Flash and his friends had now brought all the boxes up to the throne room, Cadance having several tables and couches ready for the process. There, each pony took a box, all going over piles of papers, pictures and ancient runes that pre-dated even old ponish.
"This is nuts," Rainbow commented as she pulled out a picture of a wall of runes. "How are we supposed to understand this stuff if we can't read it?"
"There has to be some way to translate it," Twilight responded as she turned to Trixie. "You having any luck?"
Trixie shook her head. "I haven't studied any ancient languages like this, so I have no idea how to possibly translate it." She glanced at Solid Script and saw his horn lighting up, "What are you doing?"
Script didn't reply, instead closing his eyes as a layer of magic sprouted out of his horn and created a rune. "Alright...let's try this." He grabbed one of the papers. "This is the best decoding rune circle I know. If this doesn't translate it, I don't know what will." He dropped the paper into the circle, everypony watching the runes glow as the paper quickly followed suit. After about thirty seconds, the glow faded, Script sighing as he picked up the paper, "Well, that didn't work. There wasn't even a reaction..."
Flash stuck his head in another box, this one filled with maps. He then turned to his parents. "There has to be something we can read. You're the ones that wrote all these things, don't you have any idea what it means?"
His parents both sighed as they shook their heads. "We're sorry honey, but....well, we were really only copying them down, hoping to find a way to translate them when we returned to Equestria. But then we lost our memories."
"Great...more lost memories." Springer added with a small sigh, only to get a wing smack from Twilight.
A few others raised their eyebrows at the parents' statement, Candance speaking up, "I'm sorry, but how exactly did you lose your memories?"
"We don't know. We woke up one morning and suddenly, poof! Almost all of our memories of these boxes and where Flash was born were gone." Trail bit his lip at this, "It was like...we woke up with a blank space in our heads."
"It was strange," Luna continued as she pointed to herself, "They even came to me, hoping I might be able to help them. I went into their dreams to try to help see their memories....but I couldn't do it. It was almost like a power greater than mine was denying me access." She glanced at Flash, "Similar to when I tried to help you during your nightmare situation."
Flash grimaced at this, "I remember that. I was so happy when that finally ended."
"So...why do you think you're remembering now?" Pinkie asked as her head popped out of one of the boxes.
"Good question," Misty replied as she gripped one of the papers. "It was weird. One morning, we just woke up and...well, we remembered everything. We knew we needed to tell Flash this, so we got the boxes and rushed over."
Rarity shook her head, "That can't be right. There has to be a reason why you now remember everything."
Applejack nodded in agreement. "Did anything happen right before ya'll started remembering?"
Misty and Trail thought for a moment, only for both to go wide-eyed as they both said in unison. "Tirek!" Everypony in the room shuddered at that memory, now realizing what they were getting at.
Celestia rubbed her chin at this, "So Tirek draining your magic also drained whatever magic was keeping your memories locked away. And even after your magic was returned, your memories remained. Interesting..." She gave her sister a glance, "Makes sense, as Luna kept her locked memories because there was no magic for Tirek to absorb out of us alicorns."
"True...but it doesn't help us find a way to decipher this stuff." Grand added as he glared at Flash's parents, "Maybe if we knew more about the place you got all this."
They both nodded in agreement, Trail starting, "If we're going to explain that, we'll have to start with why we were going there. For starters, it began when Misty and I were trying to discover the origins of all life. After all, its a subject that has intrigued many scientists and explorers alike."
Misty chimed in here, "But to find the answers, we couldn't remain in Equestria. So our journey took us outside the kingdom, further than any map ever showed. Now, there's a long story in terms of that journey, but let's skip to the most important part. You see, we discovered a legend about a temple deep in a jungles that was said could only show itself to a select few, and never more than once. The legend also said that the temple depicted the stories of the ancient alicorn tribes."
This caught everypony's attention, Ruby speaking up. "The alicorns are supposed to be the oldest of all races."
"Not only that, they're possibly one of the first to come into existence." Celestia added, "If you found a temple depicting their history, it would be an unthinkable discovery."
Trail and Misty both nodded with big smiles, "That's why we went looking for it. We spent weeks travelling through the jungle..."
Years ago...
Trail and Misty were not happy. They had been drifting through a dense jungle for more days than they could count, growling as Trail cut down another plant. Seeing this, Misty looked down at the grass, noticing familiar grooves in the dirt, "Hmmm...have we been here?"
"Are we lost?" Trail asked, only for his wife to give him a small frown.
"Not sure. Could you go check up there?"
"Sure." Trail responded as he flew up to the treeline, soon descending with a sigh, "Nothing."
Misty now let out a sigh. "I don't understand. All the legends say it should be somewhere in this jungle. There must be some kind of spell that prevents it from being seen by the naked eye."
"But then how did the ponies that found it first...well, find it?" Misty didn't reply, just grumbling as Trail crossed his hooves at this, "Hun, it's gonna be getting dark soon. We'd better set up camp before Celestia lowers the sun."
"I....yeah. I guess you're right. Maybe we'll find something tomorrow."
"That's the spirit." Trail added as they pulled out some camping equipment. There, they pitched a tent and began eating rations along with jungle fruit. They didn't talk, communicating with pure eye contact before going to bed.
That night...
Misty found herself in a world of white, nothing in her vision. As she stood there, a golden light shined in front of her, but despite how bright it was, it didn't hurt the mare's eyes. Feeling drawn to it, she tried to trot up to it, only to realize that the light didn't seem to be getting any closer. But as she did this, the light started to move away.
"Wait....come back!"
As she did this, Trail yawned as he rolled over, trying to put his hoof around Misty on instinct. But when his hoof met dead air, he blinked his eyes open, only to go wide-eyed, "Misty?" His head raised up, now seeing he was alone in the tent. "Misty?!"
He quickly left the tent, seeing the camp empty as well, and took to the skies. Flying over the treeline, he saw some movement and swung down to his fleeing wife. "Misty! Misty, stop!" the pegasi yelled as he landed, now seeing her eyes were closed. "Misty!"
The mare just ran past him, pushing her husband aside. Blinking at this, he remembered that his wife had never sleepwalked, making him even more worried as he followed her. The pegasi cried out to her again and again, but she didn't respond. And as he tried for a fifth time with no response, he stuck to just following her. A little over an hour passed next as he followed, only to notice her come to a sudden stop.
"Misty?" he asked as he walked up to his wife, only for her to start swaying. Before she could kiss dirt, he swooped in and caught her, "Misty!"
"Huh?" the mare replied as her eyes started to flutter open, "Trail?"
"You okay?" Trail answered as he helped her up.
"Um...I think so?" she responded as she blinked at him, then started to look around, "Where are we?"
"I wish I knew. You were sleepwalk-er, sleep...galloping. You didn't stop until you came here."
"But why would I..." Misty blinked at this, tilting her head as her brain caught up, "The dream."
"Dream?" Misty glanced at her husband, soon explaining her sleep. Trail just raised an eyebrow at this. "Weird. Say...did you ever sleepwalk before we met?"
"I don't think so. But why would I..." She stopped as her eyes went wide, causing Trail to stare at her. He quickly realized she must have been having a vision of the future, only to see her gasp.
"What did you see?" Trail asked, only for no response. Instead, she began to trot away again. "Misty? Oh, not again..." The pegasi began to follow her again, "Misty, don't-" his words came to halt as she suddenly disappeared before his eyes, her form completely vanishing into thin air. "MISTY!"
The husband quickly ran to where she was, only to find nothing. Flaring his wings, he flew up and started to look around, fear in his eyes, "Misty?! MISTY?!"
"Trail?"
Looking down at the sudden voice, he saw his wife now back where she was before. Soon landing, he quickly hugged her while starting to pant, "Misty! Oh thank goodness! Don't scare me like that!"
"I'm sorry." Misty replied as she returned the embrace. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"But...what happened? How did you do that?"
"I...I don't know." She left the hug and stared back at the spot, only to walk up to it and disappear again. But before Trail could panic, she jumped back into eyesight. "You have to try this."
Blinking at it, he walked up to where she was...only to not disappear. "Huh? What's going on?"
"Hmmm..." Misty reappeared and grabbed his hoof, "Let's try it together then." Nodding back, he let her pull him along.
This time, Trail's eyes caught a bright flicker as he felt himself pass through something. And when the light faded, he went wide-eyed at the next sight. Standing before him was a temple, one beyond ancient with moss and age surrounding every ounce of it. Around them were bounties of trees with every fruit you could image, and as he stared back, he saw a magic barrier where he was once standing. Not only that, the barrier was dome-shaped, one that covered the whole temple.
"Incredible..."
"I know. This has to be it Trail," she pointed to the building, "Let's go take a look inside." Trail quickly followed her, the two finding a large set of upward stairs. Walking up to the top, they then found more stairs, all that headed down into the temple. "Here we go..."
The Present...
"And this was it? This was what you found?" Twilight asked, holding up the papers to demonstrate her point.
Trail nodded, "Yes. I returned to our campsite and brought them back to the temple, though I needed to rig up an elaborate series of pointers so I could find my way back. Once we had our things, we got to work documenting all the shapes and murals that filled the temple."
"Sister...take a look at these." Luna held up several photographs, "Is that what I think it is?"
Celestia leaned down and squinted at the pictures. "Hmm..." she hummed as she looked them over. The first showed a kind of sun-like object, while the second one showed the sun but it now had what appeared to be an alicorn inside it. Following this was a picture that showed the alicorn without the sun, while the next showed light coming off the alicorn and becoming several new suns. After this, it featured one where many different ponies were appearing inside the suns, all which were gone in the next photo, as it instead showed only the alicorn with the ponies. "Fascinating."
As she viewed these, Twilight continued to stare at the unknown language. "But what is this? If it's the language of the alicorns, you'd think Celestia and Luna would know it."
Celestia turned to her and shook her head. "The fact is Twilight, we know nothing of the alicorn race and their culture. Other than what Starswirl the Bearded told us."
"And that wasn't very much," Luna finished.
"How do you not know about alicorns?" Springer asked them with a tilt of the head. "What about your parents?"
Celestia and Luna both gave glum frowns. "We don't know who our parents were. Starswirl said he found us as foals, though we don't remember him doing so. Honestly, before Starswirl found us, it was...well, it was believed our race was extinct."
"Weird..." Rainbow commented as she rested her hooves behind her head.
Now seeing her mentor and her sister looking glum, Twilight turned back to Flash's parents. "So what happened after that?"
"Well...like I said before, we got to work researching the temple and all its secrets. We discovered many items inside, including a special thread that was almost indestructible." Flash and Scootaloo both glanced at each other, knowing what that thread was used for. "We only intended to stay there for a few weeks, long enough to get research material to bring back to Equestria so that we would be allowed to bring a greater investigation team." She slowly eyed her son as she said her next words, "But things...changed when we discovered I was..."
Several of the ponies all raised an eyebrow at this, only for Rarity to gasp. "You were pregnant?"
Misty nodded, subconsciously rubbing her stomach in memory. "The journey through that forest was a dangerous one. We feared that attempting to return through it may cause me to miscarry. So, we decided to remain in the temple until I gave birth."
The Past...
Misty was relaxing against a pile of ancient blankets, her stomach noticeably rounder as her horn was glowing. In her magic was two sewing needles, ones she was using to knit a blanket out of the thread she had found in the temple. In that moment, Trail flew up to her while carrying a plate of fruit, "Dinner is served, my love."
Misty giggled before putting her knitting down, taking one of the morsels of food, "Mmm...as good as ever."
Trail chuckled back as he sat down, chomping on a pear while other hoof started gently stroking Misty's stomach. "So, have you decided on a name yet?"
"No, nothing yet. You?"
"Nothing if it's a filly."
"What about a colt?"
"Well...one idea did come to mind."
"Go on."
"My father always told me our family was descended from the legendary hero Flash Magnus. Growing up, I always loved hearing about his adventures. So...I guess, if it's a colt, we could name the foal after him."
"Flash Magnus?"
"Maybe not the Magnus part, but I do really like the name Flash."
"Flash? Flash..." Misty hummed at this, her head tilting back and forth, "Yeah, that's a good first name. But he'll need something else..." Her eyes glanced over to a few of their bags, seeing the piles of relics inside, "How about...Flash Relic?"
Trail nodded instantly, "Not bad. I like it." he gave her a slight frown, "Though we'll need to think of something for a girl."
Misty was going to nod, only to feel a small kick, "I don't know why, but I don't think we'll need to." She rubbed her womb, "Something tells me we're having a colt, and I don't need my visions for that."
Trail started chuckling again, having learned a long time ago not to doubt his wife's instincts. He looked down and rubbed the belly again, "I can't wait to meet you son."
The months continued to pass as Misty's pregnancy moved along without issue, even without having any medical check ups. During that time, the two continued to document their findings and kept them safe in a magical pocket dimension spell Misty had learned to create. And in the last few weeks of her pregnancy, Misty started having trouble moving around, until-
"TRAIL!"
The pegasus flew up from the lower areas of the temple, now finding Misty clutching her stomach, "Misty?! What's wrong?!"
"Nothing's wrong, except I...I think Flash is coming." Trail's eyes went wide, panic instantly settling in as he gripped his wife's hoof.
"I'm here for you. All the way."
Time began to slow as Celestia swapped the sun and moon, the temple now being filled with Misty's cries of pain. This went on for hours, Misty's contractions happening in shorter and shorter intervals. "AAAAAHHHHH!" She screamed at another contraction, gripping Trail's hoof as she did so. Trail flinched at the pain of his crushed hoof, but didn't say anything as he watched his wife in uncontrollable agony.
And once the contraction ended, she let him go as he moved down and looked under the blanket they had placed over her lap. "I think...I think he's crowning." He glanced back up. "Deep breaths. The second you feel the next contraction, push with everything you have."
Misty nodded and took a long, deep breath. Hearing this, Trail readied his hooves. There, another contraction struck, making her let out a mighty cry while pushing as hard as she could. "AAAAAHHHHH!"
And as Trail grabbed his birthing son, a bright light made him look up and see Misty's eyes flash a brilliant golden shine. "Misty? MISTY?!"
Misty blinked her eyes opened, only to go wide-eyed as she found herself back in the white void. Before she could ask anything, a bright light made her look up, now seeing a golden sphere flying over to her. Moving at high speed, it had a barrage of golden orbs behind it.
"Hmm?" Misty muttered as the first orb slowed down in front of her, the mare blinking as she saw what was inside. Here, she saw was her and Trail standing in front of a building, Misty holding a red bundle in her hooves. "Canterlot Orphanage?" She asked as she read the sign, watching the two kiss the bundle before placing it on the doorstep and loudly knocking. They then ran out of sight, hiding in the distance as a pink unicorn walked out and found the bundle. Gasping, the mare reached down and opened the blanket, revealing an orange pegasus with blue hair.
In that moment, the golden sphere flew past her. "Wha-" She yelped as she stared at the fleeing sphere. "Was that...me and Trail? But-"
As if an answer was ready to show itself, a second orb reached her. This one showed a twelve year old colt, the orange pegasi running through a park with a purple filly. There, the scene changed to show the pegasus being hugged by the filly and what she assumed was her family.
The orb then flew away like the last, soon being replaced as another orb showed the colt standing beside a gray earth pony. It showed the colt on an obstacle course, the earth pony congratulating him before changing to show the colt in front of- "Princess Celestia?"
On cue, the orb zipped away, more spheres now appearing in front of the mare. Image after image began to show themselves, all with the pegasus in action. One was him fighting a dark alicorn, anothing fighting a super powered electric unicorn while a third showing him fighting a creature that was like a zoo rolled up into one being. Not only that, another light showed the pegasi hugging a young pegasus filly before changing to show him tucking her in. Eventually, a final light flew up to her. This one showed the pegasus and the six mares she had seen him with all placing magical gems into a crystal tree.
And as soon as that scene ended, the orb exploded, the light forcing Misty to shut her eyes. As she did this, a new sound filled the air, making her open her eyes and she found she was back in the temple. Looking down at the noise, she saw Trail with the source in his hooves. Her child, Flash Relic.
She held out her hooves as he gave the foal to her, Misty holding it close as tears filled her eyes. But as she held onto her son, she couldn't help but notice he looked exactly like the pegasus she had seen in her visions. "Trail...I need to tell you something. Something...amazing, but...also painful."
"What?" Trail asked as he saw the huge frown appearing on her face, "What's wrong, my love?"
"We...we need to give up our child."
The Present...
"It wasn't easy, but Trail and I eventually came to the decision that we had to leave Flash at the orphanage."
Trail nodded in agreement. "When we arrived back in Manehatten, we stored our research away before heading to Canterlot. We stuck around for a few weeks after leaving Flash, mainly to make sure everything went okay. But when we saw how good the unicorn was that took care of the orphanage was, we headed back to Manehatten to try and translate the unknown runes."
"But that's when we lost our memories. All we could remember was Flash's birth and the visions, but nothing else." Misty pulled out a picture, Flash and Twilight recognizing it as the one she showed them before. "And this was the only photo we had on us at the time."
"That's quite a story," Grand commented as Misty placed the photo on the table.
"Hold on there." Twilight Velvet interrupted as she tapped the table, "So...you didn't question this at all? You forgot everything but the visions, and you still decided to leave your foal?" Everypony turned to her now, all seeing the flat stare on her face as she continued, "I mean, I know you trust your visions and all...but you decided that so easily?!"
"It wasn't easy." Misty replied, only to flinch at Velvet's expression turn into a death glare.
"You gave up your children." Velvet hissed, making everypony else at the table wince. Flash opened his mouth to interrupt, but Velvet's tone made him whimper out as she continued, "You gave them up, as in...you decided to do this as soon as you gave birth! That's what you just told us-"
"We didn't just decide right then and there!" Misty interrupted, a glare starting to appear on her face, "We discussed long and hard, but what I saw, I knew I needed-"
"That's not what I meant." Velvet responded, crossing her hooves, "I know what Flash has done. What I'm saying is that even though you saw all of this, and I understand that Flash needed to accomplish everything he's done...well, you sound like you would do it all again if you had another vision."
"Wha-how dare you!" Misty screeched as tears began to appear in her eyes, "Do you have any idea how much it hurt us to do what we did?!"
"I don't. I don't throw away children." Velvet added, this action making her husband pat her side.
"Honey, maybe you should-"
"Don't Night Light." Velvet replied, glaring at him, "We spent years with Flash in our family and we all loved him, as he is family to us. Real family." Her glare intensified at her husband, "Don't tell me this doesn't tick you off."
The unicorn sighed in response, "It does...but you're causing a scene."
Velvet started to look around at the room, now seeing the mix of faces. There was fear, sadness and glum frowns all around. Taking a deep breath, "Sorry. I didn't mean to...go so far."
"Its fine Mrs. Velvet." Celestia chimed in, "There are some things that somepony has to say."
"Agreed." Misty added, wiping her tears as she let out a small hiccup, "I'm...sorry Mrs. Velvet. I know what we did was...wrong in many ways, but-"
"We believed we were doing something right." Trail interrupted as he wrapped a wing around his wife, "And we know it was cruel in your eyes, but we thought we were doing the right thing."
Velvet wanted to respond, but as she felt her husband's hoof sling around her neck, she looked up at him and saw him shake his head. Sighing, she glanced back at the couple, "I...still don't understand how you can think that, but..." She turned to Twilight, seeing a frown on her daughter's face. "I guess we should move on, and....figure the rest of this out."
"I could not agree more." Celestia added as she tapped the table, making almost everypony turn to her. A big smile graced her face as she pointed at the picture, "For one, we now know how Flash gained his powers."
"We do?" Scootaloo asked while blinking, only to see Celestia nod.
"Yes. If that temple was where those ponies used to worship this strange magic, it's a good idea to assume it was built in that location because it holds some kind of connection to the magic. If the connection still existed, then it's safe to assume the magic was leaking into the temple and being absorbed by those within it."
Most of the ponies began to catch onto what she was saying, First chiming in next, "I see. So you believe that Misty was absorbing the magic throughout her pregnancy, and the magic was channeled into Flash." Seeing that everypony was now staring at the doctor/knight, he continued, "During pregnancy, a mother's magical abilities weaken as all their internal magic is used to help the foal's magic development. If Misty was absorbing this unknown magic, it was being used to develop Flash and began to become a very part of him."
Fluttershy raised her hoof. "Um...if it's a part of him, then why can't he use it on command like other ponies use their magic?"
"A good question," Luna replied with a hum. "And sadly not one we can answer until we learn what magic it is."
"And our best bet of learning that is somewhere in here." Twilight added as she magically opened another box and pulled out a pile of photos, the first now making her raise an eyebrow. "Hey Flash, come look at these." Flash leaned over and saw the pictures, the first showing an alicorn while the second was presenting some kind of tornado.
"Is that..."
"I think so. Its that light tornado that appears around you whenever you transform." She went to the last picture, which showed the alicorn now wearing armor within the tornado. "I wonder..." She placed the three pictures next to the one Misty had shown them, that one appearing to complete the transformation.
"So the final form of Flash's ability is the tornado disappearing?"
"Just like when he fought against Tirek," Lightning added, the group soon explaining the event in the battle versus Tirek. Surprise and amazement followed this as the unicorn finished, "He would have beaten Tirek if he hadn't frozen up."
"So why did he freeze up?" Sweetie asked.
"Good question," Rarity replied.
"And answers of which lay somewhere in here," Tidal held up one of the boxes. "Does anypony have another idea on how to read these?"
Gorgenia and Wild shook their heads, "Script's runes couldn't do it. That alone worries me."
Flash let out a long sigh, grabbing one of the papers. He hadn't really looked at the papers with much focus up to this point, his eyes barely trying as he stared at the runes. "Great, just great. The one chance I have at learning what's up with me and I can't because...I can read this."
Everypony turned to him with raised eyebrows as Twilight asked, "What?"
"I can read this," Flash put the paper down before glancing at the others, "I've never seen these before, but somehow I understand what they're saying."
"How?!"
"I don't know! It's not like it's turning into Equestrian or anything. I just...know what they mean."
"Incredible..." Celestia gasped.
Scootaloo rushed up beside her brother, "So what's it say?!"
"Hold on," Misty said before her horn sparked, now shuffling the papers with a magical aura. There, they began to pile up on the table in an instant. "There. Now, they're in proper order."
"Okay..." Flash took the first piece of paper while Twilight's jaw dropped at the organisation spell.
"You have got to teach me that."
Misty chuckled, "I would be happy too." With that, everypony turned to Flash as he read the first piece of paper. He had entered Theta Mode so he could read faster, looking confused by some of the words. But as he read, he spotted a single phrase that kept appearing in the text.
"Sacred Light." This statement brought mixed reactions from all the ponies. Most showed confusion, while Twilight, Script and Misty seemed to recognise that phrase as Grand, Celestia and Luna all went wide-eyed.
"What's Sacred Light?" Applebloom asked.
Twilight scratched her head at this, "I've only read a few books explaining it. It was one of the few mysteries that Starswirl could never figure out."
Misty nodded in agreement. "I've also only found glimpses of it in our research. The phrase was uttered in several tomes, one of which lead us to the land we found the temple in."
"So what is it?" Spike asked.
"It is the source of all good magic in this world." The ponies all turned to Celestia, she and Luna both showing semi-frowns on their faces.
Grand stared at them with baited breath, "Your majesties...you know of it?"
"Yes. Starswirl would tell us about it all the time. His research spoke of how it was one of the first types of magic to exist in this world, and from it spread out the magic that makes up our world today. He believed that it is what gave life to the many types of ponies of this world."
"Wait..." Twilight grabbed the photos Celestia and Luna had been looking at earlier. "Maybe this mural is depicting the creation of ponykind." She pointed at the sun, "This must symbolise the Sacred Light." She then pointed to the one with the alicorn inside the sun, "And this symbolizes it giving life to the first alicorn."
Misty began to catch on, pointing to the next image. "And this represents the alicorn giving life to the rest of ponykind."
"Exactly."
"But how could magic give life to something?" Spike asked with tilting his head. "Isn't it just...energy?"
Celestia shook her head, "That's not what Starswirl believed. He theorized that the Sacred Light was actually a conscious entity, and it used its power to shape life the way we'd shape clay."
This made everypony go wide-eyed, Rainbow now asking, "So...this Sacred Light thing is living inside Flash?"
"I don't think its exactly that." Twilight answered as she glanced at another picture. "My best guess is that Flash has a magical connection to the Sacred Light and it's giving him power. That also explains a lot about Flash's many other powers, mainly his accelerated healing and his immunity to most magics."
Celestia nodded in agreement. "The Sacred Light was cancelling the magic out. At least, any magic that originated from it. Any form of unicorn, pegasus, earth pony and alicorn magic, specifically any type of light magic will be made useless against Flash."
"So only dark magic affects him?"
"Looks like it. After all, Flash was affected by Sombra's magic." Ruby commented as she grimaced at the memory of her lost friend. "The Umbrum must not be a species that was given life by the Sacred Light."
Flash, who had been quiet up until this point, suddenly spoke up as he remember something. "Wait...what about Discord?" They all turned to him. "His magic was able to take away my wings, but it couldn't force me to act differently from who I really am. So does Discord's magic originate from the Sacred Light?"
"It's a bit of both actually." Everypony hopped in place at the voice, soon looking up to see Discord, sitting on a movie chair eating popcorn. "Hey."
Iron growled, "I thought you left."
"Nope," Discord replied as he floated down, "I just decided to stay out of the way like I promised."
Iron opened his mouth, only for Celestia to chime in, "What did you mean when you said it was a bit of both?"
"Oh, well it's quite obvious. You see, I've known about the Sacred Light for a long time as well. Of course, I didn't know Flash had it, but it would make sense why he'd have a resistance against my magic." He snapped his fingers as a professor outfit appeared on his body along with a blackboard. Tapping it with a pointer as words began to form on the screen, he started to explain, "You see, the Sacred Light has been a part of my species's culture for a long time. We draconequus are what you'd call a crossbreed. Born from the union of two entirely different species, the first draconequus was the child of a creature born from the Sacred Light and another born of the Corrupted Shadow."
"Corrupted Shadow?!" Grand gasped, quickly closing his mouth to try and not get the others attention.
"That's something else Starswirl was studying," Luna added. "Its the source of all dark magic in the world."
Discord nodded as the board showed a black cloud, "That's right. It's the Sacred Light's polar opposite, which is why the fusion created my species." He saw some of the younger ponies were still confused, making him roll his eyes. "When you take something and combine it with its exact opposite, the result will be something completely unexpected with no sense of reality. Pure chaos. So when you take the most powerful source of positive energy, like the Sacred Light, and combine it with the most powerful source of negative energy, Corrupted Shadow-"
"The resulting energy is the most powerful source of chaos energy," Twilight finished.
"Exactly. So since my magic is a fusion of both Corrupted Shadow and Sacred Light, Flash is able to resist it just enough from my chaos magic."
"Wow...my head's starting to hurt." Springer moaned as he rubbed his head.
"Yeah. That made almost too much sense for you." Flash added, which Discord just shrugged at.
"Wait a minute!" Rainbow spoke up, "Then how was Flash immune to Chrysalis brain washing and Tirek's magic draining abilities? You saying him and those Changelings came from the Sacred Light?!"
Celestia nodded again. "Just because they are now creatures of darkness, doesn't mean they originated from darkness. Luna is an alicorn and she succumbed to the darkness and became Nightmare Moon." Luna growled at this, making her sister turn and frown, "No offense."
"None taken."
"Not only that, I've used dark magic before," Twilight added. "When we were searching for the Crystal Heart, I had to use it to open the passage to Sombra's hidden chamber."
Script hummed at this. "So only creatures born of the...Corrupted Shadow?" The older ones nodded, "Can actually affect Flash?"
"Exactly. And luckily for Flash, there are very few surviving creatures in this world that were born from it. The only ones I know about would be the Umbrum, which are currently sealed away, and the Tricksters."
"Tricksters?!" Springer gasped, Discord just nodding.
"That explains why rune magic works on me." Flash commented with crossed hooves. "I mean, I wasn't able to get past Script's runes during the Battle of Canterlot and the ones Shade used worked to seal me into that dream state."
Twilight nodded at this, "Not only that, Shade showed us that his species the Tricksters invented rune magic. That alone-"
"THEY WHAT?!" Solid yelped as he went wide-eyed, "What do you mean the Tricksters created rune magic?! Are you saying that weird fox thing I helped make a cell for helped make rune magic?! Why haven't I been told this?!"
"Well...its a long story Solid." Twilight admitted with scratching the back on her head, "You see, Shade kidnapped us and showed us past events where-"
"Hold on there, your majesty." Grand interrupted, "You can give Solid a report of that later. Why don't we get back to the main subject at hoof instead of talking about-"
"Don't say it." Solid hissed as he glared at the knight, "Don't you dare say it."
Lighting put his hoof in front of Solid while Gorgenia and Wild gripped the unicorn's sides, "Now's not the place for that Solid."
Glancing at his friends, he let out a sigh, "Fine..."
Ruby raised an eyebrow at this, leaning over to whisper to Grand, "What's his problem?"
"He hates me for...a long list of reasons." Grand grumbled, rubbing his face with a groan, "Something I'll never be able to fix."
Flash tapped the table, making everypony look back at him. "Should I continue reading?" The others all nodded, making him stare at another sheet of paper, "Purest souls whose heart's ignite, channel the power of the Sacred Light. Only those to wield its might, shall have spirits shining bright. Who uses its power to do what's right, to face against evils that they smite. But those with darkness blinding sight, shall not be gifted Sacred Light. So go forth and have no fright, let your courage shine so bright. Protector of all things right, wielder of the Sacred Light."
"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Wild asked.
"Not sure. The answers probably lie somewhere in the rest of the writings." Misty turned to Flash with a huge smile. "And now that we actually have a cipher, we can work to translate the rest." In that moment, she spotted Scootaloo yawning. "But I think it's time somepony got to bed."
"She's right," Applejack patted Applebloom's head. "Come on sugarcube."
"You too darling," Rarity told Sweetie.
The Crusaders all moaned at this, only for Celestia to stand up. "We all should be getting some rest. We have a big day tomorrow, and will need all the energy we can get. Especially you Flash." Flash nodded as everypony began to head to their rooms.
And as they left, Grand walked in front of the alicorns, "Your majesties, can I talk to you both for a moment?" He looked back and saw that Twilight and Cadance had also left the room before turning back, "I believe what we have learned today may be connected to what Cold has been looking into..."