You may think that was what an archeologist was spending most of her days digging up but you would be wrong. Most of the time Opaline would be reading books about the past, trying to find known locations, clues, and artifacts left by ancient civilizations prior to Starswirl.
The purple Pegasus took up the banner that Twilight once had, ever reading more and more on the history of Equestria which lead her to believe that there were powerful beings hiding somewhere in the ruins of Ponyville or even Canterlot. She believed they could give her answers for many things like where did Celestia come from? How do I become immortal? Who are these other ponies who have lived before me? And why am I not one of them? The last question was the biggest mystery as well because no matter how hard she tried she couldn't make herself into something special like those other ponies.
Opaline tapped her hooves looking at Twilights castle from her window. "Are all the answers inside there?" she wondered aloud. A deep breath escaped the mare. "Am I even allowed to know?" Opaline was misinformed of anything from Twilight Sparkle as she wanted that power all to herself. Theses thoughts resided in her head like a dark cloud. "The nerve of having Twilight Sparkles yearly open castle day. On the day I visit for an archeological find!" thought Opaline. She grinned wickedly. "The first thing I am going to do is visit the renown library and read up on alicorns and ancient magic." A smile appeared on her face. "And when I have learned everything I need, I will challenge Twilights right to the throne!"
"good luck with that.." stated Haven. The mare looked a bit confused as she was hearing opaline monologue again. "I'm not sure if I believe you anymore Opal, You seem more obsessed than ever with getting rid of the era of friendship"
"It is the very thing that will be their demise! They think they are safe because of their lack of enemies but that could not be further from the truth! Soon they will realize that they themselves are their greatest enemy!"
"How do you figure?" asked Haven trying to keep his cool.
"They are so busy filling the problems of others friendship. they forgot each other's! they wont even be able to defend themselves properly against me or any other threat! because of knowledge atrophy! they literally forgot how to be friends with themselves!" exclaimed Opaline excitedly.
"That's.... not how it works." replied Haven. sHe had given up arguing by now. Trying to understand why he was dealing with such insanity wasn't worth the effort.
"YES IT IS! YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND THE POWER OF MY KNOWLEDGE!" shouted Opaline in frustration.
"I'll show you, I will prove it to you!" she yelled "The true extent is that all alicorn kind should rule with an iron rod! the truth is Alicorns are better then any other race."
"you're delusional!" said Haven.
"soon everypony else will see that too! those who possess wisdom can make good decisions."
"oh sure and you have ALL the wisdom as Twilight Sparkle? Your not even an alicorn!"
"no I'm not! But I WILL BE ONE!"
"okay fine, whatever makes you happy..." sighed Haven. She didn't want to waste anymore time talking to this crazy mare.
"Oh I shall be happy indeed once I take back what is mine! All of Equestria belongs to me!" declared Opaline happily.
"You're really starting to sound like some villain out of a children's show..." muttered Haven. She couldn't believe that someone would act like this towards something they would become.
"I'd rather be a villian than a mindless sheeple!" snapped Opaline. "You can say your a friend but when you pay more attention to pony kind, it shows you are not. its hypococy I say! so I shall challenge her when the time is right." Opaline suddenly stopped talking and began pacing around the room.
Haven sat down next to her to try and calm her down. "What's wrong?" asked Haven.
"im nervous... I've never done anything like this before... I mean I've always dreamed of being queen of my own kingdom but never actually did anything about it..." admitted Opaline. "I guess thats why I feel so uncertain about doing this."
"It won't be hard, we just got to convince everyone we are right. We just have to present our case well enough and people will vote us into power.IN A CALM WAY OPAL!" warned Haven.
Opaline sighs. "Okay okay. I know... i'm sorry i'm so power hungry, but i am just so frustrated about these stupid ponies thinking they're so great while forgetting the base principal of friendship being magical. Its annoying!"
"Its alright," assured Haven. "we still have plenty of time to plan things out. Im glad you came here though. It helped me relax a little. Maybe we can work together for a change instead of constantly fighting with each other."
"Well hopefully we don't fight at all anymore since we both agree that Friendship Magic is important. Which means we wouldn't have to worry about keeping it secret anymore either. And also maybe we could fix some of the problems that come along with it like Discord."
"Discord is going to cause trouble no matter what anyone does. Even if we stop him today, tomorrow he'll find another way to ruin things. Thats just the nature of chaos."
"Yeah, but there is nothing we can do about that except deal with it. So lets focus on fixing the issues that we CAN control. Like the fact that most of the leaders of Ponykind aren't exactly the best ones to lead. Celestia retiring feels a little forced wouldn't you agree?"
"Yes, yes it does." agreed Haven. "So what do you think we should do about it?"
"well you can open an investigation while i search the library for things about alicorns"
"you still thinking on that?"
"Haven, i will meet twilight as an alicorn whether she likes it or not!"
"your kind of stubborn sometimes aren't you?"
Opal snuggled up in bed. "a true ruler is true to his own beliefs"
"i suppose..." replied Haven doing the same
"and besides, I need to learn more about becoming an alicorn anyway. if i win the argument i will still need a jumpstart so i don't get challenged myself."
"Wait, what?"
"honestly havent thought that far ahead yet, but i DO want to rule over every pony. but I also don't want to be pointed out as the pony who has no right."
"yeah I suppose..." said Haven trying to keep up to speed with Opaline's thoughts.
"so anyway you get the plan, find out the true meaning of Celestia and Lunas retirement while i visit the castle on the day its opened to the public."
"Okay sounds good. Good night Opal, do try to keep your anger in check."
Haven was in her usual spot tapping her hooves in thought. She did this often to think about things, but her mind was on the unexpected shift of rulership to Celestia and Luna to Twilight Sparkle as was directed by Opaline earlier. As always there are those who will be discontent by such shifts. That was why she would need to keep an eye on said ponies if they should make it to Ponyville. But as of now, they were still at Silver Shoals.
The young pegasus looked around her surroundings. she was perched high in a abandoned bell tower, overlooking the scenery. Silver Shoals was a small town and island in Equestria. The island was know only by a handful of known households.
To the left of her was Silver Mountain and the right Seaward Shoals. both cold be seen from her perspective. They were part of the same island which could house a slew of many creatures including fish people, merfolk, hippogriffs, sea dragons and even unicorns!
Haven gazed toward the center of the island where a large boat was docked. This ship contained several new arrivals recently. one of them happened to be her.
She knew she was not welcome here. The Pegasus hid aboard just to get to this island without being noticed. but she had no idea how to enter Celestials home, nor did she even know where she was living. down in the valley was several housed dotted around the landscape. Some of these houses belonged to other pegasi. But all Haven was concerned were Celestia and Luna the ponies who once ruled over Equestria. Havens instructions were clear on finding information about the past princesses. But she could learn no more and would prefer hearing it from the horses mouths themselves rather than reading books.
Haven sighed and adjusted herself sitting cross legged, hugging her legs tightly against her chest before closing her eyes. Her horn began to glow softly sending a signal to her brain telling her it was time to sneak in. She opened her eyes slowly and checked her position carefully before letting out a breath and starting forward.
Silver shoal was an open community, but there were still guards posted in several places, just for the general safety of everyone. nothing would happen if she was sighted for a bit, but one of them might catch wise and see she was not old and did not belong here. So she needed to stay hidden until she reached the main road leading into town.
She soon arrived at the outskirts of town near the docks, where A lone guard stood watch protecting the dock area. He was tall and muscular, clad in heavy armor like most of the other guards stationed throughout the town. His face was stern but pleasant, he wore a long black cloak covering his body, concealing his identity completely. Even though he was armed with a sword, he didn't seem overly worried about anything. In fact he seemed quite relaxed.
He watched the water below him as some sailors unloaded crates onto the ships deck. There were three ships present: two smaller ones and the largest with sails furled ready to depart. Once the last crate was secured onto the first ship, the sailors started loading supplies onto it.
Haven turned and hid behind the trees away from the sight of the muscular guard whose attention was fully on the sailors. It wasn't hard to hide among the thick bushes lining the edge of the forest. She took deep breaths and waited patiently, trying to ignore the nervousness building up inside her.
she snuck inside the town, into the local registry office. Inside was not busy and there was a mare there reading the paper when she entered. she snuck up behind some convenient boxes hiding from her view and took a moment to analyze the room. The surrounding room was filled with paperwork tables, filing cabinets and various computers. There was also another door directly across from her.
She snuck across the room and opened the door quietly. As she walked through, she saw the mare looking up from her newspaper and she quickly ducked inside. After shutting the door behind her quietly she looked around the room.
There was a desk with lots of documents lying scattered upon it. She picked up a piece of paper and read it. "location of silver spoon" written clearly on it. well, this was going to be easy enough. All she needed now was to find the location of Celestia and Luna hidden among these records.
She looked back towards the door to made sure it wasn't opening. Then, she went to work searching through every single file folder, every stack of papers,
After rummaging through everything she saw Luna and Celestia's names listed under the royal family section! Now she only needed to locate which document they were located within... the door behind her suddenly rattled loudly. Haven instantly ducked underneath the desk and hid underneath it. She heard the door open, she held her breath hoping whoever it was wouldn't look down or notice her.
From beneath the desk she peeked out cautiously and spotted a pony dressed in dark armor standing outside. Behind him was another pony wearing a similar outfit but with white hair. Both had came into the room mulling through the various files "...Daring Doo has another name." Said the one pony that sounded like a girl.
"Yes, but don't tell the kid who sent the letter, he's dying of cancer, he sent it through some company known as Make a Wish... its very inconvenient... I'm sorry..." said the man sounding disappointed.
"I understand, thank you anyway!" replied the second pony sounding even more upset than the first. The door creaked shut and Haven felt safe once again. She pulled herself up from beneath the desk and sat up straight, feeling relieved. Who knew what could have happened if someone else caught her?
As she glanced at the folder she held and read the location description: wid 3519 leg 1005 .
She had found what she needed and proceeded to sneak back to the door that lead back to the main room. she put her ear to the door listening intently for any sounds coming from beyond it.
Nothing.
She slowly opened the door just wide enough to see through and peered out. Nothing.
She crept forward making sure no one would catch her until she reached the doorway leading back to the main room. She carefully placed both hooves against the wall next to the door, pressing lightly on each foot.
Then, taking a few steps backwards she pressed harder and stepped forwards until she pushed off the ground entirely. With a little push she propelled herself along the floor, going behind the same boxes that blocked the view from before. she saw the exit before her, and saw that it was not open as before
She sighed heavily and began to contemplate her options. She couldn't go back the way she came since the door was still closed. And she certainly didn't want to take the chance of being seen by anyone. She peeked from the right side of the boxes to see that the front desk was no longer occupied by the mare that sat there. perhaps she was on her way to Ditsy Doo? Haven thought to herself. If that was the case she need not to worry as there was nobody in the room to see her. So with a smile in content she waltzed right over to the door and pulled the door...
Then pulled the handle...
And then gripped the handle!!!
But it was no use. The door was locked.
She frowned slightly and tried to push while gripping the door. Again it would not budge. This door was locked from the outside. She looked for a latch, something that locked from the outside. But there was nothing. It appeared that this particular office had no such thing.
"Do ponies even care about fire code on this island?" she asked herself aloud.
Her eyes shifted around the room looking for anything that might give her leverage to force the lock. There was none, and she realized there may never be any way out... a creeping tingle came from her larynx moving closer to panic mode now. she looked at the window nearest to where she stood and noticed that it was covered by some sort of glass panel. she could open the window and jump out onto the balcony, but she feared that doing so would make noise. So instead she walked to the other windows pointed towards the hallway where she believed the front doors to be located.
A quick glance showed her that those windows too had glass panels covering them. she unlocked the top row of windows and squeezed through the small gap between two of them. she was free! but now there was a hole in the window, so who ever was away would soon find it and alert the guards. she gathered haste and stealthy trotted to the location of Luna and Celestia.
Opaline was seen multiple times ducking, tiptoeing and zooming through the library searching for books about alicorns, unicorns and their history. She also went through every book she could find on astronomy but most of these did not seem relevant to her search. "Come on! I know there are some good ones here somewhere!" she whined to herself. She whined to herself looking for the knowledge of alicorns. Of course, the books she did find were nothing that could possibly relate to her current situation. As all she found were informational book about what they are.
Eventually she carelessly bumped into a creature he had never seen before " well excuse me mam, but I would rather not be run over by your cart!" opaline looked at the creature pretending to care, but when she looked at it she could only describe as a creature of chaos. Its body seemed to shift colors as it moved, and it sported many different appendages. "And why do you floating when you don't use your wings?!?!" Opaline demanded angrily.
The creature laughed. "Because why not? A creature of chaos like myself shouldn't just WALK every where, that's too boring. Floating is in style!" opaline stopped walking completely and stared at the strange creature. "How do I get rid of you?" she asked nonchalantly. "You don't," answered the creature. "I am the literal lord of chaos! But you can call me Discord for short." He floated up to Opaline and extended his hand. "Nice to meet ya" he said with a bright smile.
"What are you?" she asked suspiciously. "A demon or devil?"
"No, silly! I am a draconeques, if you ever seen something wacky and unorganized Im it! So whats your story? How did you come to be here?" Opaline was about to answer but was shushed by his eagle fingers. "Hmm... Your right it sounds like a long story, and I don't really care! Let's talk about something else shall we?" Discord said. "Your awfully rude for a dragonequess," Opaline muttered under her breath. Discord chuckled and snatched both of her ears in one swift move. "Have you seen any other draconequess lately?" he asked curiously. "No..." opaline hesitated. "Then how would you know?" he snapped. Opaline was a bit taken aback by his sudden anger, but she quickly regained control of herself. "Do you mind? Im looking for books about Alicorns, and their potential role in our world!" she calmy said. Discord snorted loudly. "Well you will have to look elsewhere because you aren't going to find any here!" he then looked around the library very carefully making sure he wasn't being watched. "At least not here" he whispered to himself. Opal heard this but decided to