1001

I'm so tired...

It's been a while since I've written anything down in here, but I've been... busy. A few things have changed since my last entry and I've been at least tangentially, if not directly involved in most of those changes. On top of my normal work in the lab, I had to meet with both the boss and the Princess (who's also technically my boss, I guess) to make a case for integrating Spike into POUT as an official agent.

That's right, the little guy wants to join me on my glorified treasure hunts out in the field. He'd made the plea at around the time my other self was sent back home—a couple of days after my last entry I think. Needless to say, I wasn't exactly thrilled about his choice given what I'd been through so far, but I didn't fight him too hard on the matter. I didn't have it in me, honestly.

I'd been ready to jump on the opportunity to join this agency as a foal, but that was mostly because of my curious nature. Spike wanted to join so he could more directly watch my back. He wanted to protect me. It was a sweet thought, really, but I was of two minds here. On one hoof, I wanted nothing more than to have him by my side.

I can't tell you how much I missed the baby dragon while i was in Manehattan. Being able to sense his presence nearby is like a balm for my frazzled nerves. At the same time, my job is dangerous. Even just being in the lab isn't a guarantee of safety. If anything, it has the potential to be even more dangerous considering the types of things we researchers handle on a regular basis.

Naturally, I wanted to protect him too, and for me, that meant keeping him away from all the unknowable danger. At the end of the day though, I just couldn't say no. Sure I tried to talk him out of it, but the look in his glowing purple eyes told me he wasn't backing down on this one. In the end, I just told myself that, at the very least, I could help prepare him for what was to come.

I didn't really get that chance when I joined. I just jumped in headfirst with barely a thought for the consequences and they don't tell you everything during training. And so, I raised my hooves in defeat and promised to take it up with the higher-ups. To my surprise and slight annoyance, neither the boss nor the Princess seemed all that surprised when I made the request.

They both just kind of gave me this knowing smirk that grated on my nerves. Then the boss pulls out this form, the same kind of recruitment form I'd filled when I joined POUT. It was already filled out and they'd already been ready to approve Spike for official training provided I could make a good case. They'd already known I would come to them with the request! The whole bucking thing was a formality!

Sure, I made my case, and it was a damn good case, too. I'd spent hours—days brainstorming the perfect pitch. Hundreds of well-reasoned arguments created and discarded because I thought this would be a hard sell. After all, normal policy didn't allow for non-Equestrians to join any of the agencies for “national security” reasons. I know what you're thinking, but despite the fact that Spike was technically born in Equestria, the kingdom doesn't allow citizenship to dragons.

Apparently, there was some major conflict between Equestria and the Dragonlands a few centuries ago. The outcome was a surprisingly peaceful one thanks to the efforts of the Princess, but it resulted in some lingering bad blood and while dragons aren't outright barred from entering the country, they're not allowed full citizenship.

And then I finally bring up the matter and it turns out that, despite the political ramifications, I could've just stood there slobbering all over myself and they would've given the okay! Isn't that insane? You can't blame me for being a little frustrated, right? I'm not the only one who thinks this is horseapples, right?! No, of course not. A little frustration is only natural. Only natural.

Alright, calming down now.

So yeah, I got the okay and Spike started his training about a week ago. I've been supplementing his normal physical training with all kinds of useful stuff I learned both in the lab and on the field by sharing the experiences through our psychic link. I've also been shoving everything in the field manuals I've read directly into his head. He's not happy about it, but we both agreed that if he was going to do this, we'd do it my way.

Is it cheating on his part? Maybe, but neither of us have been called out on it yet and I'm sure the trainers know something's up. But yeah, that's taken up a lot of my time and it's been way more exhausting than I'd expected. Even before all of that though, I'd been given another field assignment by the boss, but this one was special.

Yes, you could argue the Crystal Mountain incident was a special case too, but this time, I'll have backup, and not just any backup either. One of my assigned partners is Rolling Stone. That's all well and good and I'm actually happy to work with the mare, but the real surprise came when I was told by the Princess herself that Sunset Shimmer would be joining us as well.

Evidently, Sunset caught wind of where we were going and wanted in. Somehow she wore the Princess down and convinced the mare to let her go. I was surprised at first, but then I thought about it. Either by way of happenstance or through her own obsessive investigations, Sunset's pretty much figured out what POUT and the other agencies are all about at this point.

I feel like she probably would've been a prime candidate for at least one of the agencies if she hadn't taken up the role of the Princess' protégé. Sunset herself told me that Princess Celestia hadn't even fought her that hard on the matter. I'd managed to convince myself that Sunset's inclusion made a kind of sense, but to barely put up a fight on the matter at all? That I found kind of strange and even a little suspect.

Overall though, I was just glad to have a friend with me this time around. I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't rather have Spike with me if I had a choice, but Sunset was a good friend. Come to think of it, I'd gotten along fairly well with Rolling Stone. Well enough that I think I could consider her another friend—Prism Streak too.

I respected Rarity plenty, but I didn't exactly know her well enough to call her a friend just yet. That said, we were getting there and I couldn't wait to see her again when we both had the chance. Tempest... well, I liked the mare and she was patient with me, but that had been more a student-mentor relationship than anything else. Very professional for the most part.

Rolling Stone was a far cry from either Prism Streak or Sunset Shimmer. The mare had a calming presence. For those who didn't know her, she came off as disinterested and completely unflappable, but like I wrote in an earlier entry, that wasn't the case. She just didn't emote very well. I'd talked to her quite a bit in the past, but I only recently found out her actual name was Maudileena Daisy Pie—or just “Maud” for short.

I found out from the earth pony that Prism Streak's actual name was Rainbow Dash. Apparently the two had really bonded over the Nameless Tome incident and Maud had been feeling a bit down since the brash pegasus left on her extended undercover op in Ponyville. I felt for the mare but I'm not really sure what I can do to help. I'll just have to be there as another friend, I suppose—somepony she can talk to if need be.

But I think I've gotten a little off topic. Again. The real reason for my exhaustion and why I decided to jot all this down after so long was because of my upcoming assignment. This time I'll be heading out of Equestria and naturally, that means a lot of paperwork. Normally that wouldn't be an issue for me, but I was also tasked with showing Sunset the ropes, so to speak.

Under the boss' and Princess Celestia's orders, I've been teaching Sunset the proper protocol when out doing a mission on the field. It's been just the basics as she's still not an actual member of the POUT agency. Just common sense things any good survivalist would know. The problem is that, because of Sunset's personality, she's never been an easy mare to work with.

I'm used to her more arrogant, abrasive, and condescending tendencies, but that doesn't mean it doesn't wear on my nerves every now and then. And to be fair, she does try to dial that side of her down where I'm concerned. Still, it does slip through occasionally—especially if she thinks something she's being forced to do is a waste of time.

I love Sunset like a sister, but there's only so much Sunset Shimmer you can take in one sitting, y'know? Frankly, I'm not sure how the Princess manages so well. Years of experience I guess. Regardless, I did what was asked of me, tiring as it was, and all the while, I also had to make all the preparations for the trip. Maud was at least able to help me out there and thank the Sun too, because I was also helping Spike with his studies at the time too.

And all this on top of my normal duties in the lab.

So yeah, you can see why I haven't written anything in a while. Just didn't have the time. What little time I did get to myself I spent passed out in my room. It's only now that all preparations are finally complete that I can update my journal and what a relief that is. I've even managed to muster up some excitement about where we're headed. And just where are we headed I hear you ask?

Asterios, land of minotaurs and home to some of the oldest existing ruins in the world. They're a rare sight in Equestria so not many ponies know this, but minotaurs are an ancient race—supposedly older even than the dragons. Some say they were the first race to gain true sapience and had ruled the world once upon a time. The history is pretty murky given how far back it goes, but to explore their many ancient ruins is the dream of any history buff.

I'm personally not a major historian myself, but I like to cast a wide net when it comes to acquiring knowledge. My curiosity alone was enough to get me invested in the trip, but Sunset and Maud apparently had their own reasons for wanting to go. Maud was interested in the ancient stone architectures themselves, The rock enthusiast tells me that the stone used to build the ruined structures is supposed to be unlike anything found in Equestria.

Then there's Sunset...

We're going to be taking a ship south across the Bhokt Sea to an Asterian port city. There we're supposed to meet up with a contact from Equestria who'll be guiding us to our final destination. That contact in question just happens to be famed novelist, J.K. Yearling—A.K.A. world renowned adventurer and archaeologist, Daring Do.

And wouldn't you know it, Sunset Shimmer just happens to be a huge fan of the mare. Oh, she gave me and the Princess all kinds of excuses—good ones, too. Of course, the Princess didn't buy any of her nonsense for a second and neither did I once she let Daring Do's name slip.

I still find it strange that the Princess let her go despite seeing right through her excuses. What is her deal, really? This isn't supposed to be a vacation so what gives?

Well, setting my suspicions about the Princess aside, I'd known Sunset was a huge fan of Daring Do and I guess she saw this as an opportunity to meet her idol and follow in the mare's hoofsteps. Come to think of it, Prism Streak—or rather, Rainbow Dash—was a big fan, too. Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if I should send a letter bragging about how I get to meet her hero.

Nah. It might be good for a laugh or two, but I'm not that cruel.

I'd never bothered to read J.K. Yearling's adventure novels myself, but her stories seemed to be pretty popular. I'd imagine so given most of them are based on her own actual exploits. Maybe I'll ask Sunset to borrow a copy of the first book once I get a chance. Then again, I could just get the details straight from the pony's mouth, assuming Daring Do is willing to share. In any case, I wouldn't have any time to read her books right now.

Right now I had to try and figure out how to not completely botch this mission. I feel like I got lucky with what happened in the Crystal Mountains. If Rarity hadn't been there, I likely would have died and put all of Equestria in danger. According to Rarity, both of those things had technically occurred. Multiple times.

It was honestly incredibly depressing to think about and the fact that I'd failed so many times still weighs heavily on me even now. That's why I'm going to do everything I can to make sure this mission goes properly. I've spent a ton of time gathering as much info as I can on both our destination and objectives.

Speaking of objectives, we're actually on a bit of a ponyhunt—at least, that's part of our task.

So, a while back, this mare stumbled upon a certain item in an old antiques shop. I don't know if the pony running the joint knew what he was selling, but the mare had unknowingly gotten her hooves on an ancient Equestrian artifact called the Alicorn Amulet. According to some old reports I dug up, POUT's been looking for this nasty little relic for quite some time now.

The Alicorn Amulet supposedly grants insane magical prowess at the cost of the wearer's sanity. What's more, the longer one wears the amulet, the harder it is to remove it. Wear it too long and the thing latches onto your soul and you essentially become the amulet. Effects at that point evidently include immortality, a drastic increase in thaumic power and control, and violent and irreparable psychosis.

So, basically you turn into my insane Alicorn self, minus the wings.

The amulet only works on unicorns, but it was, unfortunately, a unicorn that bought it. The unicorn in question was one Beatrix Lulamoon. The mare was a self-professed entertainer—a showpony who specialized in prestidigitation. Why a unicorn would take to making a living off of simple magic tricks I'll never know, but apparently she was actually pretty good at her craft so I won't judge.

The reports go on to talk about the mayhem the mare caused while wearing the amulet, but that's not important. Eventually, some POUT agents were able to track the mare down and retrieve the Alicorn Amulet. Now the artifact (designation OOPART-0175) is sitting safe and sound in the lab. We got the amulet back, but somehow Beatrix managed to escape custody and has been dodging the agency ever since.

This all happened before I joined POUT, but it's all relevant now because we finally managed to track the mare's whereabouts. I guess she realized she couldn't stay in Equestria and was able to procure herself a ride to Asterios. The mare is resourceful, I'll give her props for that, but unfortunately for her, we have contacts all over the world.

The reason POUT's been tasked with her retrieval is twofold. One of our assignments is to find the mare, drag her back to Equestria, and wipe her mind clean—not necessarily in that order. The other assignment is a little more involved and is, in reality, only tangentially related. An informant in Asterios discovered that Beatrix was last seen heading towards an isolated village somewhere in the mountain range east of the Asterian mainland.

The problem? This village in particular is said to be home to a trio of monuments said to have the power to change the Fate of the world. Literally. The monuments are said to reshape the past to fulfill a specific Fate with a capital 'F'. There's no info on how that's supposed to work and we don't even know if the monuments in question actually have that kind of power.

Now that the higher-ups know about them though, they don't want to take the chance and ignore the matter, and I completely agree here. Power like that, if it does exist, shouldn't be in the hooves of anypony—least of all, some no-name magician living out of her caravan. So that's what the mission boils down to. Find and retrieve Beatrix Lulamoon while investigating and potentially securing the monuments.

This time I've done my research and I know what I need to do. I have no idea what'll happen if we mess this one up, but I know it'll be world changing, for better or for worse—again, assuming the power of the monuments is real. I do wish I was able to get more info on the monuments themselves, but we still know next to nothing about them other than what I already wrote above.

We don't know what they're actually called, we don't know how they work or what their supposed power even really means. All we can do is try to learn more when we finally get there. Hopefully this Beatrix mare doesn't get in the way, and if she does, hopefully we can deal with the fallout. Hopefully Sunset stays out of trouble.

Great.

I was actually feeling pretty confident about this assignment, but now I've gone and worked myself into a nervous wreck.

Forget it. I'm just gonna go to bed and let future me worry about all of this.

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The Unofficial Records of a Mare in Black - the7Saviors

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