I wrote to Luna of the bat situation, as Zyrifa had outlined it. We would be in the Ghastly Gorges for a while, capturing the last of the afflicted bats and seeking further advice from the zebra. When the task was complete, after an estimated three or four days, I would return and resume work with the Royal Apothecary back in Canterlot on an effective solution. My study and workstation in Equisnox were capable enough to handle the situation, but what I needed was proximity to others in my field. I told her that I was in the process of sending correspondence to the Canterlot Academy, since the situation didn’t involve a disease stemming from a creature but a magical mishap orchestrated by students. If we were to unravel exactly what spell the students had used, we needed access to the subjects they had knowledge of, as well as their schoolwork and notes. Unless something obvious stood out, it would be a long investigation. Nimble Road delivered the letter once the ink had dried, swiftly disappearing into the Everfree Forest. Sapphire and I had our tasks set ahead of us now.
It took several trips to capture the rest of the bats in the gorges and surrounding woods, and more nocturnal nights pondering our options. Zyrifa offered us hexes and potions that she thought most relevant, from amorous love potions to curses that caused even the most regal of ponies to believe they were mules. As strange and interesting as all these zebra magics were, none of these I believed brought us closer to solving our epidemic. All of these involved magical guises of manipulation, and what we were handling wasn’t a matter of trickery. It was a matter of nature.
“Like the Cutie Pox during the Paleopony era,” Sapphire theorized. “Ponies became afflicted with a magical disorder that affected their behavior. They became beset with marks that caused them to engage in sporadic activity. Instead of their original nature determining their cutie marks, their marks dictated their behavior.”
“If only we knew more about the Cutie Pox,“ I sighed. “Maybe we would have a lead. But we don’t know anything besides the disease, and no paleoponies wrote about it back then. In fact, they didn’t write much at all.”
I laid my head down in temporary defeat, resting on the floor of Zyrifa’s hut. We had been out here for two days now, rifling through zebra knowledge as we rounded up the last bats. By now, the locals had crafted and given us cages so we could more securely transport the bats, and we were running out of reasons to stay. Both Sapphire and I moaned about the long walk back, dragging a cart through the forest. If only we had the foresight to ask Nimble Road to return to us after a day or two. I considered asking some of the zebras to aid us in the journey back, in exchange for gold or anything else, but most of them were hesitant to interact. The cages seemed to be the extension of their desire to help. Only Zyrifa openly discussed matters with us, offering food and housing without question or trade. The zebra was a very close friend to Luna, after all, and extended her hoof of friendship with us as a result.
After more theories that got us nowhere, I stood up. “I need a walk,” I told Sapphire. She shrugged where she sat a couple feet away, close to the fire in the center of the room. Zyrifa had left something boiling in her cauldron, but had temporarily left to find an ingredient or two.
Outside, it was night, the coolness a relief from the humid, hot day. The canopy of the Everfree was thick, full of skittering wildlife that blended with the sound of rustling leaves. Yet there were gaps where I could see the sky, and the moon that slowly traveled across its canvas. I inhaled and exhaled deeply, admiring it’s beauty, as well as the work that had brought it to reach the zenith of its path.
As I enjoyed the serene silent, I heard someone obnoxiously clear their throat, and then spit. Annoyed, I turned around, expecting Sapphire, though why she would do such a disgusting habit was beyond me. Instead, I was met with an unfamiliar face. An unfamiliar, very unhappy face.
“When in Tartarus are you ponies going to finish up and leave? You haven’t worn out your welcome enough?” It was a zebra male, young at that, no longer a colt but not quite a buck yet. Somehow, he had found his way up a tree, glaring down from a branch like a cheshire cat. His stripes matched the darkness of the night, but his whiteness stood out in a way that made him look like a torn up ghost.
“Excuse me, I don’t think I know you.” I tried to keep my tone friendly, even though it left my mouth bitterly. “We’ve been doing important research for the past few days. I’m sorry if it bothered you, especially since we’ve kept entirely to ourselves.” That last part was definitely in a biting tone.
He huffed, jumping down from the tree limb and making his way towards me with a threatening gait. “You ponies, always giving the impression you’re high horses. Trampling everything you touch. Someone outtta--”
“Silence!” From the underbrush emerged a friendlier face, Zyrifa addressing the stranger. “Child, do not be such a nuisance. Go back to the village, these matters are not in need of your stridence.”
The unknown zebra huffed, giving me one more nasty stare before unfurling his wings and taking off. I sighed in relief, enjoying the return of silence, and...
“Wait. I didn’t know zebras could have wings?” It was a new observation for me.
“That is my nephew Kraai,” Zyrifa told me. “I apologize; I didn’t expect him to visit during my forage. My sister and him live below in the village.” I wanted to ask her further about Kraai’s wings, but Zyrifa didn’t seem interested in explaining further.
The upcoming day, we decided to leave. We ran out of justifiable things to do, anyways. And, I felt, it would feel good to see my own kind again. The thought felt prejudice in my mind, but after sitting isolated in Zyrifa’s hut with Sapphire Blossom, only leaving to wander the Everfree Forest and the Ghastly Gorge, we needed to be back home again. Anyways, I didn’t want to wear out our welcome. At least, more than we already had.
Luna was already gone when we reached Equisnox, even though it was the time of day when she was usually sleeping.
“I can’t blame her,” Melvin, a friend of ours explained. “It’s so noisy with the Guard out all night and day on the grounds. The worst part of it is that we can’t properly tunnel with all of this going on. Can’t they play soldier somewhere else, like Cloudsdale? Aren’t most of them from that spartan pegasi settlement anyways?”
“Melvin, wasn’t work on the castle already finished decades ago?” I asked the manticore.
“The castle part, yes.” The manticore let out a deep sigh. “But all the tunnels and traps Luna continually plans? No. And as her friend and co-conspirator, I just can’t bring myself to stop.”
I laughed at how childish yet true Melvin and Luna’s relationship was. Luna had told me the story of how she and the manticore met, during the original construction of the Castle of the Two Sisters. Stones to construct the castle had to be quarried from nearby caves, but workers in the quarry kept going missing, with mysterious reports of a monster attacking at night. The two sisters, upset at the disappearance of workers, attacked Melvin under the belief that the manticore was eating ponies mane, hoof, and tail. However, Luna discovered that the roars the manticore made weren’t the ferocious ones of a carnivorous equine predator, but agonized cries over the loss of his home. He had eaten none of the workers, or even harmed them at all; the ponies had only been chased into the Everfree forest, and later all of them were found. Melvin, hearing that the reason Luna and Celestia disturbed his home was because the two were in the process of building their own, offered a helping hoof. And this was despite the fact that the two sisters had unintentionally caused destruction to his home! If anyone knew what it was like to not have a home, it was the manticore.
Even after all these years, Melvin hung around the edges of Equisnox, even helping in the small city’s construction every now and then. I guess Equisnox was less of a city and more of a fort, high walled with narrow gaps between its buildings to discourage attackers. Ponies that lived here served the princesses in some way, shape, or form; mostly servants, but plenty of guards and personal assistants. I lived in the Castle of the Two sisters, alongside Sapphire Blossom. While I was Luna’s student, Sapphire was Celestia’s go-to helper. We didn’t speak much, despite living in the same wing, since Sapphire spent her off time in the library and I spent my time experimenting in the lab and identifying species in the forest. Anyways, we usually had oppositional sleep schedules.
When we passed through the gates, the grounds were filled with ponies of various races, all participating in military drills, barking orders and assuming formations. No doubt, Nimble Road was among them; we had pulled him from training, after all, and he would have resumed the moment he returned. It was hard to spot him in the sea of moving, armored ponies, their faces blocked by their helmets and their flanks covered with polished plate. Above hovered a pegasus I assumed was from Cloudsdale, judging by the centurion Galea on his head. He barked the loudest and viciously of them all, pointing a spear at individuals he found disapproving. The atmosphere felt too tense, so I left without seeing Celestia first. She had different responsibilities than Luna, and was more concerned about an invasion from the East than she was with experimental magical mishaps.
Canterlot was more than a day’s journey, and when Sapphire and I arrived, we immediately made our way to the Academy to find housing and sleep. After our rest, it was back to mulling over the same problem again, except with outside opinions and new evidence to draw a conclusion.
The next day, we were escorted to breakfast by Twirling Spark, who most called Twirl for short. She was the dean of the Academy, and a day before our arrival, had already begun pulling all the texts from the rooms of the unicorns involved in the mishap. “I’ve already gathered a team to sort through their notes and recreate the spell,” she informed us cheerfully. “I bargain in no time, we’ll have this mishap no longer happed.”
Happed wasn’t a word, and for the dean of a prestigious establishment, definitely not a fictitious word to throw around. Still, Twirl’s bright mood dissuaded any corrections, and most ponies overlooked her habit of making terms up. As unacademic as it was.
“Thank you again, Twirl,” I said. “It’s such an immensive help for the Academy to step in. Your resources are invaluable.”
“No, Sable, thank you,” the lavender unicorn countered. “This epidemic was the result of our students’ misguidance. If we had known what they were attempting, we could have stepped in and steered them in the right correction. Not to mention, it is uplifting to know one of the Academy’s best former students has gotten this situation under control.”
“Oh... well, you’re welcome, Twirl.” Sapphire rolled her eyes, her mouth too stuffed with muffins to retort.
“You should consider coming back to the Academy more often,” the dean suggested, her words blowing the steam off a hot cup of tea. “Brilliant unicorns such as yourself are exactly what pony kind need nowadays. Perhaps a lecture or two, give the students someone to look up to.”
“I think, perhaps, our students need the opposite. Perhaps we teach young ponies to look up to us so often they forget the Earth exists.” I rose, my breakfast plate clear except for crumbs. The meal had been filling, although I couldn’t help but notice the taste was much more bland than what Zyrifra cooked. “I must thank you again, this time for inviting us to both your presence and a free meal. I will, no doubt, see you later.”
In the hall, Sapphire snorted, and asked, “So where to now, great and honored Sable? Down to the library to pick through the must?”
“Err... if it’s alright, Sapphire, I think I’m going to visit a few friends quickly,” I shyly suggested. “My brother has just started his first year at the Academy, and I didn’t even get a chance to see him off. Your sister’s still in school, right? In her last year? Maybe you can get a chance to talk to Violet.”
Sapphire shook her head. “I think I’ll have to pass. I’d rather get started immediately on this matter.”
“Alright, Sapphire. I will see you in a couple of hours?”
My friend shrugged, trotting off, tossing her cerulean mane to the side.
“Sable!” Morning Glory pranced in circles around me, the colt eager to introduce me to his newfound friends. “Everypony, this is my sister Sable; she graduated, but she gets to work with the Sisters, especially Luna!”
I was met with half a dozen starry eyes peering quietly at me. It is strange, how the same peer from adults infers judgement and criticism, while from children it expressed wide eyed curiosity. Most of the youngling’s flanks were blank, and I envied their upcoming journeys into their inner identities.
One filly in the back, however, looked a little unsatisfied.
“Everypony knows Celestia’s the better sister,” she snarked.
“No she’s not.” Glory threw his mane back in annoyance. The two must have had an argumentative relationship, despite how short their time together must have been at the Academy. Which, I estimated, was halfway through the first semester so far.
“Both sisters are equal,” Glory had a sassy attitude to his face, which almost brought out an amused laugh in me. “Luna’s just as good as Celestia, if not more. If you’re going to be a sore hoof about my sister visiting me, Rhodium, maybe you should go somewhere else.”
“Hmph,” Rhodium complained, nose high. She stayed her ground, mingling with the party despite the dispute. Though I hadn’t seen Glory in six months, we kept in touch with letters, and often he complained about quite a few colts and fillies. The letters didn’t surprise me; the Academy was the gem of Canterlot, and Canterlot was ruled by royalty. Well, it was ruled by the Sisters like any other place in Equestria, but the unicorn royals never gave in their crowns after the uniting of the three kingdoms. Bluebloods, Fleur de Lis, the Academy was littered with the offspring of prominent names. And why not--didn’t such highly regarded families demand only the best education for their children? However, to my relief during my time as a student, I discovered most noble ponies finished their studies at the fourth year. Not to be offensive, after the nobility dropoff, the student body had become suddenly less dramatic.
“So... how are you guys enjoying your first years at the Academy?” I asked.
“Exciting!”
“Hard.”
“Fun!”
“I’m a little homesick,” a pale, shy colt in the back complained, his eyes overcast by silver bangs.
“Oh, don’t be a baby, Ghost Glass,” Rhodium teased.
I tried my best not to show a short attitude towards Rhodium. Instead, I spoke to the unfamiliar filly, Ghost Glass, warmingly.
“I was a little homesick, too, when I first started my years at the Academy.” Hearing the news, Ghost Glass looked up at me stunned, as if I had told him I was made out of crystal.
“But Sable Light, you’re so great! There’s no way you were homesick when you started learning at the Academy!”
“We all have to start somewhere, little one.” I smiled, lowering my neck to make even eye contact with him. I didn’t want to look down at him. “I studied for eight years here, and not a week went by that I didn’t think of my family.” I softly padded him on the head, playfully. “Yet I wouldn’t take back a single day I spent at a great place like here. My best advice is to write every day to your parents, your siblings, your friends, anyone you have back home. It may sound stupid, but keep doing it anyways. Even now, some days I look back on the letters I got from my own parents during my Academy years, and it brings a little cheer to my day.”
“I will!” Ghost Glass beamed. All the other students began to look giddy, chiming in.
“Me too!”
“I’ll write twice as much!”
“Every day!”
“Jeez, all of you.” Rhodium huffed, turning her back and leaving. “Class starts soon. Unless you all want to elope on your important studies to learn all about messaging your mothers.”
Morning Glory looked at me with pleading eyes, the kind he always gave me. I could already tell that he was looking for an excuse to get out of class, and that excuse was me. It wouldn’t be too much to just send a note explaining that I wanted to take him aside for some... personal one on one lessons. I was revered enough, surely, that Glory’s teachers wouldn’t mind. It wasn’t every day one of their students got to be personally tutored by such a prestigious former student.