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Prologue2,588 words
Fairy tales becoming true4,107 words
Where's Scootaloo?4,851 words
Too many questions2,676 words
Confrontations3,319 words
The Gravestone Sword4,096 words
Less than useful notes3,018 words

Less than useful notes

First light was rising over the land and the train to Canterlot was coming to a rest in the station. Twilight and her friends got off and headed towards the castle. Making their way to the throne room, where they were greeted by a frazzled mane, sleepy eyed Princess. Celestia was sitting at her throne waiting for them but it appeared that she did not get much sleep last night. They could only assume this was because of a certain Headless Horse, for it was the same for all of them.

“Princess.” Twilight said as she and her friends bowed to Celestia. Climbing off her throne, Celestia walked up to them with the best smile she could muster.

“My loyal subjects, I am glad you made it. Please, follow me.” They all left the throne room and headed to the castle gardens where the statues of ponies were kept. They passed many great statues, victorious pony statues. Others with ponies holding instruments, one pedestal had nothing on top of it and only a few of the ponies turned to glance at it. The Princess ignored it completely. Finally reaching the section of the garden with statues of the more magical ponies; they came before one in particular. Situated near Starswirl the Bearded’s statue, this unicorn was wearing Celestial armour, but it was more suited for a mage than a warrior. Offering not much protection in open combat, but accented with cloth embedded with magical amplification abilities. But it was the unicorn which stood out the most. His hard set eyes stared forward and his long mane flowed down his neck with expert craftsmanship. His tail curled jaggedly at the end and his cutiemark was barely see able under his armour; three, five pointed stars on his side. Twilight found herself looking at this statue and almost recognising it.

“He looks almost like your brother Twilight.” Said Rarity, she had a keen eye for these things and as soon as she’s said the connection, the others began to see it too. Celestia smiled as they turned back to her.

“That is because Spell Bound, is Twilight’s ancestor.” Celestia’s magic made a scroll appear and when she unrolled it, a picture of Spell Bound with a dark purple coat and blue mane like Shining’s was there.

“He does look like my brother, and his coat is purple like my Grandmother’s. Like mine.” Pinkie Pie was back at the statue and had noticed the plaque that lied at the statue’s feet. Without realising, she voiced it out loud.

“Spell Bound, For service above any other.” Pinkie didn’t understand exactly what he had done and her face screwed up into many different faces as she tried to figure out what it could be that he had done. The others had heard and turned to Celestia expectantly.

“It means that he saved my life.” All of their eyes went wider than she had thought possible and she knew that they wanted to hear more. “I guess I’d better tell you from the beginning. A thousand years ago, I banished Luna to the moon. Now I’d thought that would be the end of it, I didn’t want to think about it and I had hoped that my subjects wouldn’t either. But I knew this wouldn’t happen. It was her royal guards; the Lunar Guards which rose up and turned against me. They demanded that I bring Luna back, but I could not. Eternal night isn’t a part of the natural order. So they attacked. They broke into the castle and destroyed the place. Their leader; an Earth Pony, challenged me. I’d underestimated him. I had thought that since he had no magic and couldn’t fly; he wouldn’t be able to attack me if I went for him in the air. I was a foolish and young ruler, and he was better than I thought. I was never able to hit him with my magic because he was too fast, my magic hit the floor and walls igniting the carpets on fire. All of the other guards were running out of the castle because it would collapse soon but our battle waged on. All of a sudden, his sword came at me out of nowhere. He’d thrown it and it hit my wing, I crashed and he got ready to kill me. But then Spell Bound came out of nowhere and stopped him. He’d returned to find me and saved me from death. But the Earth Pony which had attacked me was stuck under a beam which had fallen from the ceiling. I asked Spell Bound to help me bring him with us. And we made it out of the castle. Heading into the forest as my home burned behind me, I brought Spell Bound and the Earth Pony to a secluded part. The Earth Pony was coughing up smoke and looked at me with hatred. And then… then I ordered him to be killed.” The 6 ponies stared at Celestia in shock. None of them knew what to think, most were keeping quiet, Twilight was mumbling to herself trying to figure this out, and Rainbow Dash was taking this the hardest. She stomped and huffed annoyed. She had been the last to think Celestia could do such a thing. She was the element of Loyalty after all and had believed Headless to be lying when he’d said this.

“NO!” She shouted, “No this can’t be true! You’re the Princess!” She flew right up to the Princess’s face and looked her in the eyes, “You’d never do this to…” Celestia was avoiding her gaze and Rainbow now saw that what Celestia was saying was true. Her ruler was a killer. Her whole being ripped in half inside, everything she held in the highest regard was no more greater than an animal within the Everfree Forest killing for the hunt. With tears fighting in her eyes to break out, Rainbow suddenly flew straight up and away from everyone. Even her rainbow streak disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Celestia watched as she disappeared and then looked back to her remaining subjects, they all stared at her with confusion. They weren’t quite sure what to think, Rainbow Dash was just the same she guessed. But their faces tore her a part inside, she could never undo what she had done. Turning away from them she went to leave, but one of her legs was fighting with her to move and when she looked down as to why, she saw Twilight holding onto her, asking her not to go with just a look. Celestia didn’t remember doing it, but suddenly Twilight was whisked up into an embrace by Celestia. She held the little mare close and said through teary eyes.

“Please forgive me.” After a moment of nothing from Twilight, she felt her small hooves wrap around the Princess’s neck and reply,

“I forgive you Celestia.” Looking down at her other subject, their smiles warmed her and they too said that they forgave her. But as she placed Twilight back down, she said

“But Princess, it’s not us you should be asking for forgiveness.”

“I know.” There was a silence between them until Fluttershy asked,

“So.. Um Princess. Did you find out… who the Headless Horse is? If it’s okay to ask…”

“Oh, yes. Yes I did.” She rubbed her damp eyes and cheered up slightly from their smiles. “My sister said his name was Ember Sword, commander of her Lunar Guards. I’d forgotten his name after all these years, but I do remember him. He was a great guard in his day; helped out when any danger came to the city, be it day or night. And even stopped a few conspiracies against the crown.”

“I wonder why I’ve never heard of either of these two ponies?” Voiced Twilight.

“I thought you would’ve, I think there are a couple books on them in the Canterlot library.”

“I have to go find them! I need to know more about their histories.” And then silently to herself as she ran off, she whispered under her breath, “And why a friend would willingly kill another.” With that Twilight was gone as Celestia said,

“But wait Twilight! I have.. something for you…” She had made another scroll appear but Twilight was already gone.

“Don’t worry Princess, we’ll give it to her. What’s it about anyway?” Applejack asked.

“It’s from Spike, I would have liked to have spoken to her in person but I’m already late for my duties as it is. You are free to read it, sadly I know no more than that scroll there. I tried to reply to him but he’s yet to answer. Farewell my loyal subjects.” She was silent for a moment as she looked above her, “And please, if you see Rainbow Dash, tell her I am sorry. I know this must be hard for her, having your loyalty tried isn’t easy.” Celestia left and the ponies turned to leave. Rarity magically rolled out the scroll for the remaining four of them and their faces all turned to shock. Rarity wound up fainting, the thought of her Spikey-Wikey with that Headless Horse was too much to bare. With Applejack carrying Rarity they all quickly followed each other to the Canterlot Library.

Celestia made her way back to the throne room where her sister Luna was waiting. A cheeky smile played on her lips.

“Well, you seem to have calmed down since last night.” She was remembering how her sister had torn the room a part looking for a parchment and quill to write back to Spike. But after getting her to calm down and sit for a moment, Luna easily went over to a draw and lifted one out. But as Celestia sat there, Luna could see that she didn’t have any idea what to write to the little dragon. What did one write after finding out the Headless Horse was suddenly in Ponyville. Taking the parchment from her statuette sister, Luna wrote a quick note and sent it away with a smile. Celestia was annoyed that Luna hadn’t shown her what she had wrote and was prepared to fly all the way back to Ponyville to make sure that Spike and the residents of Ponyville were okay. Luna however managed to pull her back into the room from the window and told her that the letter was merely a thank you letter. Then she had ushered her sister out and into her room, Celestia needed some sleep. But it seemed she hadn’t gotten much anyway and Luna couldn’t help smiling at this. The Ember she remembered was always a loyal and an honourable stallion, he would never harm Spike. But Celestia just seemed to be frightened by him. Her response wasn’t any better.

“I am calm!”

“I never said you weren’t.” Celestia rested her hooves on her temples and rubbed them, she was just so stressed right now. Luna came up to her and said, “How about you go and get a few more hours of sleep and I’ll stay here.”

“But then you’ll be tired tonight.”

“It’s not like the night is as long as the day, I can stand a few more hours being up.” Resting a hoof on Luna’s shoulder she said,

“Thank you sister.” And walked off back to her room. The Headless Horse still plagued her but she was at least finally able to get some sleep in the end.

It was the middle of the night verging on morning and Spike had fallen asleep in the middle of the library’s front lawn. Dew was already forming on top of him and made his scales shine like rain on a spider’s web. He was peaceful, until a sudden belch made him wake up as a scroll formed from his fire. Rubbing his eyes he stared at the parchment in front of him and yawned loudly as he picked it up. Unrolling it, it read;

Dear Spike,
Thank you for contacting us. We would be most obliged if you could watch over him for the time being until something can be done.
Regards, Princess Luna
P.S. Tell him I said hello, thank you.

Spike was confused, him? Who was it that Luna wanted him to say hello to for her. Blinking his eyes again he looked around and found that he was outside. He turned and saw the library with its door open and questioned why. Then it hit him. Headless! He’d forgotten about him, but how did he wind up here? Enough time to contemplate that later, right now he had to find the Headless Horse. Grabbing the scroll he ran all through town but couldn’t find him. While looking behind the home of a pony’s quietly, he saw a shadow of sorts in the fields beyond Ponyville. Heading up to it he was finally able to make out the Headless form of the Headless Horse and ran up to him. Puffing he said,

“I was looking everywhere for you! It’s almost morning! Did anypony see you?”

“Nope.” Headless didn’t even make an effort to make it look like he’d turned to acknowledge the little dragon. Spike just stared at him.

“Have you been out here the entire time?”

“Pretty much.” Having nothing more to say to that, Spike sat down next to him on the grass and rubbed his eyes. Just as he was about to fall asleep again, he remembered something.

“Oh! I got a note back from the Princesses.”

“Oh?” Headless said elongating the word playfully. He thought something from Missy might amuse him for the moment.

“Yes, but Princess Luna wrote it instead. Not sure why, she says Hello by the way.” Headless was shocked, his Princess had written to him! Jumping up he stood before Spike leaning over him and said,

“What did the note say?! Did My Princess say anything else?” Spike fell over from his sudden excitement and stared up at the beheaded horse. He could see his neck a lot easier now and his eyes went wide in horror at it. Torn dark red muscle, dried blood on his fur at the neck’s edges, and a gaping hole where his throat was. He could also see the bone of his spine; broken and a pale grey. He shut his eyes suddenly and tried to get the image out of his mind. What had he asked again? Focus on the question and answer it. Focus… Finally Spike replied with,

“Uh.. No. No there wasn’t anymore. She just asked me to watch you and to tell you she said hello.”

“Oh.” Headless sat back down and looked depressed, Spike didn’t know what to do. This Headless Horse, this ghost story come true, something from myth and legend, just for a moment, had seemed… happy? He’d been happy before, but they hadn’t been genuine happiness. He had really just been amused from annoying someone. But from the mention of Princess Luna something within this ghost had just seem to light up. He’d also seen this when he’d noticed Headless staring up at the sky like just now. But it was the moon which he’d been staring at most. Spike doesn’t want Headless to be unhappy, he realises that Headless has been stuck in that forest for years and wants to make his time out of the forest a happy one. Maybe he could give him a gift, but he’s a ghost, he couldn’t use it. A party? He still couldn’t enjoy it. Huffing in annoyance Spike leant on his knuckles and rubbed his eyes once more. Headless could see his annoyance was because of him, he wasn’t sure why though. Why would this small dragon be worrying about him. Maybe it was because of his dear Princess, she had told him to watch him. Oh how he wanted to see her again, even if it meant facing Missy again, he would do it… Why couldn’t he? Why couldn’t he go see his Princess again? He was out of the forest finally, and there was nothing stopping him… Except the small dragon in control of his sword. Contemplating what to do, he deciding asking was the best option.

“Hey Spike…”

“Yeah?” He said yawning.

“Can you do something for me?”

“What is it?”

“I want to go to Canterlot.”

“What?!” Spike yelled suddenly staring at him.

“Yes. But I need you to bring my sword there.”

“You can’t go to Canterlot! You’re a ghost!”

“I don’t care, I just want to meet the Princesses.”

“Well, I..I can’t go to Canterlot. I have to look after Scootaloo and her friends.”

“Bring them along then.” Headless said care-freely.

“I can’t bring them along! One of them is in the hospital.”

“Oh she’s fine, she’s got that weird mini carriage… thing…”

“Her scooter.”

“Scooter then. And besides, I’m sure they’d love to come to the big city. Meet the Princesses and everything.” Spike didn’t know what to do. Finally he sighed in annoyance and said they’d talk about it in the morning. With that Spike headed off but Headless stayed where he was. Spike didn’t want Headless to stay out here if one of the ponies saw him so he told Headless that he definitely wouldn’t go to Canterlot if he didn’t come back to the library with him now. Reluctantly he headed back. Spike climbed tiredly into his bed and Headless sat at the back of the library staring out the window, looking up at the beautiful night sky.

Author's Note:

It's been too long, sorry for not updating sooner. I've had real life to deal with for the moment, but here is the next part. Hopefully I can be quicker in future. Thanks for reading this by the way, I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am!

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