Over that evening, Twilight became a major source of knowledge about Celestia. In fact, she probably could have written an entire biography about her beloved teacher! The sudden change to what she called Standard Equuish was so handy! She ran through the chapters like the wind.
Eventually, she fell asleep from exhaustion, somehow managing to tuck the bock under her pillow for safekeeping.
Spike came into her room the next morning, all cheerful from his wonderful night with Rarity, when he spotted the princess sleeping on the floor, shivering from the cold crystal. "Twilight!" He shouted, scooping up his surrogate sister and placing her back into her bed.
"What were you doing down there, Twilight? You could have gotten hypothermia!"
(In reality, she had only fallen on the floor because she was dreaming about the time Tia and Lulu got lost in the castle and had fallen through a trapdoor and into the dungeon.)
Spike fussed over her all morning, even after she protested she was fine. However, both Spike and Rarity agreed that Twilight should stay in bed for the day and read her Old Equuish books. Twilight assumed they just wanted time to themselves.
She slid the diary of Princess Celestia out from under her pillow again. She silently cursed to herself for not remembering to place a bookmark in before she closed the ancient diary.
"I guess I was around here..."
She opened the book to a random spot. The entry seemed to be more recent, and upon closer inspection, Twilight gasped at seeing something quite surprising, and rather disturbing.
Entry 2475
Dear Diary,
Sharp Sword died earlier this morning, in combat against the Changeling Army. I feel so bad sending armies against Chryssie, but it must be this way.
He never knew about our filly. I never got the courage to tell him.
She's growing more and more each day. I need to find a safe place to deliver her. The castle staff are quite the scandalous bunch, and already word on the street is that Sharp Sword and I were in a relationship.
It was all my fault. I don't know what to do! Where can I have this filly safely without the world having at me?
I think my best shot is to visit the zebra sage at the edge of the Everfree Forest. The zebras are a wise and good-hearted race. I hope this sage is as wise as her ancestors were.
G'night,
Tia Solar