“You know, you still haven't told me what this is all about,” Snapshot pointed out as she and Myth Chaser stepped out through the open doors of the stationed train, bags dangling from their backs against their sides.
It was true. He had been so enraptured with reading and rereading his father's journal during the train ride, he'd completely forgotten to get his sister caught up with what exactly they were doing. She knew for certain that they had decided to continue their parents' adventure, and that it had something to do with the artifact they had gotten. But she had no clue what was going on that had Myth so intrigued.
Myth took a quick look around Canterlot as they exited the station. It felt strange being back here. He hadn't seen Canterlot since he and Snapshot had finished their college years. It felt different somehow, and yet so familiar. He began the walk through the streets, his memory leading him and his sister on the path to the public Canterlot library.
“Come on, Myth, don't leave me hanging,” Snapshot said, following after him. “You said mom and dad were onto something, and from the excited look on your face, I can tell it must be big. What's going on?”
“I'm not exactly sure myself,” Myth responded. The pegasus looked at him for a moment, confused. If he wasn't sure, then why had they just traveled all the way to Canterlot? Before she could ask, he continued. “The entry in dad's journal didn't say a whole lot, but it was enough.”
“Care to elaborate?”
The stallion smiled lightly as he thought back to the journal. He practically had it memorized after reading it over and over again on the train ride here. “Dad said this adventure started because of mom. She was studying unicorn magic so she'd better understand it for her next book. He said it was supposedly about a unicorn.”
Snapshot waited a second for him to continue, not sure where this was going yet. “And...?”
“And, mom got into some stuff about Starswirl the Bearded,” Myth added.
“Naturally. Can't get into anything magic related without reading something about him.”
Myth nodded. “Exactly, and while she was researching, she came across something. Dad went on to mention how they discovered that Starswirl had some big secret that nopony in Equestria knows about, except for Princess Luna.”
Snapshot's eyes widened a bit at that news. “No one?” she asked.
“Not even Princess Celestia herself,” he answered.
“Well what was it?” the pegasus inquired, a bit of excitement being heard in her voice.
“That's just it, it's still a secret. Dad said that some ponies that have found out have asked Princess Luna about it, but she always avoids the questions and asks that the topic not be brought up again. Especially around Princess Celestia. But dad did say that whatever it was, it involved some special, hidden place that apparently Starswirl and Luna have visited.”
“Think it could be some sort of training area where Starswirl was giving the Princesses magic lessons for their duties?” Snapshot asked.
Myth shook his head in reply. “Doubt it. If that was the case, Celestia would have known something about it too. If it was a magic training area, then why for only Luna, and why keep it such a big secret from all of Equestria?”
Snapshot pondered that for a moment. “Fair point.”
The two ponies took a turn and stepped in between a pair of large stone unicorn statues, walking up a small set of steps to make their way through the large, open doors of the public library.
“Any ideas on what it could mean?” Snapshot asked in a hushed, library-mandated tone.
Myth just shook his head no. He'd thought about several ideas during the train ride but debunked each one once he thought about it. He wasn't sure what Starswirl would do with Luna but not want Celestia or the rest of Equestria to know about.
The two made their way through the halls to come to the Starswirl section of the library. The wizard had had so many notes and journals on all the spells he knew of, along with spells that he had created himself, and even some spells he had been in the process of working on before his death. Shelves upon shelves of books, journals, and scrolls were lined with the famous unicorn wizard's knowledge of spells, and writings of his own life. The shelves were set up to form a sort of circle, surrounding an area of several tables. At the tables were ponies of various ages. If they had to guess, these ponies were probably students from middle school and high school.
It was just as Myth and Snapshot remembered it. They were reminded of their school days when they'd had to come here to study Starswirl for history classes, and had come to help their unicorn friends when they did research for their magic classes. That must be what these ponies were doing.
“Where do we start?” Myth muttered, just barely loud enough for his sister to hear as he gazed around at the dozens of long, tall shelves stocked full of Starswirl's knowledge.
Snapshot let out a light sigh, getting the feeling of homework and research washing over her. A quick glance at the clock on the wall showed it was only about midday. They had a lot of time today to look around.
“Myth? Snapshot?” a familiar voice called with a bit of a hushed tone.
The two turned to see their white-coated, black and pink maned unicorn friend. “Star?” Myth asked. “What are you doing here?”
Star Shimmer approached the siblings, carrying a few scrolls in her magic, lifting them a bit to show she came to gather some stuff. “Doing a bit of snooping. Hoping Starswirl knew anything about astronomy that might help me out. You come to have me take a look at that artifact already?” she asked, glancing at the clock, remembering that Myth had mentioned coming by later that night.
“Oh!” Myth gasped loudly, having forgotten that Star had offered to try and let him know if the artifact they had was some sort of compass. He mouthed a quick 'sorry' to the ponies that gave him an annoyed look, wanting a bit of quiet in their studying sanctuary. Myth then turned back to Star. “I almost forgot about that.”
Star gave a light chuckle. “No problem. Well hey, since you're already here, how about I take a look at it now?”
“Here?” Snapshot asked, giving a quick glance to the ponies studying at the table. It was obvious that she figured an artifact involving some big secret about Starswirl should probably be kept secret, at least until they knew what it was.
Star and Myth followed the pegasus pony's gaze. “Best get somewhere more private,” Star agreed, then waved a hoof for the two to follow, leading them down an aisle between shelves and to one of the tables in a back corner. She set her scrolls next her bag on the table and set it all aside against the wall.
Myth Chaser dug into his own bag and took a quick look around before slipping the object onto the table's surface in front of the unicorn.
Star Shimmer took the round object in her hooves. The mare ignored the runic symbols, having no clue what they were anyways. Upon seeing the red needle coming from a slit, she reached to the cylindrical bit of golden-colored stone coming from the center and tried to turn it. It looked like it was a dial to try and turn the red needle to aim at the runic symbols, but when she realized that it wouldn't turn, she frowned.
She then turned the entire object, seeing how the needle stayed fixed on the same symbol and didn't move to match any particular direction. The unicorn then closed her eyes and focused her magic on the artifact. A light pink glow surrounded her horn along with the object. There was a brief moment of her sitting there, a look of amazement showing on her face even with her eyes still closed and concentrating on the item. “Wow... This was definitely touched by a powerful unicorn's magic,” she muttered, setting it back down to the table and looking up to her two friends.
Myth and Snapshot looked at her with confusion. Star pointed to her horn and explained. “Unicorns with powerful enough magic talent can usually sense a sort of magic print left on things that other unicorn magic has come into contact with. I don't have that much talent to sense that sort of magical wavelength, but even I could feel it on this thing,” she told them, looking back to the artifact. “Strong, too. No doubt in my mind, it belonged to Starswirl... It felt sort of strong, like it was used often... but also sort of faded, as if it hasn't been touched by magic in ages.”
The siblings exchanged excited glances. They'd had no idea that this artifact used to belong to Starswirl. No wonder that zebra and her crew had stolen it from them in the forest, and had gone through so much trouble to get it again once they stole it back...
“...but what is it?” Snapshot asked.
Star just shook her head, unsure of the answer. “I can't tell... I can see why you would think it's a compass of some kind, because of the needle,” she said, pointing at the red pointed needle protruding from the center. She then picked it up and turned it again, showing that the needle didn't turn. “But if it's a compass, it wouldn't stay stuck in one spot like this. It should turn to stay locked in a single direction. North and South Pole and all that jazz, you know how compasses work. So, if it was a compass, it's either broken, or needs some kind of magic to activate it, which would just be bad design, in my opinion.”
She set it down for a moment in thought. “Only thing I can think of is that it's some kind of lock. You know, like how we had on lockers at school, putting in combinations? But if that was the case...” Star Shimmer put her hoof back to the cylinder coming outward from the middle of the disc-shaped artifact and tried to turn it again. “It should be turning.”
Myth sighed a bit and sat back in his seat, feeling a bit frustrated. Not with Star, but with Starswirl, or the artifact... or both? Why would anyone make something so strange and so impossible to figure out? Thoughts ran through his mind, trying to piece things together. He and Snapshot had so little information as to what this object was, or what it did. Any information their parents had was now gone with them... They were starting from square one.
Then his ears perked up suddenly and he sat upright, turning the artifact around for him to look at again.
“Something come to mind?” Snapshot asked.
“I'm so stupid,” he said. He looked at the two mares, eyeing him with confusion. “Dad said in his journal that this was the beginning of a trail to figuring out Starswirl and Luna's secret.”
“Right,” Snapshot mentioned. “But we don't know what it is, so we're still stuck here at the beginning.”
“Well, I might know what it is,” Myth said. He then dug into his bag and pulled out the roughly handled, torn journal. He opened it to the first page and quickly skimmed before setting it down and pointing at the words as he read aloud. “Whatever this big secret of theirs is about, it involved some hidden place that nopony other than them have ever visited.” He looked back up and explained further. “This big secret involves a hidden location, and this thing has something to do with it,” he mentioned, tapping on the artifact.
“So you think...?” Snapshot trailed off.
“It's got to be some sort of combination lock, then,” Star confirmed with a smile. “I mean, what else could it be? And if you're saying what you're after is some big secret, that would explain why it won't turn right now. Starswirl would want it to be difficult to use. He'd make the lock to this secret location unable to work without the right magic, and I'm willing to bet it has something to do with these runes.”
The three ponies shared smiles for a moment, glad that they had figured out the mystery. This artifact was certain to be some kind of lock. But to where...? And what made a mere location so secretive that it had to be locked away? If it was just some activity that Starswirl and Luna did, the location shouldn't matter much. Was this location infused with some sort of special magic? Or a gateway to some special place? Myth was even more curious now than he was before.
Star Shimmer looked up at the clock hung on the wall and began to gather her things, placing the scroll she'd found in her bag for her to check out and take home. “I've got to go. I hope I helped you two out.”
“Oh, you did,” Snapshot told her.
“Big help, Star,” Myth added. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” The unicorn smiled and gave each sibling a hug. “Hope you two find what you're looking for,” she added before she took off.
Myth and Snapshot sat at the table. He looked over the artifact again while Snapshot read through the journal entry real quick, eager to know what all their dad had written.
“Hey...” Snapshot muttered, pointing at the journal, right where it seemed a page had been ripped. “There a page missing?”
“Yeah, I noticed that earlier,” Myth answered. “I'm sure dad tore it out for some reason. Probably one of those charcoal rubbing things, you know? Where he puts the paper over something and runs a pencil all over the page to copy the texture on the page.”
“Huh... Maybe.” Snapshot shrugged it off and slid the journal back toward her brother. “So what next?”
Myth sighed lightly and stared at the artifact. His main focus was now on the runes etched in around the disc in a similar way to how numbers were on a combination lock. “I say... If we can figure out what these runes mean, maybe we'll find our way to the next part of the trail.”
Snapshot smiled. “So we just narrowed down the search to just runes?”
He shook his head. “The runes would be a good start, but we can't rely on just those. We'd need to look for anything involving Starswirl's favored locations, and if we're lucky, something about him and Princess Luna.”
The pegasus looked around the large area at all the shelves of Starswirl focused scrolls and books, and sighed. “This is going to take a while.”
Myth slid the journal and artifact back into his bag and nodded. “Yeah. Better get started.”
Several hours later
Myth had his chin resting on his hoof with a look of boredom as his eyes scanned left to right across the latest bit of parchment, reading something about Starswirl's fascination with traveling around Equestria, hoping to find anything even remotely hinting at a hidden location that Starswirl wouldn't want to talk about further. The stallion gave a little yawn, starting to get a bit tired. He wasn't used to sitting still and reading endlessly like this. It felt like he was back in school, doing more research.
“Anything yet?” Snapshot asked, returning to the table her brother was at.
They had decided to split up across the section earlier to try and find any information they could about what they were looking for, ending up with them reading at different tables after a while. It had been nearly three hours since they had last said anything to each other.
Myth gave another little yawn and shook his head. “Not yet.”
Snapshot sighed as she took a seat across from her brother, flopping her head down onto her hooves. “Who knew finding a secret of somepony so well known all over Equestria throughout history would be so difficult?”
He gave a chuckle at that. “You're the magazine photographer. Isn't finding out secrets about famous ponies kind of your thing?” he teased.
The pegasus rolled her eyes with a grin. “That's paparazzi, Myth. You know I'm with the nature magazines.”
“Didn't happen to find any secret locations that might require a magical lock while taking photos of nature, did you?” he asked hopefully, knowing full well she wouldn't have.
“Man, I wish...” Snapshot sighed. “Starswirl really isn't making this easy on us at all.”
“It's a secret to all of Equestria, and has been for decades. What hope do we have of figuring this out?”
“Uhm...” a new voice muttered, coming from a mare. The two looked up to see a unicorn mare approaching them. Her coat was tan in color and her mane and tail were a mix of bronze and gold. Her eyes a beautiful shade of blue. “I'm sorry, but did you two say something about a magical lock? And... Starswirl?”
Snapshot and Myth exchanged glances then back to the unicorn.
“Who wants to know?” Snapshot asked.
“My name's Jewel,” she answered, reaching a hoof out for a shake.
“Myth Chaser.” He reached in for the first shake, followed by his sister doing the same.
“Snapshot.”
“I'm a bit of a fan of Starswirl's, and I thought I might be able to help you two. You said something about a magical lock?” Jewel asked, looking to Myth.
Myth glanced over to his sister, unsure if they should let this stranger in on their knowledge. Snapshot gave a little shrug as if to say 'go for it.' They were at a dead end anyways. If this unicorn couldn't help, it's not like they'd be stuck any more than they were already, and if she could, then they'd have a lead to follow... So Myth reached in his bag and pulled out the artifact, sliding it across the table toward Jewel.
“As far as we can tell, it's a magical lock to some secret location that Starswirl went to frequently,” Myth explained.
“The one he went to with Princess Luna every night during his lessons to her and Princess Celestia?” Jewel asked with a bit of excitement, proving she had quite the knowledge about the story of that little secret, causing the two siblings perk up a bit as Jewel gazed at the lock.
She stared at it like it was quite the treasure, leaving it on the table, as if she didn't feel worthy to touch it after Starswirl had.
“Exactly,” Myth answered. He pointed to the symbols etched into the stone. “We have a feeling that finding out what these symbols are would help lead us to the next clue.”
“Any ideas?” Snapshot asked a bit tiredly.
Jewel picked up the lock in her magic, eyes suddenly widening a bit. Myth and Snapshot figured she'd picked up on the magical print that Star had mentioned. The unicorn gazed over the symbols, running a hoof over them as she inspected the artifact. Then she smiled. “Actually, yes.”
Myth and Snapshot perked up instantly at that answer. Any ideas about what these symbols meant would be a big help.
Jewel set the artifact back down to the table, so gently. “I've seen these symbols before,” she told them. “It's a sort of coded language that Starswirl made up for himself so he could write his most precious secrets in a personal journal. So that even if ponies found his journal they wouldn't decipher it.”
“Can you show us?” Myth asked her excitedly.
“What's in it for me?” Jewel asked suddenly.
The two siblings paused at that question and looked to each other. This mare had seemed so nice and now she suddenly wanted something in exchange for what seemed like voluntary help?
“Well... what do you want?” Snapshot asked, expecting the unicorn to ask for a payment for the information or something.
“Hmm...” Jewel hummed in thought for a moment and then smiled. “I want to come along.”
“Huh?” Myth inquired.
“I'm a big fan of Starswirl and his history, and the idea of this huge secret he and Luna have been keeping from all of Equestria has been on my mind ever since I first found out about it. Wherever this secret location is, I want to be there to see it when you two find it,” Jewel told them. She then turned to show them her cutie mark, a blue gem and a pick axe. “Plus, I might find some gems along the way.”
Myth and Snapshot looked to each other again and leaned in closer to talk about this situation in a private whisper.
“Think we can trust her?” Myth asked.
“Not sure. I don't know how to feel about somepony who listens in on others' conversations and jumps in to help like this...” Snapshot told him.
Myth shrugged. “Well, without her we'd be stuck here doing more and more research until we hopefully find whatever it is she's seen the symbols in.”
“Yeah...” Snapshot bit her lip in thought and took a quick glance at Jewel, who was watching them patiently. “She looks friendly enough... Your call, I guess.”
The stallion took a moment to think things over, and took his own look at the unicorn mare. She was looking at the two, expecting them to say something to her. Myth then shrugged and held out a hoof to Jewel. “Deal.”
Jewel smiled at the answer and met the stallion's hoof with her own, giving a firm shake to seal the deal.
“So, you going to tell us where you've seen the symbols before?” Myth asked.
The unicorn nodded in response. “They were on a book on display for a short time in a museum. The book was closed, but you could still see the cover, and it was covered in these symbols.”
“Great, so it used to be in a museum and probably isn't there anymore,” Myth said with frustration.
“Not exactly. It might not be on display anymore, but it was there just the other day. Odds are that they still have it, and I know someone that could get us access to it, or even tell us where it went, if it's not there anymore.”
Things were looking up. Snapshot and Myth smiled, now glad to have met Jewel. Not only did she know about the symbols, but she knew someone at the museum who could get them access to the very book that would help them? Score!
“Perfect. Where to?” Snapshot asked.
“Manehattan,” Jewel answered, and looked up at the clock, showing it was late in the evening now. “Ugh, but the train won't be back here until morning tomorrow...”
The siblings each looked up at the clock as well, and looked to each other, thinking the same thing. They hadn't thought about the fact that they might have needed to stay in Canterlot overnight. They didn't arrange anything with Star about staying at her place, and they sure didn't want to barge in now and ask to stay the night. She seemed like she'd be busy. They'd just be a bother.
“Guess we should get a hotel room for the night,” Snapshot suggested.
Later
The three ponies arrived at the hotel not long after their meeting at the library. Myth and Snapshot were at the front counter, trying to get a room for them to stay in. The stallion behind the front desk had checked and told the siblings that they were booked full, leaving Myth and Snapshot wondering what to do. They could go ahead and ask Star for a place to stay the night if they had to.
Jewel heard this and stepped up to the concierge. “Well... I have a room. Could they stay there with me?”
“I suppose so, but the cost for two more ponies will be added to your bill, Miss Jewel."
“You don't have to do that, Jewel,” Myth told her. “We can just stay with our friend, Star.”
“Oh, it's okay. I've got plenty of bits,” she chimed, pulling a sack filled with bits out of her bag and placing it on the counter with a little jingle of the golden coins. “Besides, you said something about her being busy tonight, right? Probably best not to bother her.”
He looked to Snapshot, wondering what they should so and she just gave a little shrug. “I'm pretty exhausted already, and I don't want to interrupt Star's work.” She then looked to Jewel. “How about we pay you the extra cost we'd be adding to your bill?”
“Sure, fine by me.” Jewel scooted the bag of bits toward the pony with a smile. “That enough?” she asked.
The concierge opened the little bag and counted out the bits, and nodded. “Sure is.” He then pulled an extra key for the same room and handed it over to Myth. “Enjoy your stay, everypony.”
Jewel smiled and turned, leading her two new friends to her room. A quick elevator ride brought them to the top floor and the siblings followed the unicorn down the hall. Jewel unlocked the door and led the way in.
The room they entered had two large beds, along with a sliding glass door leading outside to a balcony and a couple of wooden doors, one for a closet, and the other presumably to the bathroom that separated the room from the other room.
“You two can stay in this room,” Jewel told them. “I've already got my stuff in the other room anyways.”
“Thanks,” Myth told her, slipping his saddlebag off his back and setting it beside the door.
“Not that it's any of our business,” Snapshot spoke up, “but why did you get one of these double rooms anyways?”
“Last room that was available. I would've thought they'd have another available for you two by now, but I guess this will work out, right?”
Snapshot, fine with the answer, gave a light nod. “I guess so, yeah.”
Myth had dug out the artifact lock from his bag and now lay back in the bed closest to his bag, apparently deciding that bed was his for the night. He held the lock above him, gazing up at it in thought, so very curious about everything, wondering what they might find.
Snapshot gave a little giggle at the sight and turned back to Jewel. “Maybe leave our doors to the bathroom open, and only close when someone's in there?” she suggested, not wanting anyone to walk in on someone else.
“Good call,” Jewel agreed with a nod. “Guess I'll see you two in the morning then. Night.”
Jewel turned, walking through the connecting bathroom into the other room, leaving both doors open like was suggested.
Snapshot slid her own saddlebag off her back and set it beside the second bed on the other side of the room from the one her brother lay in, and then walked over to the little kitchen area of the room and grabbed a plastic cup the hotel kept stocked there. “What do you think of Jewel?” she asked Myth a bit quietly as she filled the cup with some water.
“I don't know,” Myth replied, still staring up at the artifact in his hooves for the moment. The look on his face showed he had a lot on his mind. Why wouldn't he? This had been a long day, and there was exciting stuff lying ahead. “Why do you ask?”
“Something just didn't feel right about her to me. I don't know, I might be paranoid, but... I feel like it was too much of a coincidence for us to meet her the one time we're at that library, and she just happens to know about something we were looking for...”
“I can see why you'd be paranoid, I guess. But I don't think she'd do anything. I'm not getting any bad vibes from her.”
Snapshot gave a little sigh, looking down into the water in her cup. “Guess you're right... You always did have a pretty good judge of character.” She then looked over to Myth. “If you can trust her, I guess I could try to.”
“Not saying I trust her, but it's also not like we should keep an eye open tonight or anything,” he told her.
The pegasus gave a little nod and sipped at her drink of water, then made a sound of disgust. “Eugh... Warm water.” She set the cup down on the counter and started heading for the door. “I'm going to get some ice. Maybe a little snack on the way. Want anything?”
Myth shook his head. “Nah, I'm good.” He tossed the room key to his sister so she could get back in. Catching the key, Snapshot left the room, closing the door behind her.
Myth Chaser got up from the bed then and set the artifact up on one of the shelves on the wall beside the door, just above his bag. He was tired, but not quite ready to fall asleep yet. A bored look around the room showed him the glass doorway to the balcony. He went over and slid the door aside, stepping out onto the balcony.
Taking a seat, he looked out at the stars, briefly wondering what Star would be looking at, before his mind shifted back to the adventure he was continuing for his parents. He sat there in silence for a moment, thinking about his parents, and wondering what they'd be doing together as a family right now if they'd still been around.
Would they be taking a short break from this very adventure, sitting at home and laughing about something? Would they be out at dinner? Playing a family game? Each thought made him smile softly.
Then he heard a light knocking on the glass of the balcony door and he turned to see... Jewel. The unicorn was peeking out at him. “Can't sleep?” she asked, stepping outside to join him, her horn giving a faint light so they could see better.
Myth shook his head lightly and turned back to look out at the stars. “Lot going on lately. Kinda hard to want to sleep right now.”
“I've got a feeling we're on our way to uncovering Starswirl's secret. I've been looking up to Starswirl since I was a filly... I can't sleep, knowing I've got something like that to look forward to.”
Myth chuckled softly at that. “I know what you mean. This is a pretty big deal.”
The two smiled and went quiet. A short moment before Jewel broke the awkward silence. “That... pony doesn't really like me, does she?” she asked.
“Who, Snaps?” he asked. “Why would you think that?”
“I heard her talking to you a bit ago... Saying something about not trusting me.”
“Oh... yeah. Well. Don't take it too personal, but... we did only just meet you not even an hour ago and you're just the perfect pony for us to meet at this time. Felt a bit-”
“Too much of a coincidence?” she finished for him, with a nod. “I get it. If it helps, I just happened to be there doing a bit of my own research on Starswirl. Hoping he might have some kind of spell to make gems sparkle a bit more beautifully...”
Myth smiled softly at the explanation. “You mentioned something about wanting to get gems earlier. Any reason?”
“Oh, I have my own little jewelry shop in Manehattan,” she answered. “I like to find my own diamonds and jewels to use rather than try to find someone to buy from. Makes them feel more personal if I cut them down to shape myself.”
“You don't wear any jewelry yourself, though?” Myth mentioned, glancing at her ears, hooves, and around her neck, searching for any sign of jewelry.
Jewel shook her head. “I prefer to make it for others.” I think it's pretty, but... I just don't think it'd look good on me.”
“Huh. Weird. Cause I could see you with maybe a ear stud or two, or a necklace.”
The unicorn smiled softly. “I don't think I'd like to get my ears pierced for some studs. Depending on the necklace though, I might give it a try...”
Myth gave a little chuckle at that, then looked back up to the stars.
“Think your girlfriend would want something?” Jewel asked.
“Huh?” He looked to her, a bit confused by the 'girlfriend' comment.
“Your girlfriend. Snapshot?” Jewel clarified. “I have some stuff in my bag in my room if you'd like to get her a little gift.”
Myth paused for a moment, staring at Jewel and then let out a chuckle. “No, that's okay. She's not much for jewelry anyways. Besides... she's my sister. That would be weird.”
Jewel's ears perked up in surprise. “Sister?” She laughed with an embarrassed little blush spreading over her cheeks. “No way! I never would've guessed. You two looked so cute together, I could have sworn you two were a thing.”
He laughed in return and shook his head. “Nope, we're siblings.”
“Good to know.” She giggled lightly. “Don't tell her I thought that about you two?”
“Deal,” he chuckled.
“Good.” She smiled, feeling like she and Myth were good friends already.
The two sat there together for a bit, then, after a moment, Jewel had grown curious enough to ask, “So what got you two into this whole Starswirl secret anyway?”
Myth rested his hooves up on the balcony's railing and he gazed down at the city of Canterlot below, seeing that ponies were still wandering the dimly lit streets. He sighed softly. “Well. Our parents were the ones that actually started it. My mom was researching unicorn magic for a book she was going to write, and came across some stuff about Starswirl, and she and my dad found something about how Starswirl and Princess Luna would always sneak off together in the night.”
Jewel sat there beside him, listening to him curiously.
“My dad's an adventurer like me, so naturally he wanted to do everything he could to find out. He and my mom managed to find out that the beginning of a trail to finding that hidden location started with the lock, so they had me and Snapshot go find it.”
“So, that's how you ended up with the lock?”
Myth nodded. “Yeah. We didn't know what it was when we got it, but we just realized recently before we met you that it was a lock. Probably needs some kind of unicorn magic to help it activate though.”
“So... If your parents started this adventure and you two were joining in... where are your parents?” she inquired.
Myth paused for a moment and gave a slight frown. She'd hit a bit of a nerve there. “They, uh...” he cleared his throat, trying not to get too choked up. “They passed away. Recently. They were in a train wreck...”
“It's fine,” Myth said, shrugging her hoof off of him. “I'm proud of my parents for everything they've accomplished. They did so much with their lives.”
Jewel gave a faint smile, but still felt heart broken. “Well, that's good.”
Myth nodded lightly, and the two sat in silence for a moment, again, the weight of the conversation hanging over them. Then he took a deep breath and looked to her. “What about your parents? What do they do?”
Jewel took a moment as she let that question process in her mind. “My dad passed away about a year ago, and I never knew my mother. Dad told me she died not long after I was born.”
“He talk about her much?”
“Sometimes. He would say the usual things like how great she was, and how much she loved me, and all that... But he didn't want to say much more than that.”
The slight creak of the hotel room door opening sounded behind the two ponies and they turned to see Snapshot walking back in, carrying a bucket of ice.
“I'll, uhh... See you guys in the morning,” Jewel said, and gave Myth a quick pat on the back before passing by Snapshot and retreating back to her room.
Snapshot watched the unicorn curiously and then looked back to Myth. “I didn't interrupt something, did I? I can leave if you two want to be alone for a bit,” she teased with a bit of a smirk.
Myth rolled his eyes at his sister and he stepped back inside, closing the glass door to the balcony behind him. “We were just talking.”
“Yeah? What about?” she asked, setting the bucket of ice in the hotel room's sink, and prepared her cup of water again, this time with ice.
“Our parents, mainly.” Myth made his way back to his bed and lay back. “She's a good pony, Snaps. Any worries I had about her have faded away. She's a good friend.”
Snapshot sipped her water and smiled at how cool it was now, and followed it up by downing the rest, then went to her own bed. “You're putting her in the friend zone already?”
Myth chuckled at that and yawned. “Shut up and go to sleep.”