Spring, Thirtieth Day of the Third Moon, Year of Peace
I have done something unforgivable.
Last night I made sure that the two fillies were asleep. Then I locked their hatch to make sure they could not come up and put a barrier over the entrance of the cave. I knew they could not see what I was doing.
I dug up their parents.
Back home I would be put in irons and have my horn separated from my head. Desecration of a grave is a crime so heinous…but I had to know how dangerous this Upalas pony is. I know of Cer’s wounds, but not of Ire’s
I had to know.
Their bodies were in perfect condition. Decay had not set in. No bloat, no rot, no maggots. If it were not for the wounds on their bodies I would’ve thought they were merely sleeping. Ire, true to her name, was a mare the same color as the soil that surrounded her. She had a mane of green with specks of other colors peppered throughout it, like a field covered in fresh flowers.
Cer’s fatal wound was not obvious. Her body was covered in wounds, from small scratches to very deep cuts. It was death by a thousand little things rather than anything definitive. It was deep and probably hit something that took a long time to kill her. I will not even assume they have the same internal anatomy as us and I do not want to dissect them. My actions are horrific enough as they stand right now without mutilating corpses.
For Ire it looked to be death by a few very severe cuts rather than the thousand for her spouse. One of her legs was bent at an awkward angle and she was missing an eye along with a deep laceration down her side. I must wonder if she even survived the journey to this place or if she died once here with Cer and their foals.
It would be impossible to know without asking, and I do not think I could do that now.
The preservation of their bodies, especially Ire’s, was and is fascinating. They have not decomposed one iota. Beyond that, I did an age detection spell on both of them. Having learned it from my time studying archaeology is a blessing. The results were surprising. I had to replicate the results multiple times on different parts of their bodies and the whole. The results were the same every time.
Cer: One thousand three hundred and twenty years old
Ire: One thousand one hundred and fifteen years old.
The longest a unicorn has ever lived in recorded history is three-hundred years. The average age of a unicorn is about one hundred and twenty. For these two ponies to live magnitudes longer and for their bodies not to decompose…I must consider the possibility that they are immortal.
They are certainly not invulnerable, that is clear. As of right now it stands to reason that once they reach maturity, who knows what age that is, they do not age anymore. Their bodies become immune to the ravages of time.
Imagine everything you could do with that time. Imagine what you could learn, what you could accomplish.
It is a tragedy that they died. I will never learn from them, nor of their civilization. I will never visit Skaros either. That is not an option. If Upalas did this to fully grown members of their tribe, then there is no telling what she could do to regular ponies. For the safety of not only the fillies, but for the world, she must stay undisturbed.
Skaros and the knowledge of it must be lost to time.
But I cannot get rid of this journal, not yet. Their language will survive in my private studies as I acclimate them to our world, as I teach them our language and our ways.
When I get news of King Bullion’s death we will start back towards Unicornia. I will fashion them cloaks from one of my spares to hide their wings until I can discuss their existence with Princess Platinum and Clover. I will also have to make their names into something more acceptable in Ponish, something easier to say. I will also come up with a cover story of some kind of where they came from, something to obscure their true origins.
It breaks my heart to do this. To take this away from them, but it must be done.
This will be the last entry in this journal.
I have been responsible for too much danger in the world already.
-Starswirl the Bearded