"BonBon! I knew you would make it! I should have never doubted you!" said Lyra euphorically, hugging BonBon tightly.
"Uh...what happened?" asked BonBon, confused.
"What happened? You gave those changelings a good thumping on the insect skulls! That was so awesome of you!" started Rainbow Dash full of excitement.
"When I had just fought a good dozen changelings, I thought my friends were yelling at me that we needed to retreat to the castle. The problem was that it wasn't you guys. It was just a trick to break us up." said Rainbow Dash, pointing to Twilight and the other ponies.
"Hm, Chrysalis probably suspected that we would try to use the Elements of Harmony against her. And without all six elements, it wouldn't have worked," Twilight said.
"It's possible, anyway I ran along with you...I mean them. When we arrived at the castle, there were already dozens of changelings waiting for us inside, or more precisely, just for me. And I almost got overpowered by them if BonBon hadn't come rushing through the door behind me and fought my way out. You should have seen her beating the buck out of one changeling after another. That was just awesome! She saved me!" said Rainbow Dash with great enthusiasm.
"I was under the assumption that you were on your way to the Elements of Harmony, so I went after you to help. Then, when I saw that Rainbow Dash had walked into a trap, I had to do something. I fought this superior force as long as I could to buy Rainbow more time. But suddenly I felt a tugging, as if something was being pulled out of my body. It was an unpleasant feeling that grew stronger and stronger until suddenly I felt nothing and then everything went black in front of my eyes." explained BonBon.
"I'm sorry you got into trouble because of me. I tried to get help as soon as possible but the whole town was evacuated and there were almost no pony left. Luckily I ran into Levita and Derpy and I asked for their help so we could get you out," Rainbow Dash told BonBon.
Levita turned to me. I understood at that moment that BonBon was in more danger than I was at that point, so I knew she hadn't forgotten about me. I was just glad she was okay.
"Wait...you said the whole town was evacuated?" asked Twilight.
When Rainbow Dash nodded, everyone turned to Princess Celestia.
"Chrysalis had incapacitated me. It must have been my sister who gave the order." Celestia said and turned to Luna, but she denied with a shake of her head.
They knew it couldn't have been Cadance either, since she was in the castle the whole time. But some noticed that Levita had a big grin on his face and was staring at me. As a result, everyone's eyes fell on me. I didn't know what to do at that moment.
"You, you gave the order? But how..." Twilight asked me in amazement.
I hesitantly spread my wings until they were unfolded to their full size. Everyone looked at my wings with a fascinated look and even the princesses seemed surprised that I had the same wings as they did. Levita had to giggle, apparently she couldn't get enough of the reaction of other ponies to my wings.
"These are the wings of an alicorn...please tell me, who are you and where are you from?" said Princess Celestia.
At that moment I realized again that I hadn't made any progress compared to when Levita had found me back then. But I could no longer make excuses for it. Now I had the chance to really speak the truth and get everything off my chest.
"I...I don't know anymore. Levita had found me back in Everfree Forest when I was probably attacked by a Timberwolf. Unfortunately, that caused me to forget everything that came before. My former life, my origins, even my name," I said, close to tears.
"Oh, I'm so sorry for you. That must have been a really difficult time for you." Celestia answered me.
"It was. But fortunately, I've made friends who are helping me find my old self so I can enjoy life again."
"I'm glad to hear that, but why didn't you come to us in the first place?" she asked, confused.
I didn't know what to say to that at that moment. We had once had the idea of including the princess, but why did we never come back to that?
"I can't give you back your lost memories, but if you wish, I can cast a spell to find out who you are and where you come from," she suggested.
I could not describe the relief I felt at that moment. At last my search had come to an end, I would finally find out the origin of my existence with Celestia's help. But I had to wait until the next day, because Princess Cadance and her groom Shining Armor wanted to celebrate their wedding. Of course, I didn't want to miss that under any circumstances. I found out that Shining Armor and Princess Cadance met when she was Twilight's foal sitter. He was Twilight's brother, of course he was. Also, how could anything else happen in Equestria where the six ponies weren't involved?
The wedding the following day was great, it was also for many other ponies the first time that they were present at a wedding of a princess. The damage to the city was quickly repaired with the help of all the ponies. I wanted to help, but Princess Celestia seemed to have a special interest in finding out where I came from, so I got a private audience with her. When I met her in the throne room of the castle, she asked me not to worry too much about the procedure and to be relaxed. Even though it was hard for me, since I didn't know what was coming, I tried my best to make it as easy as possible for her to access my thoughts. I sat down and took another deep breath before nodding to Celestia.
She cast the spell and her eyes began to glow white. I could also see my vision getting whiter and whiter until I couldn't see anything. I couldn't hear anything or feel anything at that moment, let alone say anything. It was like I was dreaming, except there was nothing to dream about. I didn't know how long it would take Celestia to read my mind. But it took what felt like only a few minutes before my vision suddenly cleared. I looked full of expectation at the princess, who pulled a face distorted with fear. She looked at me as if I were a ghost. She trembled and looked around the room in confusion, surveying me.
"Princess Celestia? Are you all right? What did you see?" I asked her worriedly.
"I...I don't know exactly what I saw..." she said nervously.
That was all she could get out, so I waited a moment for the princess to calm down a bit. I didn't know if something had gone wrong with the spell or if Celestia had discovered something in my mind that she hadn't expected. After she calmed down a bit, she apologized to me for her behavior and began to tell me about her discoveries. In my mind she could see a town that looked like Cloudsdale at first glance. But it wasn't Cloudsdale and the town didn't even seem to exist in Equestria. She said that she had seen things that did not exist in Equestria. So she guessed that I wasn't even from Equestria. Probably my home was farther away than we had first thought. But if all the ponies on this planet lived in Equestria, where did I come from? And why had this place scared Princess Celestia so much?
I asked her if it was possible to get to this place, but she doubted that I would want to go back there. It would be a place where evil things would exist, from which she wanted to keep me away. Apparently Celestia knew the danger that came from that place, perhaps she had been there herself once. But as much as Celestia advised me not to look further for this place, I still wanted to know where it was and how to get there. Hopefully, I would not regret this decision so that I could never return to Equestria. If the princess didn't want to help me, I knew by now which ponies I had to turn to now.
Twilight and her friends were willing to help me, even if she had a bit of a guilty conscience about it, when I told her that Princess Celestia did not want to help me. She seemed to think a lot of the princess's opinion. This year's Summer Sunset Celebration was cancelled because Princess Celestia wanted to celebrate the return of her sister Luna. She decided to postpone the celebration until the winter solstice, when the night was longer than the day. Twilight decided to use this day off to find a way for me to get to the world where I came from. I met her friends at the library in Ponyville at noon. She rummaged among the books on the shelves, hoping to find something useful. I wondered if I should listen to Celestia's advice and stay here in Equestria. But here I would continue to live in uncertainty about my origins...and about my family.
I hadn't told Levita and the others about my plans, but told them that I wanted to spend some time in Ponyville after this long absence. I'm sure they would have advised me against my quest and would have wanted me to stay here with them in Equestria. Besides, we already had a strong bond with each other, so saying goodbye would be more than difficult for me. But for Twilight and her friends, I was just a passing acquaintance who now needed their help. And even though I protected many ponies in Canterlot from the attack of the changelings, I was sure that Equestria would continue to exist even without my presence. It wasn't too long before Twilight pulled a book from the shelf that looked ancient. She said that these books were gifts from Princess Celestia when Twilight graduated from the Academy for Gifted Unicorns. She still had many of them in her old home in Canterlot.
"It says here: 'If a being seems lost after the worlds are apart, it is reborn in the world it knows from the start...whatever that means..."
Twilight looked uncertain. She had never cast such an old spell before.
"Oh, that's typical of old spells. They're always written so over the top. Do you think we can restore his memory with this spell?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"It's worth a try. That's the only saying that seems to fit it. But it's complicated."
Then Twilight took one deep breath and exhaled.
"Are you sure?"
I nodded and she stood in front of me. What she didn't realize was that she was standing right in front of the front door of the library. Then she tried to cast the spell and her horn slowly began to glow purple. As she did so, she muttered the spell over and over to concentrate better. First, my body began to glow and I noticed purple particles forming out of my body and floating to Twilight's horn. There they gathered until a large glowing sphere could be seen, which would hit me at any moment. Suddenly the front door opened and Spike came in.
"Hey, Twilight! Princess Celestia wants to see you! It's about a test!" he shouted.
Twilight startled and the spell shot uncontrollably from her horn. It missed and hit Rainbow Dash, who then disappeared in a purple cloud of magic dust.
"Oh Celestia. This is bad. Where did Rainbow Dash go? Where is she?" cried Twilight in panic.
Spike stood motionless, not knowing what had just happened. Neither did anyone else including me.
"We need to get to Princess Celestia quickly and tell her. Maybe she knows where Rainbow Dash might have disappeared to." said Applejack.
Twilight reacted in a panic.
"We can't! Princess Celestia had told me to stop reading those dusty old books. Oh no, what am I going to do? What are we going to tell her?"
The ponies all looked at each other, perplexed, as I spoke up.
"Rainbow Dash is in charge of the weather, right? Tell the princess that there was a thunderstorm and you wanted to help with a spell. Unfortunately, lightning struck your spell and Rainbow Dash disappeared in the process."
"Not to mention that I'm against lying to the princess...how did you come up with that idea?" wanted Applejack.
"I...I think I heard that somewhere...in a novel about time travel." I replied shyly.
The ponies seemed to think it was strange that I remembered something so crazy, despite my amnesia.
"Hmm, your story sounds plausible. But Applejack is right. We'll decide later whether we need to tell the story or not."
We hurried to the train station in Ponyville and took the next train to Canterlot. The weather was perfect again and the sun was shining brightly, but I couldn't enjoy the autumn scenery outside very much because I was worried about Rainbow Dash. I just hoped that nothing bad had happened to her. Twillight and the others remained absolutely silent about the ride so that no one else would suspect what had happened. No one but the princess could help us out of this situation, so the other ponies didn't need to know.
When we arrived at the station, we ran as fast as we could to the castle. We had to get to Princess Celestia and tell her what had happened. If she had written that spell herself, she surely knew where Rainbow Dash could be. When we were by the castle, Twilight asked me to wait outside. Apparently, she suspected that Princess Celestia might be very angry with me for asking her not to look for this world anymore. Then Twilight disappeared into the castle with her remaining four friends and Spike. So I waited for some time, but I noticed that they were gone longer than I had suspected. I remembered that Twilight had said that there were more books in her home in Canterlot. Maybe I could stop by there while they worked with the princess to figure out how Rainbow Dash would reappear. I know I sounded very selfish at that moment, but what else was I supposed to do during that time but stand around pointlessly?
I walked down the streets until I found my way back to Twilight's old home. I looked at a stony staircase that ran along the outside of the tower of her home and went up. At the top, I saw that the door was wide open. Possibly Twilight was in quite a hurry to move out of here after being allowed to stay with her friends in Ponyville. The wind and weather messed up some of the books lying crosswise in her home. The sun shone brightly into the glass window, illuminating the entire interior. I noticed that the light was particularly bright in one corner of the room. There was also a reading desk there with an open book. Apparently Twilight had placed the reading desk here to read better with the sunlight. This book looked important, so I approached the reading desk and dared to take a look inside.
It said something about the summer solstice. The day Nightmare Moon returned to Equestria to spread eternal darkness. Inwardly, I fell into a small pang of nostalgia, because that night before, Levita had found me in the Everfree Forest. But the book apparently went back even further. Even if I probably wouldn't find anything in there about my origins, I could at least find out what had happened in Equestria before. I flipped back to the beginning of the book to see what the first entry was. The book went back to the founding days of Equestria and it was personally written by Princess Celestia. But it started out very sad and was almost entirely about how Princess Celestia had banished her sister Luna to the moon. And the book explained why. Apparently, Luna could no longer stand the fact that she controlled the part of the day when all the ponies were asleep and no one gave her the same recognition as Celestia, whose ponies' eyes shone with joy every time she let the sun rise. Now I could understand how such unbridled rage could build up in Luna that Celestia saw only one way out: to protect Equestria from her. That must have been probably the hardest decision in her life so far. The book was also about the construction of Canterlot Castle, since Celestia could no longer live in her old home. She called it "The Castle of the Two Sisters."
Where was this castle going to be? It would probably take me ages to search through the chaos that was here due to Twilight's absence. And besides, I felt like I really shouldn't be snooping around other people's houses, even if Twilight didn't live here anymore. So I flipped the book back to the Summer Solstice page so Twilight wouldn't wonder who had flipped the book if she ever returned here. I decided to get Levita and the others involved so they could tell me if this castle even still existed and if so, where it was. And since there was still no trace of the princess, Twilight or her friends, I decided to make my way to Ponyville. But since I could fly well by now, I didn't have to rely on the train anymore and flew towards the valley. I noticed how the sun was still high in the sky, although it felt like evening already. Possibly Princess Celestia was really busy so she could not fulfill her duty.
It didn't take me long to reach the bottom of the valley where Ponyville was located. Only when I looked back in the direction of Canterlot did I realize the seeming height of the structure. It was truly a masterpiece. But I had to concentrate, I felt that it was no coincidence that in Twilight's home this book about the summer solstice was open. I flew directly to Levita's house to tell her about the day's events. The first thing she was totally upset about was that I was just going to leave without saying goodbye to her. But I was more worried at that moment about Rainbow Dash, who had gotten into trouble because of me. Since I was sure that the princess was already taking care of it, Levita wanted to go see Lyra and BonBon because she thought that we would need help in finding the castle. However, she didn't tell me why at first. When we arrived at Lyra and BonBon's house, it was hard for me to admit that I wanted to leave just like that. Lyra especially seemed to be very affected by this, as she had been worried about me. I told her that she didn't have to worry about me, although she certainly would have wanted me to apologize for my behavior. But I could not apologize for it, because I was still convinced that one day the day of my return home would come, after which I would probably never be able to return to Equestria. And then she should not have regretted getting to know me. Since she was a Heartstrings, she would do the same for me. But I did not want to worry about that at this moment. I also told about the Castle of the Two Sisters that I read about in the book in Twilight's old home.
"The Castle of the Two Sisters, you say? Well, there's a good news...and a bad news." said BonBon.
"Tell me the good one first, please!" replied I.
"Well, the castle still exists. But it's been crumbling into ruins for thousands of years."
"And that was the bad news, I suppose?" I asked her.
She shook her head.
"No, the bad news is that the castle is in the middle of Everfree Forest."
At that name, the fur on the back of our necks stood up again. Again and again, I was drawn back to that enchanted forest. After what I had skimmed in the book, I knew that the chimera called Discord, also called the God of Chaos, had enchanted this forest. But the spells were dark in nature, and so the once magnificent enchanted forest became a shadow of its former self. We decided to quickly make our way to the aforementioned castle, as Celestia seemed to be letting the day grow longer. And thus we did not have to expect having to walk in the dark. At night, BonBon also advised us not to go, since this place could be very dangerous even for a group of ponies.
When we arrived at the forest, the sun was getting a little darker. Levita said that this would happen because of the magic of the forest. The further you went in, the darker it would get even despite the bright sun. A light mist lay over the forest floor, forming ghostly blankets. You could hear the creatures roaming around us in the forest, but they did not venture out of the fog. Sometimes you could see eyes shining out of the fog in a wide variety of colors. But as long as we stayed together on the main path, nothing should happen to us.
When we had to cross a rickety suspension bridge, the place became even more spooky to me. It was a good thing that the castle was already visible behind it. The creatures did not follow us across the bridge. BonBon thought it must have something to do with the Elements of Harmony that Twilight and her friends had used against Nightmare Moon back then. Apparently it had cleared the part of the forest around the castle of the dark magic. I was relieved because as I looked up into the sky, I could see that the sun was slowly fading into dusk. Apparently, the princess was able to go about her work again. I wondered how Rainbow Dash was doing at that moment. The huge wooden gates of the castle were not completely closed and one could see through them into the interior, where it was already much darker than outside. However, Lyra was able to cast a light spell with her unicorn that made her horn glow like a yellow glow stick and illuminated the area around us. This allowed us to find our way around the entrance area and we entered the castle. Cobwebs hung overhead. Then we looked into a long, two-story hall. Two flags hung on the walls at the far end of the hall. One showed a white and a black alihorn, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. So this was the Castle of the Two Sisters. My eyes wandered to the upper floor where there were many bookshelves. Levita was beside himself.
"Oh Celestia...look at this! All of this must be thousands of years old! I can't wait to see what we'll discover here!" she said excitedly.
Then we walked up the stone staircase to the second floor. Lyra managed to light the ancient torches on the wall with a spell so we all had light. She and BonBon were really a good help, I was glad to have them by my side. So we started to walk slowly from shelf to shelf to take a closer look at the books. We couldn't read the writing in these books, obviously these books were not written in our language. But there was one thing we noticed about the books. There were drawings over and over again of monkeys that apparently lived in tribes. The drawings repeatedly showed these creatures in a battle-ready pose, fighting dragons and other mythical creatures. Apparently, these books were actually from another time before Equestria and...a significantly darker time. We spent the next few hours searching through a wide variety of books. But without being able to read them, they would be of no use to us. There had to be something here written by ponies. We decided to explore the ruins further until we arrived at the old throne room. From here the princesses had ruled Equestria since it was founded. We looked around the royal family's chambers behind the thrones to see if anything was still hiding in there.
In Celestia's former chamber we could discover an open book on a writing desk, but the pages seemed to be empty. Even when I turned the pages with my hooves, there was nothing on the pages.
"So that's it? Now we've looked in all the places that are left of the castle!" I sighed.
The disappointment was palpable among the others as well, possibly it was also the exhaustion from the long walk we had taken to get to the castle. But Levita examined the empty book suspiciously.
"Yes, but this is strange. For thousands of years now, Princess Celestia has ruled Equestria. Here she has a book with countless pages, and she's never written anything in it?"
"Probably Celestia couldn't continue the book after what happened to Luna. She had certainly left the castle after that. But that there's really nothing in it...you're right, Levita. That is indeed strange." Lyra said, looking at the book more closely as well.
"Hah, it's probably a simple reading protection spell against prying eyes. Let's see if I remember how to bypass that one..." said Lyra cheekily.
Then she flipped to the first page with her magic and began to conjure up a spell. At least I could tell by her increasingly bright glowing horn. She seemed to be trying pretty hard. The book began to glow brightly. The edges of the pages turned golden and slowly you could see various decorations and characters burning into the pages. But she couldn't cast the spell for long and had to end it, so the characters on the pages faded again.
"Don't worry about it. You tried," I said thankfully to Lyra.
Levita approached the book again and took a quick deep breath.
"Hey, there's a text popping up all of a sudden. I think it worked!" she gloated.
"And what does it say?" wanted BonBon to know.
"Princess Celestia hereby presents her compliments to the talented unicorn Lyra Heartstrings and kindly asks her...to keep her magic out of other ponies' business..." Levita read aloud before looking over at us in confusion.
"What does that mean?" asked Lyra, confused.
"I'd like to explain it to you myself." a voice sounded behind us from the hallway outside the chamber.
We turned to see Princess Celestia enter the room through the curtain.
"You shouldn't be here, it's dangerous here. Even more so sneaking through Everfree Forest, you could have been hurt." said Celestia worriedly.
"Princess Celestia? How did you find us?" wanted to know BonBon.
"Well, I have great news for you. Rainbow Dash has reappeared. Because of the spell she landed in another world...your world."
She said to me with a serious look.
"I knew I would find you here because this is the only place that holds the last clues to this world."
"I'm sorry, Princess Celestia. I didn't mean to put anyone in danger, I just want to know where I came from and...who I am."
I walked over to the princess with my head down and knelt in front of her.
"Well, I was initially very displeased with the fact that Rainbow Dash got into this dangerous world through your fault..." she said in a stern tone.
"...But when I revisited this world after a long time, I had to discover that for a very long time I had an outdated idea of the beings that ruled this land before. Now a completely new image of these beings, who call themselves humans, revealed itself to me."
We were excited to hear what Celestia would say about Rainbow Dash's experiences. To be sure, I was also happy that she was back. But one thing was more important to me at that moment. I stood up again and looked at the princess from below.
"Celestia? What do you know about humans?" I asked cautiously.
She could tell by the look on my face that the answer was more important to me than anything else. The others listened intently to what she might have to say. She took a deep breath and crossed the room to look through a window on the other side. She seemed to be having a little trouble remembering the past.
"Well...it's been over...a thousand years..." she continued.
"That's all right, Princess Celestia. You can also use the book if you don't remember exactly. " Levita suggested.
"I thank you for the suggestion, Levita. But I'm sure you understand the personal experience was....a little bit different." Celestia smiled at her.
"It was over a thousand years ago, and I can still see the former beauty of Everfree Forest before me. This castle, on the other hand, was never really beautiful, and I never thought to stay here with the others. But we had called it the 'Castle of the Two Sisters'. And it was...it really was," she said, looking dreamily out the window.
Then Celestia began to tell us her story. We sat there as if we were curious and listened to her attentively.
She told about the time when this land was still ruled by humans. She called it the Dark Ages. She told us about fire-breathing dragons and human heroes who risked their lives to prove their love to a woman. And Celestia even told us that she was once allowed to experience being a human herself. But this feeling was the most horrible experience she had ever had. She suddenly felt things like suffering and she felt the decaying and mortal body of a human. Because unlike a human, unicorns lived very long in this world. She also told that she and Luna had been unicorns themselves in the past. As it turned out later for the two of them, they only had the form of a unicorn on the outside, however, like all other unicorns, they already possessed alicorn magic at that time. Over time, various unicorns had specialized and adapted their bodies with magic so that they could either carry heavy loads or fly. These adaptations caused their horns to recede, and over time they became the three breeds of ponies that exist in Equestria today. We couldn't believe our ears. It was fascinating to listen to Celestia's version of how she created this world for ponies...just before Equestria was founded.
She also told us that the most powerful mage in Equestria was also a human. He was known as Nikos at that time. In order not to disappear during the transformation of the then human world into the Equestria we know, he transformed himself into a unicorn. He sought out Celestia, who had cast the spell, and made himself known. Since he initially made a big fuss about the spell, acting as if he came from another star and wearing a long beard, Celestia gave him a new name: Stars Swirl the Bearded. The really exciting part of this for me was when she told of a magical portal she had taken over from another wizard who had played court jester for a human king at the time. However, since his magic was evil in nature, the portal at that time still led to a dreaded creature that the king sent to drive unicorns into the sea to keep them captive and never lose them again. After the unicorns were freed by her and a few humans, the former evil wizard modified the portal so that the humans could go to another world than this one. For thousands of years Celestia had kept this portal in the cellars under the newly built Canterlot Castle, until one of her students discovered it and escaped through it to the human world. She regretted this incident until today, because she has no contact with her student anymore. Because of this incident, she had placed the portal in the Crystal Kingdom's castle under the protection of King Sombra. However, another conflict arose in which the king became corrupted and evil by the eternal winter of the land. He began to exploit the ponies that lived there and to live in constant fear of his power. She and Luna had to stop him, just as later the powerful wizard used his power to throw Equestria into chaos and sow discord for pleasure, which is where his later name came from. Because of her constant need to protect Equestria from danger, she has not had the opportunity to study the portal further. Until recently, when Rainbow Dash was able to return to Equestria. However, this was only possible because another portal existed which was not known until now. I listened intently until Celestia finished telling her story.
"So, there's a portal to the human world then? Then what are we waiting for?" I jumped up after the last sentence of Celestia's story.
"I'm sorry, but where this portal leads it is not safe. It must remain closed," Celestia said with her head down.
"But why? I belong there, don't I? Why can't I go home?" I asked in exasperation.
"Understand, the portal we had to use to bring Rainbow Dash back is quite different from the one that made the human disappear back then. But now the humans themselves have built such a portal. We cannot risk a human passing through that portal. They are still a dangerous species that should not be underestimated. I have seen what they can be like, and I will never expose this world to that danger again."
She knew I didn't care about her personal problem with humans and didn't want to be stalled any longer. Sullenly, I ran out of the room, down the hallway to outside the front gates of the castle. The moon was bright in the sky and for the first time I noticed that the unicorn on it had disappeared. But I could not concentrate on that, my thoughts were elsewhere. This could not be true, there is a functioning portal to the human world and we were not allowed to use it so that I could finally come home.
Lyra came out of the castle after a short while to check on me.
"Hey, are you all right?"
"No, it's not fair. Now we've uncovered one of Equestria's most well-kept secrets, and what good has it done us?" I snorted.
"At least we've found a solution for you now. That's good, isn't it?" she said.
"Yes, for a solution that we are not allowed to use. The only solution we have." I looked at Lyra sadly.
"But Celestia didn't forbid us to go through the portal. She only said that it is currently too dangerous to go there unprepared. I am sure that when the time comes, you will be allowed to visit this world. And I will accompany you," she told me.
Lyra tried to persuade me to listen to Celestia's advice and not to try. Surely she knew that my mind was made up. I wanted to finally know what the connection was between the humans and me and if it could help me finally find out who I was. Outwardly, I showed understanding for the moment and followed Lyra back inside the castle so Celestia could bring us all safely back to Ponyville. Inwardly, I thought about when would be the most appropriate moment to look for the portal in the castle. And I would soon have a suitable opportunity...
In the next few days, everyone started to get back to everyday life in Ponyville and I was allowed to move back in with Levita. But she left the house more often now to decipher the countless books we had discovered in the Castle of the Two Sisters. At least one pony was still occupied with the history of the people, but I did not blame the others. Since Celestia had forbidden the use of the portal, there was nothing left for my friends to do. But I could not give up now. I was so close to discovering my origin and Lyra knew I was planning to do the stupid thing and ignore Celestia's warning again, so she stayed with me to watch over me and be my good conscience. She really was a pony who stuck with me through thick and thin. I could say the same for Levita, of course, but with Lyra there was more. I hoped that would reveal itself before I had to choose between Equestria or my homeworld.
We had learned from Princess Celestia that the new human portal was located in her castle in Canterlot. Getting inside the castle would not be a problem, because the path up to the library inside the castle was free to enter at any time. So we would easily get past the guards, but we couldn't be caught snooping around inside. Lyra continued to suggest that I listen to Princess Celestia's advice and wait until it was safe to cross the portal. But she also knew my determination and I advised her not to put herself in unnecessary danger because of me. But I could not dissuade her from this any more than she could dissuade me.
There were usually many other ponies also out and about in the castle who would notice us. We needed a time when we could search the castle unnoticed, to search even in the most intricate corners. Maybe a time when even the princesses were not present. Lyra had a brilliant idea. Soon the winter solstice celebration was coming up in Ponyville and all the ponies would be there...all except us.
We waited for the evening for the Winter Sun Celebration in Ponyville, which was just before Hearts Warming Eve. We went to the celebration first with the others to make sure both princesses were present. When Princess Celestia lowered the sun so Princess Luna could make the moon rise, everyone stared spellbound at the spectacle. As it grew dark outside, we slowly crept out of the crowd. Once we were outside, Lyra stood close to me and cast a teleportation spell that took us to Canterlot near the castle in the blink of an eye. As we walked toward the castle entrance, we encountered two guards guarding the passageway.
"Hey you two, what are you doing here? Why aren't you at the Winter Sun celebration?" said one of the guard ponies.
Lyra got nervous and tried to come up with an answer.
"Um..this is a little awkward now. I had been working on an amnesia spell with my friend here and somehow I accidentally cast it on myself. Everything seemed okay at first, but when we went to the party, I couldn't remember how to teleport, hehe."
The guardian pony started to grin.
"You don't remember how to teleport? But you're a unicorn, you don't forget something like that. Haha." laughed the guardian pony.
"I'm afraid you'll have to take the...haha...train then. Like us non-unicorns." quipped the guardian pony.
"But then...then we'll be late for the celebration. I really need to go to the library to look up the spell again, then I'll remember it. I...I also remember where the book is that I need...at least I hope I do. But my friend here is helping me find it. Can we please go inside?" begged Lyra, her eyes wide.
"It's okay, all right. I was kidding about the train, it would take too long. But hurry up, don't want you to...haha...forget the time." grinned the guard.
"A unicorn doesn't know the teleportation spell anymore, I'm laughing my ass off." grinned the other guardian pony to the other as we disappeared through the main corridor to the back inside the castle.
"Lyra, don't you think that story was a little...implausible?" I whispered to her.
"What was I supposed to say? That you came out of Everfree Forest with a mysterious bandage around your head and didn't know who you were, so we were looking for a portal built by another species? They would have handed you over to the princess right away...or laughed at you, too." she replied quietly.
"But it worked, that's the important thing. Where do we look first?" I asked her.
"Let's go to the library first, otherwise the guards will get suspicious if we go somewhere else. No one should be there now and we can look around undisturbed." she suggested.
We walked down the hall to the front door of the library. When we opened the door, there was no pony to be seen and the lights were out. The moon shone brightly through the glass facade. We didn't know how long the party went on or until when the princesses would be back at the castle. We set to work searching the huge library of the castle. Shelf by shelf, we searched the aisles. Only this time we weren't looking for information in books, but for an object large enough to be a portal. We searched together, since Lyra was the only one who could make light with her unicorn, because we didn't want to turn on the lights so that someone might notice us. But even with light, it would take too long to search the whole castle for a portal. It could be hidden anywhere. Lyra had the idea to look in another part of the library. She told me that normal unicorns were forbidden to enter this section, because the books there contained many powerful spells that could be dangerous if used incorrectly. But with Lyra I was not worried, she knew what she was doing.
She told that she spent a lot of time in the forbidden section. Even during the day, there were always very few ponies there and sometimes between the shelves she felt as if the books were talking. Of course, that sounded a bit paranoid, but it would make a good hiding place for the portal. We entered through a locked door, to which Lyra cast a spell that caused various latches and knobs on the door frame to turn and finally open. As we entered, we looked around to see if we could spot anything large enough to be a portal through which a pony could pass. Lyra suddenly looked very afraid.
"It's...pretty dark in here. Even more so than usual." she said, starting to shake slightly.
"It's okay, Lyra. There are only books here besides us. We'll just search the hallways for a bit and then we'll move on, okay?" I suggested.
She swallowed hard, but nodded at me. We walked through the corridors together, since I needed Lyra's light magic. Besides, she walked very close to me while her eyes roamed anxiously. But the department also proved to be a dead end; there was nothing here except books on dark shelves. Where else could one hide such a portal? This place was perfect, why wasn't it here?
"Well, it's not here. Can we please look somewhere else?" urged Lyra.
"Yes, we can. I just don't remember where."
"But...there are other places we haven't searched yet. It could be hidden anywhere in the castle. In the princesses' chambers, in the throne room..."
"The party will be over soon and we're running out of time. The princesses will be back any moment and I don't want you to get in trouble because of me. You're probably right that I should let it go and wait until we're allowed to use the portal. Even if I don't know how long that will take, but we're just groping in the dark here anyway," I said and looked up desperately, where I could see the moon shining brightly through a large glass dome. But something was wrong.
"Speaking of which...shouldn't the moon be shining brightly in this room?", I asked Lyra.
We both looked at the floor in confusion. Sure enough, in some places it looked darker than the sides of the room.
"That...I haven't noticed that before. Probably because I've never been here at night before..and because I usually get out of here quickly again." Lyra said sheepishly. "But there is no cloud in the sky...something seems to be blocking the room from the moonlight. ”
"So I heard that it was possible to enchant ceilings to look like the sky outside...but then there would be no light coming in here. There must be another reason..." she said, examining the phenomenon more closely. She kept looking up and at the dark spots on the ground. She stared at the floor and followed the dark spots to the end of the room. As she did so, she hit her head on the wall and fell over backwards. She rubbed her head with her hoof in confusion.
"Lyra, are you okay?" I said, helping her up. "You'll have to watch where you walk," I quipped.
"I didn't run into the wall, though." she said, still rubbing her head.
When I looked ahead, it was indeed still a few meters to the wall. What had Lyra bumped into? I carefully felt in front of me and could feel a solid object. It made a metallic sound when I knocked against it.
"What is that? An invisible wall?" I asked, confused.
"Walls aren't made of metal as far as I know." said Lyra suspiciously, briefly prodding her horn against the object, which caused its structures to glow yellow for a brief moment.
"Yay! There's actually something here! And it’s big!" rejoiced Lyra.
"But why can't we see this thing?" I asked, confused.
"It's an invisibility spell. It envelops the object and makes it practically invisible and even translucent. But by it still being a solid object, the light behind it gets weaker. That's why we see these dark spots here. In the daytime, we wouldn't have noticed them at all, because the spots would look like clouds."
"Lyra, how do you know all this?" I asked in amazement.
"Well, when I was little, I had often played hide and seek with my parents. I applied the invisibility spell to all sorts of things to hide in afterwards. Chests, bedsheets, and every once in a while...I used it on myself, too." she giggled.
"On you? Why is that?"
"As a young unicorn, you don't have access to that section yet. You can't teleport in, and the combination to open the door is only known by the ponies who have access. But I was already interested in what kind of books were here and the invisibility spell helped me to understand in which order the buttons and bolts on the door had to be pressed. Since no pony could see me, I practiced until the door opened and I could look around in peace. But many of the spells were still just too hard for me or scared me, so I stopped haunting and waited until I had official access."
"Yes, I think that was really a very wise decision. Maybe I should finally show that much sense and just practice patience," I said and nodded at her in agreement.
"That's okay, some things just come with time." replied Lyra to me with satisfaction.
"Can we at least still figure out what this invisible object is?" I asked her.
"Nothing easier than that, but after that we should see to it that we get out of the castle. Even if you changed your mind, the princess wouldn't be very pleased to meet us here." Lyra winked.
She cast the spell on the invisible object and it slowly became visible again. After a few moments the whole object was visible, it was gigantic. Three large metal pedestals stood in the room, supporting a wooden construction, which in turn consisted of a large sphere with a large ring around it that hung above the ground. We moved carefully around the object to look at it more closely.
"Is this...the portal?" I asked Lyra.
"I don't know. It doesn't necessarily look like what I would imagine a portal to look like, and...this construction. I wouldn't know of any pony that would be able to build something like that. Well...almost. The part above the ring I once saw in some books about scientific experiments. Many unicorns use this construction to power inventions via magic. The only question is what this invention does when it is energized."
We did not speak our purpose, but she was just as interested in finding out how this thing worked what we just discovered. Her horn began to shine again in a bright yellow light that spread across the supporting elements of the invention to the large sphere in the center. Then the ring around it also began to glow yellow. Suddenly, the sphere began to spin and a charging sound rang out. Lyra and I wanted to see exactly what the machine was doing, so we stood under the glowing ring. From above, we could see how the construction on top of the machine started to throw pink lightning bolts. I had a really bad feeling about this.
The sphere spun faster and faster until there was a powerful discharge whose wave hit us directly. I fell backwards and closed my eyes in shock. Then it became quiet around me and I opened my eyes again. The vision was blurred, but I could make out outlines. I was no longer in the library, and I noticed that it was suddenly daytime, as rays of sunlight shone in my face. I immediately sensed that I was no longer in Equestria. The smells were different, the environment looked different. Instead of bright green meadows, I was looking at an almost colorless ceiling of stone. When I stood up again and my vision cleared, I could see Lyra coming to beside me. She rubbed her head in confusion until she looked around her, spellbound. We were apparently standing on a kind of balcony, from here one could look into a courtyard of a row of buildings. Only these were considerably higher than the ones I knew from Ponyville. Only everything seemed somehow gloomier and colder, there were almost no bright colors. The only thing that was still noticeable was a glowing passageway that shone behind us. Apparently, that was the portal we had just come through.
"Wait, are we..." said Lyra as she picked herself back up and stood with me.
"Yes. I think we're in the human world, Lyra," I said.
Suddenly we heard noises behind the window door that led to the balcony we were standing on. We stopped in a panic, trying not to make a sound.
"Hello? Is someone there?" a voice sounded from the other side of the windows. You couldn't make out the figure, though, because the curtains blocked the view. The figure was heard mumbling something, then fell silent. Lyra still looked a bit frightened. She shook her head that I should not say anything. But I wanted to answer something, after all we were already noticed.
"Uh...hi! We come in peace! Who...or whatever you are, would you mind letting us in?"
Then the balcony door opened a crack and the creature peered through.
"That...isn't possible!" it said, and hastily disappeared back into the room.
"I don't like this. Let's better go back through the portal." Lyra said nervously to me.
But apparently the creature was more afraid of us than we were of it. I walked slowly ahead to make sure there was no danger. Lyra followed me carefully. When I could see the creature in the room, it was sitting on a large armchair and looking thoughtfully at the floor. It looked just like a human, as in the drawings we had seen in the Castle of the Two Sisters. For looking at a human for the first time, it seemed strangely familiar. It wore glasses and had a long beard. It’s mane was dark and very short in front. Its whole body was covered with clothes that had different colors. I was not afraid of it and the human did not seem to be afraid of me either. So I entered the apartment slowly when the human lifted his head and looked at me in disbelief.
"Can you understand me?" I asked cautiously.
Lyra rolled her eyes and had to giggle for a moment.
"Of course he can understand us. He opened the door for us, after all."
"He?"
"That human sounds almost exactly like you, so I think he's male."
The human started laughing, to me his behavior seemed a bit unnatural.
"Well observed, Lyra. You really are a clever unicorn." the human said in a calm voice.
I froze into stone when he said her name. With wide eyes, I eyed him. Finally I met someone who seemed to know who I was. I had to find out what he knew.
"Wait...you know her? Then...you know who I am too?" I asked.
"Yeah, I was just a little surprised that we would ever meet." he said with a grin.
"I can understand that. Who wouldn't be surprised to see two ponies from Equestria come to the human world?" laughed Lyra.
I didn't know what kind of game the human was playing with me here and what was so funny about the situation, but I was unstoppable, I had been waiting for this moment for too long. I jumped at the human's chest and stood over him like a wolf over its prey, so that he was forced to remain seated until I learned what I wanted.
"Hey, what are you doing? Why are you going after him? He didn't do anything to you!"
"He knows who we are, Lyra. Then he must know why I can't remember anything! All my life I've been waiting to find the answer. And now it's at my hooves. Come on, speak up! What do you know about me?"
"Wait, you lost your memory?" asked the human.
"Yes, and you will tell me who I am right now!" I said demanding.
"Well, I know you're from Equestria. And that pretty unicorn over there is apparently your girlfriend." he said as he looked over at Lyra smiling. She turned slightly red in the face.
I felt like I was being made fun of. This was supposed to be the only information I had been waiting for my whole life? I was about to make the human talk when Lyra looked at me with frightened eyes. Angrily, I let go of the human and stood in a corner, snorting. Lyra helped the human up again.
"I have to apologize for him. I don't know what's wrong with him, I've never seen him like that." said Lyra.
The human seemed to take the whole thing with humor, which made me really angry. When the human stood upright again, she turned to me.
"As for you...Tell me, what possessed you to attack a human for no reason and not even apologize to him?"
"Lyra, he already told us what he knows. And that's not more like we know." I said disappointedly.
"Wrong, he probably knows more than other people. Or did you expect him to know Equestria? It's no coincidence that the portal brought us here to him."
Lyra was right. I was totally overreacting because I wanted to know about my past so badly.
"I...I'm sorry for what I did. I hope I didn't hurt you physically or emotionally, mister."
The human started laughing again.
"Don't worry. I was as surprised as you were at first because I didn't expect to ever meet you."
This statement surprised even Lyra.
"A Pegasus pony with eyes as blue as the sky, with a green mane and a purple tail. You have the looks of Rainbow Dash, yet the coat color of Lyra...and the wings of an alicorn.”
Our eyes widened. Apparently, the person really knew more than I first thought.