SORRY!I'M SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY- [12 pages of increasingly more jagged words "Sorry" being written with some stains on the paper from the tears] … Year 1098 … I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't live like this anymore....I can't live at all. I still hear about the assasination attempts every day, some evenhappened, but... I can't find the power to be scared, or even care. The only thing that keeps me going is the idea that I don't deserve to end my suffering now. I still can't let go of her hat when I sleep... I have nightmares in my dreams and when I'm awake... I can't relax for a moment... I haven't slept in the last month... I forgot to switch Sun and Moon twice... I can't... the new war almost started, but... I couldn't handle it. I couldn't let all our work go to waste... I used the Elements of Harmony... soldiers are still looking for any traces of other kingdom... Changlings, Zebras, Griffons, deers and many others... it feel like their spirits are weighing me down.... trying to bring me to Tartarus... ... ... Tartarus....... … Year 1099 This is the last entry. I'm sorry, dear Diary. I can't live like this anymore... even one more day with all this guilt feels unbearable… My power, my mistakes, all those who I killed. I can't anymore... I do not want anyone else to repeat my mistakes. I have created those three chrystal's to take away the pony's magic... no one should have such power... they will be better without it... And I would be better... in tartarus. Sorry and goodbye, Dear Diary. You are the only friend I have left... please keep the memory of Trixie living with you. I want someone... anyone who reads to remember her as the Great and Powerful pony she was. And I... I will remember her forever... please... If anyone reads this... remember what I will say : The path to Tartarus is built with the most noble of intentions. I hope ponies have a new age of peace after this…" «...do you also think the phrase about Tartarus is a riddle?» asked Quacker Jack with a smile, while turning to see two crying fillies, hugging eachother after reading it, «oh, stop being babies!She talks about Tartarus in the last ones a lot! And even talks about how the path to it is build! There definitely should be a key that will allow us to see her and ask her about everything ourselves!»says quackerjack, while closing thebook. The wind from it blows away the dust, revealing a secret entrance in the wall. Excitedly taking out statoscops - he tries to understand the combination...but it is a safe in which you need to find the right combination of letter... And this is a long one. While thinking about what it is - he notices Mega Volt using his hoovechief, and the idea strikes him. "Noble Intentions" was, as he suspected, a password, and inside he found a marked map and a giant key that looked like a magic artifact. While the other two turned to him, still all in tears, he showed them his findings. «Well,it seems we will be able to hear the full story first hoof!»
