Acceptance

(My Little Pony is own by Hasbro and Lauren Faust, the OCs are mine)

Chapter 3: The Collector

It was morning time, two earth ponies were waiting by the entrance of the Sundertear's house. One pony had a brown coat and black mane with green eyes. He also had a black goatee and his cutie mark was a telescope. The other pony next to him had a peach coat with a green mane. Her eyes were red and her cutie mark was a notepad. Celestia appeared in front of the house, glancing at the two with a greeting smile. The two both bowed their heads greeting their ruler.

"So, are we all ready?" Celestia asked, walking towards the door.

"Well your highness, we have to wait for Doctor Levamentum, he said that he was coming to assist us." The stallion said.

"Don't worry, we can look around when he gets here." Celestia said entering inside the house after she opened the door.

"Don't worry, Leamas, I'm sure that the doc will soon get here just in time." The mare said smiling at him before she entered into the abandon home. Leamas sighed before following the mare inside. When they were inside the house. They walked down the hall following the princess behind while looking around at all of the broken portraits and torn paint all over the wall. The ceiling was covered in mildow along with the rotting stains of black smudge grimmed onto the wood. The stench in the hall was quite overwhelming. It smelled nausetic; rotten decay with the small lingering scent of burnt wood coursed through their nostrils.

"It stinks, what crawled up in a hole and die?" The mare asked growing sick of the smell.

"I don't know, Peach Glow. How could any pony live in a place like this or even...well...stay here." Celestia complained looking around. "It's sad you know, this place used to be amazing."

"Yeah, I remember the family taking me in this place. All that they did was treat me special and gave a tour around the house when I was just a filly. They may have been mysterious and creepy, but they were quite nice if you got on their good side of course." Peach said, calmly.

"Yeah, they gave me a tour around their house to. It wasn't that bad really. I do feel bad that they are gone though. After the incident, I didn't want to even leave my room." Leamas said.

As they continue down the hall, they couldn't help but notice the scratches all over the walls. A lot of circles were carved onto the torn paint and the wood behind its coating sheet. They thought that it was the patient who harmed the walls but then again, maybe it was not him. Maybe it was some other pony. They could not be sure who it was, but they did not want to worry about it at the current moment. They were too focus on obtaining any source of information that could help them learn about the strange pony they founded two days ago.

They noticed two doors and one stairway leading up to the second floor. The stairs looked like they were in terrible shape that even a single step of from a grown pony could cause it to collapse. As the stairs were out of the option due to safety reasons. Celestia sent Peach and Leamas to inspect the room ahead of them while she proceed into the other room on her left.

When she opens the door, she gasps at the sight before her. It was a bedroom with a torn up burnt bed. The dresser was covered in scratches as the ceiling's chandleir was pulled down, dangling in the air. The door leading into the bathroom was broken down with splinters pointing high. The room was hazardous and yet again the question still continue to ponder around in her head. "How can a pony like him live in a place like this?" She walked into the room, carefully taking her steps cautiously. This place was still unstable.

"Hmm?" Celestia stopped after she spotted a large portrait hanging on the wall that was next to the closet door. The portrait had a painting of a pegasus with a gray coat and gray moan being cast down from the heavens while being stared at deeply from a large eye of all sorts of colors. There were no signatures to whom the artist was or name to what the painting was call. But it was quite beautiful with its red cloudy gradient gloomy background colors. The clouds were dark, the sky was red, the ground below was completely smoggy red.

"This portrait...what is it suppose to mean?" She asked herself in a soft curious tone.

Opening the closet door carefully with her magic, she took a quick glance inside the closet and saw only hanging coat hangers and a small wooden box on the ground. The box was unscathe and clean. "Optima-terra, that is one of the rarest kinds of wood in all of the world. Ancient. And these ponies had it. Why am I not surpise?" Celestia asked herself, chuckling softly. They were a rich family after all and this kind of rare wood cost way more than her kingdom, it was actually part of her kingdom's origins in being made from. Not by the wood, but instead, from the bits that she was able to get out of it. Levitating the chest up in front of her. She noticed how it was lock. "Hmm? I need a key to unlock this chest." The way the slot of the lock was made was slitted that no normal key could possibly open it.

Suddenly, a loud sound behind her caused her to drop the chest lossing her focus with her magic. She turned around quickly and spotted the fallen chandlier on the ground broken into small pieces. She sighs in relief and turns back to the small box. "I think this was their chest." She said before levitating it again.

"Princess Celestia, we found nothing in the kitchen, dining room, and living room!" Peach called.

Celestia glances back and looks at the bathroom entrance. She slowly walked towards the bathroom, setting the box on top of the dresser. As she entered into the bathroom, she avoided stepping on top of the splinter pointed-high door. She looked around the bathroom seeing onlt the moldy walls and destroyed mirror. The bath tub was destroyed also which made the alicorn princess began wondering how it was destroyed. As she looked back at the walls covered in mold, she could see some scorch marks.

"Princess Celestia?!" Leamas called.

"I heard you! Keep looking around!" She shouted before she walked towards the bath tub. As she looks inside the tub, she spots a piece of paper stuck under a drainage hole. Using her magic to grab the piece of paper, she managed to get it out. She unfolded it and saw some legible writing on the paper but the rest were illegible. "I wonder if any of the residence here put this in here." She said beginning to read the piece of paper.

"Dear Mister Sundertears,

We apologize for this late notice about your ****. But after performing enough research that we as Ponyville Hospital performed on ***, did what we could actually be able to do. We sadly could not find the cure for your ****. *** continues on telling us about the Mirror World, but we believe that *** is suffering from the side-effects of the drugs we have been giving to ***. *** is telling us that *** wants to see *** *** but we continuesly deny *** request, preventing any chances on seeing *** own ***. After the incident, I believe that *h* will never see **r *o* again. We ask *** so many times if *** felt any remorse, but instead, all that we got in response was a proud smile. *** said that *** was proud that *** was harming *** ***. *** shows no signs of remorse in attempting on killing *** own *****. Of course you are allow to see your **** any time you please, but we strongly advise you to NOT bring your *** if you wish to avoid seeing *** on attempting to kill your *** again.

From, Doctor Levamentum. "

Celestia looked up noticing a rope strapped to a hole in the ceiling. It had burnt markings all over it. "The rope is shaped as a loop." She muttered quietly before pulling the rope down with her magic. It soon came to a stop when something up above the hole was stopping the rope was continuing further down. "Hmm?" She glances up and see two small nubs indented by the side of the hole. Releasing her magical grip on the rope she used it to pull down the sides of the hole. It came off with no force needed. Celestia looked up, deeply in the hole and spotted a dangling light that was still on, but flickering. "There's another floor up there. I think I will be able to teleport up there since I have some visual image of what it looks like from up there."

She sets the piece of paper floating in the air on the side of the tub and starts concentrating her magic, preparing herself for a teleporting spell. When it work, she vanished and appear in a attic. The attic was big and wide, open to be capable of being a bedroom. But by the looks of it, the attic was like the rest of the other rooms she had been into previously. It to was in a terrible condition. The ceiling, the walls, and the ground beneath her was littered with graffti. Black large balls were circle all around the room each embedded with numbers such as zeroes and ones. "What are these signs even suppose to mean?"

As she look around the room, she spotted an office desk made of oak wood. There was paper all scatter on top of the desk, indicating that somepony was here before. As she walked towards the desk and stopped in front of it. She saw a strange looking small knife with strange designs all over the plating. "Amazing, the knife of Zion." She said amazed. "Starswirl the Bearded always talked about this blade, but he was never able to obtain it. But what is it doing here and how did the Sundertears obtain this. Why would they have a divine blade like this or that's what the books from First ones said it was?" She wondered levitating the blade beginning to anaylze its ancient features.

"What's this?" She wondered after she spotted a piece of paper pinned down by a paperweight next to a flickering lamp. Moving the lamp to the side and started reading the written piece of paper. But as she started reading, the letter made her feel disturbed.

"The Knife of Zion,

So many travellers seach for this knife, so many never came back. Except one. His name was Frantic Heart, a young stallion whose name fit his personality. He came to me first for some reason, frighten and scare as if he seen a ghost. He told me to keep this knife, I did of course asked him why? But the only answer I got back from him was not as I pictured it to be. He spoke of a "creature" of some sort giving him the knife and telling him to give it to me. Said it would protect me. I thought he was foolish, but something deep down in my--nevermind.

I kept the knife as a study material device since this blade was like a Rossetta Stone. It helped me learn about the strange history behind it. How the "Creature" they called their god shrouded them in a glow of peace and prosperity. But something happened to the First Ones. They disappear with no explaination to how and no evidence to prove where they possibly went. But all that was left was their ruin city and their only known artifact. The knife of Zion. How did he obtain the knife's location is quite unknown and preferred to be left unscathed just for safety reasons. I am a Collector after all.

Could Frantic possibly be telling the truth? Did this "Creature" really stoll away the knife and gave it to him just so he could give it to me? Something isn't right. What makes me so special to this perhaps mythological being. I am just somepony who is trying to raise his own family. Or what's left of it."

"I think I am done for the day." She said looking at the knife with a suspicious look. As she teleported back into the bathroom, she had the piece of paper and the Knife of Zion by her side floating in the air. She levitated the other piece of paper from Doctor Levamentum and carefully trotted outside of the room. She levitated the chest that was left on top of the dresser by her side and took a quick glance at the mirror. For five whole minutes she noticed that the mirror had small cracks forming on it. "The glass...it's forming cracks." Celestia muttered slowly walking towards it cautiously.

"If I were you, I would chose to leave this place..." Celestia turned around startled when she saw a stallion with a white coat and black mane standing at the doorway. He was an earth pony who had yellow eyes and his cutie mark was a black feather touching a piece of paper. "Princess." He said in a stern tone.

"Doctor Levamentum, you finally made it." Celestia said surprised.

"Yes, I was...late due to the fact that I was treating a patient." He said walking inside. "That chest you have floating by your side...where did you get it?"

"This chest, from the closet, why?" Celestia asked watching the doctor examining the portrait.

"Nothing to special about it, just curious. I've never seen you take a liking towards a chest and knife." He said.

"Well, I am bringing this with me for any source of evidence that could help me figure out what, "Makes the patient him. I know why you are here, Princess, but I do suggest you leave this place. There is nothing here that would get you what you are seeking for." He interrupted her. Celestia looked at him sternly before nodding her head.

"How can you be so sure, Doctor Levamentum?" Celestia asked.

"Do you really want to know? I'm sure my letter to Mister Sundertears explained enough information to how I know." He answered turning towards her. Celestia glanced at his letter and back at him.

"Doctor, what was that letter about?" She asked.

Levamentum turns back to the potrait and sighs. "I am not authorize to tell you, Princess. Mister Sundertears made sure of that. I apologize." He said before getting up and started walking towards he exit. But when he made it to the exit, he stopped and looked back at her. "Again, I prefer you to leave those items behind. They won't give you any needed information that you are seeking for." He then left with nothing else to say. Celestia glanced at the portrait still trying to figure out what the meaning of the painting was representing and why Levamentum was becoming defensive for.

As she walked out of the room with her items still by her side, she did not know that the mirror that had forming cracks spreading through its glass frame, had one small dark hole in the center. Yellow liquid started flowing down the sides of the hole. But as the liquid went down, an eye shot open in the hole. The pupil was a mere dot looking left and right frantically before it closed and reopened. This time, the pencil dot pupil was replaced with a six pointed star with a swirl serpent in the center of the pentagon.

-To Be Continue-

(Thank you for reading.)