//------------------------------// // Ch 21: Lost and Found // Story: Out of the Darkness // by SergeantShenanigans //------------------------------// He stared at the journal for what seemed like hours not knowing what to do; he had never once thought that he had a journal, though he had no way of knowing. He opened it excitedly to find that it had not been translated as the cover had, it was still as illegible as it had been moments ago. Sighing he closed the book and put it back in place beside his father's journal, he stared at the book wondering what it could possibly contain, it bothered him greatly that he couldn't find out what he used to act like and what he used to think. After trying for another hour he decided to go and see how the search for the key had been. He arrived at the library after a short walk and found that nopony was there. He assumed that they were still searching for the hut so he walked his way to the Everfree forest and started walking at its border, hoping to eventually run into his friends. As soon as he got near Fluttershy's cottage he saw his friends talking in front of it. "Find anything interesting?" he asked as he approached them They turned to greet him "We found one thing, we think anyway. We believe that Starswirl used to live in Fluttershy's cottage, we circled all around the edge of the forest and did not find even a trace of a building besides your house and Fluttershy's" Twilight explained "So somewhere in or under Fluttershy's house is a key that we need to use to unlock the mysterious box?" Star asked "As far as we can tell, yes" she concluded "I will help you search for it later then, I am going to go and see how the search through the cave went for the other three" he said walking into the forest Soon enough he came upon the familiar cave that contained the library. He walked inside and found Rainbow, Pinkie, and Applejack, unconscious at the entrance to the rest of the cave just past the library. He hurried over to them "Are you three okay?" he asked in a worried tone None of them stirred so he poked Pinkie with his hoof experimentally, he received a reaction of her jumping into the air and screaming something about cookies. Once she calmed down she saw Star "Hey Star, when did you get here?" "Why were you guys on the floor unconscious?" he asked "We were?" she looked over to her other two friends "Oh, I remember getting here and starting to walk into the cave when we just kind of fell asleep I guess" she shrugged Star then proceeded to wake his other two friends "How long have we been out?" Applejack asked "As far as I can tell, about an hour or two" he explained "What happened?" asked a still slightly dazed Rainbow Dash "We were knocked unconscious by somethin" Applejack answered Star walked past the entrance of the cavern and turned back "Well, why don't we all just go and explore it now" As they tried to follow they dropped on the ground just as he had found them earlier. He roused them again and explained what happened "Maybe you and Starswirl enchanted the cave so that only you could pass through" Pinkie guessed "If that is so, then I guess I will explore the cavern and you girls can go and help the others look for the key at Fluttershy's house" Star said "Now hold on a minute" Applejack interjected "What if somthin bad happens and no one's 'round ta help ya?" "I will be fine, I will meet you girls back there in an hour at most" he reassured them "If you go and get yourself hurt for some stupid reason I am going to kick your flank" Rainbow threatened before they left Once they left Star turned back into the tunnel that led from the library and entered. He walked for what seemed like half an hour before he came upon the end of the tunnel, but the ending wall wasn't made of rock, it was made of wood, like that of a house. He approached the wall and saw a strange symbol on it; it looked the same as Starswirl's signature. He examined the wall and searched for some sort of crevice or opening so that he could get through, not finding anything like that he started to use his levitation magic to pry apart the wall. The wall was made of eight tall and wide pieces of wood set side by side across the wall. After a lot of work and strain, he pulled loose one of the pieces of timber. He looked inside and saw a dark room filled with a few items spread far and wide. He finally pried another piece of wood out of the wall and walked into the small room. Looking around it looked to be some sort of study, there were papers stacked on a desk against the wall to his right, and the wall to his left had a few boxes stacked together, on the wall at the end of the room there was a stair case. He approached the staircase and opened the door to see that it was covered up. He pulled this apart just as he had the wall below and found that he was in a small cottage. He heard voices coming from outside and looked out a near window to see Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity looking around outside, the tunnel had led him to Fluttershy's cottage. "I guess that settles it, this was where Starswirl and I lived over a thousand years ago" he thought He looked outside to see that the other girls had arrived too, he was going to approach them but he thought of another idea. He covered up the entrance that he just uncovered and used the wall walking spell to stand on the ceiling, it may not have been high up, but it was enough so that they wouldn't see him. He waited until they walked inside; he was going to wait for a lull in the conversation to surprise them with his newfound information "What do you mean you let him go into the tunnel alone!" Twilight exclaimed "We couldn't exactly go into the tunnel, it had some kind of spell on it that made us fall asleep" Rainbow said defiantly "You could have told him to wait for us so that I could undo the spell!" Twilight exclaimed "It's too late for that, besides, he said he would be here within an hour, so he will be here in another thirty minutes" Rainbow said calmly "What do you think he will find?" Fluttershy said in a slightly worried tone "Don't worry darling, I doubt he will find anything dangerous" Rarity reassured her "So what do you girls think about this whole situation?" Twilight asked "What situation?" Pinkie asked "With Celestia not wanting Star to remember his past, what could have possibly happened to him that was bad enough for Princess Celestia to deny him his memories?" she explained "It could have been the event when he lost his horn" Rarity suggested "That seems the most likely, unless Star's past was so unimaginably horrible that it was even worse than losing the extension of his magic" Twilight said grimly "Or maybe he really just learned something he wasn't supposed to and Celestia erased his memory" Pinkie threw in with a suspicious voice They talked about this for another twenty minutes before they started to worry about Star "Where is he? He has been gone for over an hour" Twilight pointed out "I hope nothing bad happened to him" Fluttershy said timidly Star took this opportunity to join the conversation undetected "I bet he is okay" he said "Yeah, I bet he is on his way here right now" Pinkie said happily Star just stood in silence with the others staring at the door, he could hardly contain his laughter "Maybe we should go search for him" Rarity suggested "We'll wait for another ten minutes, and if he isn't here by then, we'll search for him" Applejack said calmly "Sounds good to me" Star said almost losing control and laughing, and still nopony noticed him Ten minutes passed and Rainbow got impatient "Are we going to search for him or not?" she asked "Do we really need to go looking for him?" Star asked almost laughing again "Yes Star, we need to go look for Star" Twilight said and looked at the door another moment before looking at Star with wide eyes "When did you get here?" They all looked at him and jumped back in surprise "I have been here the whole time, none of you noticed though" Star said before he broke out in laughter "And you didn't say anything?" Rarity asked "I spoke and nopony noticed" he said simply after his fit of laughter "How did you get in here without using the door, and we would have noticed you if you teleported" Twilight asked curiously "As I said, I was here the whole time, I was sitting on the roof and waited for a lull in the conversation" Star explained "I really dislike that you can use that spell" Twilight commented "Why? It is useful for playing pranks!" Pinkie said excitedly "We need to go pranking some time Star! Me you and Rainbow Dash can sometime, it would be super duper fun!" "The spell would be useless short of dropping pastries or buckets of water onto ponies from above" Star said Pinkie's eyes widened in excitement "I didn't even think of that! There is a whole buncha stuff that we could do with that!" she said bouncing up and down in excitement "Enough delay, how did you get in here without us noticing" Twilight pressed "I could have just teleported in before you girls walked in" Star responded "Did you?" Twilight asked "No" he admitted "Then how did you get in here?" Rainbow asked "Through the basement" he said simply "Fluttershy, darling, you have a basement?" Rarity said curiously "I didn't know I had a basement, I am terrified of basements, they are dark and scary and dusty and full of *shudder* bugs" she said in a slightly panicking voice "An where is this basement?" Applejack asked "On the wall to the side of the stairs" he said pointing to the wall he had entered through "It is just another part of the wall" Rainbow said plainly "I put it back together so I could surprise you girls" Star explained He once again pulled the wood away from the wall to reveal a door "Does this mean that we were right about Starswirl living here?" Fluttershy asked "I think so" Star answered Star opened the door and walked into the newly reveled basement "Are you girls coming or what?" "No thank you, I will stay up here" Fluttershy responded "I will be staying up here too, that much dust in such a small area gives me the chills" Rarity agreed The five of them walked into the basement "ummmmmm Star? None of us can see down here" Rainbow commented "I forgot, I can see down here and you can't" Star said "Twilight, I would light up the room, but I can't seeing as I don't have a horn" Twilight illuminated her horn bright enough to light up the room "By the way Star, why can you see in the dark?" she asked "I read it in the spell book if you haven't gotten to the night vision spell yet, apparently the side effects of me messing it up were it permanently left my eyes a shade of green and now I can see in the dark" he explained "That's pretty nifty, another thing that would make you an awesome prankster" Pinkie commented They examined the room, in the boxes they found old stuff that they assumed were Starswirl and Star's possessions. Star opened one of the boxes and found some familiar pieces of scrap. He took them out of the box and placed them on the floor "This was my old telescope!" he exclaimed "That's not a telescope silly, that is a pile of scrap metal" Pinkie said "I am pretty sure I disassembled it, or I had to put it away for some reason" he guessed They scavenged through the rest of the boxes and found nothing else to note, just some candles, some furnishing such as pillows and blankets, and some blank sheets of paper that looked like there were meant to be pictures on them, but they were blank "It looks like you were going to move to a new home" Twilight commented "Yeah, it does look like that" he agreed They looked around the room more and found nothing interesting "So this is where Starswirl lived huh? It isn't very interesting" Rainbow commented They searched for a few more minutes before they reemerged from the basement to see Rarity and Fluttershy having a conversation, they turned to their friends "Did you find anything?" Rarity asked hopefully "Nope" Star said simply "I guess that leaves us with only the books again" Twilight sighed "Oh yeah! I deciphered the cover from the other book and apparently that is my journal" Star said "Really? Did you find out anything from it?" Twilight asked "Nope, but now I know what that book is, and that is one step closer to finding more stuff out" Star said happily "This searching was enough for one day, we will do more another day" Twilight concluded "Alright, I will see you girls later" Star said leaving Fluttershy's house and leaving to his home. By the time Star arrived at his home the sun had just set so he decided to sleep. The next morning he continued his usual routine and by the afternoon he was walking to the park to practice more magic, but when he arrived he saw ponies running back and forth around the park. He saw Applejack among the ponies and decided to ask her about it "Hey Applejack, what is all this about?" "Howdy Star, these ponies are practicin for the annual Runnin of the Leaves" she explained "And that is…?" Star asked "It's a race that ponies do every year, we do it to knock all the leaves from the trees" she explained "Sounds fun, I may just compete" Star said competitively "No offense sugarcube, but ah doubt that you'd be able ta keep up with everypony else, ya aren't all that athletic" Applejack said hesitantly "I don't mind losing, I just want to compete" Star said simply "Ya sound like Twilight did last year" Applejack said mockingly "So when is the running of the leaves?" Star asked changing subject "It's tomorrow afternoon" she explained "I guess I will leave you to your practicing, I will see you at the race tomorrow" he said leaving the park Since he wasn't practicing spells Star didn't know exactly what to do, he usually had his day planned out but now he had nothing to do. He decided to go and get a muffin to snack on at Sugarcube corner while he thought. When he got there it was nearly packed full of ponies. He approached the counter where Pinkie was happily taking customers’ orders "Hey Pinkie, what is with all of the business today?" Star asked "I invented a new treat! It is a cupcake with pudding filling!" she said excitedly "That sounds… pretty delicious" he admitted "How much for one" "First one's free" she said slyly "How do you make money like that?" Star asked "You just leave that to me" she said with a sly smile handing him one of her pudding cupcakes Star stared at it for a moment before he slowly took a bite out of the cupcake, then before anypony could even comprehend, the cupcake disappeared from sight. Pinkie stared where the cupcake had been "Where'd it go?" she asked confused Star was surprised; he had actually confused Pinkie Pie, the master of confusion. He was woken from his surprise by a hoof being waved in front of his face "Hellooooooooooo Staaaaaaarrrrrrrr, is anypony thereeeeeeee?" Star shook his head "How much for another one of those" he asked Pinkie gave a knowing smile "two bits" she explained Star was about to order another but he remembered the race the next day "I will be here tomorrow after the Running of the Leaves, expect me to eat a lot of those" "I look forward to it" Pinkie said happily before serving the next pony in line Once again Star found himself with nothing to do, so he decided to take after what the ponies in the park were doing. He ran a few laps around the edge of ponyville before he was finally exhausted enough to take a break. He made his way back to his home and lay down exhausted. After resting for about half an hour he started to get restless so he grabbed the books and started to try and decipher them. He worked at it for about another hour but nothing happened so he gave up. Looking outside to see how much time he had left until the end of the day he saw that it was just into noon, that day was going to be a long day. After much debating he finally just decided to walk around Ponyville, he had absolutely nothing to do. He wished he at least had some work to do at Quills and Sofas, but nopony was ordering anything so he had no work to do. He walked around the town aimlessly he walked from the front of the town to the back and everywhere in between, but he couldn't find anything to do. He thought back to the day before and remembered his telescope, "I can rebuild my telescope!" He thought excitedly He ran to Fluttershy's house and saw the yellow mare outside her house speaking to Rainbow Dash. As he approached he heard Rainbow complaining "I'm bored I'm bored I'm bored I'm bored I'm bored!" she repeated over and over again "What's wrong?" Star asked Rainbow "I'm bored!" she repeated "Why?" he asked "The day before the Running of the Leaves is, for some reason, the most boring day of the year!" Rainbow complained "I thought that today was boring too" Star agreed "Why are you here?" Rainbow asked hoping for something to do "I am just going to get the telescope parts out of the basement and take it home to rebuild it" he said Rainbow Dash groaned "I was hoping you would be doing something interesting!" Star turned to talk to Fluttershy but she had slipped away during their conversation. Star entered the house and saw Fluttershy drinking some tea "Hey Fluttershy" he greeted "Oh, hello Star" she said with a smile "Do you mind if I go into the basement and grab the pieces of the telescope?" he asked "Not at all" she said cheerfully Star walked down the stairs into the dark basement and picked up the box with the telescope pieces in it. After a 30 or 40 minute walk he got back to his home with the telescope. He took the pieces out of the box and started to familiarize himself with the pieces. Upon closer inspection he found that the lens was heavier than it looked, he looked into the lens and saw complete darkness. He unscrewed the top of the lens and tipped it upside down, a cylinder shaped container slid out. He unscrewed this and found a note and a key, he read the note Dear Star, By now, I am either gone or you won't have read this note anyway, with this key, I leave you the box in the library, I hope that the contents of the box brings you as much joy as they has brought me. Your master, friend and father Starswirl Star's eyes widened as he read the note, he stared at the key. He took the box out of his saddlebag; it had not left his side since he had found it. He put the key into the lock on the front and opened the box.