//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Illusions of Peace // Story: Stairway to Equestria // by AlexUk //------------------------------// Chapter 7 Illusions of Peace The sun tore through the sky, announcing the start of another bright, sunny day, a day that would also mark the beginning of the hot summer period in Equestria, when the first series of crops were going to be harvested. The sunlight bounced from the surface of the small lake, reflecting onto the house nearby. A distant scene slowly began fading away, the dream world shifting towards the real one. One of my hind legs twitched, as I felt a somewhat pleasant touch on my horn, my mouth mumbling away in a conversation from a now distant dream. A soft nip at my left ear drew a wide grin on my face. “Stop it, Twili-” “Caaw!” “What the?!” I yelped, causing the bird to flee from my face, as I pushed back into the bed, flailing my hooves in the air. I realized I was no longer in the library, and threw a scornful look at the raven, as it took her place on the desk. “Just a dream . . . damn you, Raven!” I said, wiping away some droll from my mouth and yawning loudly. I got out of bed and trotted over to the other room, where my eyes fell on a small basket over the table that had a note on top of it. It was filled with some fruits, a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk. On the note, a surprisingly calligraphic writing formed a short message: Welcome to your new house! Enjoy your breakfast, it’s not much, but everything is from our farm, fresh and natural. Annabelle. “That’s so nice,” I thought, biting from a big, red apple. Raven flew inside the room and landed on the table, looking curiously at the basket. “What? You ruined a beautiful dream I was having. You aren’t getting any!” I said, smiling devilishly at her. She cawed back at me, that time a little more submissive and quieter. I rolled my eyes. “I’m just kidding, silly bird; here, have some of this.” I ripped a corner off the bread loaf and put it in front of Raven. She immediately started eating from it, hungrily. “Someone’s got an appetite! I gotta talk to Fluttershy to see what else I can feed you with. Although you should be able to feed yourself, right?” Oblivious to my question, Raven kept eating, grabbing a larger piece of bread and smashing it against the table, picking off the resulting crumbs. I put the basket away in a kitchen cabinet and left the house, leaving Raven inside to finish her share of the breakfast. As I was heading towards the lake, I took in a deep breath, enjoying the fresh morning air. Reaching the edge, I tested the water with a hoof, but it was too cold for a dip so I just lied there on the grass, enjoying the view. Not long after, the sound of an approaching guest became clearer and clearer, my ear automatically twitching towards the source of the noise. I turned my head, still lying on the ground, and saw Spike coming up to me. “Hey Blink! How’s your new home?” he asked, while checking out the small house. “Hello Spike, It’s nice; can’t complain, double bed for myself and the works. This is the life.” “That’s cool, but I think Twilight misses you,” the dragon replied, hiding a smirk. “She does?” I asked all too quickly. “Ha! Gotcha, lover boy!” “Just . . . friends,” I hissed back. “Relax, big guy, I’m just teasing you. Now let’s get moving, we have to go to Canterlot today, or did you forget?” To be fair, it had almost slipped my mind. I remembered how Twilight told me that Celestia wanted us to pay her a visit today. I still wondered what she wanted to talk to us about. Spike and I started heading off towards the library, and on the way there, Raven flew on my back, having finished her breakfast. “How did- ughh, guess I’m stuck with you for the rest of my life?” I asked, looking at the bird that was now sitting down comfortably between my shoulder blades as I was strolling alongside with Spike. The dragon gave Raven a curious look. “How did you found that strange animal again?” he asked, receiving a rather angry look from the bird in question. “Well, she kinda’ found me, I guess.” “I’ve never seen such a bird, which explains why Fluttershy was so stressed out about it.” “I could say that both of us are strangers to these places, am I right, Raven?” The bird softly cawed in response. We soon reached the library, where Twilight was waiting for us, packing stuff for the trip. “Hey Blink! How was your first night in your new house?” she asked, as me and Spike walked into the library’s main room. “It was okay, I guess. How’s the itinerary looking for today?” “Well,” Twilight started, levitating a list in front of her, “we’ll have to visit the Princess first, and after that I can give you a tour of the city; something tells me that you’ll love it.” “Something else tells me we’ll die of boredom,” Spike added. Twilight rolled her eyes in annoyance and went outside through the back door, ready for the trip. “Come on guys, it’s already afloat,” she shouted from the backyard. I followed Spike, curious about where we were actually going. “I hope you’re not afraid of heights,” the dragon said as we got out of the house. Immediately my eyes fell on the huge hot air balloon in the middle of the yard. It was bigger than I would have expected it to be and the basket could easily fit four, if not five ponies. “So legit,” I said, gasping at the huge thing. “So what?” Twilight asked while getting inside, her magic getting to work and tweaking the burners. “Legal,” I corrected myself. “I meant, is this thing legal?” “Well of course it is, I even got a flying permit for it back in Canterlot.” “That’s rather assuring.” “Relax, we won’t crash or anything like that, I’ve done this a million times.” The three of us got inside the basket and Twilight untied the anchor rope, letting the balloon gently rise into the air. As we ascended, the tree house became smaller and smaller, as the whole town of Ponyville revealed itself under us. Looking back, I could see the small lake and my new home near it. About a mile to its right was Fluttershy’s cottage, right in front of the huge Everfree forest. Twilight’s horn began to glow and the balloon started heading towards a mountain region in the far distance. “Are you driving it with your magic?” I asked, intrigued. “Indeed, I am. It would take too long to reach Canterlot just by relying on the wind currents, so I’m just giving it a push.” The balloon picked up speed and soon enough we were floating over Sweet Apple acres, Twilight taking her time to wave a hoof at Applejack and Big Mac, who were bucking the orchard’s first harvest. My legs were shaking a bit, being the first time I flew in something like that. I had just gotten used to walking on all fours and I still had small adjustment issues with my new body’s weight distribution. There was a fun part to it though: even if the balloon wasn’t the fastest thing ever, the wind was still rushing through my mane, making me feel somewhat better. In times like those I wondered if I would have been better off as a pegasus, and I slowly began understanding Rainbow Dash’s passion for flying. “Are you all right?” Twilight asked, noticing my slight discomfort. “Yea, sure, just . . . new to flying I guess. It’s kinda cool, though.” After about half an hour, I could see the edges of a big city, located at the base of a large mountain chain. “And that’s Canterlot, the capital city of Equestria,” Twilight’s voice could be heard, as I was amazed by the actual size of the city in front of my eyes. It was so much bigger than I could have ever imagined, stretching for well over a mile along the mountain, a tall wall surrounding it from every direction. “This certainly beats the one from the show,” I thought, my jaw still hanging. “Isn’t it beautiful? I sometimes miss living here, but then I remember all the friends I have in Ponyville.” “It sure looks busier and more uhm, classy?” I said, studying from a distance what seemed to be a luxurious neighborhood. “It sure is, and yes, most ponies here are a little more sophisticated. I’m happy my parents aren’t like them. Which reminds me, I should pay them a visit. It would be a nice opportunity for you to meet them!” “What?!” both me and Spike suddenly jumped. “Twilight, I don’t think this is such a good idea,” Spike started. “Yea, they may have other more important things to do than meet me, I’m sure,” I added. “It was just an idea, what’s gotten into you, guys?” she said, rolling her eyes and then resuming guiding the balloon towards its destination. I sat down near Spike, who was at the other end of the fairly large basket, and gave him a nod, appreciatively. “Did she just suggest presenting me to her parents?” I whispered to the dragon. “Yeap. You have to understand her, she doesn’t go out much. Like, at all, except with the rest of the gang. So, naturally, she doesn’t know about stuff like this. Also, knowing her parents, that would have been awkward for you,” Spike whispered back. “Tell me about it.” “No, I mean really, really strange. When we moved to Canterlot, her father, Night Light, made me promise I’ll take care of her and let no colts get near.” “As any responsible father would say-” I started, but Spike quickly interrupted me. “Yea, that was when we left Canterlot, she was still young then, and so was I. Now, whenever we visit her parents, they use every opportunity to talk to me in private and ask me if she has started seeing anypony. They’re worrying about her not going out like any young mare would.” “So her bringing me to her parents all of a sudden would have gotten them the wrong idea,” I concluded. “Exactly.” “What are you two up to?” Twilight asked, turning her head towards us, noticing the whispering even though she was concentrating on steering the balloon. “Nothing!” we answered in unison. “Okay then, because we’re almost there! We just have to land on that pad there,” she said, pointing towards a platform. The landing area was sticking out of a tower which was guarding the city’s main gates. It was quite high though, and we weren’t ascending fast enough. “Spike, we’re low on fuel, can you boost it a little? Not much, just to get us up to the tower.” The dragon complied without a hesitation. While Twilight set aside the balloons burners, he took a deep breath and this time, the bubbling noises inside his chest were louder. A bright, red flame shot out of his mouth, dispersing inside the balloon, making it suddenly rise. “Nice flame, Spike,” I said, quite impressed. He gave me a wink in response, slightly puffing his chest out. “Don’t encourage him,” Twilight complained. After a few moments, the balloon was at the right height, ready to land. Twilight pushed the aircraft down on the platform, while Spike threw a sandbag with a rope attached out of the basket. We got out and Twilight quickly secured the balloon, with the help of a guard pony. “Good morning, Miss Sparkle, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” the guard said. “Likewise, David. How are things around here these days?” Twilight asked. “It’s pretty much the same old busy place you left when you were younger. Not much has changed since you were gone, I’m afraid. And of course, I’m still in charge with the landing tower’s security. All in all, things are going well.” “I’m glad everything’s fine. I’m sorry though, I can’t stay any longer and we really have to get to the castle for a meeting. So, see you later, David!” “Miss Twilight . . .” the guard greeted her off, bowing his head. “Don’t tell me you know everyone here too,” I asked her rhetorically, while we went down the tower’s stairway, after a few moments. “Oh no, we just know each other from all my travels with the balloon. He’s been working as a guard at this tower for several years.” “I see, but can’t you teleport here?” I asked. Twilight let out a laugh and even Spike chuckled at my question. “No silly, I can't. Even though I’m pretty good with the spell, it does have a downside: the greater the distance, the bigger the amount of magic needed to cast it. Even fully rested, my autonomy won’t exceed two, maybe three miles with maximum accuracy, or even up to five but teleporting at that distance is not precise and you don’t want to end up inside a mountain, do you?” “That’s . . . awesome! When can I learn that spell?” I eagerly asked. “Won’t be too soon, Blink. You’ve barely managed to lift pebbles off the ground. You have magic, in ample supply I might add, but you lack technique and control. Also, you have a lot of reading and studying to do if you wish to proceed in a magic based career. That is, if we don’t find out who you were before that night and your actual talent.” That reminder gave me cold chills, as I was still uncertain how my whole cover-up would hold out in time. I could only hope she would give up searching for answers and just leave it be, which was unlikely, seeing as Twilight was quite persistent in all her endeavors. We finally reached the bottom of the tower and trotted outside, right into a busy market square. The main gates nearby were bustling with traffic, hundreds of ponies, carriages, and carts making their way on what seemed to be the main street leading into the capital. I took a closer look at the wooden gates and noticed they were actually bigger and a lot thicker than they seemed from the balloon. They were also wide open on the inside, with lots of shopping stands right next to them. “Twilight, those gates right there, they don’t usually close, do they?” I asked. “Why would they?” the purple mare casually responded. That made me realize a bitter truth: no matter how much I enjoyed being in Equestria and trying to fit in, there was no doubt of what my true origins were. I came from a world of conflict, lies and hate, where everyone had to be suspicious about the rest in order to pull through. Equestria on the other side seemed to be a calm and nice place to live, with no insecurities or worries about what the next day might bring. Order and prosperity were the words one could use to describe this wonderful place, and having an element of Harmony by my side just made everything even more surreal. Everything seemed good, too good in fact. As I pondered on all those things, we kept walking across the busy street. Twilight lit up her horn, making me lose my trail of thoughts. A yellow carriage stopped in front of us, and I had to take a few steps back not to be ran over. “You signaled, miss?” the buff, gray pony that was pulling the cab asked. “I did, can you get us to the royal castle?” Twilight asked. “Sure thing, miss, hop right in!” The three of us climbed inside the small carriage, followed by Raven, who stormed inside after us, landing on one of Spike’s head scales, drawing a surprised cry from him. “There you were, Raven! Thought I lost you in the big city,” I said, grabbing the bird off of what had become a pretty angry dragon. I placed the bird on the window frame, and then we started enjoying the view together, as the carriage picked up speed. The cab quickly made its way up the busy streets and the more it advanced inside the capital city, the more the buildings became more beautiful and imposing than the ones in my world’s old cities. After a few minutes we passed a huge round square with a monumental structure at the end of it. Its architecture was simply amazing, unlike anything I had ever seen, beautifully decorated columns standing tall at the side of the building, supporting a huge dome that in turn held three pony-shaped statues, representing a pegasus, a unicorn and an earth pony. “This building on your left is Canterlot’s Auditorium,” Twilight said, noticing the wonder on my face. “It’s the biggest building in the capital, after the castle, of course. It took four years to build and the most talented artists of Equestria have performed here since it was inaugurated. I for one just love Octavia’s cello pieces, although lately she hasn’t had that many shows, especially since she started dating a fellow pony in the music industry, as the newspapers said. Anyway, we should really go to a show sometime, it would be so much fun!” Spike puffed and made a vomiting gesture. Twilight simply gave him an angry stare, but was soon replaced by a grin. “Here they go again,” I thought, noticing the devious smile and just relaxed in my seat, enjoying the fight that was about to start. “You were a little more willing to come to this place when you wanted to ask Rarity out, knowing that she might like the shows here,” Twilight said with an air of smugness. Spike frowned but a reply was already on his mind. “So I guess that’s why you want to bring Blink to a show there?” he simply retorted. Awkward . . . I quickly turned my head back towards the windows, trying not to look at Twilight and pretending I wasn’t even listening. The purple mare was already blushing, to Spike’s satisfaction. “That- I didn’t mean it like . . .” Twilight stammered, but was quickly cut off by the cab’s sudden stop, as I literally felt saved by the small bell that announced the reaching of destination. “Canterlot’s Castle, main arrival gate, that would be ten bits,” the gray stallion said from the front of the cab. We got out of the carriage and Twilight paid the driver pony, while I slowly approached the gates, my mouth open in amazement. The castle was towering above all other buildings, bringing great shame even to the huge auditorium we had just passed by. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Twilight softly said, joining me. “I sometimes miss it so much. Come on, you’ll love how it looks from the inside!” The purple mare trotted through the entrance, Spike following her. Raven was making herself comfortable on my shoulder and now seemed quite absent, not sharing my amazement at all. I followed Twilight into the inner courtyard, guarded by defenders, all wearing golden armor pieces and Corinthian type helmets. The outside wall was several meters thick, surrounding the castle all around. Small watch towers were situated every few hundred feet or so with guard ponies patrolling on top of the wall between them. We walked across the inner court on a cobbled pathway towards the main entrance: two huge, oaken doors rested opened, various ponies going in and out of the castle. Everywhere I looked I could notice noble stallions and fancy mares, dressed up in expensive garments, trotting around with their heads held high. We passed though the main entrance and found ourselves in an interior courtyard with a beautiful flower garden and a fountain in the center. Twilight went to the side of the courtyard and passed under an archway, the dragon and I following her closely. As I walked, I noticed that most of the ponies that we came across looked at us curiously, and almost all the guards slightly nodding their heads when the purple mare passed by them. “Do you know everyone at the castle?” I asked her, while we turned left into a long hallway. “Well, I still know some of them from when I was a filly. I was Celestia’s personal student so they kind of got to know me and Spike after a while. It was so much fun when I could just sit anywhere I wanted and read all day long,” the mare trailed off. “Ohh yea, tons of fun!” Spike laughed, sarcastically. “I kinda miss the food, though,” he added, his tone turning nostalgic as well. “Princess Luna, what a pleasure to see you again!” Twilight’s voice suddenly broke the dragon’s wistful moment. The Princess of the moon was right in front of us and seemed quite in a hurry. We took a deep bow and she returned the gesture with a longer nod of her head, directed mostly at the purple mare. “Twilight Sparkle, glad to see you as well. I’m afraid I’ve got matters of great importance I must attend to. My sister is waiting for you in her study. I bid you farewell and I hope we can catch up soon.” She then continued her trot, while we bowed yet again. “Strange, I’ve never seen her hurrying before,” Twilight added, intrigued. We continued our walk inside the castle, going up a long flight of stairs, through halls and under archways until we finally found ourselves in front of a wide door which was beautifully decorated: Celestia’s personal study. Twilight knocked twice at the door and a voice from within invited us inside. The room itself was not that big, but three of the walls were covered with tall shelves filled with old books and parchments. The fourth one had a large window with an amazing view on what seemed to be the castle’s gardens and I couldn’t help but notice a strangely familiar maze in the distance. “Princess Celestia!” Twilight said, taking a bow. Spike and I swiftly followed her example. Celestia was standing on a huge cushion on the floor, having a book floating in front of her. “Ahh, you’re here! Twilight, I’m so glad to see you, my dear student.” She got up, floating the book aside and headed towards us, lowering herself towards the purple unicorn, as they nuzzled each other. “Spike, my little dragon,” Celestia then said, making him actually blush a little. “Not that little anymore, are we? You’ve grown so much since we last met. Are you still giving Twilight a hard time?” She asked jokingly. “Well, If by hard time you mean having a little fun once in a while, then yea,” he answered with a characteristic grin. “No matter what, he’s still my number one assistant, and I can’t really stay mad at him for too long,” Twilight added, smiling. “Although, his first growth spurt started this year and I’m concerned about how he’s going to fit in the library. He’s already taller than me.” “I’m sure you’ll find a solution, Twilight. And about our last discussion, Spike, I take that you have made your mind for the moment?” “Yes, princess, there is no way I am leaving Ponyville any time soon. Even when I’ll be bigger, the folks there will know it’s just me, Spike.” “I’m glad that you have made this decision, then. You have a lot of friends here among ponies, and even though the last case of a dragon living among us was hundreds of years ago, I am sure everything will work out all right in the end. Sure, one can expect challenges but I’m sure your friends, both old, and new, will help you pull through.” Celestia then gave him a gentle hug, and Spike returned the gesture, wrapping his arms around the princess’s neck. “I’m proud of you, Spike,” Celestia added in his ear. “Thank you, Princess.” Celestia then looked at me, resuming her royal posture and clearing her throat. “Midnight Blink. I am glad to see you are well. The first time we met you were still weakened.” I swallowed nervously, not knowing exactly what I should say to the tall, white Princess standing in front of me. Deep inside I actually hoped she would not hug me, since my daily quota of awkwardness had already been met. “Uhh, it’s a pleasure to see you too, your highness,” I stammered out. “I noticed you’ve also improved your magic.” Celestia then gave me a strange, unfocused look. “Quite impressive, I might add,” she said, apparently noticing my magic field. “How the hell are they doing that?” I thought, trying to keep myself relaxed. “He’s still learning,” Twilight intervened, “Blink has a lot of work to do and unfortunately I still couldn’t figure out anything about his . . . origins. My scanning spells haven’t picked up any brain injuries or traumas that could have made him forget everything like he did. Also, it seems to be a strange case of memory loss,” she turned to me, having figured something out, “you seem to remember most of the basic tasks and have retained full speech capability; you also know about important personalities like Discord or the Princess here, are you sure you don’t remember anything else that could help me in my search? It’s safe to tell us, Blink, I’m sure the Princess here would help you herself with anything she could.” I noticed Celestia nodding in approval, then Twilight gave me a hopeful look, waiting for my answer. The Princess was also looking at me in a strange, somewhat demanding way. She probably knew something about me after all, although I was not sure how much. “I’m sorry . . .” I let out after a pause during which my eyes darted from Twilight to the royal figure, undecided. “I don’t remember anything.” Twilight sighed in disappointment, but then smiled back at me. “It’s ok, I’m sure we’ll figure it out someday.” “I’m sure of that as well,” Celestia added. “Anyway, Princess, is this why you wanted us to come to visit?” Twilight asked. “Indeed, I wished to check up on your situation with your new guest. Also, congratulations on finding yourself a new place to stay, Blink. Twilight has informed me of your new job, although I take it that you will continue your magic studies as planned, am I right?” “Yes, Princess. I’m quite eager to learn about spells and magic, and Twilight has helped me quite a lot so far.” “Perfect then, but don’t forget to take it slow, the art of magic is a mysterious and particularly difficult one to master.” “I will,” I simply replied. “Before we leave, Princess, there’s something on my mind,” Twilight remembered. “I’ve met with Luna earlier before arriving at your study; she seemed quite in a hurry, was something wrong?” “Nothing in particular to worry, my dear, it’s just a meeting with some gryphon and minotaur diplomats, which she was apparently late to. I’m glad though that my sister resumed some of her royal duties since her return, I can finally relax more and catch up on my reading,” Celestia said, smiling. “I’m happy she’s fitting in nicely after . . . all that time spent away,” Twilight said, a hint of caution in her voice at the last part. “Don’t you worry, Twilight. That belongs to the past, and although tomorrow holds mysteries, today must be cherished as a wonderful gift, that is why we call it ‘present’.” “You’re right, Princess,” the purple unicorn said, somewhat reassured, “we’ll be off then, it was nice seeing you, I will send letters with our progress. Also, my friends wanted me to say ‘Hi’.” “Tell them I appreciate the gesture, and hope to see them as well soon enough. Have a safe return journey!” Twilight took a bow with Spike and I following her in example. As she got out of the room with the dragon behind her, Celestia approached me. I stopped and looked at her, curious of what she might have to say to me. “I hope that when the right time comes, Midnight Blink, you will be able to remember your past, so we can know more about you. I sense kindness in your heart and your magic has great potential, but hiding away in the shadows around you is not always the best thing,” Celestia said, making sure her student and Spike could not hear her. The look in her eyes was warm and understanding and I simply nodded, knowing that not only she knew about me but also understood my reasons to hide the truth. The feeling of guilt was still somewhere inside me, however, stronger than ever. I left the study, following Twilight and Spike back through all the hallways and out of the castle. Raven was waiting for me outside, irritating a guard pony by resting on the tip of his spear. I hadn’t even noticed she had left me and I called her back before she could piss off the guard even more. “So, what should we do now? We still have a few hours to spare,” Twilight asked as we walked through the outer gates of the castle, into a busy street. “I’m hungry,” Spike said, bluntly. “That would make two of us,” I added. Raven also cawed at the unicorn, as if to support us. “Fine, let’s eat! I know the perfect place for takeout,” Twilight said. We traveled to a fast food cart in a small square nearby, where Twilight hat told us they served the best hay fries in Canterlot along with the most delicious dip sauce ever made. And boy was she right. While sitting at a small table nearby, I began eating and finished my portion first, rivaling even Spike’s appetite. Raven occasionally took a hay fry out of our plates, drawing angry looks from the dragon whenever she took one of his. We enjoyed the rest of the time spent there by slowly making our way back to the air tower at the city’s entrance. The walk wasn’t particularly long but having just eaten, climbing the tower’s stairs proved to be quite a challenge. We reached the landing pad where our balloon was anchored, and with David’s help we managed to board it and take off into the skies. The guard pony was kind enough to refill the burners as well, to our surprise. “I’m kind of worn out after this trip,” Twilight said, as we reached a reasonable cruising altitude. “I’ll just leave the wind do its job this time.” “Fine by me,” Spike replied with a lazy shrug. “I have to admit, the view is quite nice, so I don’t mind either,” I said, looking upon the city we left behind. I spent the rest of the trip quietly enjoying the scenery alongside Twilight, as we slowly floated towards Ponyville. Spike had dozed off on the floor of the basket, letting out small trails of smoke from his nostrils every now and then. After about an hour, the sun was beginning its descent into the horizon, and the air was getting slightly colder. Soon, the burner became a source of light that cast shadows under us whenever it fired, keeping the aircraft afloat and on its course. A cold wind sent chills through my body, and I realized the temperature was getting pretty low at that altitude. A sudden touch made my heart pump faster for a couple of beats, but somehow I managed not to jolt in surprise. Twilight had slowly rested herself on my shoulder, which strangely made me appreciate the evening's cold air for a change. I gave her a look, not turning my head, and noticed she was still looking at the sundown, her thoughts apparently in another place. My heart was racing and I could even feel my pulse ringing in my head. “Guys, we’re here,” Spike broke the silence from the other side of the balloon. Twilight jolted, realizing what, or actually who she was leaning against and quickly shifted her weight back on her own hooves, giving me a quick, embarrassed look before preparing to land the balloon. After a few minutes, the aircraft was deflating on the ground in the library’s backyard, as Twilight used her magic to pack the balloon back into its own basket. “This was quite a fun day,” I said, still feeling a little bit lightheaded from the last part of the trip. “Yea, at least we got out of this place for a while,” Spike added, heading into the tree house. “Good night, big guy. See ya later!” “Good night, Spike!” I then turned to Twilight, a smile on both of our faces. “Thanks for taking me with you, Twilight. Canterlot was amazing, especially the castle.” “I’m glad you liked it, Blink and I hope we can do it again some other time. Good night.” “Good night to you too,” I said, and we both headed our separate ways. The walk to my new home seemed shorter than expected, as Raven kept me company the whole way. I reached the small house by the lake and tiredly dragged my hooves inside. Even though I felt drained from the journey, I couldn’t fall asleep just yet, so I went and retrieved my saddleback from the bedroom’s corner and dumped all the books on the bed. I picked them one by one and placed them on the small shelf near the writing desk. I put the magic kit on the desk, opened it and took some quills, my notebook and Star Swirl the Bearded’s book about advanced magic. I gently grabbed a quill with my teeth and slowly started copying Bellona’s notes into my notebook, doing a rough translation under each line, leaving some space for further corrections. The quill would slip or ink would splatter on the page every now and then, but I began getting better at mouth-writing and even though it took a while, I was eventually done after an hour or so. Flipping the pages, I ended up at a bookmark I had previously placed right at the instructions of the illusion spell I planned on trying out. As I squirmed my eyes to read the test, I realized the level of lighting in the room was getting close to none. I looked around the room and spotted a candlestick on a shelf nearby, an idea springing in my mind. “Ok, you can do this, you read about it in that book for starters,” I murmured to myself, pulling the candle in front of me on the table. Focusing my magic towards my horn, I held it close to the candle’s fuse and after a few tensed seconds, a bright light hit my shut eyes. “Ha! Fire! I made fire!” I almost yelled out in excitement, then realized how silly my celebration must have sounded to the usual grown-up unicorn. I resumed reading the spell’s details and noted down the important steps. After what seemed like an hour, the candle’s light started flickering through its last moments of life, and soon after it went out completely. I blindly searched through the desk’s drawers one by one, and to my luck found a few more candles. Only after lighting the new one I saw that the moon was high in the sky and my eyelids felt much heavy than when I started. Raven was asleep on the corner of the desk, her head tucked under her wing. “Wow, lost track of time there,” I said to myself, noticing how much I had actually written up that night: about ten pages of horrible mouth-writing. “Well that was definitely more than an hour.” I closed the books, blew the candle out and dragged my hooves to bed, where I fell asleep instantly, the moon’s white light comforting my dreams. *** *** *** The next day marked the start of what had to be quite a monotonous life for the normal folk. I, on the other hand, found it more exciting than anything. I woke up quite late that day, had breakfast from the basket Annabelle left me the other day and rushed to Kazooie’s farm, where I started my work. At first he was easy on me, as he gave me chores involving carrying around tools and equipment in preparation of the first annual harvest. Later that day I visited the library, where Twilight was already planning out my magic training, levitating a huge checklist around. Unfortunately for me, the study sessions were shorter, and were replaced with theory lessons about the history of magic and the basics of the art. She said it was a key aspect necessary in fully understanding the field of magic, but I just couldn’t be bothered with all those dates and funny names of old pony wizards and mages. To top it off, Twilight seemed to be taking her teaching role quite seriously, and made sure I was paying attention at all the insignificant details. It felt very much like being back in high school, where I vowed that not even dead would I return to a place like that. Little did I know back then . . . Days passed and I began getting used to the routine: work at Kazooie’s farm in the mornings and magic lessons every other two days in the evening, at the oaken library. I had dinner together with Kazooie’s family every day and I would always get a basket of food after finishing my job at the farm. Work at the farm was getting harder and harder by the day, as we began harvesting the crops using just sickles. Tiresome days like those only made me focus more on my studies, wishing that one day I could just lay back and let my magic do all the hard work. As my knowledge and control of magic got better and better, I started combining farm work with practice my magic, cutting the wheat with a levitating sickle. Kazooie found my method rather ingenious, yet quite amusing as he’d never seen a unicorn work the fields before. *** *** *** One of those days, driven by a rather boring end of a week, I decided to finally try out the cloning spell I’ve been studying for so long, having learned enough to understand the instructions. I went into the small kitchen-dining room of my house and moved the table and chairs to the side to make enough room. I looked again through my notebook, which was by now half-filled with notes and markings. “Ok, this is simple, I can do this. Focus . . . and channel the magic like we learned . . .” While I repeated that to myself, I closed my eyes shut and started to concentrate. The tricky bit about the spell was that I had to focus my powers up to a certain level, and then try to map out an exact replica of my energy field to a target destination. After that I had to keep a link with that field and ‘jump start it’ with a large dose of magic to make it turn into a visible shape that resembled myself, since the energy field clone was invisible to begin with. As I meditated, I felt the magic leaving through my horn, forming in front of me a shape that actually resembled a pony. I could see all that magic, but only when I had my eyes closed and my other senses drowned. Twilight’s ability to see magic fields whenever she wanted was truly amazing, and I knew it would take me a long time to reach that level. While finishing the energy clone in front of me, the strange, cold chills began creeping up my spine again. Twilight and I had figured out that the strange and scary sensation I felt whenever I used my magic for too long was actually an unknown surge of energy. She wasn’t sure where it was coming from and why it felt different than my normal magic, but we decided it was too dangerous to try and temper with, let alone use it. As the air was getting colder around me, I kept my undivided attention on the illusion, while trying to keep under control the dark energy that was slowly spreading around me. After minutes of intense focus and with a lot of determination to not stop the spell, I managed to push the darkness back, while keeping the illusion alive. I opened my eyes for a moment just to notice that in front of me was a smooth blue mist. Going through the last steps of creating the magical field, I braced myself, gathering all remaining powers to activate the illusion. I felt the last bit of channeled magic leaving through my horn and quickly opened my eyes, hoping it was enough to complete the spell. At first, I had a small shock seeing the strange pony standing in my house, but as I closely looked at him, I noticed he was actually . . . me. The spell had worked, and a very realistic illusion of me, a shadow clone as I decided to name it, was standing two feet away from me, looking back with empty eyes. Raven started cawing at the illusion, having been besides me all along. The clone was not moving at all, just standing there, looking through me, its eyes focused at nothing in particular. “Good, so this is the idle state, I guess I don’t have enough magic left in me to control you beyond that. Well, at least I pulled it off,” I declared rather satisfied of my work. I waved my hoof at the shadow clone and it passed right through it, leaving a trail of dark blue smoke in its wake. The illusion dissipated after a few more moments and right before it went away I noticed something strange about it. “Hmm, no cutie mark. That’s weird . . . what the heck do you actually represent?” I asked, looking at the strange symbol on my flank. An unexpected knock on the door interrupted the otherwise quiet atmosphere, making me jolt. I opened it and found Spike sitting in front of me, eating from an apple. “Hey Blink, thought I'd come by and said hi. Here, have one!” he said, throwing another apple at me, which I barely managed to catch in the little magic I had left. “Thanks, I guess. Come in, make yourself at home. On a second thought, please don’t. I don’t want this place to burn down.” “Ohh, come on, that was just once, and Twilight managed to put it out in time,” Spike said, irritated by my recollection. He took a seat on the small couch I had, finishing his apple in one bite. “Hmm, do you want mine back? I’m not that hungry anyway.” “All right, thanks, Blink,” he said, hungrily. “You seem taller,” I noticed, looking at him attentively. “How’s the growth spurt going along?” “Well, I’m still hungry all the time, I’ve even had fights with Twilight about eating. The thing is that I know I don’t have to eat that much in order to grow naturally, but it’s just so hard not to. Dragons usually eat whatever they can lay their eyes on during their first growth spurts but that way they just grow too fast and turn into greedy, mindless creatures.” “Well then, better lay off those apples. Hey, watch this.” I focused, finding some magic that had regenerated in the meantime and focused it at the apple in his hands. After a few moments, the fruit exploded into a blue puff of smoke. “Oh, come on!” I laughed, amused by his hunger-driven anger. “What did you do to it, anyway?” Spike asked. “Just something I’ve practiced with Twilight during my last training: teleportation; although I have no idea where I just sent it.” I answered, letting out a laugh. Spike’s eyebrows raised slightly. “Wow, that’s awesome. So how long until you can teleport yourself?” the dragon asked, impressed by my progress. “Still a long way. I can teleport small objects a few hundred feet or so at the moment, but I’m slowly getting there.” “Cool. Anyway, that reminded me: Twilight wanted to invite you to come with us to Canterlot again. Something about her getting some boring books from the castle’s library.” “That would be nice, when’s that?” “Tomorrow morning.” “Perfect, I’m free tomorrow. See you then! Now get out before you start sneezing flames in my house again.” “Sorry dude, can’t help it, my methane chambers are growing.” “I’m sure they can grow just fine outside of my house,” I said, rushing the dragon out. Spike reluctantly got up and left, not before burping up a thick cloud of dark smoke in the main room, which made me slam the door behind him ever harder. On his way home, right near the library’s door, his hungry eyes fell on an apple sitting on the ground. He picked it up and recognizing it, he looked in the direction in which my house would have been, as he stood there, thinking. “Wow big guy, that’s more than a mile. Sweet . . .” he said, taking a bite out of the apple. *** *** *** The next day I met up with Twilight and her assistant in their backyard, the hot air balloon standing tall nearby, fully inflated. After the normal greetings, we got in and started our journey towards the city. We reached Canterlot in record time and landed on the same landing pad at the air tower near the city’s entrance gates. “So, why are we here again?” I asked Twilight while trotting across a busy street, making our way towards the castle. “I need to get some books from the halls of records. They might have something on your cutie mark. That would practically be the last place to check, I’m afraid. I’m sorry Blink, but I’ve looked though all of my books and found nothing about it there, so now I’m just burning through all the possible places I could find that information.” “It’s all right, I really appreciate the effort you’ve made to help me so far.” “No problem, things have been quite interesting since you showed up,” she said, putting on a smile. We reached the palace, going through a different entrance and ending up in a different wing of the castle. After several turns in what seemed to be a maze of hallways and staircases, we reached the library. “Here we are!” Twilight said, her eyes glittering with joy. ”I haven’t been here in like, forever!” Long, tall rows of shelves lay in front of our eyes in a huge section of the palace, with a ceiling so high that you could easily fit Twilight’s balloon inside. The entrance was guarded by several white marble statues of various ponies, most likely historical figures of Equestria. “Those are a lot of books,” I said, slightly amazed of the library’s imposing scale. “And to think I might never have the chance to read them all,” Twilight added, genuinely saddened. “Twi, you got issues,” Spike let out a laugh, drawing a chuckle from me as well. “You two just stay where I can find you. I’ll be right back, just need to find a couple of books,” the mare said, disappearing among the endless rows of bookshelves. The warning was completely disregarded as Spike and I went on and explored the library. I immediately found the magic section, which contained a tremendous amount of books written by Star Swirl the Bearded alone. I noticed most of the titles were familiar, Twilight having a copy of almost all of them back in Ponyville. I trotted around, getting more bored with every shelf I passed by, until my eyes fell on one of the paintings on the walls. The canvas seemed old, and it featured a unicorn pony with a large white beard and a rather funny looking wizard hat. The plaque underneath simply read: “Star Swirl the Bearded”. So this is him. I then noticed something in the background of the painting, the silhouette of another unicorn. I took several steps forwards, getting as close as I could to the painting. The pony in the background was wearing a strange, white tunic and had what seemed to be leather shoes on. “I see you are interested in him,” a voice made itself heard from behind me. I turned and noticed an old stallion with a pair of round glasses on his muzzle, dressed in a librarian uniform, if I could name it like that. “Sorry if I scared you, I work here,” he said. “It’s strange to find young stallions like yourself here these days.” “It’s ok. I was just looking at this painting, what can you tell me about this pony?” I asked. “Hehe well, this stallion was a great wizard by the name of Star Swirl the-” “No, no,” I interrupted him, “I’m talking about this one here, behind him,” I said, pointing a hoof at the pony in white dress. “Ahh, that one.” The old librarian adjusted his glasses. “If my memory servers right, that there should be Bellona the Wise. Not much is known about her, just that she was close to Star Swirl, and was also a very powerful unicorn.” “That makes sense,” I whispered to myself. “The white tunic she is wearing, and the footwear,” I said out loud again, “I suppose that is something ponies used to wear back then?” “Oh, no. That’s what’s strange about Bellona, ponies never wore dresses like those back in that period.” Of course they didn’t . . . but Romans did. “Well, thank you so much for the information. I should be going now, I have a friend that’s probably searching for me,” I excused myself, leaving the old librarian behind. I found Spike after some searching, and we both headed back to the entrance, where Twilight was already checking out a couple of books. “There you are. I think I’ve found something useful. One of them might have something about your strange magic and the other one could tell us what your cutie mark means. Although I really hope it doesn’t, the book itself is about uhh- dark magic,” Twilight said, giving me a somewhat worrying look, “and there’s even a missing page in this one. Who would take a page from a book like that?” “Relax, we’ll figure it out. In the meantime, let’s get out of here, all these books make me wanna fall asleep,” I added, trying to change the subject. *** *** *** Twilight decided it was a good idea to visit the royal gardens before heading back to Ponyville, so the three of us went out on a stroll. The palace’s garden was as amazing as it was huge. Flowers of all kinds were on display, some of which I had never seen in my life. The air around us was heavy with a combination of the most beautiful perfumes I’ve ever smelled in my life. Insects were flying all around in a sea of aromas and everything seemed almost surreal. We even visited the ‘living maze’, where Twilight retold the story of how she and her friends confronted Discord for the first time right there. On our way back, we passed through what was called the 'Stone Garden', a small orchard with various statues on display, symbolizing famous ponies from Equestria’s history. As Twilight briefly explained who each of them was as we passed by them, I began feeling a strange sensation overcoming me. “And this last one is Discord himself, which we imprisoned in stone over three years ago using the Elements of Harmony,” the mare concluded the small tour. As I looked at the twisted face of the stoned draconic figure, I started to feel ill, my mind drifting away to familiar places: to home. But there were no happy memories of my old world. Violence, pain, suffering, all those sensations came clashing within me as I felt my mind engulfed in dreaded images and memories. “Blink, are you all right?” Twilight asked, snapping me to reality. “You looked like you could faint right here.” “I’m fine,” I said after a short pause, “I just . . . I think I stood too much in the sun in the past few days at the farm.” “All right, then, let’s get back home. We can get a cab.” The trip back to Ponyville was longer than usual, but strangely, I started feeling much better when I got in the air. The evening’s cool breeze worked miracles on me, and as we approached our destination I was already feeling all normal and fine. “Hey Blink, do you want to have dinner with us?” Twilight asked, still concerned after that previous incident. “That would actually be wonderful, thank you. But I insist on helping out with the cooking,” I said, giving Spike a wink. “Don’t mention it. It’s been a long time since you last ate with us.” We soon reached the library, had a nice dinner and then I headed back to my house, Twilight making sure I took with me some extra studying material. She also promised she would go through the books from the palace’s library, and would notify me as soon as she found something. Back in my house, I got in my comfortable bed, a book gently floating over me, my horn emanating a bright blue light to help me read. No matter how interesting some of my lecture was, I still couldn’t get out of my mind what happened in the royal gardens that day, and I felt chills running down my spine whenever I remembered those dark sensations. Everything however felt fine as I laid in my bed, the whole of Equestria probably sound asleep under the fast-rising moonlight. I gently stroked Raven with a hoof, the bird sleeping calmly on the top of the bed frame near my head as if to comfort my unrest with her presence. I fell asleep in minutes. There was a hard day of work ahead of me. *** *** *** A night guard pony was standing under the clear moonlight. The stallion looked around one last time before trotting out of the Stone Garden, making his way towards his next patrolling point for the night. The first statue in line shook a couple of times. A crack formed on its head and a piece fell to the ground, revealing a closed eyelid. It opened wide, and the pupil shrank from the light of the moon, after three years of complete darkness. Under the now flimsy layer of stone, Discord smirked . . . End of chapter 7