//------------------------------//
// The Advise 
// Story: A Royal Secret 
// by Changeling 26 
//------------------------------//

		Twilight sat there, staring at the note now lay on the ground before her. She didn’t know what to think. This note declared that the assumed dead Queen, Queen Terra was actually the leader of the changelings.
“This cant be true!” Muttered Twilight to herself, beginning to pace back and forth “Its not possible! Chrysalis cant be Celestia’s mother! I refuse to believe it!”
Her pacing began to pick up speed “but what if it is? That would mean the enemy of Canterlot is the rightful heir to the throne.” Twilight stopped and picked up the scroll and looked at it “I need to talk to somepony about this, but who?”
She began to go down a vitual checklist in her head. Celestia? No, who knows how she will react. Luna? Of coarse not, she might become nightmare Moon again. The Girls? Maybe, but they wouldn’t be able to help me prove this. Wait!
Suddenly a name came to Twilights mind, sompony who might just know the truth. Somepony who would listen and give the best advice, Zacora! Twilight grabbed the scroll and stuffed it away in her sack and quickly teleported herself to the outside of the zebra’s cottage.
As Twilight approached the door she could smell the spices and herbs drying in the window and the something being boiled inside. She knocked on the door and let herself in when a voice from within told her to come in. She pushed open the door and saw Apple Bloom at the large cauldron at the center of the room, stirring ingredients together.
“Hiya, Twi!” Exclaimed Apple Bloom in an excited voice
“Apple Bloom, hi! What are you doing here?” Twilight asked while looking around the room for her zebra friend.
“Oh, Scootaloo is chasing after Rainbow Dash again. Sweetie Belle is spending the day with Rarity, and Apple Jack and Big Mac are sleeping off a hard days work.” She said, stirring the mysterious glowing liquid in the cauldron in front of her “So I decided to visit Zacora to see if she needed any help. Turns out she did!”
“Well that’s very helpful of you, where is Zacora?” Twilight questioned looking into the cooking brew.
“Look behind, and there you’ll see. The very pony, you came to see.” A familiar rhyming voice chanted from behind twilight.
“Zacora! It’s nice to see you.” She turned to the Zebra who was emptying her saddle bag full of odd plants and flowers “Do you have time to talk privately?”
“Why twilight sparkle, for you of course. But Apple Bloom, must leave at once” Zacora said with a smile looking at the purple pony and then the tiny pony.
Apple Bloom hoped down from the large cauldron and slowly walked out the door “Aw, I never get to hear any of the interesting stuff”
“Wait outside, for a few” The zebra said, trying to cheer up Apple Bloom “then return, we I give the cue”
Apple Bloom walked out of the cottage and sat down on a log outside. Twilgiht walked over to Zacora’s table and sat her bags on top. She looked at Zacora who was preparing some tea for the two. “Welcome Twilight to my home, now tell Zacora what’s on your mind.”
Twilight Sparkle pulled out the scroll she found and placed it on the table in front of the zebra. “I found this in the royal archives, and I think that it is real.”
She then began to explain the scroll, and what she feared it meant. Zacora read the letter several times while listening to Twilight explain her logic and why she came to her for advise. The Zebra placed the scroll down and walked over to the window, with a far off expression remembering something in her past.
“Zacora? Are you alright? What do you think I should do?” Twilight asked walking up to her
“Ignore the scroll you must, tell nopony ever again.” Zacora whispered staring off into the distance
“Tell nopony? But how! This is important knowledge about Equestria’s past that can’t be ignored!” The pony said frustrated
Zacora walked away from the window and to the boiling cauldron, placing a large ladel and beginning to stir. “The words on the letter are as true as the sky. For I, yes I, saw it with my own eyes.”
Twilight was dumfounded, she knew Zacora was older then the average pony, bu was she really implying that she was as old if not older then the princesses? No! she thought, there must be something else going on here. “Zacora? What do you mean you saw it?”
Zacora turned from the pot and looked at Twilight “Many years ago, I knew a good pony. Sunny Stone was his name, and I called him a friend. But one day his heart broke and with it, his soul. And something much darker began to grow. Sunny morphed into something not him, his body, his soul, became as black as the night.”
It made sense in Twilight’s head, Zacora knew a pony who had become one of those things. She had been forced to witness the transformation of a pony into a monster. Worst of all, she had been forced to lose a friend to the darkness. She began to think about what is must be like to see friend change and began to cry, feeling sorry for what Zacora must have been through.
“Zacora…” sniffed Twilight “Im so sorry, I had no idea”
“thank you Twilight, but tell nopony of this you must. I told my friend Sunny, that I wouldn’t let it happen to anypony else”
Twilight walked over to Zacora and placed a hoof on her shoulder “I wont tell anypony, I promise.” She looked over at the scroll sitting on the table “Im going to return this to the archive. I’m going to hide it where nopony will ever find it.”
Zacora smiled in a agreement and Twilight gathered her stuff. She thanked the zebra for the tea and the chat and walked out, still having an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She was about to tell Apple Bloom that she could go in again, but found the little pony was gone.
“That’s odd” thought Twilight to herself “Oh well! She must have just gone back to Sweet Apple Acres. I better get going back to the archives”
With that the pony transported herself back into the dusty room she found the scroll. She took the wither parchment out and was walking over tot the shelf when she bumped into somepony, dropping the scroll at their hooves.
“Im sorry, I guess I wasn’t paying attention to where I was…” At that moment twilight looked up at the pony she had bumped into. The pony stood taller then her, with flowing blue mane that sparkled like stars. “going… Luna!” Twilight said with a gasp
The princes smiled at the purple pony infront of her “Twilight Sparkle! Its such a pleasure to see you again!!” Luna exclaimed, looking down at the scroll, “You seem to have dropped this.”
She picked up the paper and as she handed it to Twilight the scroll opened. It opened just enough for the princess to see the title. “The Royal Secret? What tis this scroll you carry with you, Twilight Sparkle?”
Luna opened the scroll even more and began to read its contents. The further she read the bigger her eyes got. Tears began to swell in her eyes as she got to the end of the paper. The princess collapsed onto the ground weeping silently
“Twilight… doeseth this paper speak the truth?” sniffed Luna
Twilight just stood there, trembling with fear…