The Alicorn Who Knew Nothing

The Alicorn Who Knew Nothing

Chapter 15

Lightness

‘This is wrong.’ Ridge thought turning around a corner.

‘I don’t want to do this…’

‘But I have to if I want to know the truth.’

Using his magic to locate Luna for the sixth time since he left the library, he made his way through the hallways toward her bedroom. As Ridge came up to the large double doors that marked the entrance to her bedroom, he glanced around nervously. He knew nopony was around, but that still did nothing to calm his nerves.

‘one look is all I have to do, it’s not like I’m going to read all of it right?’

Giving himself a final moment to calm his nerves, he leaned against the doors and slowly entered into the darkness beyond. Ever so slowly he made his way toward the center of the room where a large bed dominated most of the space. Pausing about halfway across the room he looked over toward the west wall of the room where windows that would normally be closed during the day were currently open, giving a pony a view of the city many floors below. Using his magic to shut and lock the windows the room was cast into complete darkness. Quickly lighting his horn to light the area around himself, he resumed trotting toward the bed.

‘Nopony should come in here now.’ He thought coming alongside the bed.

“…Under the pillow.” He muttered as he lifted his hoof toward the bed.

Hesitating as his hoof touched her pillow he thought about what Luna would think of him after this.

“I’m sorry” he muttered, as he reached for the pillow.

Moving the pillow out of the way Ridge was greeted with the sight of a small notebook that looked to be about 200 pages thick. Slowly picking the book up with his magic he noticed that it was the same color as Luna’s coat. As he reached out with his hoof trying to take it from his magical grasp, he received a small static shock which caused him to drop the book back toward the bed. As the book hit the bed it fell open to a random page about half way through.

“oh..” he said realizing that he was just paranoid about getting shocked.

Steeling his resolve Ridge picked up the book in his hooves and began to read the page it had fell open to.

‘I wonder sometimes if my sister’s subjects actually trust me to rule the night. I mean a thousand years is enough time to forget any physical pain I may have caused during my rebellion, but it’s the stories that are passed from pony to pony that worry me. I tried to reconnect with a few ponies last night from Ponyville on this “nightmare night holiday” but everypony was terrified and ran away screaming. I just don’t know if I can go on with everypony hating me like this. My sister’s student, Twilight Sparkle, I believe her name is, has asked me to come back to her town tomorrow to try again, but I predict the same result as before. Do I really even want to go back? I don’t really know how to answer this question, on one hoof I’m sure my sister’s pupil will not be scared of me and will at least give me a chance. On the other hoof I’m scared of the screams I will receive if all the ponies see me again. I’ll write down how it goes, or write about how it didn’t go, should I decide to go. Anyways good night Equestria as long as the sun rises I’ll know my torment of a night is over.’

Finishing the entry on that page he flipped farther in the book.

'The Changelings attacked from within the shield today. I don’t know how she managed to do it but she did. Their queen managed to capture Cadence and almost take over everything. Even Celestia was none the wiser, which shocked me to no end. Anyway Twilight saw through her charade, somehow Chrysalis didn’t replicate her personality perfectly and this was her only undoing. Where they ended up after the explosion is anypony’s guess, but at least Cadence and Shining’s wedding went off without a hitch after that little hiccup.

Goodbye for now, Luna’

Moving his head up from the book Ridge couldn’t help but chuckle at the princess’s definition of a hiccup. Moving forward through the book he began to skim the pages looking for anything useful. Only when he was about ten pages from the end did he come across something that grabbed his attention.

‘…an arranged marriage is what it could be labeled as. Celestia said that and I quote “If her student succeeds with the spell, it will be for the better of the country.” Only if you look at from one viewpoint, yea it would be for the better in the long run. I don’t approve of her decision to take him from his family like that, but everypony deserves to be happy don’t they? Celestia says that she will leave a locket with Twilight’s picture in it with him, and that he will look for her, find her somehow, and nature should take its course from there. While I don’t agree with the methods my sister goes through to achieve her goals, I have to say I think he will come to accept his role eventually. His name is Ridge Mountain, she said he may remember his original name, and he lives south of Manehatten with his parents and their fishing business. They will be sad about the news of his death, but I’m sure they would understand if they were in our position. Some ponies just don’t understand all of the effort we go into making sure this country is in safe hooves, after all they don’t….’

Ridge couldn’t hold the book in his hooves anymore. All he could see were the tears that were falling toward the ground.

“They all lied to me…” he struggled through the sobs.

“I had a happy life before all this….they stole it from me.”

Quickly running out of the room Ridge had no destination in mind, but he had to leave. He couldn’t stand the thought of staying in that room for another moment.

‘What did I do to deserve this…’

he repeated in his head as he ran past guards, ponies, and servants. All of which were giving him curious glances.

As he ran around a corner he ran snout first into Cadence as she came around a corner.

“Ridge!?” she said as they fell over on top of one another.

“S..Sorry C..Cadence” he said barely holding back his sobs.

“What happened to you? Are you okay Ridge?” She said sitting upright next to him.

“They…They…They… stole me from my family.” He said throwing his legs around her in a hug.

The two of them sat there for several minutes, Cadence silently shushing Ridge as he sat there sobbing against her. After he had got his crying down to occasional small sniffles he let go of her and sat back against the wall holding his hooves together.

“H..Her journal said that they took me from my family.” He said looking at her with pleading eyes.

“It also said that they wanted an arranged marriage!! Why would they want me for that?”

“Wait? Did it say that Celestia and Luna took you from your family so you could marry Twilight?” she asked looking at him with wide eyes.

Ridge just numbly nodded in agreement with her question.

Cadence sat back against the wall in shock.

‘Why indeed.’ She thought to herself looking off toward the opposite wall.

“Okay, now tell me exactly what the journal said about them wanting you to marry her?”

Sighing quietly he turned his head away from her.

“Her journal said that my family lives south of Manehatten and they are part of some sort of fishing business. Well apparently they took me from my family, dropped this stupid locket off where I crashed, then they said I would look for her, find her and I quote ‘nature would take its course from there’. I mean they didn’t consider how I would feel about any of this, about my family, about trying to kill me, or any of this bucking stuff!!1” He said flailing his hooves in the air before throwing them to the floor.

“Ridge walk with me, we all need a moment to think this over.” She said calmly.

“Think it over?! What is there to think about? The princesses lied to me, is cut and dry, no middle ground at all.” He said jumping up in anger.

“Ridge you have to view it from my point as well. They have their reasons for this, now we don’t know what those reasons are yet and I want to find out before we go jumping to conclusions. Yes I agree it’s immoral on every level to take you from your family and force you to marry a pony you don’t know, but every bit has two sides does it not?”

After considering her argument for a moment he sighed and began walking down the hallway away from her. After watching him walk away for a moment she became confused.

“Where are you going?” she called after him.

“The library, where else? We have some reading to do don’t we?” he said turning back toward her.

“On what?”

“Ancient pony customs. For example, arranging marriages between families would be a good place to start wouldn’t it?”

Her eyes lighting up with realization she began to follow Ridge toward the library.

“Alright, but what about you?” she asked.

“What are you going to do now that you know the princesses plan between you and Twilight?”

“Me? I’m going to do absolutely nothing until we find out their side of the story. Every bit has two sides right?” he said with a smirk.

“That it does Ridge, that it does.”

Luna quickly flew her way past the main castle tower and curved toward her room, somepony had touched her diary and she was frantically trying to get to it. Her protection spell had been broken and her diary was in danger.

“Whenever I find the pony who hast read my diary I will royally behead them!” She yelled landing on her balcony.

Angrily unlocking the windows on her balcony she ran up to her bed and discovered her diary lying opened on the bed. Fury sparking in her mind she levitated the book toward her and looked at the page it had been left on.

‘ Some ponies just don’t understand all of the effort we go into making sure this country is in safe hooves, after all they don’t see ponies dreams like I do. How he dreams of hurting himself every night, or how he cries himself to sleep out of loneliness. “I believe he never would get any help for his problems on his own, he deserves a chance to be happy. Every pony deserves to be happy don’t they?” Celestia says that it will be for the greater good, in the end maybe. But, the world can be a dangerous and scary place for an Alicorn who knows nothing.’

Her anger quickly forgotten she tucked the diary back under her pillow and began to quickly think of what this meant.

“Buck, Buck, Buck!!!”

Quickly reaching out with her magic looking for him, she found out she could find out where he was. Again and again she searched for Ridge trying to pinpoint his location, but every time coming up with the same result. In a full panic now she used her senses to locate her sister, and in a flash teleported to the inside of her bedroom.

“CELESTIA, WAKE THOU BUTT UP. RIDGE KNOWS THINE PLAN.” She boomed in the royal Canterlot voice.

“ZZZ…snore….ZZZ”

Quickly turning on the lights with her horn Luna located her sisters bed, then proceeded to jump onto the top sending the blankets flying.

“AHH!! Luna! What the buck are you doing in my bed?” Celestia said sitting up facing her sister.”

“Ridge, found my diary!!!” She said jumping of the bed running across the room.

“So what? I know that’s not good, but did it require waking me up at 3 o’clock in the morning.” She said throwing the blankets back over herself.

“He knows that your trying to get him and twilight together…”

Suddenly the blankets were tossed across the room, and Luna had a very angry looking Princess staring at her.

“What…happened…how…does…he…know” she said angrily.

“Um…Well… you see…I kind of wrote it down in my d..diary what you were doing and he found it. Promise you’re not mad…? Promise? Why are you looking at me like that? SISTER!!?”