Dirt.
You may think that was what an archeologist was spending most of her days digging up but you would be wrong. Most of the time Opaline would be reading books about the past, trying to find known locations, clues, and artifacts left by ancient civilizations prior to Starswirl.
The purple Pegasus took up the banner that Twilight once had, ever reading more and more on the history of Equestria which lead her to believe that there were powerful beings hiding somewhere in the ruins of Ponyville or even Canterlot. She believed they could give her answers for many things like where did Celestia come from? How do I become immortal? Who are these other ponies who have lived before me? And why am I not one of them? The last question was the biggest mystery as well because no matter how hard she tried she couldn't make herself into something special like those other ponies.
Opaline tapped her hooves looking at Twilights castle from her window. "Are all the answers inside there?" she wondered aloud. A deep breath escaped the mare. "Am I even allowed to know?" Opaline was misinformed of anything from Twilight Sparkle as she wanted that power all to herself. Theses thoughts resided in her head like a dark cloud. "The nerve of having Twilight Sparkles yearly open castle day. On the day I visit for an archeological find!" thought Opaline. She grinned wickedly. "The first thing I am going to do is visit the renown library and read up on alicorns and ancient magic." A smile appeared on her face. "And when I have learned everything I need, I will challenge Twilights right to the throne!"
"good luck with that.." stated Haven. The mare looked a bit confused as she was hearing opaline monologue again. "I'm not sure if I believe you anymore Opal, You seem more obsessed than ever with getting rid of the era of friendship"
"It is the very thing that will be their demise! They think they are safe because of their lack of enemies but that could not be further from the truth! Soon they will realize that they themselves are their greatest enemy!"
"How do you figure?" asked Haven trying to keep his cool.
"They are so busy filling the problems of others friendship. they forgot each other's! they wont even be able to defend themselves properly against me or any other threat! because of knowledge atrophy! they literally forgot how to be friends with themselves!" exclaimed Opaline excitedly.
"That's.... not how it works." replied Haven. sHe had given up arguing by now. Trying to understand why he was dealing with such insanity wasn't worth the effort.
"YES IT IS! YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND THE POWER OF MY KNOWLEDGE!" shouted Opaline in frustration.
"I'll show you, I will prove it to you!" she yelled "The true extent is that all alicorn kind should rule with an iron rod! the truth is Alicorns are better then any other race."
"you're delusional!" said Haven.
"soon everypony else will see that too! those who possess wisdom can make good decisions."
"oh sure and you have ALL the wisdom as Twilight Sparkle? Your not even an alicorn!"
"no I'm not! But I WILL BE ONE!"
"okay fine, whatever makes you happy..." sighed Haven. She didn't want to waste anymore time talking to this crazy mare.
"Oh I shall be happy indeed once I take back what is mine! All of Equestria belongs to me!" declared Opaline happily.
"You're really starting to sound like some villain out of a children's show..." muttered Haven. She couldn't believe that someone would act like this towards something they would become.
"I'd rather be a villian than a mindless sheeple!" snapped Opaline. "You can say your a friend but when you pay more attention to pony kind, it shows you are not. its hypococy I say! so I shall challenge her when the time is right."
Opaline suddenly stopped talking and began pacing around the room.
Haven sat down next to her to try and calm her down.
"What's wrong?" asked Haven.
"im nervous... I've never done anything like this before... I mean I've always dreamed of being queen of my own kingdom but never actually did anything about it..." admitted Opaline. "I guess thats why I feel so uncertain about doing this."
"It won't be hard, we just got to convince everyone we are right. We just have to present our case well enough and people will vote us into power.IN A CALM WAY OPAL!" warned Haven.
Opaline sighs. "Okay okay. I know... i'm sorry i'm so power hungry, but i am just so frustrated about these stupid ponies thinking they're so great while forgetting the base principal of friendship being magical. Its annoying!"
"Its alright," assured Haven. "we still have plenty of time to plan things out. Im glad you came here though. It helped me relax a little. Maybe we can work together for a change instead of constantly fighting with each other."
"Well hopefully we don't fight at all anymore since we both agree that Friendship Magic is important. Which means we wouldn't have to worry about keeping it secret anymore either. And also maybe we could fix some of the problems that come along with it like Discord."
"Discord is going to cause trouble no matter what anyone does. Even if we stop him today, tomorrow he'll find another way to ruin things. Thats just the nature of chaos."
"Yeah, but there is nothing we can do about that except deal with it. So lets focus on fixing the issues that we CAN control. Like the fact that most of the leaders of Ponykind aren't exactly the best ones to lead. Celestia retiring feels a little forced wouldn't you agree?"
"Yes, yes it does." agreed Haven. "So what do you think we should do about it?"
"well you can open an investigation while i search the library for things about alicorns"
"you still thinking on that?"
"Haven, i will meet twilight as an alicorn whether she likes it or not!"
"your kind of stubborn sometimes aren't you?"
Opal snuggled up in bed. "a true ruler is true to his own beliefs"
"i suppose..." replied Haven doing the same
"and besides, I need to learn more about becoming an alicorn anyway. if i win the argument i will still need a jumpstart so i don't get challenged myself."
"Wait, what?"
"honestly havent thought that far ahead yet, but i DO want to rule over every pony. but I also don't want to be pointed out as the pony who has no right."
"yeah I suppose..." said Haven trying to keep up to speed with Opaline's thoughts.
"so anyway you get the plan, find out the true meaning of Celestia and Lunas retirement while i visit the castle on the day its opened to the public."
"Okay sounds good. Good night Opal, do try to keep your anger in check."
Opal grinned menacingly. "No promises dear twin"