A Dark Shade of the Past

by InfinityBreach

The Books Are Lies

"Eclipsal, what is with you? Demanding to be released, and rushing me back to Twilight's, what the hay is going on?!" Rainbow yelled, halting herself in midair as I tried to pull her towards the library.

"Come on, just trust me! I need to get to Twilight's and tell her what I found out!" I said, inching forwards, as Rainbow tried to pull back.

"Not.. until… you .." Rainbow then got out of my grip, and flew above me. "TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON."

"I.. I don't know! It has to do with that cutie mark resonation thing Twilight told us about before!" I said, trying to motion her to follow me.

She gave in, and slowly flew above me. "So what's the deal? You and Rarity have been having this issue for a while."

"It wasn't Rarity and I that had the problem this time…" I muttered, looking up at her.

"What?" Rainbow asked, flying in a bit closer.

"It was you and the Princess, Rainbow. Your cutie marks were freaking out back at the hospital."

I looked up to Rainbow, who had a shocked expression on her face. "But.. didn't Twilight say that it only happens to two ponies never meant to meet eachother?"

"Yeah, I think so. She also said that it happened to her and Celestia. So now we have 3 weird pairs of cutie marks we need to figure out." I said right as we reached the library.

"Come on, let's see if Twilight can help with this." I finished, opening the door.

We entered to see Twilight, with a flurry of books surrounding her.

She quickly looked up from what she was doing. "Hello, Eclipsal. Nice to see your back. Is Luna with you?"

I shook my head. "Not at the moment, she said she wanted to go buy some food from Sugarcube Corner before coming back. She left before us though, so I imagine she'll be back soon."

"Okay, okay… I've been holding back on researching while she's been here, just so we don't seem suspicious." Twilight explained, levitating 3 more books around her.

"Well, we may have something else for you." I said, pointing at the pony flying above me. "Rainbow Dash here has a Cutie Mark resonance with the Princess."

Twilight looked up from her book, her eyes widening. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, I saw it myself. When she was near Luna at the hospital, Luna's Cutie Mark started switching between the phases of the moon, while Rainbow's Cutie Mark began to switch through different types of weather." I explained.

"So.. a switches between the lunar cycle and forms of precipitation. Interesting.." Twilight said, another book floating up to her and opening itself.

"So do you think it means that Princess Luna and I weren't meant to meet?" Rainbow asked, hovering above the ground.

"Actually… I've thought about this. If the princesses were hiding something from me, they would most likely be hiding it from everypony else. Correct?" Twilight said.

"Yeah that makes sense." Rainbow said, as I nodded my head.

"Well then, why would the answers be in some books in a public library?" Twilight asked, staring at us over her book.

"I… have no idea?" I said, partially confused.

"Exactly!" Twilight exclaimed, standing up.

"This has led me to assume that a good portion of these history books could be edited, or that information has been removed from them." Twilight explained, trotting in a circle. "Which means the only way we would be able to find out the real history of Equestria would be to check the Royal Archives."

"Yeah that's an awesome idea, Twilight! We'll ask Celestia if she knows anything, and if she doesn't we can sneak into the Archives and find the truth ourselves! We'll be the Spies of Harmony!" Rainbow announces, waving he hooves around, until she saw the look on our faces. "Or.. something like that." She finished, with a slight blush.

"I don't know about this, Twilight." I said, tapping my hoof on my chin. "That's a big theory if you ask me."

"Well, we all need to know what's happening! For all we know, this could be the key to finding your memories, Eclipsal! Or we could at least find out if there is some horse tribe or something, somewhere in the world that is missing you! Do you really want to pass on an opportunity like this?!" Twilight said, looking at me.

I thought about it for a second, before finally giving my answer. "Okay then, I'll go along with this plan." I muttered.

"Don't you worry, Eclipsal! We'll find out about all of this weird stuff happening." Twilight happily said, grabbing another book.

"By the way, Twilight.. why are you reading these books if you think they might be lying?" Rainbow asked, now hovering over Twilight.

"Well, it's so that I can compare the history I find in these books to the ones I find in the archives. If I can tell from which era things are most falsified in, I can narrow down what actually happened, hopefully." Twilight explained.

"Well, what if.." I began, when I heard the door open behind us.

There stood Luna, with a box of cupcakes, happily eating one as she looked at us. "Hello, everypony. Would you like one of these delicious pastries? I believed Pinkie Pie called them cupcakes, and they are just splendid."

I gave a quick look to Twilight, and she gave me a look back, saying that we would finish our conversation later.

"Yeah, well thanks for the offer, Luna, but I think it's about time I headed back to the Sweet Apple Acres." I said, giving my goodbyes to everypony before leaving.

I arrived at the acres half an hour later, and surprisingly the first pony I saw was Granny Smith, sleeping outside of the main house.

I looked out over the horizon of apple trees, imagining that the rest of the Apple Family must be doing some field work of some sort.

I however, was tired after today, and decided to get back to my room in the barn. I walked in to find that there was now a bed, and a my number on the wall from the Running of the Leaves. I laughed at how the number was sideways, the original eight now looking more like a looped line than anything else.

I sat down on my new bed, giving a sigh. This bed is really comfortable…