Tyro's Tail

by RainbowsAreMagic

Taking Charge

Chapter 11: Taking Charge

To My Loyal Spymaster,

It is good to have your report on the situation, however unfortunate be its contents. Your use of the black seal meets with our approval. This is indeed a threat to all of Equestria. We thank you for your efforts.

We can confirm that the strange behavior is probably coming from the Elements themselves; they seem to have aquired a green aura around them. For all our years, we have yet to see such a thing, so we regret that we can do little to help you ourselves.

We already have researchers all over the Canterlot Archives, searching for anything about the Elements of Harmony. If they find anything useful, we will let you know.

The Elements themselves are already on their way to Ponyville, and will be delivered to the library.

For what it's worth, good luck!
Princess Celestia
Princess Luna

The room was silent for a long moment. Finally, Tyro broke the silence. "We need to tell them what's going on." Spike just burrowed into Tyro's bed and hid. Shaking his head, Tyro banished the silence spell and left the room. "Twilight, we have a bit of a problem."

Quickly, Tyro explained about the Elements causing the problems, as Twilight's eyes got bigger and bigger. "And how did you find out all this?"

Time for the trump card. "From a letter signed by both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna." Twilight looked a little more convinced. "They used a seal of black wax." That got her attention.

"If this is true, and I no longer doubt that it is, we need to do something, and fast! You get everypony over here, and I'll come up with a plan! Go!"

Tyro needed no further encouragement. Quickly running through Ponyville, he collected the five missing bearers, and brought them to the library, leaving Twilight to explain the situation as he dug Spike out of his bed.

"Sorry Spike, but you're coming with us. The Princesses said they'd be in touch, and so you can't stay behind." Finally just picking up Spike with his magic, he returned to the main room just in time for Twilight to finish telling everypony that she didn't have a plan.

Tyro, faced with a journey to an unknown location to find a way to bring balance to the Elements, abruptly felt something pulling him towards the Everfree Forest. "Okay, listen, everypony. I'm sensing some kind of powerful magic in the Everfree Forest. If we don't know where to go, we might as well find out what it is. We'll be taking the Elements along with us, we're leaving first thing in the morning, and that's final! Now go get ready!"

The rest were too stunned to speak, and then it was too late because, Tyro had already entered his room, shutting the door behind him. The library was silent, for a moment as everypony looked at each other, then quietly filed out the door, save Twilight. She really didn't know what to think of Tyro right now.

He could be kind and understanding, but he could also be cold and implacable. Tyro was no simple pony to understand, it seemed. One thing bothered her, though. The princesses sent the letter to him, and not herself. Did they now view her and her friends to be unstable, and thus unreliable?

"Hey, Twilight!" Her thoughts fled at Tyro's call. "Can you help me with this book? I can't make any sense out of it at all."

As she approached, she saw Tyro holding an small, ancient-looking book, far older than anything in her library. "Twilight, one of the archivists found this with a number of other books about the Elements of Harmony. But half of this, I can't recognize at all, and the rest is nonsensical!"

"Tyro, the part you were trying to read is in ancient Equestrian - a language that disappeared over a thousand years ago. I can't read it, but I have a book here that we could translate it with." She pulled a book out of a bookshelf, then both ponies winced as it smashed into the opposite wall. "Spike!"

"Twilight, let me handle this. Hey Spike, I need a favor!" As he called out, he walked up the stair towards the little dragon. "Can you translate this for me? It's from the archives, and could be very important to solving this mystery."

Spike jumped up. "From the archives? Sure, Tyro! No problem!" Flipping open the book, he sighed. "Ah, the old language. Can you get—" The translation book dropped to the floor next to Spike. "Oh, you did, thanks." Spike ran into another room, returning with an blank book, and began mumbling to himself as he got to work.

Twilight was astounded. "How did you do that," she asked, amazed. "He's never like that for me!"

Chuckling, Tyro explained. "When Rarity goes out to get more gems, I go with her. She gives me a number of the flawed ones in exchange for my help." Leading her to his room, he opened a chest to reveal a large pile of sparkling gemstones. "They may be flawed, but Spike doesn't seem to mind much. He knows if he does something for me, he'll get a tasty reward for it."

Twilight stared, unmoving. "Oh. That... makes sense, I guess."

Twilight, still looking bewildered, turned and left to go pack for the journey ahead.