//------------------------------//
// 2- Time to go 
// Story: The Secret Spell 
// by MoonlitHaze225 
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	The next day, everything felt different. There was a sort of sadness around everypony, except for the ponies that were earth ponies before I screwed up. Everypony also seemed exhausted since the sun must have kept them awake last "night".Their lives were continuing normally, but a lot of ponies had to get accustomed to life without magic.  The pegasus ponies were having an easier time than us unicorns, but they were still struggling. I could see it with Crystal. No matter what she did, after doing it she always looked around, befuddled for a few moments. I think that losing her wings would be like me losing my legs. It just wasn't going to work.

The same day, she was at my house and as we were heading upstairs, even I expected her to be flying above me, racing me to the top. Today, she was next to me, “So it’s up to the two of us to find out what went wrong, then fix it, before anypony learns that you cast the spell. By the way, I love how you just lied to Celestia.” Crystal rolled her eyes.

“Not entirely,” I didn't explain to her what I meant. I opened the door to my room and closed it right after Crystal got inside. My mom was decorating somepony’s house for a birthday party they were having, so we could talk freely without her questioning us. My mother loved to decorate, it was her special talent. “But other than that, you’re right. I found this book last night, or whatever you want to call it. It’s where I got the spell.”

Crystal sat on the ground and I set the book in front of her. Slowly, I flipped to the right page, and I continued explaining, “There’s an entire chapter on what to do if your spell goes wrong. There are a variety of things that can happen. Of course, what happened when I cast the spell was the worst of all of them, and the hardest to fix. There is a way to fix it with magic, but that could only have been done while it was happening. I tried to stop it, but it didn’t work. This book tells me how.”

“It’s a little late for that,” Crystal muttered, scanning the page. “Is there a way to fix it without magic? I can’t find it...” she turned the page, “Never mind. It says it’s pretty dangerous. Well, to quote it directly, it says ‘your adventure to fix this will definitely be the most perilous journey anypony in Equestria could take’ so I’m not sure how I feel about that.” she looked at me.

“Well, there’s nothing else. See, I’ve planned it all out. I’ve packed for me, but you still have to-”

“Whoa, hold on! Who said I was going anywhere?” Crystal stood up. She seemed fairly angry. I guess she thought that somehow she was going to get out of this. 

I used my hoof to point to a sentence in the book. “The book says you’re coming, ‘You need somepony to go with you, or you will never return. Two ponies is the minimum.’ Crystal, you’re the only pony who knows that I was the pony who cast the spell, you have to come. I can’t do this without you.” I smiled at her, hoping she would agree. I didn’t even think that she would argue with coming. She was always the one who wanted travel all over Equestria.

Finally, she sighed, “Okay. I’ll go. Maybe it’ll be exciting. There’s a list,” Crystal looked down at the book, “and it’s a list of stuff that we apparently need to reverse the spell. Where are we supposed to find these stuff?”

I sat in front of the book, “Well, the book explains how to find stuff and use them to reverse the spell. You have to get them in a certain order and put them in a certain order before it actually works. It’s all complicated. Now, when my mom gets home I’ll ask her if we can go on a little trip together. The book said that it takes two weeks or so to find everything, so I’ll just ask my mom if we can go for a month. You have to ask your parents, too. You’re old enough now to be gone for that long.”

“What about your dad?” Crystal asked. “He deserves a say in all of this.”

“Hmm.” I thought for a minute. "We won't leave until he gets home. He won't have a choice, because he'll say no."

Crystal laughed, "That's true. If I know your dad, he'd say no to you coming to my house for two weeks. So we've just got to get everything... then what?"

Sighing, I shook my head, "Nopony knows. The pony who did it always avoided talking about it with anypony. So, when we do get the items, I'll put them in the correct order by myself. I don't know how bad it's going to be. Or if it is bad." 

Crystal shrugged and opened another book, scanned the table of contents and found the page she wanted. "There is a spell that has the same results, but different process and a different way to reverse it."

I nodded, "That's probably the spell that Celestia thinks somepony cast. Is it really dark and ancient?" Crystal nodded. "I don't think Celestia would lie to us, so that was kind of a given."

"What now?" Crystal closed the book and looked up at me. 

"Now we hope our parents let us go."


"Are you sure you want to go? You aren't used to life without magic, maybe you should wait." My mother said, hours later when she finally got home. 

I had all of my arguments planned out in my head, "That's the thing, mom. I've always wanted to experience Equestria without having magic, and now's the perfect time. If I wait any longer, somepony might fix it before I have the chance with Crystal."

She thought for a minute, "Why don't I come with you?"

"Because I need to learn how to live on my own."

"Crystal's going with you, though." My mom persisted. I thought this was going to be easier than it actually was. I imagine Crystal was having a harder time. 

"She also needs to learn how to be on her own. We'll have help, but we need to know what it's like to be away from family. It's just for a month, but we will probably be back sooner. More like three weeks. Please, mom, we've been planning this for a while."

My mom finally gave in, "Okay. You can go. Where did you say you were going, again?"

"Oh," I hadn't thought of that part, "Everywhere, I suppose. Just traveling to places in Equestria, seeing what it's like."

She nodded a few times before asking, "When are you going?"

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. She said yes! "If Crystal's parents say okay, then I'll wait until dad gets home to tell him goodbye, then we'll be on our way." I smiled at my mom, and she smiled back, but sadly. She didn't want me to leave. But I had to. 

After a few minutes of silence, somepony knocked on the door. I walked over to open it, and Crystal was smiling at me, "I can go! You?" She was wearing a satchel and she looked excited, ready to go. 

“I can, but we have to wait for my dad to get home before we can leave.” I explained. She came inside. I closed the door and walked upstairs, Crystal following me. I put my satchel on and slipped the book into it. “Was it easy to convince your mom to let you go?”

“Surprisingly, yes. She asked a couple of things, but didn't argue with anything I said. Did your mom?” Crystal sat on my bed.

“She argued with everything, but eventually she let me go. Did your mom ask you where we were going?” I asked. Crystal nodded. “What did you tell them?” If she had told them something different, and our parents mentioned something, then they would worry because they had gotten two different answers. They would probably figure out that we were hiding something.

Crystal thought for a minute, trying to remember what her answer had been, “Oh yeah! I told them that we were going everywhere.” I nodded once. That was pretty much the same thing I had told my mom. We sat in silence for a while, waiting for my dad to get home.


As soon as I heard the front door open, I jumped up and galloped downstairs, skipping a few steps. Crystal was slow to realize why I left my room, but she decided to follow me. “Hey dad! Crystal and I are going on a trip for a month, but we’ll probably be back sooner.” I didn't wait for him to say hello to me. The second I said anything about leaving, he turned to me with a worried expression, “You never said where you were going, Star.”

“That’s because we're going everywhere. Just travelling around Equestria for a little while. I figured now was a good time because I think it will be fun to explore without magic. It would be a great way to learn how to live on my own.” 

“If your mother said it’s fine, then okay. You can go.” He sighed.

I smiled at him, “Thank you so much! We’re leaving now, so bye! I’ll see you soon!” I said to my parents before leaving with Crystal. Once we were outside, I started to get scared. What if we couldn't do this? What if we never came back? I shook my head, trying to ignore the feelings. If we couldn't do this, Equestria would never be the same. No pressure, right?

Crystal started walking, “This is so exciting! Where’s the first place we need to go?” I started to walk also, and started thinking. I tried to remember what the book said the first item was. “I think it said we need to go to Canterlot for something. I forgot what we needed, though. I’ll look at it at the train station to make sure I’m right.

We started to canter, soon getting into a gallop; I was eager to get my magic back, and Crystal was eager to get her wings back. I could see it in her eyes. 


Once we got to the station, I pulled out the book and checked, “We need to go to Canterlot and get... Well it says ‘Find a secret passage that has never been mentioned and go deep into it’s tunnels to find a tree. Solve the riddle and pick the correct fruit off the tree to continue.’ What secret passage?”

“Maybe we’ll notice it when we get there.” Crystal shrugged and sat next to me on a bench. “If we never figure it out, then we’ll have to be stuck like this forever.” That wasn't going to happen. I was going to fix this, no matter how long it took.