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// Act IX: Lament 
// Story: A Blissful Planet 
// by VonArmen 
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As the hours passed, I delved further and further into the stack of books Twilight and Spike left for me. Out of the seven books (nine including the couple that they didn’t retrieve yet) and two tablets that Equestria has on the dragon species, I read both the tablets and two of the books before the sun started to go down. This, for the most part, took so long due to my extensive translation notes of things I found important as I was reading. It also helped me learn the material better, so I certainly wasn’t complaining.

By the time I had finished the second book, I had used three-fourths of the paper that Twilight left on the desk, I presume to help me take notes (how did she know I liked taking notes?). I had to use the ink very sparingly on the last twenty-or-so pages of notes, as well. I would have lost track of the amount of pages of notes after around 100 if I didn’t keep them numbered and organized. While I won’t go into the entirety of the 137 pages of notes, I will summarize the first two books as best I can in this small little journal of mine.

The first book I picked up, ironically enough, was a mushy romance novel. The title of the book translated, roughly, to “Fiery Desire,” and it detailed the lives of two dragons that fell madly in love, but their parents (in the case of the female dragon, her guardian) didn’t approve of their relationship in some way or another. The last half of the book was them trying to get their relationship to work despite the disapproval of their respective caretakers, but, surprisingly enough, they come to the conclusion that they could never be together, and break up before the last few chapters. The last few were them saying their goodbyes, and lamenting on their failed relationship. Admittedly, I thought the book was very enjoyable. It’s no Xenogears, but it was still pretty good. It didn’t particularly have a very great set of supporting characters either, but otherwise I thought the book was very real in its portrayal of relationships.

The next book that I actually got to finish that day was exactly what I was looking to find: a history book. Well, it was actually more like an economics book with history thrown in just for context. It contained a brief history on the Dragon Kingdom’s international relations and, of course, an extensive look into their economy. Just as Celestia said, the dragons were very closely tied to Equestria as allies, and as such, Equestria managed to stay safe from the eyes of the previous world powers. These included a kingdom of “eagle-equines,” (I would assume those to be some form of griffon, if I have my mythology right) the dragons, and a strange race of sea serpents that ruled the underwater areas. This author didn’t mention what these beings were called, or what exact influence they had; he (or she) only referred to them as いとこのうみ (Cousins of the Sea). I can only assume that they were a race of sea serpents, or something of the like, since he kept referring to them this way. The last power was this one country, an Empire, that didn’t really translate well because of this writer’s word choice. This empire was one of the leading forces of the global economy at the time, right next to the Dragon Kingdom, and the literal translation I could make out (assuming I was reading it right, of course) was the “Soul-stone Empire.” Not really sure what it was supposed to be translated as yet, but from what I could tell, the Dragon Kingdom relied on them very heavily for food and resources. This empire was comprised of these “Soul-stone Equines,” and they were very generous with how much of their resources they shared with the dragons. I would assume this is the other kingdom Celestia likes to keep secret.

The last two chapters of the second book detailed the Soul-stone Empire’s betrayal of the Dragon Kingdom. This empire had a change of management quite some time ago, and the new ruler, they called him あくま (Demon), apparently killed the previous empress, プラチナIII (Platinum? III). This new Demon-Emperor somehow managed to poison the entire supply of resources being given to the Dragon Kingdom without anyone realizing before it was too late, and the Kingdom suffered a great number of casualties because of it. Apparently, dragons eat these “soul-stone” things, and finding an entire empire where almost everything is made of the stuff obviously made them giddy. As such, they ended up trusting the shipments too much, and honestly, I can’t say I blame them. Having a kingdom made up of a species that, I assume, can reach the length of a modern-day spacecraft in size makes it too hard to live off resources from their country’s land alone. This Demon was smart; he forced the Dragon Kingdom’s hand into taking a tainted supply of soul-stones, and crippled them  to, presumably, gain more political and economic power as one of the few leading governments of the time. I know it’s wrong, but I just have to admire the Kefka-levels of genius this guy threw out to bring an entire nation to its knees. I, of course, didn’t include the Kefka remark in my translation notes, even though I wanted to. Kefka is one of the greatest villains of all time, don’t judge me.

Aside from those noteworthy passages, most of the rest of the book was the intricacies of the Dragon Kingdom’s internal economy at the time, and the economic figures to prove those points. That being said, a lot of it flew over my head, and required me to do a full translation of literally entire chapters of the book instead of just footnotes or quick summaries, so I ended up using a lot more paper than I initially intended to.

I stretched my arms above my head after I finished the second book. Halfway through translating the history book, I could feel them getting stiffer every time I stopped to make sure I was reading something correctly. I looked outside and noticed that the sun was very close to setting. Must’ve been at this for like six hours.

I got up from the chair I was using, figuring I needed to stretch my legs if I was going to continue, which I planned to. Apparently Twilight had managed to find a chair that was at least close to my size, and while it was still a little small for me, it was certainly better than sitting at the dinner table two nights ago. Thoughts from that night resurfaced into my consciousness and that strange feeling welled up inside me again. I didn’t like it. For one, I hate getting distracted by something when I have my mind set on what I’ve been doing; and two, I thought that there was no way these… ponies and I could ever be friends. The mere concept seemed ridiculous to me. Even if I wanted to, we being friends wouldn’t work out anyway. I don’t belong here, and eventually I have to leave, whether I like it or not.

That thought seemed to quell the emotion somewhat, and I was able to keep my focus… right up until Twilight came storming in with Spike on her back.

“You and I need to talk,” was the first thing she said walking in to the Archives, a clear look of anger in her eyes. Even Spike seemed to have a look of displeasure.

I have a feeling I know exactly what this is about. “Alright. Talk away.”

Twilight looked over to Spike on her back, motioning for him to get off. He got the hint and took off, leaving the Archives entirely.

Once he was (presumably) out of earshot, she started, “What were you thinking?! You were lucky that the Princess let the arrest slide, and then you argue with her the same day!”

Yeah, I expected this sooner or later. I honestly don’t know why she cares so much. I shrugged, “The argument would have happened regardless of my arrest.”

She was positively furious after that comment, and I swear I could see her hair on fire for a second, “WHAT?! Why would you argue with Princess Celestia?!”

I got the feeling that these were rhetorical questions, but I replied to them anyway, “Did she tell you what the argument was about?”

“No! Why would she?”

I sighed, “See, that’s the whole reason we had the argument to begin with.” I started digging through my translation notes to get the first page I wrote about the Dragon Kingdom on while she continued speaking.

“That still shouldn’t mean that you barge into her throne room unannounced just to argue with her!”

I found the page I was looking for and held it to her, “Read this.”

Twilight glanced over the paper with my scribbled notes and once she distinguished what they said, she finally asked, “The dragons had a kingdom? While this is great news, this doesn’t explain your irresponsible behavior!”

I folded my arms as I rolled my eyes, “Who do you think told me that I could speak Ancient Draconian?”

Twilight looked taken aback by my question. She stood there, deep in thought about it for a little while before I finally answered the question for her.

“It was Celestia. She visited me in the hospital when it was still dark this morning; told me about their kingdom and a few other things. If you want the details, you should just ask her.” Why do I even bother covering for Celestia? I guess this is to help prove a point, sure. I want Twilight to know that her Princess is keeping secrets from her, but if I really wanted her on my side with this, I would just tell her everything I know. Then why can I not bring myself to do it? …And there goes my focus.

“Then what about the arrest?” The still-annoyed Twilight broke my train of thought, “My brother told me that you spent 30 minutes running away from the Guard this morning!”

“35, actually.” The king of best decisions, right here.

“Hurricane!”

I cleared my throat, “Alright, alright. That one was an honest mistake, I swear.”

She gave me a quizzical look, waiting for me to continue.

“I didn’t realize your military ran on such a tight bureaucracy, otherwise I would have just told them who I was right from the start.”

Now she just seemed more confused than angry, “Why wouldn’t you tell them who you were from the start?”

“Look, if you give me an opportunity to make a Doctor Who joke, I’m going to take it.”

“Doctor Who?”

I smirked, “Actually, it’s just ‘The Doctor.’”

Twilight stood there, bewildered by my words for a minute. I’m actually not exaggerating, it was a full minute.

“To be fair, I also thought that Celestia would have told the guards to let the giant ape roaming around town into the castle if they saw me. By the way, did you tell your brother I think he’s fantastic?”

“You told me to tell him he was ‘brilliant.’”

“So you told him, then?”

She sighed. I think that’s the first time I’ve heard her sigh. “Yes, of course. That was what brought up the arrest in the first place. Look, I understand now why you did what you did, but DON’T. DO IT. AGAIN. Promise?”

She seems very stern about this. Well, now that I know what I can get away with and what I can’t around here, I probably won’t get into trouble like that again. I might as well accept. I nodded, “Promise.”

“Pinkie Promise?”

Now I know how she feels. “I have no idea what that is.”

“Just do what I do,” She started making strange arm motions as she went through this “Pinkie Promise.” “Cross my heart, and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.”

That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen, but if it’ll make her feel more at ease, I guess it can’t hurt. I repeated the motions as I chanted the silly phrase, “Cross my heart, and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my-” Unfortunately, the last part of the promise required me to place my hand over my eye, but I accidentally ended up poking it instead. That being said…

OH GOD, THE PAIN. YOU LIED TO ME, PAST SELF. “Ow.” I covered my face with the hand I poked my eye with in embarrassment.

This made Twilight have a fit of uncontrollable laughter. To this day, I still don’t know why it made her laugh that hard.

I just smiled and shook my head as she was laughing.

When her laughter subsided enough to form coherent thoughts again, she started asking more questions, “So, have you been translating the entire time we’ve been gone?”

“Yeah, of course I have.” I pulled out the massive stack of 137 pages of notes I was keeping on the table next to the current book I was about to start using. I had to make room for them by stacking the other five books on the ground, next to the table. Twilight put the page of notes I gave to her to read on the table next to the one I was using, so I grabbed that and put it in order with the rest of the pages. Now I’m glad I numbered the pages. And here I thought that wasn’t going to be necessary.

Twilight didn’t seem as surprised as I thought she’d be. I guess she’s a big note taker too. “How many books did you translate?”

“Just two. I was about to start on the third before you and Spike came back.” I motioned to the book I had sitting on the desk that I was about to start on after I finished the statement.

“Y-you’ve already translated two of the books?”

“Yeah…? Did I not mention I was fluent with the language?”

She shook her head, “Can I see your notes?”

I really have no idea why I’m going to do this, but at least this will give me an excuse to talk to Celestia about this topic. “Sure, but only the first 40 pages. The rest I need to get some insight from Celestia on. The second book spoke of a great deal of economic principles that flew right over my head, so I figured she could help out with a complete translation.” This was a very clever half-truth. One of the reasons I wanted to run this by her first was because of the economics I didn’t quite understand, sure, but the other was because of the relations between the Dragon Kingdom and Equestria. Well, those and the assassination of Empress Platinum III. At least I didn’t have to worry about either of them seeing a note about how I think the clear-cut bad guy the author depicted in the book was a genius. Or about Kefka. That would be a long explanation.

“While you’re giving her these notes, you should apologize to her. I’ll never forgive you if you don’t.” She actually seemed serious about that threat.

“Yeah… Speaking about that, is there a way I can request an audience with her?”

“Why don’t you just go to the throne room with me and talk to her?”

“Uhhh… yeah, see, the last time I left the throne room, she kind of told me the next time I barge in unannounced, she’ll have me arrested. Again.”

I think Twilight’s eye twitched when I finished my statement. “What in Tartarus did you say to her?!”

I didn’t answer the question.

A long, guttural noise escaped Twilight’s mouth, “I guess I don’t have a choice but to send her a letter personally. I’ll tell her I need to speak with her and you’ll go with me.”

Wait, what? “Somehow, I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

“You barging into the Princess’ throne room to argue with her wasn’t a good idea either, but that didn’t stop you.”

Shit, she’s good. And here I thought I was going to be the only one on this planet to be good at apologetics.

“Let’s go and find Spike so that he can send the letter. I’ll arrange the time so that we can meet with the Princess tomorrow morning, when she’ll be the least busy, I hope.”

“How exactly is Spike going to send this letter? Shouldn’t we write it first anyway?”

“Well, for one, you don’t have the best writing, and neither do I, so Spike will be writing it. The other question you’ll just have to see the answer to.”

How cryptic. I like that, but I really don’t know why she’s going through all this trouble. It’s really bothering me. “You know I could just do this myself if you tell me how to request an audience. Why are you going through all this trouble just to help me? Aren’t you furious with me?”

“A little, yes.”

“Then why are you helping me? The only person I know that would go to this length to help me is- …isn’t around anymore. I don’t get why you’re going through all this to help someone you’re angry with.”

Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, “What do you mean, ‘isn’t around anymore’?”

Oh sure, that’s the thing you ask about. “Exactly as I said. He isn’t around here, is he?”

Twilight got the strangest look on her face when she heard me say that, “I know you’re hiding something. Why won’t you just tell me?”

“I don’t feel comfortable telling you about that.”

She looked hurt, “Why not? You should know you can tell me anything. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

I was struck completely speechless by that. I honestly thought Celestia was screwing with me when she told me about that. Such a ridiculous concept for us to be friends, and yet… Why do I feel strangely happy about this? “I- I’m not…” I mumbled, trailing off at the end. I truly didn’t know how to react to this.

She almost looked like she was about to cry, “D-do you not think of me as a friend?”

“I-It’s not that, but…”

She seemed to calm down, if only a bit, after that, “But what?”

“I just…” I sighed, “I’ve always had trouble talking about this.” I felt like I needed to sit down, so I leaned against the wall and lowered myself to a sitting position.

I really didn’t want to tell her about this. I always hated talking about my dead friend to people that I knew would never understand. Celestia was different; she had clearly seen the horrors of war at some point, so I figured she could at least get a grasp at what I had been through the last seven years, but Twilight? As far as I could tell, she was as close to innocent as they come. She had a loving family, a caring mentor, and a bunch of really great friends; she would never be able to understand what it was like to watch your best friend die right in front of you after you’ve known him for almost a quarter of a century. Every time I thought of him, I felt like a screaming mess, eventually turning into a hollowed shell of what I once was. I’d never tell anyone this personally, but I began to despise myself for not being able to save him. The more I thought about that day, the more I deluded myself into thinking that I could have saved him, and that meant I became more self-loathing by the day. The two psychiatrists and one physician I went through after I got discharged from the war kept telling me it wasn’t my fault, but I was far too blinded by grief to believe anything they told me at the time. Truth be told, I didn’t really trust a psychologist’s opinion, anyway. I don’t even remember when it was that I realized that the wound he got was fatal on impact, but that didn’t change how I felt about the matter. He was dead, and I couldn’t do anything to prevent that. It drove me mad to the point where I could barely even maintain a healthy eating schedule the first six months after getting sent back home. I barely ate, to my recollection never went outside, and ignored everyone I knew for the entire year after he died. I eventually had to go out and get a job; otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to live, if I could really call it that without him.

I ended up going back to the same thing I was doing before the draft: mechanical engineering. It was my major, after all. After I quit being a detective, he always told me that it was cool having a friend that was an engineer. I think he mostly just said that to make me feel a little better after I quit. Also, with us being from California, we sort of expected a lot of our group of friends to end up not going to college, becoming drug addicts, getting killed in a car accident, or in Steve's case, a combination of the three. I didn't like Steve anyway. Regardless, we figured we should stick together, try to make the state a better place so that we wouldn’t have to worry about our stupid drug addict friends. He ended up majoring in Law with a minor in Political Science, hoping to eventually be one of the state’s two Senators, but after the assassination of three of the Senators in 2024, they halted the election to the Senate long enough for my friend to get drafted into the war with me. Those assassinations were actually the reason America decided to involve itself in the war that was going on in Isreal. It was like some kind of ironic, sick joke being played on him; if the election wasn’t halted, and he got in, he would have been immune to the draft, and got the chance to try to carry out his dream. “Security reasons” were the excuses they gave for delaying the election. “Security reasons” were why my friend died out there fighting for them. They better have been some really damn good security reasons…

I finally managed to get the words out, “The best friend I ever had was killed seven years ago.” That was all I left it at. I didn’t give her any details about how he was shot in front of me, killing him instantly, nor did I go in detail about the war that surrounded us at the time. It wasn’t so much for her sake as it was mine; I knew if I started to go over the details aloud I’d have a nervous breakdown, and probably end up in a corner, depressed and sobbing, for the next month.

While sitting against the wall, I had subconsciously curled up into an upright fetal position, and didn’t bother looking up as I said that. I couldn’t tell what Twilight’s reaction was, and quite frankly, I didn’t want to know. I couldn’t bear to have anyone look at me while I was in this state of mind, and I especially didn’t want her to see.

Eventually, I felt something warm placing itself on my shoulder. It broke me out from my depressed trance and made me look over at what it was: Twilight’s hoof. With a distressed look on her face, she placed her hoof on my shoulder trying to comfort me to no avail. Had this been seven years ago, right after he died, this state of mind would have lasted weeks, probably even months and I wouldn’t be able to calm down. Around year three after his death I finally managed to channel my depression away without distracting myself with mounds of work by the use of physical activity; mostly it just ended up being walking. Said activity is what I resorted to in this situation, as well.

“I-If you don’t mind, I need to be alone for a little while. I’m gonna go clear my head,” I said meekly, getting up off the floor. I put the hood of my cloak back up to hide my face. I hated anyone seeing me like this, one of the many reasons I dawned this cloak of mine. I didn’t hear Twilight reply back to that, if she did at all. I was far too lost in my thoughts to hear anything at that point.

I slowly made my way around the palace, wandering aimlessly to help clear my head some. There were some days where, even after managing to find a consistent method to reduce my levels of depression, it still felt like it didn’t help at all. I believe it was fortunate that I hadn’t been thinking about that day for very long, otherwise the walking wouldn’t have helped much. My wandering eventually led me to some sort of garden outside the castle. Strange statues adorned the outskirts of a hedge maze. They didn’t really mean anything to me at the time, so I didn’t pay much attention to any of them. There was someone, however, trying to get my attention.

“Excuse our intrusion, art thou not the traveler Sister has mentioned?”

I turned around to find another tall, winged unicorn (I was told later the technical term was Alicorn) that was about Celestia’s size, only in a dark shade of blue with hair resembling the night sky. I guess this is that “Princess Luna” Twilight mentioned a couple days ago.

“That’s one way of putting it, I suppose.”

The next thing I knew, she slapped me across the face with her right forehoof, leaving a red mark that couldn’t be seen due to my hood.

“Let that be a warning to thee!” She was practically shouting at me, “If thou insist on insulting our sister, we shall use more than a hoof the next time!”

“Yeah, guess I deserved that,” I said, placing a finger across my cheek to make sure it wasn’t bleeding. Of course, I wouldn’t have needed to be concerned about that if she wasn’t wearing those ridiculous pieces of foot armor.

“Is that all thou hast to say about this matter?” I couldn’t tell, but it sounded a bit like concern in her voice, rather than accusation. I’m not sure; maybe it was the depression playing tricks on me.

“More or less. I’m well aware that my actions have consequences, and I fully expected something like that to come sooner or later, albeit not from you. I was a little out of line, wasn’t I?” That was intended to be more of a rhetorical question than anything else, but the supposed Princess Luna still felt the need to answer it anyway.

“Very much so, indeed. We hope that thou plan on apologizing to Sister post-haste, lest you indict our wrath.”

“I was going to, yes.” This was a lie. The thought hadn’t crossed my mind yet until after Twilight told me to, and I was still debating on whether to do it or not by the time Luna confronted me. I didn’t tell her this, obviously, but it was nice to know that they couldn’t read minds.

“Does something bother you, traveler? Sister spoke of you being more… animated than this. Thine words sound hollow and oppressed.”

What is with her speech? Are we in 14th Century England now? I didn’t really know how to respond to this. I figured if I lied here about this not only would Luna not believe me, but if Celestia found out that I’d been lying to her sister I’d never hear the end of it.

I ended up going with, “You caught me at a bad time. Mind if we talk later? I have some things I need to sort out.”

She paused for a moment, presumably debating whether or not to accept my request. “Very well, traveler. We shall hold thou to that arrangement in the near future. Until then, we have royal duties we must attend to.” She turned and started walking away before adding one more thing, “And be warned, traveler. Thou art treading on thin ice.”

…So was that the royal “we,” or is she just crazy? If there was one good thing that came out of that exchange, it was that I was now more focused on speaking with Celestia rather than thinking about my dead friend. I walked around only for a bit longer, mostly just to find my bearings around the castle. Now that I had explored the thing for over two hours the first time, I learned a lot of landmarks to guide myself over to where I needed to be. Eventually I managed to make my way back to the observatory from earlier today, noticing that it was already night outside. Twilight and Spike weren’t around, so I decided to sit down in front of the glass-paned walls and stargaze. It was nice seeing so many stars outside without dealing with the light pollution in larger-populated areas back on my planet. I got a good look at all the constellations I was actually familiar with, Canis Major, Orion, and the Big Dipper. In a strange way, I guess stargazing at familiar constellations made me feel like I was back on my planet. This feeling was both comforting and worrisome, because the longer I looked at the stars; the more I thought that it would be fine if I stayed. I knew I couldn’t, but it didn’t stop me from feeling that way.

When I thought I spent enough time stargazing, I got up and stretched my back and arms out. I checked the only clock I knew of in the castle, and saw that I had been stargazing for around twenty minutes or so. I had definitely calmed down enough by this point to confront Twilight again, so I figured I should start seriously looking for her now.

I made my way back to where I first left Twilight to see if she stuck around the Archives. No one seemed to be around by the time I got there, so I made my way back over to where Twilight said her room was. On the way over, I spotted a very distinct, small purple dragon.

He noticed me and motioned me over, “H-hey.” Spike seemed nervous.

I nodded back to him, acknowledging his greeting.

“I, uh, I heard from Twilight about earlier. You okay?”

“I cleared my head, yes,” I remembered him being seemingly irritated when they both came back to the Archives. “You seemed rather annoyed when you first came back to the Archives earlier. Was that my doing?”

“Well, you were pretty reckless earlier. And you kinda argued with Mom…”

“Mom”? He views Celestia as his mother? “…Sorry. I sort of lost it for a little while.”

“It’s cool. Twilight told me all about the plan, and I already sent Mom the letter for it. Oh, and Twilight also told me to tell you to be ready early tomorrow morning for it if she didn’t see you for the rest of the night.”

“Thanks for that.” Spike seemed very mature about the way he handled things; certainly a lot more than I had been the last 24 hours. “So, ‘Mom,’ huh?” It feels very awkward asking this question.

“Oh, yeah. She’s been the closest thing I have to a mom since I was hatched.”

So dragons are hatched from eggs? I guess they’re more closely related to reptiles than I thought. “Do you not know about your real parents?”

He seemed really down after I asked that, “N-no, I don’t. That’s why I was really excited that you could read Draconian. I thought maybe you might find something about my parents in one of the books the Archives has.”

…And now I feel really bad for asking that question. “I haven’t found much yet, unfortunately. So far all I’ve read is a mushy romance novel and a very detailed economics book.”

The young dragon planted his face in his claws, “I’m worried I’ll never find out who they are.”

I knelt down and put my oversized hand on his tiny shoulder, “I may not be able to find anything about your parents in the books you have in the Archives, but I can teach you the language so you can ask around about them next time you see any of your fellow dragons, if you want.”

He looked up from his claws, “You’d do that?”

I simply nodded in response.

Spike’s eyes lit up bright, “That’d be great! When do we start?”

Despite the fact that he couldn’t see it, I smiled at his eagerness, “Unfortunately, I’d need some time to prepare notes, worksheets, and a lesson plan to get you started. My guess is that we might not be able to start for another couple weeks, give or take a few days.”

“Oh, alright.” He seemed a bit disappointed at not being able to start right away.

“Don’t worry; we’ll get to it by the end of July at the latest. I can assure you that much.”

He smiled and nodded at me. I really do admire that enthusiasm of his.

“By the way, do you know where Twilight is? I figured I should go speak with her, but I haven’t managed to find her yet.”

“Twilight said she’d stop by to see Shining and Cadence one more time, then head back to her room. I’m sure by now she’s probably in her room.”

I must have just missed her, then. Wait, “Cadence”? “Who’s Cadence?”

“Shining Armor’s wife. They got married a couple months back. I got to host the bachelor party!”

I think I’m gonna like hanging around this kid. His enthusiasm is contagious, I swear. I chuckled, “I see. I’m sure you did a fantastic job. I should talk to Twilight before it gets too late. It was nice speaking with you, Spike.”

He seemed a bit surprised I said that, “Sure, anytime.”

With that, I took my leave to meet back up with Twilight. This labyrinth of a castle didn’t seem as bad to travel through now that I knew my way around. I made it back to the room Twilight mentioned earlier that day in good time.

I didn’t want to barge into her room unannounced, so I opted for knocking on the door instead. Besides, I didn’t know if she was actually there or not.

“Come in!” I heard a familiar voice say from inside.

I opened the door to find Twilight sitting in a desk, reading a book, with a massive stack of them next to her. Déjà vu.

She looked up from the pages, and once she saw who it was, put down the book and walked over to me. “Hi…”

Apparently ponies are just as bad at dealing with depression as I am. I mimicked myself from the chat I had earlier with Spike, nodding in confirmation.

“A-are you feeling alright? I’m sorry about asking that question so suddenly… I-I didn’t know-”

I cut her off, “You wouldn’t. That subject is not one I talk about lightly or much at all, for that matter. You did not offend me, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I wasn’t worried about that, I was worried about how depressed you got. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Am I going to have to repeat myself all night? “I cleared my head, yes. For the moment, I’m fine.”

“…This friend really meant a lot to you, didn’t he?” Twilight asked after being silent for a little bit.

“…Yes, he did.” I looked away from her, before mumbling the rest of my statement, “More than you’ll ever know…”

Twilight tugged me down with magic, and repeated the scene from the forest a couple days back. She hugged me again.

Somehow, this doesn’t get any less surprising the more she does this. “Okay, you have got to start warning me the next time you do this.”

Twilight just let out that endearing little giggle of hers again, “But then you’d never let me hug you.”

I rolled my eyes, “Yeah that was kind of the point.”

“I swear, I think you’re hopeless sometimes,” she said back. Even though I couldn’t see it, I could almost feel the smile on her face as she said that. I can’t say I’d blame her if she did have one after that, because I certainly did.

Twilight finally released me from her hold, “Well, I am glad that you’re feeling better. If you ever want to talk about that again, I’ll always listen. I hope you know that.”

“Th-thank you. That means a lot.”

She smiled at me, “Anytime.”

I remembered what I had spoken with Spike about earlier, “Oh, and I think I should thank you once more for sending that letter for tomorrow. You really didn’t have to do that, you know.”

“Oh, it’s no problem, really. Besides, maybe if I’m there, the Princess might go a little easier on you.”

Somehow I doubt that, based on Luna’s response, but I do still appreciate the gesture. “What did you say in that letter, anyway?”

“Just that I wanted to speak with her about something I’d forgotten to ask earlier today. She said that she’d be able to make time early tomorrow morning, and to come visit her in the Throne Room once I was ready.” Her face shifted to a worried stare, “I hope you know what you’re going to say to her, because it’ll take one big apology with how fuming she was earlier. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that mad before…”

“I’m pretty sure she’s just mad because she knows the only two things she can do to me, legally, are things that I’m not too worried about if she does or not, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.”

“What are those?”

“Throwing me into a dungeon, or deporting me, obviously.”

Twilight gave me an incredulous look, “You’re not worried about either of those things?”

I thought about it for a moment, “Well, maybe the latter, but I’d never tell her that. Surprisingly, your jailing system isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it’d be.”

“If you say so…”

“Oh, I almost forgot, did you read those notes I took on the first book I translated?”

She laughed, “I did. So it really was a romance novel?”

“Believe me; I was just as surprised as you. I didn’t think I’d actually come across one.”

“There was one thing on your notes that confused me, though. What are these X-E-N-O-gears you mentioned?”

Oops. Now I’m really worried about putting Kefka in the second book’s translation notes. I’ll have to double check that later. “I put Xenogears in there? Oh, wow, that was completely unintentional.”

“That’s how it’s pronounced?” She started sounding it out to herself a couple times, “Xe-no-gears… Xenogears… What are these ‘Xenogears’? Are they a series of novels?”

Do they even have video games in their universe as of now? I suppose I should keep it ambiguous just in case. “For lack of a better term, yes, Xenogears is a fantastic piece of literature that just so happens to be one of my favorite stories ever told. I could tell you about it in detail later, if you’d like?”

“I would love to hear about it. I kept your notes where you left them in the Archives, by the way. Don’t stay up too late, alright?”

I rolled my eyes, “Twilight, I’m 42. I’m fairly certain I can keep my own sleeping schedule managed. Oh, where is my room, anyway? Do I go back to the hospital or..?”

“Oh, right! I completely forgot to tell you about that with everything that happened today. Your room is in the West Wing, the third door to your left after you enter the Wing. Do you know your way around yet? Do you need help getting there?”

“I’ve been learning my way around. I should be fine on my own, thank you. I swear this place would be easier to get around if there were maps.”

She laughed, “It’s always hardest the first time around. I’m actually surprised you know your way around so well already. It took me a week to figure out that there was a bathroom on this side of the castle when the Princess first took me in.”

I folded my arms, “I would have already memorized my way around if the architect of this place put even a single map in the castle.”

Twilight looked up at the wall. I hadn’t noticed it when I walked in, but there apparently was a clock up there, and it said that it was really close to 10 pm. “I’d like to keep talking with you, Hurricane, but I believe it’s time we both got some rest. You’ve spoken with Spike, haven’t you? If you see him again on your way, tell him to come back here and get some sleep. It’s way past his bedtime and he knows it!”

I smirked, “Will do, Twilight. See you in the morning.”

With that, we said our farewells and I was on my way over to the West Wing. Before getting there, I stopped by the Archives to pick up my notes that Twilight left for me. I really only cared about the notes on the economics book, so I left the first 47 pages summarizing that romance novel behind. Also, I double checked; fortunately enough for me, I did not need to edit out Kefka in any of my notes.

Despite not seeing Spike on my way over, I had finally made my way to the West Wing of the castle some ten or fifteen minutes after I left Twilight’s room. I’m sure Spike will be fine. He seems to know his way around the castle.

I went to the third door to my left after entering the Wing. The door was left unlocked, and pushing it open revealed my quarters for the night. Fairly nice room, nothing special, but certainly better than what I had been sleeping on the last week. Both my room and Twilight’s had these vaguely familiar room structures. They were like a mix of modern Japanese and ancient European; they looked like they could be elegant, but were designed to save space, although I do not know what purpose that could be for. The castle seemed big enough to me where they wouldn’t need they wouldn’t need the extra space for much. See? This is why maps are helpful! At least then I’d know why these rooms look like they need to conserve space.

My room’s furniture was limited, but I didn’t need much anyway, so I wasn’t complaining. Quite frankly, I was just happy that I’d get to sleep in a bed that was actually my size for once this week, unlike the short hospital bed and all the trees I’d been leaning against in the days prior. The room had a bed that was barely big enough for my height and a desk close by. I placed my 90 pages of notes on said desk so that I could keep track of them. There were also candles adorning the desk in case I needed some light for whatever I could do in the night. It would have been late-night reading and writing, if anything at all.

Candles for light, huh? So they have plastic but no working electricity in a castle? I wonder just how far their technology has advanced if they don’t have working electricity for the nation’s capital city. Twilight said they had developed the first stages of computers, didn’t she? Perhaps their technological advancements are just poorly distributed…? I really should make a list of questions I need to ask. This is getting ridiculous.

I decided to keep my train of thought from progressing any further, lest I forget what I was going to write down. I figured since it was only a quarter past 10, I’d have some time to write down a few things I wanted to ask. There were namely three things I wrote to provoke different chains of dialogue when I asked them, “How is the technology of this world spread,” “What are the practical and extensive uses of magic, and what impact do they have on this society” and “If this world can produce plastics, what do they use as fossil fuel and how much technology have they actually researched to get far enough to be able to harness the power of fossil fuels?” I ended up having to write these on the backside of the last page of notes, since I didn’t have any spares lying around the room. The backside of that page was clear of writing since I didn’t end up using it, so those questions were the only things that could be seen.

When I felt I wrote enough miscellaneous questions about their world and society, I took off my cloak and threw it on the desk, blew out the candle I lit earlier, and plopped down on the bed that was given to me for the night. As I lied there, I kept thinking about what I said to Celestia earlier that day. The more I thought about it, the guiltier I felt, and I finally confirmed that my decision would be to legitimately apologize to her. Eventually, I started thinking about the history notes, and how I hadn’t bothered showing them to Twilight yet.

Why couldn’t I just show her the notes? I had the opportunity, but I didn’t take it. I didn’t want to take it, but why? What do I feel about Celestia to make me want to help keep her secrets safe from even her student- my friend? Is it even about Celestia?

I let out a long sigh before continuing my train of thought. I don’t even know why I care about this society of ponies so much, let alone about what I’m going to say to Celestia tomorrow morning. I guess being alone for 7 years had unexpected advantages that I’m now suddenly starting to miss, namely dealing with things like these. Although, I’d gladly deal with hundreds of moments like these if it meant you were still alive, my friend. I paused my thought for a moment, Come to think of it; Twilight called me her friend, didn’t she? Why? Sure I call her a friend as well, but I’ve made it a point to try not to be too attached and remain as emotionally distant as I can to anything here. There shouldn’t be any reason for her to consider me anything more than an acquaintance. Actually, the only reason I even told her about that time was because she guilt tripped me with the concept of being her friend, but… Why does she see me as such? I guess women are just as confusing here as they are on my Earth.

My thoughts continued for a little while longer, namely about formulating my apology to Celestia the next morning. It was a good thing I got so much sleep the day before, because I didn’t get much at all after I finished my stream of consciousness this night.