//------------------------------//
// Revelations 
// Story: The Epic Journey 
// by JerryTheHouseGhost 
//------------------------------//

	What better way to wake up than to fall out of bed and bang your head on the floor. This doesn't matter, thought Twilight as she was laying on the floor, that was the best sleep I've had for the past week. Twilight stood up and proceeded to make her bed. She had gotten up two minutes before her alarm was set to go off. She thought about everything that happened on the journey: The East Mountain spirit that possessed Fluttershy, MC Pony D and Trixie, the village full of changelings, and the entity that controlled an entire forest. All of the things she and her friends had done were for nothing; she never found the pony who sent the letter. Twilight thought about last night, and how the forest entity told her that the pony wanted her to return home. This was the part that confused Twilight. Why would the pony have me go on a journey, then tell me to go home before I even found her?

The alarm clock startled Twilight when it finally went off. Twilight quickly stopped the alarm. She was going to travel to Canterlot today to speak with Princess Celestia about the journey. Twilight decided to go downstairs to have some breakfast. She was surprised to see that Spike was actually making something that wasn't going wrong. "Mmmm, that smells delicious, Spike!"

"Thanks! I decided to make you scrambled eggs and hay for your first morning home," said Spike. "It's finished now. Here you go." Spike scooped the eggs onto a plate and put some hay next to it.

"I bet that you can't guess what we had to eat for breakfast on the journey," said Twilight.

"What?" asked Spike.

"Nothing! Well, except for muffins and apple juice at MC Pony D's house."

"You met MC Pony D!?" asked Spike.

"Wait, you've heard of him?"

"Of course I have! He's my favorite musician!"

"I bet you can't guess what his last name is," said Twilight.

"I bet you're right. What is it?" asked Spike.

"Lulamoon," said Twilight.

"You mean he's-" began Spike.

"Yes. He's Trixie's brother. And Trixie ended up showing up as well, and it turns out she has changed a lot since she was here. Believe it or not, she's now friends with all of us!"

"Wow! That's pretty cool!"

"I can't stand here and talk about the whole journey, I've got to eat breakfast then travel to Canterlot to talk with Princess Celestia." Twilight ate her eggs and hay rather fast. She put her dish next to the sink and started towards the door.

"See you later, Twilight," said Spike.

"Bye," replied Twilight.

Twilight began to walk to the train station to catch the next train to Canterlot. She looked at all of the ponies walking around Ponyvile and thought about the changelings and how well they imitated everypony. Princess Celestia was going to be intrigued by this story, Twilight just knew it. Twilight got to the station and boarded the train as it was about to leave.

The train ride felt shorter than usual, probably because Twilight was thinking of everything she was going to tell Celestia. She exited the train and started to head to the castle. The guards recognized her and instantly stepped aside to let her enter. She wondered where Princess Celestia would be this early in the morning, and decided to look in the dining hall. The Princess was not there. Twilight approached a guard.

"Hey, do you know where Princess Celestia is?" asked Twilight.

"Hey Twilight. Yes, the Princess is in the throne room. I don't believe she is busy yet, so you can just go on in."

"Thanks," said Twilight as she headed to the throne room.

"No problem."

When Twilight entered the throne room, she instantly saw Princess Celestia and started to walk to her.

"Ah, Twilight Sparkle, it's such a pleasure to see you! What brings you here this early in the morning?" asked Celestia.

"I have to tell you about a journey I just had with my friends," said Twilight.

"I would love to hear this story, Twilight," said Celestia.

"Okay, so I got this letter that wasn't signed by anypony, so I had to get my friends and try to figure out who sent it. We first went to Zecora, who was the one who delivered the letter. She told us to go to East Mountain. East Mountain had some strange altars and an evil spirit that possessed Fluttershy."

"I'm sorry to hear about that," said Celestia.

"Don't worry, she's fine," continued Twilight. "So after that we went down a zipline that lead us to a pony named MC Pony D, and he turned out to be Trixie Lulamoon's brother!"

"Interesting."

"Yes, very. Trixie had changed her ways, though, and we ended up becoming friends with her. We ended up going to a village that turned out to be another Ponyville that was inhabited by changelings. They weren't hostile, and they were even pretty nice. After that, we went into a forest that turned out to be controlled by a supernatural entity. After finding out it was peaceful, it said that whoever had us going on the journey wanted us to return home. So, here I am."

"So what did you learn along the way, Twilight?"

"Huh?"

"About friendship."

"Oh, yeah. I learned that, if you are able to, you should put your differences aside and become friends with somepony you thought to be an enemy. I learned that you should never judge anypony by what other ponies have done. I also learned that you should not be afraid of something before you even know what exactly it is."

"Did you find out what the changelings were thriving on?" asked Princess Celestia.

"What?" asked Twilight.

"Did you find out what the changelings were living off of instead of happiness?"

"No... was I supposed to?"

"Well that was one of the reasons I sent you there. Oh, oops." Princess Celestia covered her mouth and looked at Twilight silently.

"You mean to tell me that you were the one who sent me on that journey?"

Princess Celestia sighed. "Yes, Twilight. It was me who had you do travel to all of those places."

"But why?" asked Twilight. She was very confused. "Why would you pretend to be somepony else just to have me go on a journey?"

"I never pretended to be anypony, Twilight. Like you said, the letter was never signed, and the pony who sent it was never revealed on your journey. I said I wanted you to do something for me, and that was to go to all of these places and learn new things about friendship." Twilight still looked confused. "I had you do this because you haven't been learning very important things about friendship lately, and the journey had you learn multiple important things all in one week."

"I kind of understand now, Princess. But how did you know about all of the places you had me go?"

"I looked into Trixie after you wrote about her last year, and figured out that MC Pony D was her brother. An informant told me that she was going to be visiting him, and that's when I had you show up at his house. I also had a pony who had stumbled upon the changeling Ponyville come see me, and I was curious about how they survived by themselves. The entity in the forest has always intrigued me. I visited it not too long before your journey, and told it that you would be showing up eventually and what it should tell you. I wanted you to figure out it was peaceful on your own, and you did."

"I understand now, but do you mind never having me do that ever again? I appreciate your caring for my learning in friendship, but it doesn't seem that special for me when I know it was basically forced upon me."

"I will not do it again, Twilight," said Princess Celestia.

"Thanks. But there's still something I don't get."

"What's that, Twilight?"

"How do the changelings know what everypony in Ponyville is like?"

"There are some questions that are better left unanswered."


THE END